One of the commentators in my studies on the “unity
of God” pointed out that the pronouns in Deut. 6:5 (you shall love the
LORD your God, with all your heart, your soul, your strength)
were singular, yet referring to “Israel” in 6:4. Here are a couple of quotes.
Israel itself is a unity. In
Hebrew the words you and your in this passage (as often in Deuteronomy) are the
words used when speaking to a single individual (the old ‘thou’ and ‘thy’ forms
in English). The people’s oneness includes both those who then stood before
Moses and all the generations to come. This means that they must worship and
obey as one, and allow no major divisions among them. (Carson, D. A. (1994). New Bible commentary: 21st century
edition. Rev. ed. of: The new Bible
commentary. 3rd ed. / edited by D. Guthrie, J.A. Motyer. 1970. (4th ed.) (Dt
6:1). Leicester, England; Downers Grove, Ill., USA: Inter-Varsity Press.)
I was thinking about this as I was reading
this morning in Lamentations. Lam. 1 is
about Jerusalem and the “community.” It
laments the pitiable situation they are in and the terrible experience of the
sacking of Jerusalem by the Babylonians.
The singular pronouns (e.g. 1:18-20) are actually the words of the community. In 1:18, “I rebelled” is not the testimony of
Jeremiah but the nation.
In Lam. 2, from v11-22, the singular is
Jeremiah. But his concern is for the
nation. It’s their sad situation and he
cannot console them. Clearly the LORD is
spoken of in the 2nd and 3rd person, not first person; so
these are not the words of the LORD. It
is the prophet who is lamenting the nation’s situation, a situation which he
certainly feels himself.
But then, when you come to Lam. 3, which
includes the great words that were part of our passage for this post, the
prophet is speaking of himself, of his own pain (3:1-21). Then, in the great words of hope, it is “we”
who are not consumed, but still the application is personal, “The LORD is my
portion … therefore I hope in Him.”
As Jeremiah works through this encouragement, he then calls the nation
to repentance (v40-42): “let us search out and examine our ways, and
turn back to the LORD.”
This is, of course, consistent with all the
OT. The call is to the nation, but the
faith is that of individuals. Abraham
believed God and it was credited to him (Gen. 15:6). David was the blessed man to whom iniquity
was not imputed (Ps. 32:1-2).
Yet, the call in Deut. 6:4-5 is for the nation
to be undivided in their whole-hearted love for their God. Thus, the prophets can speak of the “remnant.” Not all Israel is true Israel (Rom. 9:6;
2:28-29).
Thus, what is the point? It is that even in the OT, in the context of the
nation, faith that saves is the faith of an individual. The act of circumcision identified the infant
with the nation. But even in OT times circumcision
was not credited to the person for righteousness. It’s true in our days, the NT times. Faith is personal. The community must have its confession of
faith; but the faith that saves is personal.
The day is coming when there will be a “saved
nation” (Rom. 11:26-27). It will be
because every one of the individuals will have personally trusted in the Redeemer
of Israel.
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