seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Deuteronomy 6:6 These are the commands, decrees and laws the Lord your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 2 so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. 3 Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you.
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.[a] 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
a. Deuteronomy 6:4 Or The Lord our God is one Lord; or The Lord is our God, the Lord is one; or The Lord is our God, the Lord alone
The first commentary I went to was way too preachy.
Here's the commentary from easy English.
Moses taught the Israelites all that God had ordered him to teach. Moses also emphasised that the Israelites needed to obey God. The Israelites would stay in the country if they were loyal to him.
People call these words the Shema. Shema is a word in Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament. The word ‘listen’ in verse 4 is the English translation of the word ‘Shema’. Jews pray the words of verses 4-6 twice every day. The LORD God is the only God. He is the ruler. There are no other gods. We should obey God’s laws because we love him. And we should love him with every part of our lives. In Jeremiah 31:33, God promised to give to people a love for his laws. Then they would choose to obey them.
God told the Jews to teach their families about his commandments. God told them to tie the commandments on their hands, heads, doors and gates. God may have meant that the Jews should never forget the commandments. They must affect every part of a Jewish person’s life. However, some Jews have done exactly what these verses said. They wrote the commandments and then they tied them onto their hands and onto their heads. They fixed them onto their doors and gates also. They thought that they were keeping God’s laws in that way. But that did not prove that they loved him. And they did not always behave in the right way.
People call these words the Shema. Shema is a word in Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament. The word ‘listen’ in verse 4 is the English translation of the word ‘Shema’. Jews pray the words of verses 4-6 twice every day. The LORD God is the only God. He is the ruler. There are no other gods. We should obey God’s laws because we love him. And we should love him with every part of our lives. In Jeremiah 31:33, God promised to give to people a love for his laws. Then they would choose to obey them.
God told the Jews to teach their families about his commandments. God told them to tie the commandments on their hands, heads, doors and gates. God may have meant that the Jews should never forget the commandments. They must affect every part of a Jewish person’s life. However, some Jews have done exactly what these verses said. They wrote the commandments and then they tied them onto their hands and onto their heads. They fixed them onto their doors and gates also. They thought that they were keeping God’s laws in that way. But that did not prove that they loved him. And they did not always behave in the right way.
This is from the working preacher site.
The first thing Israel must do, for things to go well, is "to hear". "To hear" means "to listen," but also, in Deuteronomy's idiom, it means to obey. The Hebrew imperative "Listen up!" or "Hear this!" is sema (pronounced sh'ma) and 6:4-9 is famously known as the Shema, after the first word of 6:4. Faithful Jews recite it at least twice a day, in the morning and at night, in compliance with the Shema itself.
The reason the commentaries were so preachy this morning is tied to verse 5. We'll see these words again in Matthew 22:34-40 when Jesus recites them. As a matter of fact, if you google "Love the Lord Your God", it shows Luke and Matthew 1st and 2nd and Deuteronomy is 3rd on the list. A lot of sermons have been written on these verses. Here it is.... so you don't have to link to it.... but please.... do as Moses directed those young men on that day.... "Listen up!"
Matthew 22:34 Hearing that Jesus had silenced the Sadducees, the Pharisees got together. 35 One of them, an expert in the law, tested him with this question: 36 “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’(b) 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’[a] 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’(b) 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
a. Matthew 22:37 Deut. 6:5
b. Matthew 22:39 Lev. 19:18
