Why the Shema Is So Central to Understanding the Bible -- a study of Deuteronomy 6
- mww
- Oct 29
- 16 min read
All of this is for the good of God's children.
Bible Study Ideas and Commentary for Deuteronomy 6
In one of the most brilliant passages in human history, Moses summarizes everything he has learned from and about God. If the people would commit wholeheartedly to the Lord and the Lord's design for living -- and teach their children to do the same -- their families and their entire society will be blessed forever. And we also get to talk about Jesus . . .
Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. (6:5)
Getting Started: Things to Think About
Do You Have a Daily Prayer?
In this week's passage, we are going to read the Shema, a prayer that Jews have recited twice daily for thousands of years. Such repeated prayers are common in religions. Buddhists and Hindus have numerous mantras. Catholics have the Ave Maria and others. Muslims have numerous dhikirs. And while there have been complaints over the years about "mindless repetition" among those adherents, there have also been lots of testimonies of how those prayer practices have been helpful and encouraging.
So how about you, Christian? Do you have a go-to prayer? Where did it come from, how often do you pray it and why?
Over the last few weeks as we've studied the Mosaic Law, I've tried to show how Jewish law turns into freedom in Christ. As Christians, we have direct access to God in Christ, and we have God the Holy Spirit dwelling within us, something no other religion can claim (or even truly understand). We should have the richest prayer lives in the world. But is there a place for a "go-to prayer"? Under what circumstances and why?
What Do You Prioritize Teaching in Your Home?
The Shema is one of the most powerful passages in the Old Testament. David refers to it in every family dedication we have here. (Note: it's not a "baby dedication" -- it's a "family dedication"; the parents are the ones who decided to do this, not the children.) David challenges the parents to teach their children the truths of God and salvation found in the Bible, and he challenges the members of our church to help those parents do that.
Quite a few readers of this blog have been through such a dedication personally. You have stood before our congregation and said "We will" to David's challenges taken from this week's passage.
So, how are you doing with that?
And for every time you've sat in the congregation and said "We will" to David's challenge to us to help these parents raise their kids in the fear and admonition of the Lord, how are you doing with that?
Are you actively teaching the truths of God? Are you actively living out the character and behavior of a disciple of Jesus Christ?
And if you aren't, what are you going to do this week to get on track?
What Is Respect?
I don't remember if I've told this story. It's now been several months, but I was at a community listening session at a table with several people including a young mom. I used church as an illustration (natch) and the young woman mentioned how the older leaders of her church didn't listen to her suggestions and so she really didn't have any use for them anymore. Later in the session, the young woman complained about her teenage daughter who was always getting mad at her for not listening. And the mom said -- I kid you not -- "kids these days don't respect their elders; my daughter just needs to listen to me and realize that I have a better perspective on these things than she does."
This is a real thing that happened. And I think it's a great illustration of the tension in our culture related to "respect" -- one that I know all of you have felt.
Your topic would be something to the effect of "What is respect, and how is respect shown in our society?" And likewise, "What is disrespect, and how is disrespect shown in our society?"
[Note that this is a different discussion from "how is respect earned?"]
What are the positive and negative effects of respect and disrespect in a society? And then focus specifically on the effects in a church. I would love for you to throw in Paul's line to Timothy, "Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young," to clarify that respect should not only and automatically flow from younger to older.
In this week's passage, we could summarize God's statement to the Israelites as, "Out of respect for Me, My power, My perspective, and My demonstrated care for you, you should follow the rules I have carefully prepared for your society." My guess is that if people don't understand respect, they will miss God's very simple and clear (and logical) command.
Where We Are in Deuteronomy
We are in the "second speech" of Moses, and this is the part of the book that many of us probably think of when we hear "Deuteronomy" -- a big 'ol listing of God's laws (which is primarily in chapters 12-26).
Here's an outline for Deuteronomy 4-28:
The Importance of Obedience
Introduction (4:44-49)
The Ten Commandments (5:1-33)
The Shema (6:1-25)
Drive out the inhabitants (7:1-26)
Remember to obey (8:1-20)
Remember the failure of the golden calf (9:1-29)
Fear the Lord (10:1-22)
Obey the Lord (11:2-32)
What the Ten Commandments Look Like in Practice
I-III - proper worship (12:1-14:29)
IV - holy time (15:1-16:17)
V - respect for authority (16:18-18:22)
VI - human life (19:1-22:12)
VII - sexuality (22:13-23:14)
VIII - theft and society (23:15-24:7)
IX - justice and society (24:8-25:4)
X - covetousness (25:5-26:15)
Consequences: Blessings and Curses
Mount Ebal (27:1-26
Obedience and disobedience (28:1-68)
This outline shows that God did not intend Deuteronomy to be comprehensive but representative. These laws showed the world what a society built on the Ten Commandments looked like, and it was up to the people to internalize them and live by them. These specific laws are there as a starting point, as a crutch, and as a deterrent (because we have demonstrated throughout history that humans need those things).
