Note: the following is the manuscript for the message and will not match exactly the recorded message above.
Introduction
Have you ever heard the words, “You’re not listening!”? Perhaps your parents said it to you, or maybe your spouse. What does that mean? What does it mean to listen to someone? When you ask your child to do something, is it enough for them to just hear the words you’re saying? What do you expect from your child when you tell them something? Listening includes paying attention and responding. It means not only hearing the words, “Clean your room,” but responding in obedience and doing what is being asked.
In ancient Hebrew, this is what it meant to listen. In fact, when you read the words listen, hear, pay attention, or obey in the Old Testament, it is likely that they are all the same word. The word is shema. It occurs over 1100 times in the Old Testament. It means not only to hear but also to pay attention and respond with action.
In Genesis 26:4-6 we see the word shema in the context of obedience, as God is speaking to Isaac: I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and will give them all these lands, and through your offspring all nations on earth will be blessed, because Abraham obeyed me and did everything I required of him, keeping my commands, my decrees and my instructions.
But, this idea of listening attentively and responding is not limited to humans. In Exodus 3:7-8, we read God saying to Moses from the burning bush, ”The LORD said, “I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering. So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey.”
God heard the cry of the Israelites after hundreds of years of oppresive slavery, and he sent Moses to rescue them from Egypt. The people entered the wilderness around Mount Sinai where God gave them instructions on how to live as his holy people. And now, after 40 years of wilderness wandering, a new generation is ready to enter the promised land. Moses gathers them and delivers one final message. The entire book is basically Moses speaking to the Israelites at the border of the Promised Land.
Israel is positioned in the plains of Moab, ready to launch an attack across the Jordan River in response to the command of God to enter and occupy the promised land. But first, it was important that the people understand who they were, where they originated, and what their God intended for them in the years to come.
At the heart of Deuteronomy and this message today is the idea of shema. It is listening attentively and responding. Shema is a foundational element of the convenant relationship between God and his people. This idea is carried forward in the teachings of Jesus. At the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock.” Matthew 7:24.
Let’s look at Deuteronomy chapters 5-7, which tell about how Israel is to love God by listening to his commands.
Listen and Love
Deut. 5:1-4 – Moses summoned all Israel and said: Hear, Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them. The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb (mount Sinai). It was not with our ancestors that the LORD made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today. The LORD spoke to you face to face out of the fire on the mountain.
What follows is a retelling of the Ten Commandments, which are a summary of the entire law. Notice how Moses says that God made a convenant with them. He is emphasizing that this convenant is not something they inherited, but something that they entered into because God chose them. Their relationship with God is not a second-hand relationship through their parents.
Many of us would consider ourselves Christians by birth. We inherited our faith. I might think that I am a Christian just because my parents, grandparents, and the generations before them were Christians. Both Lynn and I have an unbroken Christian faith in our ancenstral line as far back as we have records. Does that mean my faith is merely inherited? Not at all. God called us because he wants to be in a relationship with us. Whether you are a first generation Christian or a tenth generation Christian.
At the border of the Promised Land, God is reminding the Israelites that they are indeed in a convenant with him, but this covenant is different than the one given to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. That covenant, which was first stated in Genesis 12, was an unconditional promise of land, descendants, and blessing. It is an eternal promise that will never be taken away. The existence of Israel is unconditional. But if they are to enjoy the blessing of God and be successful in accomplishing the purposes of God, they will need to be faithful and obedient to the covenant made at Sinai. It will require complete loyalty and obedience. But it will also come with trememendous blessing, if they remain loyal.
Shema and context: 6:1-9
These are the commands, decrees and laws the LORD your God directed me to teach you to observe in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the LORD your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you, and so that you may enjoy long life. Hear, Israel, and be careful to obey so that it may go well with you and that you may increase greatly in a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your ancestors, promised you. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
This text, specifically verse 4, is known as the Shema and is a foundational affirmation of faith within Judaism. Observant Jews recite the Shema twice each day because the text refers to speaking the Word of God when we rise and when we lie down. The Shema is often the first text that a Jewish child will memorize and the last thing Jewish people say before they die.
If the Ten Commandments are a summary of the entire law, the Shema stands as the heart or essence of the Ten Commandments and of the law. In Matthew 22:37–38, Jesus cites Deuteronomy 6:5, to love God with all your heart, soul, and strength, as the greatest of all the commands.
At the very centre of the law is the command to love God. If Israel is going to be faithful in keeping the covenant with God, they will love God and him alone as their God. They will be completely devoted to him by observing all the instructions in the law given to them through Moses, which is now being restated at the border of the Promised Land. We read more about this in chapter 7.
Exclusivity of Israel and God: 7:1-6
When the LORD your God brings you into the land you are entering to possess and drives out before you many nations—the Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites, seven nations larger and stronger than you—and when the LORD your God has delivered them over to you and you have defeated them, then you must destroy them totally. Make no treaty with them, and show them no mercy. Do not intermarry with them. Do not give your daughters to their sons or take their daughters for your sons, for they will turn your children away from following me to serve other gods, and the LORD’s anger will burn against you and will quickly destroy you. This is what you are to do to them: Break down their altars, smash their sacred stones, cut down their Asherah poles and burn their idols in the fire. For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. The LORD your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.
The nations that live in the land they are about to enter worship different gods. Yahweh, the God of Israel, wants them to completely eliminate any trace of those other gods, which includes the destruction of every place and item that is used int he worship of other gods.
There is a troubling statement at the end of verse 2. God says, “destroy them totally… show them no mercy.” The Israelites will not only need to destroy the places of worship, but also the people. Men, women, children. There is to be no chance of Israel becoming corrupted by the worship of other gods. This should be an unsettling idea. It is a reason many people have a hard time believing that the God of the Old Testament is the same as the God of the New Testament. It can be a reason that people reject Christianity altogether, or decide that what makes the most sense is there is no God at all.
