Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the LORD God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey. Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:  And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:

Israel’s Covenant Blessings

Israel’s blessings were dependent on the nation keeping and honoring the covenant with God they entered at Mt. Sinai.

Moses in vs 3-4 reminds them of this, he says,  “Listen to what I have told you, what God has given to you. Listen because "it is vital to your future, therefore, be careful, be diligent and do it, do what God has commanded. When you do this then it will be well with you and you will prosper mightily in the promised land.”

Then in vs. 4 Moses gives the “Shema” the title taken from the Hebrew word which means, “hear”. Then he gives the law, not in ten commandments or 600 precepts but in one revelation about Jehovah God.

The Shema, vs 4 “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD:”  This statement of God’s being is about His uniqueness. When Moses says, Jehovah our God is one.” He is saying, God who has revealed himself to us in our deliverance from Egypt, through the Red Sea and upon the Mountain of God, He is the only one, beside Him there is no other god or gods. The word “one” is the Hebrew word ’ehad and it means “compound unity.” The phrase one LORD means God has one name, Jehovah, the name He revealed to Moses at the burning bush.

“Jehovah, our Elohim, Jehovah is one.”

The Tree of Life version written by Messianic Jews stated it this way in Hebrew, “Shema Israel, ADONAI Eloheinu, ADONAI echad; or Hear O Israel, the Lord is our God, the Lord alone; - Messianic Jewish, Tree of Life Version, (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2015).

One translator wrote it this way and I thought it captured the idea well, “Jehovah stands alone and there are no others.”

The Shema is the orthodox Jewish confession of faith. This confession of faith is  recited each morning and evening by devout Jews all over the world, it affirms that, “Jehovah, our Elohim, Jehovah is one.” Among the orthodox Jews babies are required to memorize the Shema just as soon as they begin to speak.

Some try to find a contradiction in this verse with the Christian doctrine of the Trinity, that God is three persons in one God. But this word does not mean one in singularity but one in unity. The same word is used in Genesis 2 when God describe man and one becoming “one” flesh and in Exodus 26:6, 1111 to describe “unity” of the joined curtains in the tabernacle.

Moses, after telling the Hebrews who God is, tells them how they must respond to their God in vs. 5 “And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”

Jesus when asked about the greatest commandment answered in Matthew 22:37-40 “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. 38 This is the first and great commandment. 39 And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. 40 On these two commandments hang all the law and the prophets.”

Israel was to keep the covenant with God, but they could not and they did not. Even this condensed version of the Law. They worshipped other false God, denying the “Shema,” they did not love the Lord with all their heart, their soul and their might.”

Our New Covenant With God

We also entered into a covenant with God, not at Mt. Sinai, but at Mt. Calvary. Our covenant is not like the Mosaic Covenant. That covenant was conditional, our covenant, the New Covenant, the Covenant of Grace is unconditional. The Mosaic could and was broken, the New Covenant can never be broken. The reason is simple,

Paul stated it this way in Romans 8:3-4 For what the law (Mosaic covenant) could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, (the Hebrew’s strength) God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh: 4 That the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us.

Our covenant can’t be broken because we can do nothing to keep it. The covenant of Grace is between the Father, the Son and the Spirit and we enter into it by grace through faith.

Just as it says in Ephesians 2:8-9 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

We are covered in the New Covenant because of Jesus’s part in the covenant. His death opened the door of eternal life through faith in Him. We can’t lose our salvation because we can’t break the covenant. We can’t break the covenant because we are not one of the parties that agreed to it, but thank God we are provided eternal life through it.

And you, if you have taken God’s offer of grace through Jesus, His son, then you can keep what the Hebrews of the Old Testament couldn’t. You have God’s love in you through the Holy Spirit and you in that supernatural love of His, can “love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.”