I mentioned previously that creeds and confessions are found in the Bible, but where?  Under the pegagogical dispensation of the Sinai covenant, the "people of God were like a child confessing their faith in a very simple way.  The primary confession of faith of Israel is called the Shema, which is the Hebrew word for 'hear.' ¹"  The Shema is found in Deuteronomy 6:4, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God: the Lord is one!"  These words were recited twice daily by Israel (v. 7). 

The people groups of the ancient Near East were polytheists, from the Egyptians that Israel fled to the Canaanites that Israel was to conquer.  The idea that "the Lord is one" was both unique and novel to the world at the time.  The Shema was a bold statement, and set them apart as the Holy Nation. 

Another confession is found in Deuteronomy 26:1-11,

"When you come into the land that the LORD your God is giving you for an inheritance and have taken possession of it and live in it, 2you shall take some of the first of all the fruit of the ground, which you harvest from your land that the LORD your God is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket, and you shall go to the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name to dwell there. 3And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, 'I declare today to the LORD your God that I have come into the land that the LORD swore to our fathers to give us.' 4Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the LORD your God. 

 

     5"And you shall make response before the LORD your God, 'A wandering Aramean was my father. And he went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. 6And the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us and laid on us hard labor. 7Then we cried to the LORD, the God of our fathers, and the LORD heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. 8And the LORD brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. 9And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10And behold, now I bring the first of the fruit of the ground, which you, O LORD, have given me.' And you shall set it down before the LORD your God and worship before the LORD your God. 11And you shall rejoice in all the good that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.

Rev. Hyde writes, "Notice that this was a declaration when publicly worshipping the Lord in response to his blessings of salvation.  What God had done in history, his people believed and confessed.² "

1 Hyde, Daniel R.,  The Good Confession, pg 11

2.  Hyde, Daniell R., The Good Confession, pg 12.