Do you know the SHEMA? This is the Response that God expects from those who are in Covenant with HIM. The Shema, the most important prayer in Judaism, is really a summary of the first 4 Vertical commandments of God that were written on two tablets of Stone (representing God’s people’s stony hearts) in the Mosaic Covenant, and then later written on man’s heart in the New Covenant. The Vertical commandments address our relationship with GOD (Commandments 1-4). The Horizontal commandments address our relationship with people (Commandments 6-10).
The Shema addresses our relationship with YHWH (God) which is supposed to be LOVE…We cannot truly love people the way that God commands us (Agape Love) if we do not have a LOVE relationship with our Loving Father in Heaven. We can only have this loving relationship with YHWH through our MESSIAH YAHUSHUA (JESUS), who reconnects us to our God. God calls His Covenant parters to operate in HIS Agape Love, a self-sacrificial, very GIVING type of Love. This is not the same as brotherly love or worldly “sexual” love. When you see the signs “Love is love”, they are NOT speaking about Agape, or sacrificially giving love, but rather, they are speaking about a selfish type of “sexual love” that “gets” all they can out of life, no matter who is harmed in the process (even themselves). This is more accurately termed “lust”.
John 14:6: Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and the life: no one cometh unto the Father, but by me
1 Corinthians 6:18: Flee sexual immorality (sex outside of marriage). Every sin that a man does is outside the body, but he who commits sexual immorality sins against his own body.
Deuteronomy 6: Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is ONE (echad). You shall love💖the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, 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. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
Shema
HEAR OH ISRAEL, The LORD is GOD, THE LORD IS ONE (Echad – and the two shall become ONE (Echad). YOU SHALL LOVE💖
Notice how God (YHWH) instructs HIS PEOPLE to BIND the Shema 💖(LOVE GOD) as a “sign” or “mark” on their hand or forehead. This may sound familiar because the antichrist (the beast) will force his people to take his “mark” also on the hand and forehead (thoughts and actions). In the Shema, God instructs His people to do this OF THEIR FREE WILL but the antichrist will FORCE people under THREAT of starvation and beheading (Rev. 20:4). Which love is true…willing or forced? Forced “love” is RAPE, it is NOT love, it is violence and sin. There is no such thing as forced love, which is why God gave us FREE WILL.
Rev. 20:4: Then I saw thrones, and they sat on them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of Jesus and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or his image, and had not received the mark on their foreheads and on their hands; and they came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years
You can find the Shema in the book of Deuteronomy, Chapter six. I was re-reading the book of Deuteronomy a few nights ago, and the Lord Jesus Christ shared some insight that I either hadn’t seen before or perhaps had heard of vaguely, but hadn’t given it much thought.
Deuteronomy was written around 1406 BC, at the end of Israel’s forty years of wandering in the wilderness. At this time, the Israelites were camped on the east side of the Jordan River, on the plains of Moab, across from the city of Jericho (Deuteronomy 1:1; 29:1). They were on the verge of entering the land that had been promised centuries earlier to their ancestors;(Genesis 12:1, 6–9). The previous generation of Israelites who had ESCAPED EGYPT by way of the Red Sea all perished in the wilderness because of their idolatry and unbelief (Numbers 14:29). In the book of Deuteronomy, Moses gives a very important “farewell” speech to the next generation of Israelites who were now adults and preparing to cross into the Promised Land of Canaan. He is warning them to not follow in the footsteps of their REBELLIOUS parents. Obedience brings blessings, disobedience brings curses.
In Deuteronomy Chapter 9, Moses retells the story of the Exodus to this new generation of Israelites..about how God lead their parents out of Egypt with a Mighty Arm and an outstretched Hand. Moses then describes what happened at Mount Sinai..how God gave them the ten commandments entering into Covenant with Israel (a “type” of marriage). Moses also recounts the story of their parents blatant idolatry and rebelliousness and how he (Moses) had to fast and intercede because God almost destroyed the whole nation right then and there.
Deuteronomy 9:9: When I (Moses) went up to the mountain to receive the tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant which the Lord made with you, then I remained on the mountain for forty days and nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10 The Lord gave me the two tablets of stone written by the finger of God; and on them were all the words which the Lord had spoken with you at the mountain from the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. 11 It came about at the end of forty days and nights that the Lord gave me the two tablets of stone, the tablets of the covenant
The Lord YHWH was so grieved at Israel’s blatant disobedience that He told Moses He wanted to destroy them, wiping out the name of Israel..but Moses interceded, and God relented. Of course, this was the plan all along.
Deuteronomy 9:12: Then the Lord said to me (Moses), ‘Arise, go down from here quickly, because your people, whom you brought out of Egypt, have behaved corruptly. They have quickly turned aside from the way that I commanded them; they have made a cast metal image for themselves.’ 13 The Lord also said to me, ‘I have seen this people, and indeed, it is a stubborn people. 14 Leave Me alone, that I may destroy them and wipe out their name from under heaven; and I will make of you a nation mightier and greater than they.’
The addition of these verses (Deut. 9:12-14) show..
- Israel (and all mankind’s) hardened hearts
- how much God hates idolatry
- that the prayers of the righteous really do move the heart of God.
Moses found the Israelites worshipping this cult idol when he returned from the mountain. He found them offering sacrifices, dancing, feasting, drinking, and fornicating around this cult idol as acts of pagan worship. The bull was worshipped in many pagan countries under different names…all point to hasatan, or the devil.
