Loving a Jealous God: The Shema for Today

Introduction

"Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." These words open the Shema, the prayer that traditional Jews recite twice a day. A prayer so central that Jesus himself quotes it when a teacher of the Law asks him which commandment is first.

There is a word in this text that unsettles us, especially in the West: God is presented as jealous, or in some translations as exclusive, a God who tolerates no rival. How can you receive that today, in a culture that prizes autonomy and "everyone their own religion"?

Pastor Stuart invites us to hear the Shema as the word of a God who loved us first and who, in return, expects a love that holds nothing back. A love with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength.

Article Outline

1. Believing in the one, jealous God
2. Neither forgetting him nor replacing him
3. Honoring him without testing him
4. Loving him means respecting and serving him

1. Believing in the one, jealous God

Before any command, there is a call: "Hear, O Israel." Switching into listening mode isn't easy today, between ringtones, notifications, and background noise. It doesn't mean shutting yourself away in heavy silence either. It means listening to God's word, listening to his Spirit, listening to the prayers of other believers. During a service, it's better to listen before you speak.

The Shema opens with a statement that turns everything upside down: "The Lord our God is one Lord." This one God made a covenant with his people. He is our God, because he chose to love first. And it's because he loved us first that he can command us to love him back, without hesitation.

The religions of the Book (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) are monotheistic. One God alone. Pastor Stuart mentions an old book by J.I. Packer, Knowing God, which spells out God's attributes. Among them, perhaps the hardest one for a European to receive: God has a jealous passion. An intense and exclusive love. It can bring to mind a possessive lover; that's certainly a human way of pointing to something true about God. If he is one and he loves you, he will not tolerate you going elsewhere. He does not want to let his people waste away. That's how he is jealous for us.

What's unsettling is this exclusiveness. One God who claims all of us, that clashes with our sense of autonomy and the modern idea of "everyone their own religion, everyone their own convictions." That's exactly what this text challenges. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength.

This phrase isn't trying to slice a person into pieces. It points to the whole person. The heart is your inner life, your sincerity, your steadiness, your will, your thinking. To love God with all your heart isn't only about feelings, it's loving without mental reservation, without cutting corners, without your mind wandering elsewhere. The soul is your whole personality, exactly as you are. The strength is all your energy. Is that love for God still alive in you? You can lose your first flame, but the Word and the Spirit are watching to wake that strong love for the Lord back up in you.

2. Neither forgetting him nor replacing him

God promises his people they will have plenty in the promised land: cities they did not build, houses full of good things they did not gather, wells they did not dig, vineyards they did not plant. And right away comes the warning: "Be careful you do not forget the Lord."

The danger for us living in the West, unless we're in genuinely dire circumstances, is exactly that: forgetting God. Comfort, good food, travel, all of it can slide us toward the idea that God is optional. That's why the Bible insists so much on remembering. Remembering what God has done in the story of salvation. Remembering what he has done in your life. When the nights are long and nothing is working, remember what he has already done for you.

The other danger is replacement. "You shall not go after other gods." This command comes up again and again in the Old Testament, and it's still relevant today. What, in your neighborhood, your family, the people around you, takes the Lord's place? There are traditional rituals, the urge to imitate everyone else or your own family. There are superstitions, commercial holidays like Halloween, ancestor worship. There are even subtler things: veganism turned into a religion, football, hypnotism, everything hiding behind occultism that looks harmless.

Pastor Stuart mentions a current ad where a man says he can refuse his "baby" nothing. His "baby" is his car. There are also those who say: "My dog is my best friend." Or others: "Without my family, without our family reunions, I couldn't live." A car, a dog, a family can be real supports in life. But if you make them an absolute refuge, they end up taking God's place. And that happens to all of us, at times.

3. Honoring him without testing him

"You shall not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah." To understand this, it helps to know your Bible a little. At Massah, the people felt entitled to play God, to believe they knew better than him what they needed. That's a temptation still facing us: doubting God's active presence, demanding a sign from him instead of trusting him. An act of impertinence, really: demanding proof of God's goodness as a condition for our obedience.

Put more plainly: "If God doesn't do this or that for me, I'm done with him." It's a bit childish, but it's a very human reaction. Except treating God that way feeds resentment toward the one who loves us with passion.

