What does it mean to worship Yahweh?
- Details
- Category: Jesus and the Manna Principle
When a scholar of the Law asks Jesus which of the commandments in Yahweh’s Law was the greatest of them all, Jesus replies by quoting Deuteronomy 6:5 and Leviticus 19:18 —
“‘Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” Matthew 22:37-40.
In succinctly summarizing the message that Yahweh delivers to the people through his Law and the Prophets into the two greatest commandments, Jesus shows how the worship of Yahweh is intricately tied to loving your fellow human being.
- These two commandments are atomic in nature – meaning, each of them do not exist individually on their own, but are in effect as a pair that cannot be separated from each other.
- As Jesus puts it so clearly, the first greatest commandment from Yahweh to his people is for them to love him with all their being, but an equally great second commandment (‘And the second is like it!’) is for them to love their neighbor as their own selves.
- There is simply no way someone can show loyalty to Yahweh without showing love to their fellow humans on the planet.
- If someone claims to love Yahweh, but does not show love for his neighbor, then that person’s claim is void.
And everything in the Law and the Prophets points to this beautiful truth.
Love your neighbor as yourself
Yahweh and Jesus have to explicitly train the people in this principle, because Yahweh’s demand for his followers to “love their neighbor as themselves” in order to show their loyalty to him is in diametric opposition to how the rulers of manmade Empires demand allegiance from their subjects.
- In the case of the Trial of the Manna during Moses’ times, the Israelites have just been brought out of the Egyptian empire under the Pharaoh where loyalty to the ruler simply meant being in indentured servitude to him and his cronies.
- This forced labor, as a matter of fact, often turned the people against their neighbor and made them hurt each other, no matter they be Egyptian or Israelite (Exodus 2:11-13).
- In the case of the feeding of the multitude during Jesus’ times, the Israelites are still under the Roman Empire where loyalty to Caesar simply meant laboring their lives away to pay the exorbitant taxes that kept Rome and its system of client kings happy.
- This too set people against each other – tax collectors vs taxpayers, the elite vs the poor, Roman citizen vs the alien.
But when you follow Yahweh and when you do love your neighbor as your own self –
- You do not hoard things selfishly.
- You take only what you need and refrain from greed.
- You always share with your neighbor - even when what you have is very little.
This is what Jesus teaches his disciples in the wilderness during the feeding of the multitude. This is what Yahweh shows the Israelites in the wilderness during the Trial of the Manna.
Read Next: The Power of Sharing - A Forecast of God's Empire
