Shema

As all men grow older, and near the end of their lives, there seems to be a tendency for them to desire to leave a legacy. Something for friends and relatives to remember them by and, in the case of God’s chosen leader Moses, there is no exception. The greatest accomplishment of Moses is undoubtedly receiving God’s law, the two tablets of stone bearing the Ten Commandments, from the top of Mount Horeb in Midian.

God lays out His plan for a righteous relationship with His people as He gives Moses instructions on how they are to live in His presence and morally how to treat one another. However while Moses is away receiving the Ten Commandments, His brother Aaron is busy back at the Israelite camp smelting down the Egyptian gold to produce an idol for them to worship. When Moses returns from His encounter with God, he finds the Israelite camp worshipping an image of a golden calf. You can imagine his anger and frustration as he hurls the law to the ground breaking the first two tablets of stone.

Years later as Moses is nearing his own death, the scriptures records his legacy as he pours out his heart to all Israel. Deuteronomy 6:4-9 is known as the Shema, a section of scripture that frames the entire scope of Jewish theology. It is so revered by certain sects of the Jewish faith that this scroll is literally pinned to their doorposts and some even go so far as to tie this scripture to their hands and foreheads.

 “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”

I have to admit I have personally taken these verses literally and have written them on areas of my house and objects that make up the architecture of my home. But did God literally mean that we should bind scriptures to our homes, our hands and foreheads or was He implying something else? Was God teaching the Israelites that salvation can only come from God and there is literally no way for anyone man to keep the Ten Commandments?

God wants us to remember Him and what He has accomplished for us. If we look back at the Exodus from Egypt, we discover that the blood of the Passover lamb when spread on the doorposts and lentils of the house spared the firstborn male from certain death by allowing the angel of death to “pass over” the redeemed house. Likewise Jesus too became our “Passover Lamb”, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world, as He hung and died upon the cross. The night before His death He also instructed us to commemorate and remember that He bought us with a price. By applying His blood to the doorposts of our own heart, we too become His purchased possession and will one day live again with Him!

The blessing of the Shema is that the Lord God is One and that salvation is from Him alone. Even the meaning of the Greek name Jesus or, in Hebrew Jeshua, literally means God is salvation. The Shema is both a blessing and a reminder that God was inviting His people to enjoy a relationship with Him and to walk all the days of their lives in a relationship with Him. God was trying to convey the benefits of sinking His word deep within their minds, their hearts and their souls. God loves us all and desires that we choose to come to Him out of love rather than compulsion.

In closing, I have decided to read the middle section of this great blessing again letting it sink deep within our hearts soul and minds. “You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be frontlets between your eyes, you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.”  Thank you God for loving us enough to send your own Son to heal and save us from a debt we could never pay. Could there ever be a better blessing than that?