I want to address this because for some of you, this is a real roadblock. For others, you may encounter people who say something like, “If God is good, why does he allow, or even command bad things to happen?” How can God be good, yet tell the Israelites to destroy the inhabitants of Canaan totally, to show them no mercy?
I want to respond to these questions with two suggestions. The first is, don’t try to find a definite or simple answer to the problem of violence. Easy and simple answers are not only going to be incomplete and unstable, but they will discredit your argument. A good approach is to agree that violence is a problem. It is a problem now and it was a problem in the conquest of the Promised Land. It is not helpful to try and explain it away, as though violence is justified as a means to an end.
My second suggestion is to consider the entire story and not get stuck on single verses or passages. This is true with all of Scripture. It is tempting and so often a practice for Christians to pull out verses in the Bible and base all of their faith or ethical convictions on a few verses. This is bad practice. When you read a passage that makes you uncomfortable, keep reading. Consider the entire story. God is not just a God who demands justice. He is a God who is rich in mercy and is slow to anger.
So, what do we do with the violence? The Israelites are about to commit genocide. This is troubling. Violence was never part of God’s plan for creation. In the very first message in this series, going all the way back to April, I mentioned that there are other stories of how the universe was created. Most, perhaps all, of those stories included violence. But, in Genesis we read a peaceful account of how God created everything. Violence came in when humans disobeyed God. They failed to listen to and obey God’s instruction.
The result is a broken world in which violence has become a means to getting things done. This is not the way God intended it. The Old Testament’s unwavering vision of the future is that of peace. This indicates that something in between the creation and the future eternal kingdom of God has gone terribly wrong. The time in between is marked by violence, but it was not originally so, neither is it to be so in the end. Ideally, the people of Canaan would stop worshipping the other gods and turn from their evil ways and submit themselves to the rule of Yahweh. But, this is not the case.
The commitment God makes to Israel will only work if Israel listens to his instruction and love him above all else as their one and only God. Living in a land filled with idol worship will corrupt Israel and ultimately put an end to God’s redemptive plan.
Blessings and Curses
Blessings: 28:1-6 – If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
Israel is to be a representation of God’s goodness and power. If they commit themselves to live in the way God is instructing them to live, they will be an accurate picture of how good life can be when ruled by Yahweh.
That word at the beginning of the passage translated as obey is shema. In fact, in the original text, it is stated twice and translated as fully obey, shema shema. God wants to bless them, but they cannot be blessed unless they fully obey and carefully follow his commands. This is not because God is a harsh taskmaster. It is because the true blessings that will bring goodness to this world can only be experienced through obedience and loyalty to God.
Violence, evil, destruction, poverty, all come because we rebel against God. We can read about this in verses 15-19 of chapter 28: However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
Rebellion against God turns all of the blessings on their head because the blessings cannot be experienced without God. He is the giver of good things. The problem is, we are terrible at being loyal to God. If eternal blessings depend on our ability to listen and obey and love God exclusively, we are doomed. We will be cursed, just as the Israelites were if you would keep reading the Old Testament. They will eventually be divided and conquered by their enemies.
But, because God is merciful and desires for all people to have access to his blessings, he made a way for his promises to be fulfilled. Let’s look at Hebrews chapter 1.
Connection to Hebrews
Hebrews begins this way: In the past God spoke to our ancestors through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom also he made the universe. The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.
This message today has been all about hearing and obeying God. Hebrews begins with God speaking. In the past, he spoke to the Israelites through Abraham, Jacob, Moses, and others. But, in these last days, he has spoken through Jesus. The implication of this powerful opening is that, if listening to God’s voice through Moses in the past was going to bring blessing, then listening to God’s voice through Jesus in the present is going to bring blessing.
As we come to the end of this series on the Pentateuch, we enter into a new series on Hebrews. The message is the same. God has a plan to restore all things back to the way they are meant to be. Complete peace and wholeness. The message in the Pentateuch is that the restoration would come through Israel entering into the Promised Land in order to live as his holy people. The message in Hebrews is that the restoration has now come through Jesus and we are invited to experience that restoration.
What are we to do? I’ll leave you with Hebrews 2:1 – We must pay the most careful attention, therefore, to what we have heard, so that we do not drift away. Pay attention. Shema. That is what we are to do. What is God saying to you? How are you failing to pay attention to him. Over the next 13 weeks, you will have opportunities to respond. Let’s pray.
Pentateuch Series Bibliography
Alexander, T. Desmond. From Paradise to the Promised Land: An Introduction to the Pentateuch. Fourth Edition. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2022.
Alter, Robert. The Five Books of Moses: A Translation with Commentary. New York: W.W. Norton, 2004.
Averbeck, Richard E. The Old Testament Law for the Life of the Church: Reading the Torah in the Light of Christ. Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic: An Imprint of InterVarsity Press, 2022.
Brueggemann, Walter. Preaching from the Old Testament. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2019.
Glanville, Mark. Freed to Be God’s Family: The Book of Exodus. Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2021.
Longman III, Tremper. Genesis. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2016.
Lynch, Matthew J. Flood and Fury: Old Testament Violence and the Shalom of God. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2023.
Provan, Iain, V. Philips Long, and Tremper Longman III. A Biblical History of Israel. Second Edition. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 2015.
Smith, James E. The Torah. 2nd ed. Old Testament Survey Series. Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co., 1993.
Walton, John H and J. Harvey Walton. The Lost World of the Torah: Law as Covenant and Wisdom in Ancient Context. Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2019.
Wenham, Gordon J. Numbers: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1981.