Many Hear, But Few Do

Deuteronomy 11:27–28, That you hearken … If you do not hearken. The Jewish sages point out that he phrase “that to hear [Heb. shema]” is a metaphor for blessing, while “to not hear [lo-shema]” is a metaphor for cursing (The ArtScroll Stone Edition Chumash, p. 999).

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Hearing and doing, in Hebraic thought and according to the meaning of the Hebrew word shema, are synonymous. If one hears, but does not do what he has heard, then he has not heard. Hearing, Hebraically, is more than an auditory function, but involves the activation of the heart resulting in corresponding actions resulting in either blessing (if one hears and obeys YHVH’s Word) or curses (if one does not hear and obey YHVH’s Word).

Scripture prophesies that in the future a problem would arise among the people of YHVH. The problem would not be a famine of food and water, but of the ability to hear (shema) and to do the Word of Elohim (Amos 8:11). Likewise, Isaiah prophesied that there would be those who would say (or “draw near with their mouths”), but who would not do (“but their hearts are far from me,” Isa 29:13). Yeshua accused the religious hypocrites of his day of doing the same thing (Matt 15:8–9).

Examine your words and corresponding actions. Do they perfectly align, or do you stand convicted before YHVH of disobedience and ­hypocrisy?

 

 

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