Now Hear This!

February 1, 2022
Midweek Study with Pastor Edith
Deuteronomy 6:4-9

Today is a very special day at our house. We have a birthday girl who is turning the ripe old age of 5. To celebrate this event I am planning to share homemade banana bread, chocolate milk and some very special bible time. (Actually, we do these same things every day, but today I will add “Happy Birthday” after enjoying each of these activities ).

Since you are sharing this day with us through this meditation, I will invite you to join us in reading the above - mentioned scripture which comes to us from a very special part of the old testament, or what I like to call the first testament, and what is known to our Jewish brethren as Torah (teaching of the Law): “Hear O Israel! The Lord our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. Take to heart these instructions with which I charge you this day. Impress them upon your children. Recite them when you stay at home and when you are away, when you lie down and when you get up. Bind them as a sign on your hand and let them serve as a symbol on your forehead; inscribe them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates” (Jewish Study Bible-Tanakh Translation-Jewish Publication Society).

When our granddaughter’s mother was young, I learned from another pastor the significance of this passage known as the Shema (“Hear”). He said that he believed this to be the most significant teaching in the bible for family faithfulness. So, I took it upon myself to memorize this passage and even to sing the Hebrew prayer inspired by it. Many a time my kids would roll their eyes and wonder why this often impatient and flawed mom of theirs would put them through this recital. I would remind them, that regardless of the way things were, good or bad, we were still blessed by God to be a family and as such I owed it to Him and to them to follow this instruction. So today, I invite you to join with me to develop a daily habit of reciting the commandments (not the 613 as some scholars believe are revealed in all of Torah: Genesis-Deuteronomy, but we’ll just work on the top 10 as listed in Exodus 20. You can find other renderings in Exodus 34 and Deuteronomy 5).

Using our 10 fingers, or simply counting 1-10, recite this simple version of the 10 commandments:

1 – Love God with all of yourself
2 – Don’t worship anything or anyone else
3 – Don’t use God’s name in a bad way
4 – Remember to spend one day every week as a holy day for God
5 – Respect your mommy and daddy
6 – Don’t murder (life is a precious gift from God)
7 – Be faithful to your husband or wife
8 – Don’t take what does not belong to you.
9 – Don’t say bad things about other people
10 – Don’t spend time wanting what other people have, be grateful for what you already have.

AMEN!