Jesus himself refuses to put his Father to the test. Facing the tempter who says to him, "If you are the Son of God, throw yourself down," he answers with this very verse: "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test." In the Gospel of Mark, more than once, our Master refuses to perform a miracle to prove his identity to unbelieving people.

It's still the same problem today. People say: "If I saw a miracle, I would believe." That's not true. They would always find another explanation: a coincidence, a set of circumstances, something else. Demanding miracles isn't necessarily what God asks of us. The greatest sign of his love we can show the world is love between Christians.

4. Loving him means respecting and serving him

"Acknowledge the authority of the Lord your God and worship him alone." Well said. Loving the Lord is far more than "fearing God," even though fearing God, at its core, simply means respecting him. Some people dislike this idea of fear. It isn't about terror, but about the respect that recognizes who he is.

That respect shows up in praise, but also in how you speak to God. Pastor Stuart says it plainly: he's quite reluctant about prayers where people address God casually, like a buddy. God is our Father, yes, but he's not a pal. He is the holy God. We are flawed creatures. We can't treat him like a bag of peanuts.

That respect also shows up in putting his message into practice. That's where it gets hard. Most sermons, we forget them. So if God spoke to you today, if there's one thing his Spirit put his finger on, hold on to it. You don't need to keep the rest. "Do what is right and good in the sight of the Lord, that it may go well with you." God cares that his people are happy. That's why he gives his commandments.

We have no promised land to conquer. Our promised land is fellowship around the Lord's table, in the life of the church. Our happiness is being with Christ, together, at peace, because we have received his grace.

Jesus summed it up in Mark 12: the first commandment is to love God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, all your strength; and the second, to love your neighbor as yourself. The two go together. The Father's love seeks to draw you to him, and through you, to draw in those who still don't know him. Don't stay like the teacher of the Law in the Gospel of Mark, of whom Jesus says he is "not far from the kingdom of God." Don't stay far off. It's Jesus who embodies and inaugurates that kingdom. He is the door, and he is the visible image of the Father's love for you.

Key Takeaways

• The Shema begins with "Hear": faith starts with a posture of listening, not with our own performance.
• God is one and jealous: he loves you with an intense and exclusive love, and he will not tolerate you seeking elsewhere.
• Loving God with all your heart means loving him without mental reservation, with your whole person and all your energy.
• The real danger in the West isn't persecution: it's forgetting God because of comfort, or replacing him with subtle idols.
• The greatest sign of God's love is not a spectacular miracle, it's love between Christians.

Personal Application

Take a moment to ask yourself these questions:

1. What, in your life right now, occupies the place God should have: your car, your pet, your family, your work, a hobby?
2. When did you last really take the time to remember, in detail, what God has done in your story?
3. Is your love for the Lord still alive, or has it quietly died out under routine?
4. Do you expect God to prove his love to you with a sign before you'll trust him?
5. What concrete act of love toward a brother or sister could you make this week, as a visible sign of God's presence?

Scriptures Cited

• Deuteronomy 6:4-19 · Hear, O Israel
• Mark 12:28-31 · The Greatest Commandment
• Psalm 116 · I love the Lord
• Deuteronomy 6:16 · Massah, do not test God
• Matthew 4:1-11 · The temptation of Jesus in the wilderness

FAQ

What is the Shema Israel?

The Shema is the central prayer of Judaism, drawn from Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and a few other passages in Deuteronomy and Numbers. Traditional Jews recite it twice a day. It begins with: "Hear, O Israel: the Lord our God is one Lord." Jesus quotes it in Mark 12 as the first of all the commandments, and pairs it with loving your neighbor.

Why does the Bible say God is jealous?

Some translations speak of a "jealous" God, others of an "exclusive" God or a "God who tolerates no rival." The idea is not that of a possessive lover in the human sense, but of an intense and exclusive love. If God is one and he loves you, he will not tolerate you seeking elsewhere what only he can give. He is jealous for you, because he does not want to let you waste away far from him.

What are modern idols?

A modern idol is whatever takes, in your life, the absolute place that belongs to God. Pastor Stuart gives some very concrete examples: the car ("my baby," as in a current ad), the dog turned best friend, the family and reunions without which you think you couldn't live. He also mentions superstitions, Halloween and commercial holidays, ancestor worship, veganism turned into a religion, football, hypnotism, and everything hiding behind occultism under a harmless appearance. None of these things are necessarily bad in themselves, but they become idols when they take the Lord's place.