#DailyDevotion Listen Israel! YHWY Is One YHWH, Father, Son & Holy Spirit.

Deuteronomy 6:4-9

⁴“Listen, Israel: the LORD our God is one LORD. ⁵Love the LORD your God with all your mind, all your heart, and all your strength. ⁶The instructions I give you today write in your mind; ⁷impress their meaning on your children; talk about them when you sit at home, walk along the road, lie down, and get up. ⁸Bind them on your arm to remind you; wear them as bands on your forehead; ⁹write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

Here is the great Shema of Israel and now Judaism today. Shema means listen. Shema is one of three important things; the other two are keep and do. The first thing we want to notice is the LORD proclaims the LORD our God is one LORD. Now one of the things you may often hear about the one here is that it is revelatory of the Trinity-Three In One. It is achad which can have the meaning of a unity. In the Athanasian Creed we express it thus, the Father is LORD, the Son is L0RD and the Holy Spirit is LORD and there is only one LORD not three LORDs. The Shema is the great monotheistic(one God) creed.

We note here that before we get to the ten words (commandments) we have the greatest commandment according to Jesus, “Love the LORD your God with all your mind, all your heart, and all your strength.” I believe Jesus adds to that in one place “soul” as well. It all means the same thing. All other commandments given rely on these two things YHWH, the LORD is the only God and we are to love him with all we are and have. So James tells us in ch. 2, “¹⁰If you keep the whole Law but fail in one point, you’re guilty of breaking all of it.” It is a cohesive whole because it is a transgression against the achad of the LORD when you break one of the commandments.

For the world now, since the ascension of Jesus Christ the LORD to the right hand of God we keep this commandment when we have faith in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins and our salvation. Jesus tells us in John 6, ²⁹“What God wants you to do,” Jesus answered them, “is to believe in Him Whom He sent.” In John 3 he writes, “²³He orders us to believe in the name of His Son Jesus Christ and to love one another as He has ordered us to do.” This is the revealed Shema of the New Covenant Jesus cut with the world by shedding his blood on the cross for the sin of the world.

Now Israel was to write in their minds and impress upon their children these instruction of the Torah, talking about them when they sat at home, walking on the road, lying down, and getting up. They were to nail them to their doorpost and wrap them on their hand and forehead. You can still see this with many Jewish households, especially when they engage in prayer. We as Christians should do no less. Fathers and mothers should talk regularly about what Jesus Christ the LORD did for us, is doing for us and will do for us. We should talk about the life he calls us to live. We often see many plaques and posters in Christian homes with God’s Word on them. This is a good thing. We would be better off if we did it all the more. Thanks be to God he sends us the Holy Spirit LORD into our hearts that we can make a beginning of it and Listen to Christ, Keep his Word, and Do what he commands us to believe and do.

Heavenly Father, give us your Holy Spirit that we may listen, believe and do all you command us so we may glorify you, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, one LORD. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.