Shema Yisrael

We just started watching The Chosen about the first days of Christ’s ministry. During one episode the character of Christ leads a group of children to recite the prayer Shema Yisrael. The prayer is from Deuteronomy and starts “Hear O Israel.” This reminded me of something I recently learned.

There is no word in the Hebrew language for obey. What they say is ( שְׁמַע šāmaʿ Shaw-mah) which translates as “hear and do.” It can be viewed as a command or an order. So there is always an expectation of action on the part of the hearer. 

Deuteronomy 6:4-9 NASB95

Hear, O Israel! The Lord is 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. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your sons 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 up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Numbers 12:6-8

He said, “Hear now My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, shall make Myself known to him in a vision. I shall speak with him in a dream.

“Not so, with My servant Moses, He is faithful in all My household;

With him I speak mouth to mouth, Even openly, and not in dark sayings, And he beholds the form of the Lord. Why then were you not afraid. To speak against My servant, against Moses?”

Whether it is Moses talking to Israel, God talking to His people, it is a person with authority telling you to do something and believing you will do it. It is an expectation that not only would they listen, but take immediate action. It is not a suggestion or “listen and please consider.” It can be taken as a command.

Psa 27:7-9

Hear, O LORD, when I cry with my voice,

And be gracious to me and answer me.

When You said, “Seek My face,” my heart said to You,

“Your face, O LORD, I shall seek.”

Do not hide Your face from me,

Do not turn Your servant away in anger;

You have been my help;

Do not abandon me nor forsake me,

O God of my salvation!

Psalm 39:12

“Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry;

Do not be silent at my tears;

For I am a stranger with You,

A sojourner like all my fathers.

Psalm 102:1-2

Hear my prayer, O LORD! 

And let my cry for help come to You. 

Do not hide Your face from me in the day of my distress;

Incline Your ear to me;

In the day when I call answer me quickly.

Shema is also David saying to God. David has no authority over God. However, because of God’s character, David knows that God loves him with unconditional love. When David tells God “hear and do”, hear and do not turn me away, hear and do not abandon me, hear and do not be silent, hear and do not hide from me, hear and answer me. David can expect God to hear his requests and do as he requests  because of God’s love for him. His sons and daughters can have that same expectation of God.

Though the New Testament is recorded in Greek, Jesus spoke in Hebrew. When Jesus said in Matthew 13,  “That day Jesus went out of the house and was sitting by the sea. 2 And large crowds gathered to Him, so He got into a boat and sat down, and the whole crowd was standing on the beach.

3 And He spoke many things to them in parables, saying, “Behold, the sower went out to sow; 4 and as he sowed, some seeds fell beside the road, and the birds came and ate them up. 5 Others fell on the rocky places, where they did not have much soil; and immediately they sprang up, because they had no depth of soil. 6 But when the sun had risen, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. 7 Others fell among the thorns, and the thorns came up and choked them out. 8 And others fell on the good soil and yielded a crop, some a hundredfold, some sixty, and some thirty. 9 He who has ears, let him hear.”

He was saying shéma. If you understand this parable, you will listen and obey. You will spread the Word, plant many seeds. Some will not take root, or bear fruit. Some will. Do not lose heart about what you perceive as success. Do not give up. It is not your responsibility to make the plant grow, only to plant the seeds. Everything God tells us, there is an expectation to not only hear, but to obey. Whatever God tells you, be obedient.