“Hear, O Israel! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh alone!” — Deuteronomy 6:4 (REV)
The shema is one of the most famous passages in all of scripture. It constitutes the paramount identification of Israel’s God, and their devotion to Him. The Most High God. Yahweh Alone.
Yahweh Alone
This assertion is delivered in a context of surrounding polytheism. The gods are many, their wants and desires are fickle. Their behaviour is capricious and fundamentally unpredictable. They have their own lanes and areas of influence, their own nations, and their own rules.
In stark contrast: “Yahweh”, or “I am who I am”, or “I will be who I will be” is an internally consistent assertion. The very name of this God Most High is one of constancy. Yahweh is a God of divine immutability — unchanging in being, character, purposes, and promises. Yahweh alone is a God who possesses the divine attribute of aseity — that is, God’s self-existence and independence — the uncaused cause. He is Yahweh.
The God of Both Testaments
This is the God of the Old Testament. If Yahweh is the God of the Old Testament, it stands to reason that He is the God of the New Testament too!
His character, nature, purposes, and being are unchanged.
There is great comfort in this. There is also a challenge. God Most High has revealed himself to us through His Ultimate Image — Jesus Christ, God’s Son.
How God Reveals Himself
God’s constancy in method implies that He does not reveal himself in an obvious way, all at once, to the whole world — besides through His incredible creation, of course, which declares His majesty and character and attributes (see Rom 1).
Yahweh God has revealed himself in the Old Testament in the midst of time — through, and to, particular people, places, cultures, and circumstances. And yet He is constantly revealing Himself to everyman and everywoman — all who seek Him will find Him. He seems to expect that the testimony of fellow God-images — that is, fellow human beings — is perfectly sufficient, in collaboration with the Holy Spirit, to reveal God’s character and nature and essence…
Maybe He is letting us do… our job?!
What It Means to Be a Human Being
Because our job is to image God. To manifest God’s divine qualities. To glorify God. That’s what it means to be a human being.
God’s Glory is God’s essence made manifest.
God is good. God’s glory is God’s goodness manifest. God is merciful. God’s glory is God’s mercy manifest. God is powerful. God’s glory is God’s power manifest. God is wise. God’s glory is God’s wisdom manifest. God is love. God’s glory is God’s love manifest.
“I glorified you on the earth by accomplishing the work that you have given me to do.” — John 17:4 (REV)
Jesus manifested God’s divine nature perfectly. He accomplished his divine purpose of being the son of man. The image of God.
And now we are called to do likewise!
Falling Short of Glory
“For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” — Romans 3:23 (NET)
We all fall short when we fail to manifest God’s nature — His character, His purposes, His promises. These things are unchanging — but are revealed through you, and to you — adapted to your given people, places, culture, and circumstances.
But here we are encouraged:
“For I have given you an example, that you also should do as I have done to you.” — John 13:15 (REV)
“For you were called to this endurance, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an example so that you follow in his footsteps. He did not commit sin, nor was deceit found in his mouth. When he was insulted, he did not give an insult in return; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed himself to the one who judges righteously. He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we, having died to sins, could live to righteousness, by whose wounds you were healed. For you were going astray like sheep, but now you have returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” — 1 Peter 2:21–25 (REV)
Faithful and True
May our testimony about God be faithful and true, in harmony with creation’s declaration, even as we follow our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ — who lived by faith, and achieved the goal, and has been exalted to the right hand of His Father in heaven, where he reflects God’s glory in majesty and power.
Maranatha! Come, Lord Jesus… Come.