When you re-read Deuteronomy, see if that outline helps you.
This Week's Big Idea: The Shema
The Shema is so important that the Bible Project has an entire 6-video series just on Deuteronomy 6:4. Each video is pretty short (and each video starts the same! it's not an internet error), and each one covers a key word in the passage:
Listen
LORD
Love
Heart
Soul
Strength
If we could come away from Bible study with a better grasp of these key concepts, I would consider this morning a big win.
Of course, I don't recommend showing 6 videos in your Bible study!
Instead, watch them ahead of time and write down two or three key things you learned. If members of your group do the same thing, you'll probably have a healthy and intelligent discussion about this amazing verse. For your convenience, here are the 6 videos.
Hear/Listen (obedience is embedded in the meaning)
LORD (Yahweh/Adonai)
Love (affection in action)
Heart (will and affection)
Soul (life and physical being)
Strength (not physical strength, but your "everything")
Part 1: Obedience Leads to Blessing (Deuteronomy 6:1-3)
This is the command—the statutes and ordinances—the Lord your God has commanded me to teach you, so that you may follow them in the land you are about to enter and possess. 2 Do this so that you may fear the Lord your God all the days of your life by keeping all his statutes and commands I am giving you, your son, and your grandson, and so that you may have a long life. 3 Listen, Israel, and be careful to follow them, so that you may prosper and multiply greatly, because the Lord, the God of your ancestors, has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey.
If there is anything I want us all to realize, it's that God is not some tyrant who gives arbitrary laws that ultimately serve him. The laws that God gave to His people was for their good.
The best parallel I can think of for Christians is salvation. There is only one way to be saved, and that's through trusting Jesus as Lord and Savior. When we share that "law" with others, it's because we desire their good. If they don't live by that "law" they go to hell when they die. There's nothing tyrannical in it; it's just the way the world works.
If the people would obey God's laws -- given for their good -- they would be blessed, and their children, and their grandchildren.
Isn't that what we want, for ourselves and our families?
By "statues and ordinances", Moses refers to the entire covenant -- all of the laws given on Sinai and reiterated here. This means it was all for the people's good. I like how Moses says it in chapter 10:
12 And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you except to fear the Lord your God by walking in all his ways, to love him, and to worship the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul? 13 Keep the Lord’s commands and statutes I am giving you today, for your own good. 14 The heavens, indeed the highest heavens, belong to the Lord your God, as does the earth and everything in it. 15 Yet the Lord had his heart set on your ancestors and loved them. He chose their descendants after them—he chose you out of all the peoples, as it is today. 16 Therefore, circumcise your hearts and don’t be stiff-necked any longer. 17 For the Lord your God is the God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, mighty, and awe-inspiring God, showing no partiality and taking no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the resident alien, giving him food and clothing. 19 You are also to love the resident alien, since you were resident aliens in the land of Egypt. 20 You are to fear the Lord your God and worship him. Remain faithful to him and take oaths in his name. 21 He is your praise and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awe-inspiring works your eyes have seen. 22 Your ancestors went down to Egypt, seventy people in all, and now the Lord your God has made you numerous, like the stars of the sky.
When you put it like that, can there be any argument?
[And yes, considering what happens in the next generation, there can somehow be an argument.]
The use of the word "fear" is basically the ultimate version of the word "respect" that I suggested above as a topic. If we can't respect the people around us, can we reasonably say that we respect God?
In my Sunday School class, when we were talking about how all of this connects with Christians (who are now not under law but under grace), we kept coming back to "The Greatest Commandment" in Matthew 22:
34 When the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees, they came together. 35 And one of them, an expert in the law, asked a question to test him: 36 “Teacher, which command in the law is the greatest?” 37 He said to him, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. 38 This is the greatest and most important command. 39 The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commands.”
We all immediately understood that we, as Christians, still have to obey this law, right? And so that makes Jesus' words our key to understand the place of Moses' laws in our lives. It all comes back to our relationship with God, our love for God, and our respect (fear) of God.
