Violent Devotion

Deuteronomy 6:4-5
Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.

As I was reading the first two verses of the Shema (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) in Hebrew yesterday morning, I was struck by the last word used in verse 5. The following is the Hebrew with my literal translation underneath:

וְאָ֣הַבְתָּ֔ אֵ֖ת יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ֥ וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁךָ֖ וּבְכָל־מְאֹדֶֽךָ

“You shall love YHWH your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your very/exceedingly.”

What struck me about this word, מְאֹדֶֽךָ (me’od) is that it is almost always used as an adverb to qualify an adjective. For example, in Genesis 1:31, Moses writes, “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very (me’od) good.” Yet, here we see this word being used as a noun: …with all your very/exceedingly.

BDB (Brown-Driver-Briggs’ A Hebrew and English Lexicon of the OT) offers some definitions for this idiomatic use: muchness, force, abundance, exceedingly, might. TWOT (Theological Workbook of the OT) likewise comments: “They [heart, soul, and 'might'] were chosen to reinforce the absolute singularity of personal devotion to God…me’od accents the superlative degree of total commitment to Yahweh. The NT struggles to express the depth of the word me’od at this spot. In the quotation in Mk 12:30 it is rendered “mind and strength,” in Lk 10:27 it is “strength and mind,” in Mt 22:37 simply “mind.”

Are we not reminded of this kind of violent devotion and pursuit of the Lord from the Gospels and Paul?

Matthew 11:12
From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force.

Luke 13:24
Strive to enter through the narrow door. For many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.

Luke 16:16
The Law and the Prophets were until John; since then the good news of the kingdom of God is preached, and everyone forces his way into it.

Philippians 3:12-14
Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Do you think of your pursuit of God with these kinds of words: taking the kingdom by force, forcing your way in, striving to enter, pressing on, and straining forward? Is your Christian life characterized by these words?

You see, we must be violent in our devotion to Christ. We must be violent against sin and anything that seeks to steal and supplant our affections for Christ. We must be violent in confessing and repenting of our sin and constantly putting our faith in Christ. With all vigilance we must strive to enter by the narrow gate, because Jesus tells us in the passage above that some will try to enter and will not be able to. We must pursue total commitment to Yahweh by loving Him with all strength and might and we do this by following, obeying, and delighting in His law and commandments (cf. Psalm 119). With vigor and force, we must renounce all ungodliness in our lives, and violently pursue holiness, for the author of Hebrews tells us in Hebrews 12:14: “Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.”

This is beginning to get at what it means to love Yahweh “with all your exceedingly.”

You see, one can recite Deuteronomy 6:4 and have a very Biblical and orthodox belief concerning God (just like the demons, cf. James 2:19), but at the end of the day, if Deuteronomy 6:5 is not a reality, if holiness is seen as optional, if pursuing Christ with every fiber of your being is extra or additional, if renouncing wickedness and ungodliness is not a priority, then perhaps while everyone is forcing their way into the kingdom, you are simply sitting back and relaxing, thinking, “Oh, there will always be room for one more later. I’ll try later when it’s not so busy.” Yet, it will always be crowded and busy, and the time will come when there is no longer time to force your way in.

Then what will you do?