Hear, O Israel

Hear, O Israel. Three words. For more than three thousand years, children have learned them first thing in the morning and last thing at night. This is where they come from.

Israel is camped on the plains of Moab, east of the river Jordan. Across the water lies the promised land. Moses is an old man now, a hundred and twenty years old, and he knows he will not cross with them. Most of the people listening were children when they left Egypt, or were born in the wilderness. Their parents' generation has passed away. So Moses gathers them and speaks to them, long and earnestly, like a grandfather giving his family the most important things he knows. The whole book of Deuteronomy is his farewell. And in chapter six, he gives them the heart of it all.

These are the commands God has given me to teach you, Moses says, so that you can live by them in the land you are about to enter. So that you, and your children, and your grandchildren will honour the LORD your God all your lives. Listen, Israel, and be careful to obey, so that it goes well with you in a land flowing with milk and honey. Then he says the words that would become Israel's great confession of faith. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD.” Not many gods, like the nations around them. Not gods of the sun, the storm, the harvest. One God, who brought them out of Egypt. Theirs.

And what should they do with that? Moses does not say: fear him and keep your distance. He says: love him. “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” All your heart: your thoughts and choices. All your soul: your whole life. All your might: everything you have and are. Love with nothing held back. Many centuries later, someone asked Jesus which commandment was the greatest of all. He answered with these very words.

Then Moses turns to the parents. These words that I command you today, he says, must be on your heart. Not only in your head. On your heart. And you must teach them carefully to your children. When? All the time. Talk about them when you sit at home, and when you walk along the road. When you lie down at night, and when you get up in the morning. Imagine it. A mother kneading bread, telling her daughter about the manna. A father walking to the fields with his son, talking about the sea that opened. God's words were meant to be part of ordinary family life. Tie them as a sign on your hand, Moses says, and wear them on your forehead. Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

In 1902, a collector named W. L. Nash bought a small scrap of papyrus in Egypt. It is only a few lines long, written in Hebrew around two thousand one hundred years ago. It holds the Ten Commandments, followed by these words: Hear, O Israel. Before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, it was the oldest known Hebrew manuscript of any part of the Bible. It is kept today at Cambridge University Library, and is called the Nash Papyrus.

Hear, O Israel. You'll find these words in Deuteronomy chapter six, verses one to nine. One God, loved with everything, and talked about at home, on the road, at bedtime and at breakfast. So here is a question to carry with you. When and where could your family talk about God together this week?