And that makes for an easy segue into the heart of this week's passage.
Part 2: Listen Means Obey (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
Listen, Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. 7 Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them be a symbol on your forehead. 9 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates.
For this, I'm going to assume that you watched the videos above. In other words, I'm not going to explain why "listen" = "hear" = "obey" in ancient Hebrew.
"The Lord is one" could mean
there is one God
the Lord alone is your God
the Lord is united (a subtle reference to the Trinity)
Or, the obvious conclusion is that God has such a mastery of our language that it means all of those things.
"Love" is affection in action; in this case, the people's "action" is their obedience to the covenant. The people demonstrated their love for God by obeying the covenant.
And if you have any problem with that, I'll remind you of Jesus' words in John 14:
If you love me, you will keep my commands. (14:15)
Obedience is at the heart of Christianity as it is of Judaism.
"Heart" in today's language means "emotions"; but in ancient Hebrew, it meant "mind" or "intellect". (Ancient Hebrew would use "loins" or "stomach" for emotions. Is there a sermon in that?)
"Soul" meant to the ancient Hebrews the "person"; they did not have strange arguments about the distinction between "soul" and "spirit" and "being". To them, your "soul" was who you are, thus "person" or "being".
The word translated "strength" doesn't actually mean "strength" in ancient Hebrew. It means "much" -- in other words, "everything about you". This is why Jesus used "mind and/or strength" in His versions of the Shema. The Greek language just didn't have an equivalent for the Hebrew word.
In summary, this means to love God with
what you think
who you are
what you do
In other words, your person and your personality.
Obviously, this still applies to Christians today.
David has explained many times what these verses suggest -- that we are to take every meaningful opportunity to talk about God's word and truth with our families. How do you do that in your family? (And this includes with your grown children and your grandchildren.)
Modern Jews have said that their practice of displaying phylacteries and mezuzah (see below) is a valuable, tangible reminder of their identity and their priorities.
For the sake of this next discussion, let's take that at face value -- that the visual reminders are truly helpful.
Do you put scripture up in your home? Maybe wall art? Or something you write on a bathroom mirror? Why do you do that, and does it help you?
I do believe it can be helpful. But I also know professing Christians with plenty of scripture on their walls who don't know any of it. It's as if -- for them -- the act of putting scripture on display is good enough. But is that true? What should be the point of putting scripture on the walls of your home?
I think that an outsider's perspective on these next Jewish practices should help us understand what God did and did not mean in this passage.
Aside: Phylacteries, Tefillin, and Mezuzot
I'm sure this will come up, so let's just go there.
At certain times of prayer and synagogue, Jewish men will wear boxes attached to their heads and their arms. These are called phylacteries or tefillin, and they contain tiny scrolls containing verses from Exodus and Deuteronomy.
And many Jewish houses have boxes attached to the front doorframe (or all doorframes) also containing tiny scrolls containing verses from Exodus and Deuteronomy.
These boxes are called mezuzah ("mezuzot" is the plural form). They can be just as important to a Jewish family as their tefillin. (This sweet story comes out of the Jewish communities affected by the Los Angeles wildfires: Mr. Herstein’s Mezuzot Project – The Milken Roar)
As I'm sure you have gathered, these boxes connect directly with verses 8 and 9. To those Jews, that is their literal obedience to those verses.
I'm also sure that most (all?) of you react with, "God didn't intend these verses to be taken literally; this is clearly figurative for "everywhere you go, God's Word should be with you"." And I would agree. And I think Moses would agree. Here's how he says it in a few chapters:
11:18 Imprint these words of mine on your hearts and minds, bind them as a sign on your hands, and let them be a symbol on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your city gates, 21 so that as long as the heavens are above the earth, your days and those of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors. 22 For if you carefully observe every one of these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the Lord your God, walk in all his ways, and remain faithful to him— 23 the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will drive out nations greater and stronger than you are.
And in fact, Jesus called out the Pharisees on their practice of this "obedience":
Matt 23:1 Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples: 2 “The scribes and the Pharisees are seated in the chair of Moses. 3 Therefore do whatever they tell you, and observe it. But don’t do what they do, because they don’t practice what they teach. 4 They tie up heavy loads that are hard to carry and put them on people’s shoulders, but they themselves aren’t willing to lift a finger to move them. 5 They do everything to be seen by others: They enlarge their phylacteries and lengthen their tassels. 6 They love the place of honor at banquets, the front seats in the synagogues, 7 greetings in the marketplaces, and to be called ‘Rabbi’ by people."
