Continuing with my daily foray in to the Torah, we come to Deuteronomy 4:1 which reads as follows: “Now therefore hearken, O Israel, unto the statutes and unto the judgments, which I teach you, for to do them, that ye may live, and go in and possess the land which the LORD God of your fathers giveth you.” (Deu 4:1 KJV)
Since coming in to the truth Faith once delivered, which I associate directly with being a Messianic believer and with the Hebraic Roots community, I see clearly why we differ from Christianity and Christians. I submit to you that the key to understanding the differences between our two faiths can be seen in the first half of this above cited verse–“Now therefore hearken…unto the statutes and unto the judgments which I teach you, for to do them…” We, the Netzereme; the Torah Observing–Messianic Believers of Yeshua, the Hebraic Roots community, have discovered the meaning of “hearken,” or in today’s modern translation, “listen’ as it relates to our profession and the living out of our Faith. Indeed, there is a difference between the western-Christian concept of listening to the voice of Yehovah and the Messianic-Hebraic concept of listening or hearkening.
The term “hearken” as found in this passage translates in the Hebrew to “shama,” which means to (1) hear, (2) to listen, and (3) to obey. The term “shama” has it’s greatest notoriety from Deuteronomy 5:1 which reads, And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your ears this day, that ye may learn them, and keep, and do them. (Deu 5:1 KJV)
What is it that Israel was to “shama?” It is, according to the cited passage, the statutes (aka: laws) and judgments (rulings) of Yehovah. These statutes and judgments made up the entirety of the “Law.” The Law was taught by Moshe to the nation of Israel. Israel’s purpose was, as the commentator John Gill, D.D., notes in his Exposition of the Old Testament, “not bare hearing, but doing the law.” In other words, this was not a one-way agreement between Israel and Yehovah where Yehovah would simply do the work of providing, protecting and blessing the nation. Indeed, Israel was required, through her contractual agreement with Yehovah at the base of Mount Sinai when He spoke down His Words directly to the Children of Promise, to do all that He (i.e., Yehovah) had spoken to them to do. (Reference Exodus 19:8) We, the grafted in children of Israel (reference Rom. 11:17), are not off the hook, although our Christian cousins would vehemently beg to differ. Our cousins focus more on verse 19 of that same chapter of Romans where Shaul states, “So you will say, ‘branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in'” such that we perceive ourselves to have privilege over and above the Jew to such an extent that we have nothing in common with the Hebraic roots of the Faith. There is nothing in the writings of Shaul, nor in any other Apostolic writing to suggest that we, the redeemed of Yehovah, have no responsibility to “shama.” In fact, we of the true Faith once delivered, have the grace showered over us to “shama” in great style and fashion because we have the person of Yeshua HaMaschiach to show us how to live Torah in Spirit and in Truth.
Our cousins in Christianity and Catholicism, on the other hand, have taken the term “hearken” to mean, specifically, to listen–essentially a passive act of sitting down (or standing if there are no chairs in the room), and hearing what the speaker has to say. Typically what goes with this is the hearer or listener does not interrupt the speaker and gives the speaker his or her full attention. Once the message is delivered, the listerner’s responsibility is complete and both parties (i.e., the speaker and audience) go their separate ways. Generally, in the Christian Church of the last 2,000-years, there is no expectation for the attendees to “shama” the Torah. However, in certain Christian sects and denominations, the attendees are required to “shama” to the words of the speaker as he or she relates to the attendees the judgments and statutes of their denomination. Still other Christian sects have taken the biblical concept of grace and developed a pagan doctrine around it such that there is no “shama-ing” required by the congregates. In fact, these sects insist that one would be remiss by requiring any believer to “do” anything as it relates to their profession of faith and their eternal destiny, citing that salvation is achieved by grace and faith in the shed blood of Jesus Christ and that there is no need for Christians to do anything more…that is, one is guaranteed their salvation regardless whatever befalls them during this life. In other words, don’t worry about this life, you have a “get out of hell free card, now go and celebrate.”
Consequently, there is no biblical support for the Christian style of hearing or listening to the Word of God-which generally takes the shape of a nice Sunday sermon that makes you feel warm and fuzzy all over and you leave the venue with a much nicer perspective of the world and you in it than you had before you heard the sermon. The Creator’s worldview, which true believers should ascribe, contends that Yehovah is boss. Not only boss, Yehovah is THE BOSS. Being THE BOSS, Yehovah set sthe rules for everything having to do with living as a human being and being married to Him. Yes, our relationship with the Creator is likened unto a marriage which has definite rules around that relationship, if that marriage is to remain viable and vibrant. Furthermore, Yehovah, still THE BOSS, has spiritual requirements or rules governing the human-God relationship and those rules are imposed upon man. You see, Christianity got it wrong a long time ago: Yehovah did not stoop down to our level in order to establish a relationship with us. Doing so would require Him to compromise or even nullify His Holiness and He is not about to do that. He didn’t stoop to our level. He implemented a process whereby we–mankind–could be elevated to an acceptable level of righteousness and have a relationship with the Almighty. That process is simply repentance from our old way of life–turning from sin–and turning to Yehovah’s stipulated way of living. That way of living was practiced and perfectly demonstrated by His Son Yeshua HaMaschiach. The life that Yehovah’s son lived was fully Torah and we, Yeshua’s disciples, are required–that is if we love Him–to follow His commandments. (Reference John 14:15) Yeshua instructed that we are to love Yehovah with all our heart, mind and soul, as well as we are to love one another as we love ourselves. (Reference Matt. 22:38 & 39) So what does love of Yehovah and love for one another look like? Why of course, it is stipulated and codified in Torah. Certainly, without Torah as the defining method, your understanding and practice of love for both God and neighbor may be grossly different than mine. Of any word in use today, especially in Western culture, the word “love” has several meanings–ranging from the obscene and grand overt acts to simply a cognitive understanding that certain individuals in our lives are to have a special place on one’s heart. But everyone knows, all things aside, that love–be it love for God or love for a fellow human being–has associated with it actions. My wife will always demand that I not simply tell her I love her, but that I show her that I love her. This same principle can be applied to other areas of life. Love of a person is realized only through actions. No it’s not always in the giving of things such as gifts. In many circumstances it is simply being there for the individual who is in need of another; speaking kind words to a person who has experienced nothing but negativity in their lives of late; physically assisting one in need of assistance; providing a meal for the hungry or even praying for someone who is in dire straits. Again, there are many ways to demonstrate love. However, the gold-standard for believers to understand and exercise love is contained in Torah and in the teachings of Yeshua and His anointed apostles.
Regardless how we slice this one friends, when it comes to our relationship with Yehovah, we are required to “shama” unto His Torah (reference Deut. 4:1a). It is how we “shama” that separates us from those who would wrongly contend that they are a beloved of the Father. That being said, there is an art to listening; for by listening, or better, by “shama-ing” (especially to the Words of Yehovah), we make things happen in both the physical and spiritual world, and those worlds around us are forever changed and changed for the good.
Thus, our call to action, is to “shama.” May we be faithful to hear, listen and obey His Torah and teach others to do so as well. May you be most blessed, fellow saints in training. Shalom.