Key Verses: Deuteronomy 6:4, 6:5, 6:7
This chapter gives the Shema, the central confession of Israel’s faith: “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might.” Moses charges the people to keep these words on their hearts, to teach them diligently to their children — “when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise” — and to bind them as signs on hand and forehead and write them on their doorposts. He warns them not to forget the LORD when they are full and prosperous in the land, and not to put Him to the test as at Massah.
The Shema is the beating heart of Deuteronomy and of Israel’s faith. Its confession that “the LORD is one” grounds the demand for undivided love and loyalty: because there is one God, He must be loved with the whole self — heart, soul, and might, the total person. This love is not sentiment but covenant devotion expressed in obedience, and it is to saturate all of life and be handed on relentlessly to the next generation. Jesus quotes this as the greatest commandment (Mark 12:29-30), and He answers Satan’s temptations with its warnings — “you shall not put the Lord your God to the test” (6:16) and “him only shall you serve” (6:13) — showing the Shema to be the summary of what it means to belong to God.
Key Terms & Words:
- שְׁמַע (shema) - Deuteronomy 6:4 - “Hear”; the summons to attentive, obedient listening
- אֶחָד (echad) - Deuteronomy 6:4 - “One”; the LORD our God is one
- וְאָהַבְתָּ (ve’ahavta) - Deuteronomy 6:5 - “You shall love”; the command to love God wholly
Cross-References:
- Mark 12:29-30 - Jesus naming the Shema the greatest commandment
- Matthew 4:7, 10 - Jesus answering temptation with Deuteronomy 6:16 and 6:13
- Deuteronomy 6:6-9 - Teaching God’s words to the next generation
- Deuteronomy 8:11-18 - The warning not to forget God in prosperity
Discussion Questions:
- How does the oneness of God ground the command to love Him with the whole self?
- What does it look like to teach God’s words to children “when you sit... walk... lie down... rise”?
- Why is forgetting God in prosperity such a persistent danger, and how is it guarded against?