Greetings in the name of the Lord!
I read with great expectation your answers to questions posed by your readers. Your site has been quite a resource and I want to thank you for allowing the Lord to use you this way.
My question stems from a recent conversation I had with a Jewish Uncle who asked me to reconcile Deut. 6:4 “. . .the Lord is One” with our worship and praise of Jesus. I responded by: 1) asking if a messiah does appear for them wouldn’t they worship and praise him as well. 2) Quoting Genesis 1:26 and asked who is “us” and “our”. 3) When Jesus taught to us to pray he started by saying “Our Father in Heaven”. What bothers me is that I had difficulty referring to Old Testament passages to support my Uncle’s supposition of “polytheism”. Can you point me in the right direction?
Start with Isaiah 9:6. “For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.” In that one verse the names given to the child identify Him as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Then go to Psalm 45:6-7. “Your throne, O God, will last for ever and ever; a scepter of justice will be the scepter of your kingdom. You love righteousness and hate wickedness; therefore God, your God, has set you above your companions by anointing you with the oil of joy.” Here both Father and Son are referred to as God. The Writer of the Hebrews used these verses to prove to Jewish believers the deity of Jesus.(Hebr. 1:8-9)
In Psalm 110:1 David called the Messiah Lord. Jesus used this Psalm to assert His claim to deity.(Matt. 22:41-46)
When you understand, as the Bible makes clear, that Jesus is God in human form, all arguments of polytheism go out the window. There is no violation of Deut. 6:4. There is only one God, in three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Jews have a problem with Jesus because they think of Him only as a man who claimed to be God. When He did they had Him executed. Either He was lying or they misunderstood, so they assumed He was lying. But their own Scriptures identify Him as God. Ask your uncle if the Messiah is only a man, why did their prophet Micah say that his origins were before time and His existence eternal (Micah 5:2) and how can a mere man rule throughout the 1000 year Messianic kingdom?