“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. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
Growing up Jewish often means growing up reciting Deuteronomy 6 verses 4 thru 9 every week. It is a passage of scripture that I have heard and said over and over again my whole life. In it, God speaks His very heart to man, and reveals to us His true desire for us regarding our relationship with Him and His word. It is His introductory paragraph, His thesis statement, for the rest of what He tells us in His word, the Bible. Moses is writing this to the Israelites as they are about to leave the wilderness and enter the promised land, beginning their life as the nation of Israel in the land God promised to Abraham. In this passage God delineates to us how He wants us to take in and live out the rest of His word that He gives us in the pages of the Bible, and ultimately through His Son. Following is a series of short treatments of some of the concepts contained in this amazing piece of the written word of God.
Much more could be said, and has been said over the centuries about this passage of scripture than I will address in the following chapters. So please do not let your understanding of this passage of scripture be limited to what I have written on it. I am merely writing down for my four sons some of the things God has shown me that are contained in this passage of scripture. The passage and each verse should first be understood and applied in its simplest and most obvious understanding, and I am assuming that the reader has already done this. This book will be focusing on and highlighting other aspects of the passage and verses that are not so obvious, and that the reader may not have noticed yet. This is also to help keep the reader from falling into the trap of trying to understand this verse apart from Jesus, the Word of God. When we read and apply this verse without Jesus, we miss the main point of the verse, and become pharisaical in our approach to applying it.
Much has been said already regarding the Sh’ma, the word echad and its meaning of a composite oneness, etc., so I will not address this at all. Please refer to some of the other excellent treatments of this aspect of the first sentence in this passage, such as Arnold Fruchtenbaum’s work on this topic. (See page 15 letter a.)
The Primary Understanding of the Verse
I would add that the primary understanding of this passage is to love God with all that we have, put his words in our heart and our mind, teach God’s word to our children, and let our relationship with God and the knowledge of His word permeate our entire life, setting up reminders to help us remember God daily. This is the beginning of wisdom, and is the essential first understanding of this passage. The following treatise on this passage will show that, like much of scripture, there is an even deeper understanding of God’s word to us here. Like the layers of an onion, God’s word often has layers of understanding. Building on the foundation of the primary understanding of the passage, what is discussed here may actually be more essential to truly living out the commands of this verse than the primary understanding is.
Proof of this may lie in the fact that Jews around the world have tried to understand and live out this passage without embracing Jesus as an integral part of the passage, and because of this have failed to benefit from it to the degree that God wants us to. They have failed to connect with God and have as close a relationship with God as Christians have. The following treatise will attempt to begin to crack open this aspect of the passage so that we can see into it more deeply, revealing the depth and the riches of God’s word to us, and the essential nature that Jesus plays in understanding and applying this passage to our lives.
My Hope
It is my hope that your life and your relationship with God will be transformed by your reading of this short treatise. If that is not the case when you get to the end of this, then I have failed you, and I ask your forgiveness for failing to carry you deeper into the word of God. That is certainly my intention, and my prayer for you now is that God would open your mind and your heart to hear Him, truly hear Him speaking to you in these pages.
I have left room on the pages for making notes. So please make notes as you go along. Write down anything God shows you or reveals to you. This is a practice that will serve you well over the years of your life, and I cannot recommend it highly enough.
At the end of each section I have included a prayer. Feel free to pray this prayer, or to pray your own prayer as God leads you, asking Him to apply His truth to your life, helping you to become the man or woman of God He has created you and called you to be, growing in His grace, and walking more closely in fellowship with Him. I have also included a few verses of scripture at the end as well. There are many more that I could have included, and I encourage you to go online and search for additional verses on the chapter, and write down the ones that God speaks to you through.
My Prayer for You
May God our Father richly bless you, and may the following words go deep into your soul, mind and spirit, transforming and renewing you by the power of God’s Holy Spirit. May God Himself speak to you through the words of these pages, and may your walk with Him never be the same after you have read these pages. I pray that your understanding of God would be increased, your relationship with Him renewed, and that a fresh revelation of Jesus Christ will be brought to you by God’s Spirit. May God become more real to you than ever before, and may your walk with Him grow closer each day. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.
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