Moses became so angry that he threw down the two Tablets of Stone, breaking them into pieces.
Moses burnt the golden calf in a fire, ground it to powder, scattered it on water, and forced the Israelites to drink it.
After this, Moses went back up the mountain for another forty days, where God gave him a second set of commandments, written on Stone Tablets.
But this time, God gave Moses not only the commandments but also the instructions on how to build the Ark of the Covenant AND the Tabernacle…the box that held the ten commandments, and the place that God chose to place the Ark and where He would dwell with Israel in the wilderness.
Deuteronomy 10: 1:-4: At that time the Lord said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden chest. I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets, which you broke. Then you are to put them in the chest.” So I made the ark out of acacia wood and chiseled out two stone tablets like the first ones, and I went up on the mountain with the two tablets in my hands. The Lord wrote on these tablets what he had written before, the Ten Commandments he had proclaimed to you on the mountain, out of the fire, on the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me.
Because Israel had already broken the commandments that had been given to them…., Moses BROKE the first set of tablets that contained the commandments. The second set of commandments were placed in a protective “box”, the Ark of the Covenant. The Levites (one of the 12 tribes of israel) were the only ones who had not not participated in the sin of the golden calf. God gave them the position of priest (intercessor) and they were the only ones who were allowed to TOUCH the Ark of the Covenant. If any other Israelite touched the Ark…they would instantly die.
God KNEW the Israelites would BREAK the first set of Commandments. The SECOND set of commandments was placed in the Ark of the Covenant. Do you see it?👓
The first set of commandments represents THE LAW of MOSES…and how no human being can KEEP the LAW. These commandments were not placed in a protective box, they were given directly to ISRAEL who couldn’t even make it 40 days without BREAKING them! If we try to obtain righteousness on our own, we will fail as the Israelites failed. The Law is GOOD and HOLY and is a PICTURE of God’s standard of Righteousness, but it is not an INSTRUMENT that can make one righteous because we will FAIL every time. Israel broke the commandments and so Moses threw down the first set of tablets and broke them into pieces. All have sinned and fallen short of the GLORY OF GOD.
But….the second set of commandments, gently placed into the ARK of the COVENANT, and then treated with REVERANCE...represents the NEW COVENANT written on man’s hearts. The ONLY WAY man will “not break” the commandments is THROUGH THE MESSIAH. The Ark of the Covenant, made of common wood (humanity) overlayed with pure gold (divinity) represents JESUS CHRIST who is FULLY GOD and FULLY MAN. Jesus IS God’s instrument of RIGHTEOUSNESS. Jesus tucked the commandments into HIS HEART and then He fulfilled every jot and tittle of the MOSAIC LAW FOR US because WE CAN’T!
God is not looking for people who will keep the letter of the law PERFECTLY and then pat themselves on the back for “their own righteousness”. And THANK GOD FOR THAT! Those who think they can keep the Law to God’s Standard, apart from the Messiah, are fooling themselves. They will end up just like the previous generation of Israelites who worshipped the golden calf and fell under judgment. Just look at how Moses BROKE the FIRST set of TABLETS. MANKIND CANNOT KEEP GOD’S LAWS PERFECTLY!! Thankfully God is looking for people who LOVE HIM with their WHOLE HEARTS💖, enough to accept HIS SON JESUS THE MESSIAH as the perfect Sacrifice for sin and IN WHOM is the ONLY PATH of RIGHTEOUSNESS with GOD.
Jesus IS the ARK of the COVENANT. He IS the PROMISED MESSIAH (EMANUEL- GOD WITH US) who came to set the captives FREE.
All people (Jew and Gentile) are BORN in bondage to sin, BORN with hearts of stone. We have ALL broken GOD’s Commandments and therefore deserve the death penalty. The soul who sins will die. But God tucked His commandments into HIS SON JESUS as the PROPITIATION for OUR SIN so that we could be brought back into RIGHT RELATIONSHIP with God!
It’s about LOVE…..💌
John 3:16: “For God so loved💖 the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.
1 John 5:3: For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome,💖
John 14:21: The one who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and the one who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will reveal Myself to him.”
As the new generation of Israelites prepared to cross into the Promised Land of Canaan, Moses was reminding them of the past, cautioning them not to repeat the mistakes of their fathers, and instructing them to Love and obey God! The land of Canaan is a foreshadowing of our Eternal Promised Land, the Kingdom of God.
We are at the end of the age. As Christ followers preparing to Cross into the Eternal Promised Land (Resurrection/Rapture) we need to remember those who have gone before us, be careful not to fall into idolatry and worldliness, and most importantly….be VERY THANKFUL for our (MESSIAH) Savior who made the IMPOSSIBLE…POSSIBLE. God’s LOVE for us SAVED us!
Think about how grateful you would be if you were drowning in a storm-tossed sea, and someone came and fished you up out of the raging waters and set you on dry ground. We’d be like “THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!! I thought I was a “gonner”! Whew!!! Likewise, we should be all the more grateful to the ONE who fished us up out of the sea of darkness, the sea that leads to ETERNAL DEATH…and placed our feet on a DRY ROCK. What should be our natural response?
Love oils the wheels of obedience and makes obedience a BLESSING and not a BURDEN.
