Shema Yisrael

“Shema Yisrael” – Hear, O Israel

Deuteronomy 6:4, or the “Shema”, is what I call the John 3:16 of the Old Testament. It was the most well known piece of Scripture in the Jewish culture and the centerpiece for what defined a Jew. It reads as follows (verses 5-9 are included as context):

4"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. 5You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. 6And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, 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. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

As Christians, we must not underplay the importance of these verses. Let’s look at some of the basic implications:

1. It establishes Israel as a monotheistic nation (believing in ONE God). This set Israel apart from all other nations in the world at the time.
2. It gives Israel their “greatest commandment” – as Jesus would later call it. Loving our God with all our heart, soul, and might is still of utmost importance to us.
3. It establishes the importance of God’s law to Israel. They are told to talk of it everywhere they go and write it everywhere they see – to love it!

To this day, the Shema is read twice a day (by orthodox Jews) and spoken on one’s deathbed as a kind of affirmation of faith in the ONE God. When God used Moses to write the Shema, he is also fulfilling a promise to His people: that “He will be their God, and they will be His people forever,” – a theme repeated throughout the Old Testament. As God continued to pour out His laws in Deuteronomy, the Shema stuck as its foundation. To the Jew and now to the Christian, the message is clear – Know your God! Love Him! Love His Word! And Share it!