Memory Verse: Mark 12:28-34

28 And one of the scribes came up and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, asked him, “Which commandment is the most important of all?” 29 Jesus answered, “The most important is, ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 30 And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” 32 And the scribe said to him, “You are right, Teacher. You have truly said that he is one, and there is no other besides him. 33 And to love him with all the heart and with all the understanding and with all the strength, and to love one’s neighbor as oneself, is much more than all whole burnt offerings and sacrifices.” 34 And when Jesus saw that he answered wisely, he said to him, “You are not far from the kingdom of God.” And after that no one dared to ask him any more questions.

Intro: When Jesus starts his response with “Hear O Israel”, he’s referencing back to the Shema - from Deuteronomy 6-4 - Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord is One and Only, Blessed Be his Glorious Sovereign Name for ever and ever. Jesus says this is His greatest commandment.  Like.. if you asked your child(ren) to clean a room.. and it wasn’t done.. they responded to you and said.. I heard you. What good is it if they heard you.. but didn’t DO it. So for us to say, we heard God.. but ignored his instructions.. that’s not good enough.

Assignment: What does God mean when he says HEAR.. he says it often.. if we don’t have an auditory reception of His voice. why is he saying HEAR.. what does it mean, what are we losing in translation? The word Shema doesn’t just mean Hear.. like what your ear receives.. it means more. Tell in your assignment what you think Shema means whether it’s active hearing or auditory hearing.  I’m very anxious to read your thoughts on this.  I hope you will all enjoy doing this assignment, as we are trying to dig deeper into the Word and have a better understanding of what the Bible really is about.

Wow! Interesting assignment.

I clicked right away to the handy Blue Letter Bible site and looked up Deuteronomy 6:4 in the Strong’s. The actual word from Deut.6:4 – “hear” is “shama” (strong’s number 8085) and the next one is “shema” (Strong’s number 8086)

It seems like they go together.

So here’s some of what I found from their definitions: (Bear with me, I just want to share all of this because it’s cool to see all together like this.

shama –

1) to hear, listen to, obey

a) (Qal)

1) to hear (perceive by ear)

2) to hear of or concerning

3) to hear (have power to hear)

4) to hear with attention or interest, listen to

5) to understand (language)

6) to hear (of judicial cases)

7) to listen, give heed

a) to consent, agree

b) to grant request

8) to listen to, yield to

9) to obey, be obedient

shema –

1) to hear

a) (P'al) to hear, have a sense of hearing

b) (Ithpael) to show oneself obedient

So both really focus on obedience. I could go into a whole word study on obedience too but I want to just stick to “hear” and since I get what is meant by obedience just from these definitions above I want to focus on that.

The Mark verses here are quoting from Deut.6:4 but it’s not just “Hear, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord.” Jesus quotes the whole thing. It is the beginning of:

30” And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 31 The second is this: ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ There is no other commandment greater than these.” “

Luke 10:27 also is a similar account and then Jesus goes on to tell the story of the Good Samaritan.

Ok, so I have all these things swirling around in my head, let me get it out here. I was thinking about how all this connects with the main question in this assignment “Is Shema active hearing or auditory hearing?”

I believe based on what I have seen from the Hebrew definition of the word that it is active hearing. It’s connected with obedience. And I believe that is what Jesus showed the questioners in both Mark and Luke too. Really he showed it in his life, in everything he did and said. He hears and obeys his Father and loves him with all his heart, soul, mind and strength and loves his neighbor as he loves himself.

Now, here’s the cool thing for us as believers…when we trusted Christ as Savior He came to live in us and He changed us. We are new creations and no longer disobedient ones. (2 Corinthians 5:17) Our life is totally in Christ. Because of this, HE can do all things in us. Not because we are great, but because of what Christ has done we are now made perfect IN HIM.

Because we are still tied to the earth in our body satan, through the power of sin tries to lie to us and get us to sin. He tries to get us to believe the opposite of what God thinks of us because of Jesus (His child, holy, blameless, etc.). But really because of Christ in us we can let go of trying to do everything on our own, believing whatever lie satan throws our way, beliving we are scum and don’t deserve anything…we can let go of all that and instead let Christ live through us and do what we are incapable of doing. He does it all! (Please note that I am talking about believers)

So where does “hear” and “obey” come in? I can HEAR God’s truth and OBEY by doing what he asked me to do and letting HIM live through me. I am then hearing, listening, obeying him and then he also is actively at work in me obeying the Father perfectly; loving God with all his heart, soul, mind and strength and perfectly loving others. And if it’s true of Jesus it’s true of me. If I am resting in Him and have stopped trying to do all this on my own then He’s doing it and He never does anything wrong.

I challenge you to think about this in reference to these verses below and see what God might want to show you.

John 15 – “I am the True Vine”

Romans chapters 6, 7 and 8 – We died in Christ, we are dead to sin (6), I sin but Jesus is the answer (7), There is no condemnation for those in Christ, the Spirit leads and lives in me (8).

Galatians 2 – I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me

 chapter 5 – Christ has really set us free, don’t do things to make God pleased with you, live by the Spirit’s power.

Ephesians – Who we are in Christ

Colossians 3 – you died when Christ died and your real life is hidden with Christ in God. Our brand new nature is continually being renewed as we learn more about Christ.

 These are just a few but there are so many more. Happy digging in the Word!