I like to alternate OT and NT commands for several reasons.  One is the unity of the Text. The Bible is one solid message from God to mankind, composed of 66 books written by 40 different human authors who were “carried along by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet 1:21) over the course of 1500 years. Another reason is our need for familiarity with the whole counsel of God’s Word, the unified Text.

The Command

“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one!” (Deuteronomy 6:4, NASB95)

“Listen up!”  This is one of the most famous commands in the Scriptures.  In the Hebrew Masoretic text, the scribes put this word, Hear in larger script than the rest of the words.  They called this verse and its following verses the “Shema,” after this one word command, “Hear.”  Shema, (umv)) is a very common word in the Old Testament, occurring 1159 times(!), yet Deuteronomy 6:4 is the Shema. In other words, this one is pretty important.

The  NAS and KJV render  shema with “Hear,” but I think “Listen” is better here, as we find in the NET Bible. Shema works a lot like listen in English, especially when it is a command.  Commanding someone to “hear” something is a little different from telling them to “listen.”  The difference reminds me of the person whose neighbor on the floor below them played her music too loud when it was time to sleep.  There was no choice about hearing the untimely music; and the poor victim was certainly not listening.  Sometimes husbands “hear” but don’t listen, I’m told.  Other times, “I heard you” means “I heard you with comprehension.” Apparently I was listening when I heard that husbands have been known to hear without  listening.

In any case, shema has a broad range of meanings.  It seems to encompass the whole realm of intake of information through the ears.  You can hear, you can hear with comprehension, and you can hear with comprehension with an orientation to appropriate response, just to name three possible uses of shema. Out of 1159 occurences, shema is an imperative (command) 208 times.  Think on this:  many words in the prophetic books like Isaiah only occur one time in the whole Bible.  This word occurs more than 200 times as a command.  When the word for “hearing” is a command, the sense generally includes “listening with an orientation towards obedience.”  In many instances of this command, like this one, the word shema is correctly understood as “Listen and obey.”

Content

What is Moses commanding they perk up and listen to?  The content of the message is God’s identity and nature.  First, Yahweh, the Creator and Covenant-Keeper Who called Abraham and promised him an inheritance beyond his wildest dreams, Who called Moses and commissioned him for the Exodus, this Personal Being is their God.  “Adonai Elohenu” is “Yahweh is our God.”  The personal possessive pronoun is key—our God.  The Creator, the Living God, this is Our God.  The second piece of the content here is the unity of God’s nature.  “Adonai Echad” has long been considered by OT scholars to refer to God in His uniqueness, as opposed to the notion of singularity vs. plurality.  Only after the dawn of the Christian era was this statement used by anti-Christian interpreters to reject the doctrine of Trinity.  Actually, uniqueness and unity are both key aspects of Trinitarian theology, which is Biblical theology.  The true doctrine of Trinity is that God exists as One God in Three Persons, “Three-in-One.”  Tri-Unity, in other words.  “There is no God like our God” is the idea of the “Shema,” and Trinity as clarified in the NT revelation gives greater clarity to this claim.

Three Thoughts

1.  Theology Proper: The Creator is the God of Israel Who is totally unique and unified as One God in Three Persons.
2.  Sanctification:  Like with the Shema, our marching orders are always to pay attention to God as He reveals Himself in the Bible.  This is the implication of God’s Self-communication.  Accept no substitutes for the Living God of Israel.
3. Ecclesiology (Doctrine of the Church): The Church is not Israel.  Yet a believer’s relationship with God is very special nonetheless.  The Bible says that if you are in Christ, then God the Father is your Father, like He’s the Father of the Son, Jesus  Christ (Rom 8:15, Gal 4:6).  God is our God not in a national-covenant way; the relationship is family, the Royal Family of God.

Passage to Pray: John 17

Memory Verse: Dt 6:4-8

“Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your  might. “These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons 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. “You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-8, NASB95)

Post Script

Enjoy the weekend and go to church.  Two “imperatives” from me to you.  Romans 16:20