HEBREW WORD STUDY – LISTEN, CONTEMPLATE, MEDITATE, OBEY – SHEMA שמע Shin Mem Ayin

Numbers 25:4: “And the LORD said unto Moses: ‘Take all the chiefs of the people, and hang them up unto the LORD in face of the sun, that the fierce anger of the LORD may turn away from Israel.’” JPS Tanakh 1917 (Jewish translation)

Numbers 25:4: “The LORD said to Moses, “Take all the leaders of these people, kill them and expose them in broad daylight before the LORD, so that the LORD’s fierce anger may turn away from Israel.’” New International Version (Christian number one best selling translation)

When the people sinned at Baal Peor God instructed Moses to take the heads of the people and to hang them up to God before the sun. The NIV says to kill them. In the Hebrew, the word for hang is hoqa’ from the root word yaqa’ which means to separate or dislocated as in dislocating the head from the body or separating a bone from it’s joint. It is the same word used when Jacob suffered a dislocated thigh. In other words, dislocated the neck bone from the body. Not only that but the context clearly calls for an execution. Despite the fact that many died from a plague sent because of this sin and one of the key leaders thumbed his nose at Moses and took a prostitute into his tent and was killed for doing this. The heads or leaders were not put to death as God commanded Moses. What Moses did was to gather the leaders together to “sit and judge the people.”You may say, “Moses, that is not what God said to do.” Moses would respond by saying: “I heard what God said and I heard what He meant.”

Let’s look at another example. Exodus 21:23-24: “And if [any] mischief follow, then thou shalt give life for life, (24) Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,” But then we find Jesus who was a follower of the law saying in Matthew 5:38-39: “Ye have heard that it hath been said, An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth: (39) But I say unto you, That ye resist not evil: but whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek, turn to him the other also.” Was Jesus modifying the law? Was he saying to wimp out and not defend yourself? Did we enter a new realm of the law or as some Christian like to say a new dispensation? Yet, Jewish teachers and sages long before Jesus walked the earth was saying the very same thing Jesus taught in the sermon on the mount. How dare the Jews modify the law. Jesus was God so He could do that. But does not Scripture say that God does not change in both the Old and New Testament? Numbers 23:19 and James 1:17.

The Talmud in Baba Kamma 83b-84a tells us that this law of an eye for an eye really means monetary compensation and that this is not a modification of the law but this is what the law always meant. But you say, that was not what the Bible says. True, but the Bible does says: “Shema” to listen, contemplate, meditate, and then obey.” Learn to be like David with a heart after or joined with God. What did God mean? Jesus whose heart was God’s heart was merely confirming this understanding of Jewish teaching and expounding on it by saying that God never intended for this to mean violence for violence but that we are to turn the other check not return violence for violence but to seek to compensate in some peaceful manner. Just turning the other check would indicate we just allow someone to hurt us and walk away. That in some respects is an easy way out, avoid a lot of trouble if someone starts something. But the person creating the offense must also answer for his offense, he must be called to account. Is that not justice? Do we not have a just God? But justice can be served if we seek a peaceful solution. God is only giving the worst case if all else fails. If every attempt at a peaceful solution results in no solution you will end up with an eye for an eye, let us hope it never comes to that.

Why does modern Judaism condemn slavery when the Torah condones it? Why does the law give there six capital offenses and yet modern Jews are against capital punishment? It is because of one word in their confession that they repeat every day: Deuteronomy 6:4: “Hear O’ Israel, the Lord our God is one.” They call it the shema after the keyword hear which means more than hear, it means to listen, contemplate, meditate, and obey. Listening, contemplating, and meditating are all the same word, shema. It is not talking about two forms of the root verb it is talking about one and the same word. To Christians reading this, obedience lies at one extreme and contemplation at the other being mutually exclusive. To the Jewish mind, they not only coexist but they are the very same word.

When Plato or Immanuel Kant speaks of authority they are talking of two completely different entities. The first is the higher and more powerful entity that needs to dominate the other to express its power. The other entity is the obedient entity, serving in order to gain a reward from the more powerful or to avoid punishment. Yet, each of these entities expresses a motive of selfishness.

Abraham challenged God about the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah – Genesis 18:28. He boldly argued with God, he challenged God because he and God were one entity one heart one mind. He boldly searched out God’s heart. The Jews believe they are one with God just as we who are believers in Jesus Christ believe that by His death on the cross we are made pure and holy to become one with God. If we become one with God, like Moses and Abraham, then we are not just blind obedient servants seeking a life in heaven or avoidance of hell, we are seeking the unity of mind. God gave us intelligence to debate God, to search out His heart. Moses searched out God’s heart in the command to hang the leaders of the tribes that sinned. Moses searched God’s heart which was joined with the heart of God and knew this is not what God really meant. He understood that this would be the last resort and God’s heart told Moses: “Moses I gave you a brain, use it so it does not come to this.” Moses revealed the compassionate Father who is also a Judge and King.

Shema does not call for blind obedience but for obedience after carefully contemplating the heart of God, meditating on the heart of God, and understanding God’s heart in a manner and seeing the love of God in each command. We have a bond with God, a sense of oneness, a profound emotion between the two of us. When someone asks me to pray for them I would say that I cannot pray for them for there is only one mediator, Jesus Christ. I would tell them that God does not allow intermediaries between ourselves and Him. Jesus is the only mediator. But you as my spiritual brother or sister you are hurting and because you are hurting as a member of your spiritual family I too am hurting and I will be praying for myself that God will heal your hurt so I will not hurt.

This idea of getting a hundred people to pray for you thinking that God will be persuaded by the number of people ganging up on Him is ridiculous to the logical mind. But if you are hurting, I am hurting then Jesus is hurting and by sharing your hurt with me you are turning my attention to God where it might not be turned if not for being aware of your hurt causing me to hurt. So, by the very nature of asking me to pray for you, you are really ministering to me because you are turning my attention to Jesus. You are doing God and me a favor by causing me to turn my attention to the Father. Your request for prayer is a uniting factor and God is all for unity. Paul describes that we are all part of one body. Romans 12:5: “So in Christ, we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others.” So, if you are just a little toe on the body and that little toe hurts, the whole body is going to hurt. We pray for one another not as a separate entity, but as part of an entire body that is suffering because one small part is hurting.

So it is with Moses when it appeared he did not do as God said to hang the leaders, He heard what God said, but to do so meant he himself would also suffer and hurt from their painful death and God being the head of the entire body would likewise suffer. But he shema, listened, contemplated and meditated on what he heard God say and realized what God meant was that it may just come to all these men being hanged resulting in everyone suffering. But God gave Moses a brain and an ability to meditate and contemplate a solution before it came to that.

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