Jesus replied, “This is the most important: ‘Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One.Jesus answered, “The greatest is: ‘Hear, Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.And Jesus answered him, The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord:Jesus answered, The first is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God, the Lord is one:
4 sermons cite this verse
… So he's referencing the most fundamental or one of the most fundamental assertions in the Old Testament. The Shema from Deuteronomy 6, hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. It's called the Shema because that's the Hebrew word for hear. So that was absolutely foundational. That God is one, and there is only one God. And that was unique among all the peoples in the ancient Near East who had a great pantheon of gods and goddesses. They dared to say, no, there is only one God. His God is one, and he is the creator God over everything. He's not a tribal deity. He's not just a God of the mountains or the plains or the people of Israel. He is the God over all the nations. So that was their fundamental assertion. It's monotheists and believing in one God. Only one God, therefore, the God who created all things and before whom all people must bow, then that one God, the Jews must worship him and the Gentiles must worship him. …
The Jews' probably most famous command in the Bible is called the Shema, which means hear. Deuteronomy 6, Shema Israel, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. Then it says, and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, soul, strength. That is, you live according to what you hear. That's the idea. That's the idea. I'm going to give you another story from the Old Testament that some of you are familiar with. I hope all of you are, but there was a guy named Samuel who grew up in the tabernacle, you remember. When Samuel was just a little kid and his parents dropped him off to be raised by this priest named Eli, which is a big act of faith for a mom to do that, Samuel's a little kid and he goes to bed one night and he hears God speaking to him, but he didn't know it's God. He just hears a voice, Samuel. He wakes up, goes into Eli, the priest's bedroom, and he goes, what do you want? Here I am. …
… But the same word also, in fact, it's on the menorah in the foyer in Hebrew. The same word is, hear, or watch, that word is, hear now, O Israel, the Lord our God is one. It's the same word. Same meaning. Very powerful. By the way, that's Deuteronomy chapter 6, verses 4 and 5. When God says, when wisdom enters, well, listen. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart, with all of your soul, and with all of your strength. This is what's beautiful about wisdom and about loving God. It doesn't mean, okay, the Lord is one and you shall love the Lord. Do you understand me? God's not saying that. Because the Lord, because Yahweh is your God, love him. The one who is devoted to your salvation. The one who made you for a purpose. The one who cares about you. The one that you can run to. That's why we love the Psalms. …
… out of Deuteronomy. It was usually performed by a priest. He would raise his hands. He would face Jerusalem, and he would say, Shema Yisrael Adonai Eloheinu Adonai Echad. Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one, and the whole congregation would respond, Amen. Then the delegate would stand up, the person chosen to give exposition. The scripture would be read in Hebrew, then the interpreter would interpret it into Aramaic, then the delegate would launch into his sermon, his message for the day. At the end of the sermon, there was always a benediction given to the people by the priest, at which point they would all again say, Amen. Well, that liturgy created a dispassion. They became dispassionate, disconnected, detached, disinterested, because they always knew what was coming. It was sort of the same old, same old, same old, especially when the sermons were given by the typical rabbis, the typical scribes and Pharisees who gave these messages. Let me explain that. Scribes and Pharisees were slaves to quotation marks. They always loved to quote what the ancient rabbi said about this or about that. …