Transcript Podcast Introduction Today is MONDAY, the day we read from the Law. We’ll read Deuteronomy 4-6 I’m calling today’s episode “The Unified One.“ Design: Steve Webb | Photo: James Kern on Unsplash Comments on Deuteronomy 6 In chapter 6, verses 4 and 5, Moses is telling the children of Israel the great commandment, the one that encompasses all the others. It’s the commandment that Jesus quoted when the Pharisees asked Him which was the greatest of all the commandments. 4 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! 5 You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Since Jesus said that this is the greatest commandment, we should understand it as clearly as possible, don’t you think? We haven’t talked much about the concept of the Trinity on the show. But this verse seems like a good place to spend a few minutes on the subject. Many of you probably have a pretty good grasp on the idea of a triune God, but I know that there are some ls fam members who are fairly new to Christianity, and this is such an important topic that I do want to at least touch on it. This won’t be an in depth word study, but more like a 30,000 foot flyover view. So you might ask, “What about Jesus and the Holy Spirit? They’re Gods, aren’t they?” No. No they are not. And what I mean by that is that they are not *separate* Gods. And this is where the idea of the Trinity comes in. Orthodox Christianity, or traditional Christianity if you prefer, believes that God is a Trinity, that there are three distinct persons who are together, one God. Not three Gods. One God. It can be difficult to get your head around, so let’s look at the word that was used in the original language, Hebrew, for the English word “one”. Here in Deuteronomy 6:4 , the Hebrew word echad is used. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is echad!” Echad refers to a single item made up of multiple parts, also called a “unified one.” Are there other places in the Bible that the word echad is used? Yep. Let’s look at a few. The first time we see echad is Genesis 1:5 : The Young’s Literal translation says: “…and there is an evening, and there is a morning — day one.” It was one day, with two parts: evening and morning. Echad day. Genesis 2:24 : Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Echad flesh In Exodus 26:6 “6 And you shall make fifty clasps of gold, and couple the curtains together with the clasps, so that it may be one tabernacle.” Obviously, the Tabernacle was made up of many parts, but here it is called one tabernacle. Echad tabernacle. Listen to Ezekiel 37:15-17: “15Again the word of the Lord came to me, saying, 16“As for you, son of man, take a stick for yourself and write on it: ‘For Judah and for the children of Israel, his companions.’ Then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, his companions.’ 17Then join them one to another for yourself into one stick, and they will become one in your hand.” Two sticks become echad. So the idea of three persons in echad God is not foreign to Scripture. There is a Hebrew word for a single item made up of one alone: yachid. This word is used in connection to one God exactly zero times in the Old Testament. Nowhere does the Bible say that the one God is a single entity. He is always referred to as echad God. Here are some examples of yachid from the Bible: * “He said, “Take now your son, your only [yachid] son, whom you love, Isaac, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I will tell you.” ” Genesis 22:2 * “Now she was Jephthah’s one and only [yachid] child; besides her he had no son or daughter.” Judges 11:34 * “they will look on Me whom they have pierced; and they will mourn for Him, as one [...]
