Deuteronomy 6: 4-9
Hear, O Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is One!
This is "the Great Shama," that every Israelite is to recite every day. Shama' is the first word of this verse, meaning, "to hear intelligently, to listen carefully to obey." Israel is to understand that our God is the only One Who is God, and is not any of the other gods that are worshiped among the other peoples.
And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.
God is to be so precious to His people that they are to love Him back with all they are: their emotions, their thinking processes, and their physical strength in all they do.
And these words that I am commanding you today shall be on your heart;
We are to consider His Law to be the best and most valuable and most useful and profitable system of living in this World, over every other lifestyle. If we do love God like we say we do, then we want to do what He tells us to do, we will want to please Him.
And you shall teach them diligently to your sons [and daughters] 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.
We are to teach our children continually how God's ways will bring the best good to us in our lives at every opportunity, from breakfast time through doing the daily chores and marketing to sitting at dinner and going to bed again. All day long, at home or away, whatever we're doing, in the company of whoever we are doing business with, and alone on the road or in the living room. Every part of every day relates to how God is good to us in showing us His ways to cooperate with how He designed this World to operate, and it will work well for us for our good as we apply it in our lives.
And you shall bind them as a sign on your hand and they shall be as frontals on your forehead.
This is like saying, "Tie a string around your finger," to be constantly reminded to apply God's system of Law to every part of every day life. To be aware of how practical God's ways are to our living every day.
And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
And make known to everyone who approaches your property and your dwelling that you follow God's ways.
God is God, there is no other, none other is anything like our God at all. He is our Maker, our Creator, Who designed everything to work in an orderly fashion, so that everything would progress in the most pleasant and fun way for us, who He loves more than we can imagine.
Do you have children? Do you want your children to live good lives? Lives that are pleasant, fulfilling, and fun? Do you want your children's lives to be meaningful and happy? Of course you do. And you would do whatever you think would help them to do that, won't you?
God has done the same for us. He has made this Earth for us, made us of it, and placed us here. Then He chose one family to give His rules for living to, and if they would follow it, then all the other families would see how wonderful it worked out for them and want to have wonderful lives too, and worship God, instead of all the false gods out there.
Now that Jesus has fulfilled over 400 of the "pictures" God gave us of Messiah, and His Death fulfilled all the sacrificial laws, His Resurrection guarantees a new life for each of us who belong to Him. Now His Holy Spirit of Truth lives in each of us to teach us His ways, and strengthen us to follow it.
And we are to teach our children every day how good God is and how good He is to us to show us how to live our lives every moment of every day. Then He will bless us with the consequences of our cooperating with how He designed it all to work.
And also teach them how Jesus is our Lamb of God, the sacrificial offering that was given for each of us individually to atone for our sins and our sinfulness that we were born into. God saves each of us individually, one by one, so that is how Jesus fulfilled that first sacrifice (in Leviticus chapter 1), to save us.
He also fulfilled the corporate sacrifice that the High Priest was to offer for the whole Nation each year on the Day of Atonement to purchase the whole Earth. That makes Him our Owner by both Creation and by purchase, which gives Him the authority to judge us.
So if you consider yourself one of many He died for, then you are still under judgment. We all deserve death, and when God calls you to Himself He will give you the gift of faith to believe that Jesus took Your place in death. That's His grace to us, His goodness that we don't deserve. But He considers us worth it.
That's how much God loves us; more extensively than we can ever imagine. No strings attached. It's all of God, for our benefit and His glory.
Even so, come. Lord Jesus!
