Deuteronomy 6:4-6 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.

This is of course the Shema, the foundation of Jewish faith. Jesus quoted it as “the greatest commandment,” (Matthew 22:36-38) so it is essential for every Christian as well. However, if we treat it as just a saying, a proverb, if you will, it loses its meaning. In English we lose a lot of the impact, because we just say Lord, instead of the covenant name of God. These days we also tend not to understand the significance of “The Lord is one.” It is a statement of absolute monotheism. Moslems latch onto this part of it, but they get His name wrong; it’s not Allah, it’s Yahweh. This is why devout Moslems, when posing for a picture or after making a goal in soccer or something of the sort, will often raise one index finger, indicating a unitary God. They accuse Christians of being polytheists, because they can’t understand the Trinity. However, God being God, He can be one and three at the same time! In this passage, we tend to focus on verses 4 and 5, but verse 6 is also of great importance. The verses to follow, through verse 9, are practical helps for fulfilling verse 6. If God’s Word isn’t in your heart, it doesn’t do you a lot of good. As James said, anything short of living it out is just deceiving yourself. (James 1:22)

When Japan describes itself as “the land of 8 million gods,” this can be a tough pill to swallow. We knew one man who was a good friend and who came frequently to church services, but he wanted to add just Jesus to his “god shelf,” and he eventually stopped attending because of that. His grandfather had been a Shinto priest, and the idea that those 8 million gods were false wasn’t something he could stomach. That was tragic, particularly since he died of a heart attack before he turned 60. Such things notwithstanding, I am never to back down from the claim of Christ: “No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) I was raised with the Shema as a given, so I’ve got to remember that the people around me generally have a completely different mindset. That in no way means I’m to give up trying to share the Gospel with them, but it does mean I’ve got to depend on God to give me the words that will break through the lies that bind them. I am never to stop inviting people to join the Israel of faith, to become children of Abraham by faith, children of God who will live with Him throughout eternity.

Father, thank You for this reminder. It is certainly a reminder of the size and difficulty of the task before me. Keep me from depending on myself, even for a moment. Help me rather listen to You and flow with Your Spirit at all times, so that I may be fully useful to You to accomplish Your will, for Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!