Shema

SHEMA Week 1 - "The LORD Is One" Deuteronomy 6:4-9(nasb). '"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. ' This a prayer that Jewish people pray, morning and evening 1. "Hear" means more than listening - Shema in Hebrew carries the sense of hear-respond -obey, not passive reception. 2. Here, the word shema means to allow the words to sink in, provide understanding, and generate a response-it's about action Psalm 27:7(nasb) 'Hear, O Lord, when I cry with my voice, And be gracious to me and answer me. ' Deuteronomy 6:4 itself - the imperative opens the whole passage; everything else depends on this word landing. ~James 1:22 - "be doers of the word, and not hearers only" - the NT picks up the same hear/obey link. ~Luke 11:28 - Jesus: "blessed are those who hear the word of God and keep it." SHEMA in the bible is about listening to and doing what is said. SHEMA covers both meanings o 3. "The LORD our God" - a relationship, not just a title - Before naming His uniqueness, the text names covenant belonging: this is our God. o Exodus 6:7 - "I will take you to be my people, and I will be your God" - the covenant formula behind "our God." o Genesis 17:7 - God's covenant promise to Abraham, "to be God to you and to your offspring after you." o 4. "The LORD is one" - a polemic and a foundation - A direct rejection of the polytheism surrounding Israel,: it asserts God's undivided, unique nature. o Isaiah 45:5-6 - "I am the LORD, and there is no other, besides me there is no God." o 1 Corinthians 8:5-6 - Paul reapplies the Shema directly to Christian confession: "for us there is one God, the Father... and one Lord, Jesus Christ." o Mark 12:29 - Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 6:4 word for word when asked for the greatest commandment, before ever getting to verse 5. o 5. Why identity has to come before command - You can't give undivided love to a God whose own nature isn't undivided. The unity of God is the logical foundation for the wholehearted love commanded o Malachi 3:6 - "For I the LORD do not change" - God's oneness includes unchanging constancy, which is part of why He can be trusted with total devotion. o James 1:17 - "with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change" - the NT echo of the same reliability. Application questions: * Where have your images of God become "divided" - different gods for different areas of life (a Sunday God, a work God, a private-struggle God)? * Does knowing God as unchanging and undivided make Him easier or harder to trust with your whole life?