I would also like to point out a tiny word or phrase in the first verse; and depending on your translation it will say, “hear”, or “hearken”, or “observe”. The Hebrew word that is being translated is Shema. Those of you who have been around the Hebrew Roots type of teaching for a while should recognize that word as it has even become a Traditional name for a commandment in Deuteronomy 6. It is also known as the “hear O Israel”.
Here’s the point: in our modern English we make little distinction between the words “hear” and “hearken”. We think that hearken is just a very formal old English way of saying hear. Not true. Shema is an instruction to DO something. It is a call to action. So in our modern vocabulary “listen and obey” or “observe” better captures the sense of the word shema or its English counterpart hearken. In Medieval times hearken specifically meant to act on what you’re being told.
Just as I have explained in earlier lessons that when our Bibles say “believe in God”, we should mentally cross out the word “believe” and insert instead “trust” in order to align the Biblical sense of it with 21st century vocabulary, so it is when we run across the words “hear” or “hearken” we should mentally cross out those words and replace them with “listen and obey” or “observe”. That is because just as “believe” has become a rather weak word that indicates a passive intellectual acceptance of something, so has “hear and hearken” become words that just mean our ears perceived some sounds and we intellectually comprehended them. That is not at all, or ever was, the sense of the word Shema. It means that we hear and DO. We are to ACT upon what we hear.
Therefore let me recite the Shema for you in the sense it was always meant (and the sense in which the Hebrews understood it) and just see if the changing of that one little word from hear to obey doesn’t suddenly put a whole new light on it:
NAS Deuteronomy 6:4 "OBEY, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one! 5 "And you shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
Further let me remind you of two things: where the word LORD is, in Hebrew it is actually YHWH. And where the word heart is used, heart was NOT thought of (in that era) as the place where our emotions reside. Rather the heart was the equivalent of brain. The heart was the where our intellect resided. In our modern vocabulary we should cross our heart whenever we see it in the Bible (OT or NT) and insert the word mind.
Let me read this basic God-principle called the Shema for you once again, and then we’ll close. And remember, Yeshua says that the Shema is the MOST foundational God-principle of them all; the 10 Words (10 Commandments) are based on the Shema, as are all the 613 laws. So it’s important that we get the truest possible sense of what God is communicating to us.
NAS Deuteronomy 6:4 "OBEY, O Israel! YEHOVEH is our God, YEHOVEH is one! 5 "And you shall love YEHOVEH your God with all your MIND and with all your soul and with all your might.
That puts it in a little different perspective doesn’t it? Do you see the strength and passion of this statement and do-ability of that statement? This is a kingly decree that is not to be ignored. The requirement is that we understand who God is intellectually and THEN let it envelope our souls as well, and then we ACT upon this understanding with every fiber of our physical and spiritual being. HEAR or HEARKEN are powerful, not passive, Biblical words. And we will find those same words, with the same meaning and intent, in the New Testament as well.
We’ll continue with Moses’ eloquent and impassioned sermon next week.
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Tom-Bradford
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