What do you think Jesus was specifically condemning the Pharisees for?
There's another level to this that also got the Jews in trouble, as this poster inadvertently explains (note the phrase about "magical amulet"):
What got the Jews into such trouble related to the Ark of the Covenant? They began to place their faith in the ark itself, the physical object, rather than the God who instructed them to build it. That is the very definition of the idolatry we talked about last week. Likewise, once people put their faith in these mezuzot themselves, believing they contain some kind of mystical power, it's idolatry.
Aside: What We Skip
Our study skips a few verses, ones that have generated some debate in the liberal world. Essentially, the Jews are going to live in a land where somebody else has built the cities, plowed the fields, and dug the irrigation ditches. They didn't even really have to do the work of occupation -- God did that on their behalf. Well, that does sound fair!
A few things about this.
One, it wasn't the Canaanite's land in the first place. It was God's, and God promised it to Abraham's descendants.
Two, haven't the Hebrews been slaves for centuries, doing that exact thing for the Egyptians? If it were their own land, would they have not have already done the work?
Three, and this is probably the most important, remember that the Promised Land is a symbol of salvation. Do we work for salvation? Of course not. It is entirely a gift of grace. Likewise, the Promised Land is entirely a gift of grace.
Part 3: Obedience Leads to Preservation (Deuteronomy 6:20-25)
20 “When your son asks you in the future, ‘What is the meaning of the decrees, statutes, and ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?’ 21 tell him, ‘We were slaves of Pharaoh in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a strong hand. 22 Before our eyes the Lord inflicted great and devastating signs and wonders on Egypt, on Pharaoh, and on all his household, 23 but he brought us from there in order to lead us in and give us the land that he swore to our ancestors. 24 The Lord commanded us to follow all these statutes and to fear the Lord our God for our prosperity always and for our preservation, as it is today. 25 Righteousness will be ours if we are careful to follow every one of these commands before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us.’
With all of that context, these final few verses should only make powerful sense. Did the Israelites do anything to earn their place in the Promised Land? Absolutely not. They were helpless and hopeless as slaves in Egypt. But in grace and mercy, God rescued them from their slavery and led them through the desert to a new, permanent home. Why? To honor a promise God made to Abraham, a promise that is quite independent of anything these Jews have done (thank goodness). In return, God gave the people a covenant -- a set of rules to live by that, if they do, will result in their families being blessed, their lives being fulfilling, and the world being drawn toward God.
(In this setting, "righteousness" refers to their right relationship with God.)
Here, we don't even have to look at their obedience as a test. The laws God gave are for their good! There's no "trust Me in this one" because it's increasingly clear the societal and personal benefits and blessings that come from living God's way. (That is, if you're willing to put the good of everyone on the same level as your own. And if you're willing to accept God's definition of "good" above your own selfish desires.)
What a testimony to their children. What a testimony to the world.
Now let's fast-forward to today.
Jesus explained that everything that happened in the Old Testament pointed ahead to Him. What did
slavery in Egypt
miraculous deliverance
the law at Sinai
entering the Promised Land
point to?
That's right -- to our slavery to sin, our miraculous deliverance, our transformed heart, and our salvation.
Do you share your personal testimony with your children? To others who are not Christians? Do you try to live out your testimony by living life as a follower of Jesus?
Let's end this week's session by talking about generations. History has shown that
the first generation of a movement is always fully committed because whatever event happened to them directly;
their children will be fairly engaged because they grew up in a home led by people personally connected to that movement;
their children (the grandchildren) start to become less engaged because they only get "inspired" when they spend time with their grandparents.
And that's what will happen with these early Jews. Joshua's generation will be zealous for God. But it won't be long at all before their children and grandchildren completely drift into paganism.
What's God's solution for that human tendency? For each generation to so intentionally and lovingly raise their children that their children desire to follow God for themselves. That's why God is so insistent about parents teaching their children what they have been taught.
Is that any different today? Do I need to spell out what this means to you as a church member or as a parent?
Let me be clear -- our children are independent. You cannot think for them, you cannot act for them (although some parents seem to think otherwise). They must make their own decisions how they will live their lives, and those decisions might have nothing to do with how you raised them.
That said, how are you doing with your children? Are you being intentional about teaching them the truths of the Bible? Are you living out your testimony in your home?
And if you don't have children in your home, what are you doing to support the parents in your church?
What a truly brilliant passage.
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