Treasures
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. Deuteronomy 6: 4 – 9
Known as the Shema, this prayer has been one of the most influential traditions in Jewish history and is recited even today, every morning and every evening. It gets its name from the first Hebrew word of the prayer — “hear” or “listen,” a translation of the Hebrew word Shema.
To understand the prayer more fully, we need to understand the context better. In this opening session of Deuteronomy, Moses addresses the new generation of Israel as they prepare to enter the promised land. He urges them not to repeat the mistakes of their parent’s generation, wanting them to experience the full blessing of the promised land. For this reason, the prayer continues to show the value of passing this conviction on to later generations to spare them the tragic results of idolatry to other gods.
King Solomon’s command in Proverbs 6:20, 21 to keep the commands of our fathers and not forsake the teachings of our mother, but to bind them always on our heart and fasten them around our neck is a clear reference to Deuteronomy. As hearing and doing are the same in Hebrew, you can imagine the power of putting commands into practice.
Sadly, when the Pharisees read these verses, they took it literally and created a small leather case containing four portions of the Old Testament written on parchment. They called them phylacteries – a word that comes from the Greek and means “to watch over, to safeguard.” They believed that wearing God’s Word like an amulet would protect them from evil, but this practice is not what either Moses or Solomon meant when they commanded the people to bind them as a sign on their hand or to bind them always to their hearts.
As Christians, we understand that we bind God’s word to our hearts and teach them to our children by reading the Scriptures, meditating upon them, memorizing them and putting them into practice in our homes, implementing them in our varied relationships and living them out in the presence of our colleagues at work and strangers we meet.
This command includes disciplining our children when necessary. Proverbs teach that children are naturally foolish and need encouragement to be wise. This is diametrically opposed to today’s humanistic philosophy that says a child is basically good and will turn out well if given the right environment. Yet, the truth is that we need to train children to make wise choices from an early age, actively fostering healthy habits so that they will think and act in ways that will honour God, bring joy to their parents, and blessing to their own lives.
I love how the Message translates verses 21 – 23 Good friend, follow your Father’s good advice; don’t wander off from your mother’s teachings. Wrap yourself in them from head to foot; wear them like a scarf around your neck. Wherever you walk, they’ll guide you; whenever you rest, they’ll guard you; when you wake up, they’ll tell you what’s next. For sound advice is a beacon, good teaching is a light, moral discipline is a life path.
GRACE CHALLENGE FOR THIS WEEK: I don’t know about you, but the idea that hearing and doing are the same thing in Hebrew confronted me in a completely new way today. Therefore, shall we take a moment and consider anew how quickly and how obediently we implement our Father’s words and commands in our lives, our families, and our ministries?
