Visible Reminders Text: Deuteronomy 6: 4-9
4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. 6 “And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. 7 You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 8 You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 9 You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
These verses I just read to you are known as the ‘Shema’ in Hebrew this means to “hear!” Shema is the basic Jewish confession of faith. Also Numbers 15: 37-41, Deuteronomy 11: 13-21. The ‘Shema’ is recited twice daily by all devout Jews. Of course Jesus quoted Deuteronomy 6:5 and calls it “the first and great commandment!” God fearing Jews believe that the Spirit expresses itself in worship to God through the body, and these men will have visible reminders unto their God, but more so for themselves! (Just watch a man at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem.)
Vs.4-5 say’s again,” Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one! 5 You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.
The Egyptians wore jewels and trinkets on the forehead and arm to protect them from evil Spirits; however, God told His people as they fled Egypt to read, learn and apply God’s word or the Torah that in return He would remember them!
Illustration: Have ushers to hand out cut out verses to all in the congregation, and demonstrate how the Jews held on and confessed scripture!
Loving the Lord means, that He comes first. Loving the Lord means, you don’t forget Him. Loving the Lord means, you do nothing without Him!
Numbers 15:37-41 Again the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 38 “Speak to the children of Israel: Tell them to make tassels on the corners of their garments throughout their generations, and to put a blue thread in the tassels of the corners. 39 And you shall have the tassel, that you may look upon it and remember all the commandments of the LORD and do them, and that you may not follow the harlotry to which your own heart and your own eyes are inclined, 40 and that you may remember and do all My commandments, and be holy for your God. 41 I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, to be your God: I am the LORD your God.”
This is another ‘Shema’ Hebrew meaning to hear. God is telling Israel to remember! He even tells them to make tassels on the corner of their garment so they would have a visible sign to remember His commandments!
God makes a point to remind them that it was He that brought them out of Egypt!
God say’s for this generation to tell the next and so on.
‘Shema’ means to “hear!”
Deuteronomy 11:13-21‘And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15 And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.’ 16 Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, 17 lest the Lord’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you. 18 “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.
You might say to yourself “I am living under grace and Jesus Christ paid for me to be free!”
That’s true, but God still desires for you to grow in His word, and for you to have knowledge that you are blessed. Most of us are walking in God’s fullness, but many don’t even know it, and it’s because the cares of this world have placed such a weight on us!
If we will ‘Shema’ and even make ourselves visible reminders of God’s commands:
#1. We will be rewarded by God.
#2. Our children will be blessed!
#3. God will bring you out, and change your situation and season!
Sources:
NKJ
Our daily bread
Jamieson, Faussett, and Brown
Jack Hayford/ Spirit Filled Life Bible
