January 31, 2025 -- Deuteronomy 6:4,5 -- Hear and Obey

People loved by the Father, in the Spirit's power: Sh'ma ~ hear and obey Jesus!

Hear, O Israel: the LORD 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.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 ESV
 
The very first word “hear” in today’s passage is a translation of the Hebrew word “shema” (or as I have it sh’ma). That word means hear and it carries with it the implication hear and obey or hear these words and put them into practice in your life.
 
The Sh’ma (Deuteronomy 6:4-5) is the prayer a devout Jewish man or woman will recite each day. It is the reminder that the LORD, the Covenant-Keeping God is ultimate in glory. He is to be ultimate in your life and in all your devotion. Serving Him in all aspects of your life is the single most important reason you have for being alive.
 
Israel. In the Old Testament Israel, the nations, was the 12 tribes who were called to be His people. At His pleasure, God added to that nation other people, those He’d chosen in His love, to be part of His family. From the time of Jesus, until now, and stretching to the return of Jesus, Israel consists of the people who belong to God through Jesus Christ. Those who are “grafted into Him” as John 15 puts it, are grafted into the Vine called “True Israel”.
 
Now Israel is a reference to the people of God who belong to Him through the accomplished work of Jesus Christ and are kept faithful to Him through the powerful presence of the Holy Spirit living in them. We are united to the Old Testament people of God through the sacrifice. In the Old Testament the sacrifices of bulls and lambs and doves pointed to the final sacrifice Jesus. Israelites who believed in Him looked to Him through faith as they believed in the promises which were given through the system of sacrifices. We are the true Israelites, who believe in Jesus Christ, the one sacrifice of God. We believe in One God: Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We hear His word and obey it. We serve Him with all our heart, soul, and might/strength.
 
Israel. The word means “he who strives with God”. It is wrestling with God to subdue ourselves to Him. It is striving with God in prayer to will and to work for His good pleasure. Striving with God means we are in a constant battle between our old nature, our old desires and the new life that is ours through Jesus Christ. Israel. It is a reminder that believers to do not fight for the faith by their own strength. The Holy Spirit fills each believer. Each believer is united to others by the Holy Spirit, so that covered by the sacrificial blood of Jesus, we are taken from our old life of sin and death and are called beloved sons and daughters of God.
 
Faithful Father, by Your Spirit, help us to live for Jesus, by Whose sacrifice we have access to You as beloved sons and daughters. O LORD our God, enable us to put to death all that is untrue, all that sin which is still lingering within us, so that with greater love and deeper devotion we will love You with all our heart, soul, and strength. Amen.
 
https://youtu.be/tQUTvMtUhw4?si=_M4X7_u4XyLo0pkg The Doxology
 

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