The Shema

I was thinking about "The Shema" or the FIRST COMMAND...
Deuteronomy 6:4-5...
"Hear O Israel, The Lord, Our God, is One Lord; and you shall love the Lord with all your Heart, soul, and strength"

How beautiful and profound this is....

3 commands...
Hear the Lord
Be Obedient to the Lord
Love the Lord....

3 PROPHECIES
You SHALL hear
You SHALL be obedient
You SHALL love

3 ways you shall love:
Heart, Soul, Strength
This also translates to:
Emotional - our "feelings"
Volitional - our "Will power"
Mental - our "Brain" knowledge

Notice there is NO separation between Believe and Do....

3 "Lord statements"
The Lord (YHWH)
Our God (Elhoim - a Plural Hebrew word (literally gods) that is always "Singular" when referring to The LORD (YHWH)... by the construction of the hebrew word in this passage - it is possessive... "My God")
One Lord (YHWH ehad)

How much wrangling over doctrines, beliefs, positions, and such are resolved in this ONE sentence.....
 
A thought related to this.....

We sometimes take it for granted - this statement "You shall love the Lord with all your Heart, Soul, and Strength".....

But... the reality is that for our faith to really start to sink in -
we must engage ALL 3....
Mind (Intellect)
Heart (Emotions)
Strength (Volition)

There are many people who believe in their Heart - their Emotional/faithful self... but they do NOT believe in their intellect..... Unfortunately, this was a TENET of the church for YEARS - that you didn't really have to believe in your Mind - it was only the Heart that mattered.... For all the apologetics - they feared to tread in the land of "Science".... How unfortunate - because you end up in a position where you are deathly afraid of "Thinking Rationally" about God and especially Jesus....
Questions like: You gotta be kidding me... A MAN born God? You really believe that? How could a MAN die for your sins? Some Jew 2,000 years ago was God on Earth.. and he died? That makes no sense....

There are people who believe in their Intellect - but they somehow can't close the loop in their Heart.... Frequently from disappointments or disillusionment.... They "Know" Jesus and God in their Intellect that He is Right... but their pain and heartache and disillusionment somehow clouds the truth....
Questions like: If God was really God - WHY would he let me go through this? Why do good things happen to bad people? I prayed so hard and it all fell apart...

Then... There's the Volition... your Will.... There are people who "Believe" - but have no willpower to express it or to follow through with it.... 2 pieces to this.....
At the crux of this is a simple thought.... Truth is when the Word and the Deed become ONE....
Obedience is Belief in Action.... Do you actually "Believe" if you will not be Obedient? Does "Knowing" the truth matter if you won't DO the truth? How can it be the "Truth" if you don't act like it's the truth?

When you put all 3 together, though, AMAZING things happen!

Thanks
 
Here's another facet of this....

The Hebrew word "Ehad" - usually translated One... in Deut 6:4 -- Shema Yisrael YHWH Elohienu YHWH Ehad

The Hebrew word Ehad is used for the number ONE... but as with most things Hebrew - it's more "Dense" than that.... It really does not mean "One" in the sense of ONE, 1, single and Alone.... It means ONE in the sense of Unity, Perfectly Unified, togetherness.....
For example - when Zechariah joins the two pieces of a cut staffs into "One" - they were two pieces of cut staff - but they were made into "One" staff.... They were unified....

Adam and Eve were Ehad when they were "One Flesh".... (Genesis 2:24)
A Husband and Wife become "Ehad" when they are married and become ONE.... (Matt 19:5-6)
Are they still two physical people? Yes... But... Now - the idea is that they are to be perfectly Unified in ONE purpose...

When Jesus was talking about Him and the Father being "One" - he did not mean that they were the Same - that He was the Father in one single entity.... He meant that The Father and Himself were in perfect Unity concerning all things.

As humans - we can't really grasp the concept of perfect unity... We often think that if there are TWO of us and we think exactly alike - that ONE of those two is unnecessary.... but that's not God's concept of unity....

It appears that God's concept of unity is to be perfectly united in purpose and will - but each "party" can have a different assignment within that perfect purpose and will... Jesus assignment is different from the assignment of the Holy Spirit - but they are in perfect unity of purpose.
 
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