Shema: The Most Important Word in the Bible

“Did you hear what I said?” My wife, Christy, and I say these words a lot. We may be trying to get our boys to do any number of things.  The point is always the same: stop doing what you’re doing, listen to what I’m saying and obey it. This is the meaning of the Hebrew word, “shema.” It’s the most important word in the Bible. I’ll prove it to you in less than 10 minutes. 

As Jesus was nearing the end of His earthly ministry, He was asked a question by an expert in the Torah: “Rabbi, what is the greatest commandment?” (Matthew 22:6) Jesus answered: The foremost is ‘Hear, O Israel!  The LORD our God is one LORD!  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.’” (Mark 12:29-30) As is usually the case, Jesus’ answer to this question is much more significant than a casual reading of the text would indicate.  Jesus quotes the most sacred of all of the Hebrew Scriptures.

“Shema, Israel.  ADONAI Eloheinu ADONAI echad!

Hear, O Israel!  The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!  You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.  These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your sons 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 up.  Bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)

For 3,500 years, the Jewish people have taken these words very seriously.  For the most religious among them, these verses are the last words spoken at the end of the day and the first words spoken upon waking up.  We saw in our episodes about Tefillin and the Mezuzah how they literally apply these Scriptures.  To the Jewish people, the commandment to study and teach Torah is the foremost of the commandments; you can’t keep the commandments without studying the Torah.  

Moses Maimonides, one of the greatest Torah scholars of the Middle Ages, wrote in his code of Jewish law:

Every Jew is under an obligation to study Torah, whether he is poor or rich, in sound health or ailing, in the vigor of youth or very old and feeble. Even a man so poor that he is maintained by charity or goes begging from door to door, as also a man with a wife and children to support, are under the obligation to set aside a definite period during the day and night for the study of the Torah…Until what period in life ought one to study Torah? Until the day of one’s death.

Hear and Obey in the New Testament

This concept isn’t exclusive to Judaism.  James, the half-brother of Jesus and the leader of the first century Church in Jerusalem wrote:

But prove yourselves doers of the word, and not merely hearers who delude themselves.  For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks at his natural face in a mirror; for once he has looked at himself and gone away, he has immediately forgotten what kind of person he was. (James 1:22-24)

Jesus taught of the importance of not only hearing the Word of God, but obeying as well:

But He answered and said to them, “My mother and My brothers are these who hear the word of God and do it.” (Luke 8:21)

But He said, “On the contrary, blessed are those who hear the word of God and observe it.” (Luke 11:28)

The Sermon on the Mount

The most famous message Jesus ever preached, “The Sermon on the Mount,” climaxes with this truth.  It’s as if Jesus is trying desperately to get across His point that it isn’t enough to simply listen to His Words, but that we are to go deeper – to live them out.

There are two paths into eternity: a wide path and a narrow path. Most people are going to take the easy, wide path, but it will lead them into destruction.  Seek out and choose the narrow path that leads to life. (Matthew 7:13-14 paraphrased)

There will be many false teachers.  They will look good and say things you want to hear, but don’t trust them.  Look at what comes out of their teachings.  You’ll know the difference by the fruit of what they teach. (Matthew 7:15-20 paraphrased)

Many religious people are going to come to me at the judgment and tell me about all the religious activities they were a part of, but I won’t even know who they are. They’ve not lived out my Word. (Matthew 7:21-23 paraphrased)

Stop for a moment and think about the urgency of these words: a narrow path that few will find; false teachers who bear bad fruit; religious people being rejected because they don’t live according to God’s Word.  These are statements of the greatest importance. Which side of this do you want to be on?

Getting Serious

 Fortunately, Jesus ends His sermon by clearly teaching what He is expecting of us:

Therefore everyone who hears these words of Mine and acts on them, may be compared to a wise man who built his house on a rock.  And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and yet it did not fall, for it had been founded on the rock.

Everyone who hears these words of Mine and does not act on them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand.  The rains fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and slammed against that house; and it fell – and great was its fall. (Matthew 7:24-27)

Two kinds of people: wise and foolish.  Both have the words of Jesus.  Both hear what He has to say.  But one acts on them.  One obeys.  That person is wise. These people “shema.” So should we.