1Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh your God commanded to teach you, that you might do them in the land that you go over to possess; 2that you might fear Yahweh your God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command you—you, your son, and your son’s son, all the days of your life; and that your days may be prolonged. 3Hear therefore, Israel, and observe to do it, that it may be well with you, and that you may increase mightily, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised to you, in a land flowing with milk and honey.
4Hear, Israel: Yahweh is our God. Yahweh is one. 5You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your might. 6These words, which I command you today, shall be on your heart; 7and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes. 9You shall write them on the door posts of your house and on your gates.
10It shall be, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land which he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you, great and goodly cities which you didn’t build, 11and houses full of all good things which you didn’t fill, and cisterns dug out which you didn’t dig, vineyards and olive trees which you didn’t plant, and you shall eat and be full; 12then beware lest you forget Yahweh, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. 13You shall fear Yahweh your God; and you shall serve him, and shall swear by his name. 14You shall not go after other gods, of the gods of the peoples who are around you, 15for Yahweh your God among you is a jealous God, lest the anger of Yahweh your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth. 16You shall not tempt Yahweh your God, as you tempted him in Massah. 17You shall diligently keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and his testimonies, and his statutes, which he has commanded you. 18You shall do that which is right and good in Yahweh’s sight, that it may be well with you and that you may go in and possess the good land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, 19to thrust out all your enemies from before you, as Yahweh has spoken.
20When your son asks you in time to come, saying, “What do the testimonies, the statutes, and the ordinances, which Yahweh our God has commanded you mean?” 21then you shall tell your son, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt. Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand; 22and Yahweh showed great and awesome signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his house, before our eyes; 23and he brought us out from there, that he might bring us in, to give us the land which he swore to our fathers. 24Yahweh commanded us to do all these statutes, to fear Yahweh our God, for our good always, that he might preserve us alive, as we are today. 25It shall be righteousness to us, if we observe to do all these commandments before Yahweh our God, as he has commanded us.”
Matthew's account of Jesus' baptism is highly significant as the Bible's first explicit reference to God in three persons. Until the Son of God came as a man to make the Father known (John 1:18), plurality in the Godhead was largely veiled. Hints are found in passages such as Genesis 1:26, "Then God said, 'Let Us make man... '" (NAU). Though God is singular, the verb make is plural. Similarly, in Isaiah 6:8, God speaks of himself with a plural pronoun: "'Whom shall I send, and who will go for Us?'" (NAU). In Zechariah 4:6, God speaks of His Spirit as a distinct person. Deuteronomy 6:4 emphasizes God's oneness, in contrast with the many heathen gods, but does so with a word for one that can denote a unity, such as the oneness of a husband and wife (Gen 2:24). But, none of these passages is specific like those of the New Testament that mention all three persons of God, beginning with Matthew 3:16-17, and including 28:19; 1 Corinthians 12:4-6; 2 Corinthians 13:14, and 1 Peter 1:2.
The Holy Spirit's descent upon Jesus at His baptism was His anointing as the promised Messiah and Servant of Yahweh in fulfillment of Isaiah 11:2. Verses 13-15, of Matthew 3, clarify the fact that Jesus was not baptized as a repentant sinner, or as a mere follower of John. Matthew 3:17 indicates not a time when Jesus became the Father's Son, but the fact that he was already his son. This record of the simultaneous presence of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit corrects the error of modalism which, in an attempt to preserve the unity of the Godhead, views Father, Son and Holy Spirit not as distinct persons of God, but as different modes in which the one person of God reveals Himself.