Audio – Visual
Then it shall come about, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that the Lord your God will keep with you His covenant and His lovingkindness which He swore to your forefathers. Deuteronomy 7:12 NASB
Listen – What does it take for you to believe God? Are you able to demonstrate faithfulness on the basis of His word alone, or do you need some additional visual confirmation? Are you one of those in the camp of “Say it, I’ll do it,” or are you more likely to be with those who operate on the “Show me, then I’ll believe you”? The difference between these two ways of understanding faith is as old as civilization, but it is most evident in the contrast between the Western Greek world and the Eastern Semitic world. Jonathan Sacks notes:
The twin foundations on which Western culture was built were ancient Greece and ancient Israel. They could not have been more different. Greece was a profoundly visual culture. It’s greatest achievements have to do with the eye, with seeing. It produced some of the greatest art, sculpture and architecture the world has ever seen. . . . Plato thought of knowledge as a kind of depth vision, seeing beneath the surface to the true form of things. This idea—that knowing is knowing is seeing—remains the dominant metaphor in the West even today.
Judaism offered a radical alternative. It is faith in a God we cannot see, a God who cannot be represented visually. . . . God communicates in sounds, not sights. He speaks. He commands. He calls. That is why the supreme religious act is Shema. When God speaks, we listen. When He commands, we try to obey.[1]
Sacks notes that shema “is fundamentally untranslatable into English since it means so many things.”[2] He explains that even though this may seem inconsequential, that is most definitely not the case. For Western thinkers after the Greeks, knowing involves detachment. The object is not the observer. The observer is apart from what is observed, one step removed from engagement and involvement. The world is viewed as if it were a stage play while you and I sit in the audience. This allows us to divorce ourselves from the action of the world. We can stand outside the scene and evaluate what we see, determining whether or not we will engage.
But this is impossible in a world of speaking and listening. The very fact of listening engages me. I am not apart from the action itself. In fact, if I am listening, I have already entered into a relationship with the speaker. The relationship does not exist apart from the dynamic of the mutual act of speaking and listening. God doesn’t deliver a written message that I read and evaluate as some letters on a page. He speaks to His children and they respond.
Let me ask the opening question a different way. “See” how you understand it now. Do you read the Bible as a written message requiring you to evaluate as a object or do you hear the words as they are spoken to you, involving you in the dialogue? Is your Bible a record of written history or is it a conversation between God, Israel and you?
What does shema mean now?
Topical Index: shema, Deuteronomy 7:12
[1] Jonathan Sacks, “The Spirituality of Listening,” Aish.com
[2] Ibid.
A NOTE TO THE COMMUNITY:
As you recall, Tim Serio recently asked for prayers concerning his wife, Brenda, who is battling cancer. He sent me the following:
What does shema mean now?
What it means to me is that I’m in a covenant, and that means it’s a MUTUAL endeavor. Not like a master commanding a servant but rather as a leader engaging those around him to the task at hand. If I step out of the covenant, I’m on my own, if I remain…all things are possible with God.
It Stands As Written
Real Life
With Liberty and Blessing for All
~ The grass withers and the flowers fade, but the word of our God stands forever ~ (Isaiah 40.8)
It is not “what did these words mean then, or what do they mean now,” – it is whatever the word was when it originally was spoken or given by YHWH, – it remains unchanged, unaltered, abiding forever. A rose forever will be a rose. Cultures may change and do change. The times (they are a-changing), places, circumstances, trends, fads, music, art, etc.. but the words God has spoken are “forever words.”
You and I will be dancing on this earth for a short while, but after we are less than a faded memory, the very same words God spoke “in the beginning,” will abide and will still speak (and remain true) for generations yet to come.
Our Bible is NOT “the book of the month,” – it is the “Book of the Ages,” – God’s blessing Book and our Him-Book, our Father’s Love Letter to His children.
Listen (yet again) to His words: “Comfort (encourage) one another with these words..” (1 Thessalonians 4.18) And listen (yet again) to the words of the Christ: “it is written!” Friends, this, (in the vernacular of the day), is “how we roll”.
Listen (yet again) to James, the half-brother of the Messiah, (and yes, “it is written” – lol), ~ Don’t just listen to God’s word. You must do what it says. Otherwise, you are only fooling yourselves. ~ (James 1.22) Another repetition of the command which was given: “Shema!” – to listen and then to do, -we (the members of the team) must execute the orders of the quarterback, we must “do what He says,”, not just be running amok out there on the field!
I hope I’m wrong, but I’m thinking I have fewer years left on this planet than I have already lived, and yes the few hairs I have left on my head are mostly gray. But, is this really true? 95% of men die from stubbornness?” (I do hope to be in the “minority” here!), for I truly believe “the quality of anyone’s life is directly proportional to the quality of the ‘listening ear!” And (self) please, do remember, – not just to “hear,” but “to do!!” Not just to “heed” (to listen intently) but far “more gooder!” — to “hearken” (listen and then “do!”)
The mother of our Savior said, (to the servants then, and to us now) “Whatever He says unto you, “do it!” There it is, kids.. (once again) “listen, and do.” They did as He requested and then..? They were the ones who then witnessed the water transformed into wine!!
Moms, dads, employers, doctors, city administrators, — what are the consequences of “shema?” Yep. Obedience = liberty and blessing for all.
~ And the words of the LORD are flawless, like silver purified in a crucible, like gold refined seven times ~
Well explained Carl. As the tree (man) stands so shall it fall in its deeds deeds shall follow. How short memories do we have of generational impact and how we through our own stubbornness make our generation’s works even less worthy than the previous… Mass production versus quality as we race through life to make our point instead of pacing through life to be salvation for ours concerns today. Being trapped in modern Egypt instead of living in the promised land… Anyone know were the promised land’s lifestyle is created… Other than hear good and do good become a life alchemist. Make every input serve Christ. Eph 2-4.
In the Mix
A “life alchemist.” Yes, indeed. People (all people everywhere) are tools God uses to accomplish His work on earth. Moses was a man, Isaiah, Peter, Mary, John, etc. We too, are “part of the program.”
Therefore (again as the scriptures instruct) “Let us not grow weary in well doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest, if we do not give up. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to the family of faith.”
One preacher’s pointed paraphrase, (or today’s todo list!) —
“Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.”
That would surely be hearing the spoken word first- beginning with Adam and Chawah, there was no written word then, but the VOICE of YHWH talking with them in the Garden.
Personally as well, I was not into reading the Bible first, I was a tiny child then, I heard ABBA’s Voice in my spirit, sensed His comforting presence around me, as I was growing up, in very distressful circumstances.
Got my first pocket Bible with my first pay-check. These days the number of Bibles I have is quite “beyond count”, over ten!
Each occasion I purchased a new version, I would say, this will be the last, but then another interesting translation, or Study Bible comes along, another one would join the rest on the shelf. It’s one disappointment after another, discovering each Bible has different erroneous/ incomplete translations.
It was the Oral Teachings that were passed down the generations to when they received the Torah at Mt. Sinai after they left Egypt, and were entrusted through memory.
Writing began with drawings, symbols long after.
Up to the present times, expressing thoughts into words can still be difficult.
Reading translations then is problematic, unless we are guided by YHWHs Spirit of truth.
Shema שׁמע is composed of shem ‘שׁמ’ reputation and ‘ע’ flesh. Hearing, seeing and walking are metaphors for being drawn without understanding, understanding, and living. You’ll notice that in last visit to the temple in Matthew he healed the blind and the lame. The deaf were not drawn to God and were not in the temple. Shema kind of hearing it being drawn to God and obeying him even when you don’t understand. Like sheep following the shepherd’s voice.