«SHEMA IZ’RAEL» - LISTEN ISRAEL

LISTEN AND OBEY HIS COMMANDMENTS

1. Deut.4:1 Now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the judgments which I teach you to observe, that you may live, and go in and possess the land which YHWH Elohim of your fathers is giving you. Lev.20:8 And you shall keep My statutes and do them. I am YHWH Who sanctifies you. Lev.20:22 You shall therefore keep all My statutes and all My ordinances and do them, that the land where I am bringing you to dwell may not vomit you out as it did those before you. Deut.12:28 Be watchful and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and with your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of YHWH your Elohim. Deut.27:9 Take heed and listen, O Israel: This day you have become the people of YHWH your Elohim. Therefore you shall obey the voice of YHWH your Elohim, and observe His commandments and His statutes which I command you today.

Jam.1:22 Don’t deceive yourselves by only hearing what the word says, but do it! For whoever hears the Word but doesn’t do what it says is like someone who looks at his face in a mirror, who looks at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like. But if a person looks closely into the perfect Torah, which gives freedom, and continues, becoming not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work it requires, then he will be blessed in what he does.

Mtt.7:24 Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock.

TAKE CARE TO OBEY HIS COMMANDMENTS: TO YOU, YOUR SON AND YOUR SON’S SON

2. Deut.6:1 Now this is the commandment, and these are the statutes and judgments which YHWH your Elohim has commanded to teach you, that you may observe them in the land which you are crossing over to possess, that you may fear YHWH your Elohim, to keep all His statutes and His commandments which I command you, you and your son and your grandson, all the days of your life, and that your days may be prolonged. Therefore hear, O Israel, and be careful to observe it, that it may be well with you, and that you may multiply greatly as YHWH Elohim of your fathers has promised you a land flowing with milk and honey. Deut.12:1 These are the statutes and judgments which you shall be careful to observe in the land which YHWH Elohim of your fathers is giving you to possess, all the days that you live on the earth. Deut.5:1 Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you may learn them and be careful to observe them (take care to obey them).

Mtt.23:1 Then Yeshua addressed the crowds and his disciples: “The Torah-teachers and the Pharisees sit in the ‘Seat of Moshe’. So whatever they tell you, take care to do it. But don’t do what they do, because they talk but don’t act!”

YHWH ELOHIM IS ONE

3. Deut.6:4 Hear, O Israel: YHWH our Elohim, YHWH is one*! 

* ‘one’ – in Hebrew: אֶחָד (ekh-äd) – comes from the verb ‘to unite’. ‘Ekh-äd’ is the best translation with the word ‘unit’ or ‘once for all’, ‘full’; something that is part of the whole.

1Tim.2:5 For YHWH is one. And there is but one Mediator between YHWH and humanity, Yeshua the Messiah.  

Mk.12:29 Yeshia answered him, “The first of all the commandments is: “Hear, O Israel, YHWH our Elohim, YHWH is one.”

Mk.12:32 So the scribe said to Him, “Well said, Teacher. You have spoken the truth, for there is one YHWH, and there is no other but He.”

TO LOVE YHWH IS TO OBEY HIS COMMANDMENTS

4. Deut.6:5 You shall love YHWH your Elohim with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength. Deut.11:1 Therefore you shall love YHWH your Elohim, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. Deut.10:12 And now, Israel, all that YHWH your Elohim asks from you is to fear YHWH your Elohim, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve YHWH your Elohim with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of YHWH and His statutes which I command you today for your good.

1Jn.5:3 For loving YHWH means obeying his commands. Moreover, his commands are not burdensome.  

Jn.14:15 “If you love Me, keep My commandments.”

Jn.14:21 “He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me. And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and manifest Myself to him.”

Jn.15:10 If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandments and abide in His love.

“TO LAY UP” HIS COMMANDMENTS IN YOUR HEART

5. Deut.6:6 And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. Deut.11:18 Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul.

Prov.7:1 My son, keep my words. Lay up within you my commandments for use when needed and treasure them. Keep my commandments and live, and keep my Torah and teaching as the apple (the pupil) of your eye. Bind them on your fingers. Write them on the tablet of your heart.

Ps.37:30 The mouth of the righteous speaks wisdom, and his tongue talks of justice. The Torah of his YHWH is in his heart. None of his steps shall slide.

Ps.40:8 I delight to do Your will, O my YHWH, and Your Torah is within my heart.

Jer.31:33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says YHWH: “I will put My Torah in their minds, and write it on their hearts and I will be their YHWH, and they shall be My people.”  

Jer.32:40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.

Ezek.36:27 I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.

2Cor.3:3 You make it clear that you are a letter from the Messiah placed in our care, written not with ink but by the Spirit of the living YHWH, not on stone tablets but on human hearts.

TO REPEAT (MAKE THEM PENETRATE), TALK OF HIS COMMANDMENTS

6. Deut.6:7 You shall teach them diligently (to make them penetrate) 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. 

Josh.1:8 This Book of the Law (Torah) shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.

1Tim.4:16 Pay attention to yourself and to the Teaching (Torah), continue in it, for by so doing you will deliver both yourself and those who hear you.

ONE’S ATTITUDE TOWARDS HIS COMMANDS

7. Deut.6:8 And you shall bind them (instructions, precepts and Torah) as a sign upon your hand, and they shall be as frontlets (forehead bands) between your eyes. Deut.11:18 Therefore you shall lay up these My words in your minds and hearts and in your entire being, and bind them for a sign upon your hands and as forehead bands between your eyes.

The expression ‘for a sign upon your hands’ and ‘forehead bands between your eyes’ is a symbolic representation of an idea that a person’s actions are closely connected to his thoughts: commandments have to be bound upon one’s hands (a symbol of action) and on forehead bands between eyes (a symbol of thoughts). It is interesting to note that the mark of the beast will also be imprinted on the hand or on the forehead: Rev.13:16 He causes all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hand or on their foreheads.

Ps.1:1 Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful. But his delight is in the Torah of  YHWH, and in His Torah he meditates day and night.

Ps.119:15 I will meditate on your precepts and keep my eyes on your ways. I will find my delight in your regulations. I will not forget Your word.

Ps.119:97 How I love your Torah! I meditate on it all day!

Ps.119:99 I have more understanding than all my teachers, because I meditate on your instruction.

Ps.119:113 I hate doubleminded people, but I love your Torah.

Rom.7:22 For I delight in the Law (Torah) of YHWH according to the inward man (for in my inner self I completely agree with Torah of  YHWH).

8. Deut.6:9 You shall write them upon the doorposts* of your house and on your gates*.

* The doorposts and the gates: symbols of life inside one’s house and outside of it (outside the borders). 

Prov.7:2 Keep my commandments and live, and keep My Torah as the apple of your eye.