Prophetic Prayer-Shema: A Prophetic Lullaby
Many of the songs we learned in elementary or Sunday school or that our parents sang to us as infants, still ring in our memories even decades later. When faced with one of life’s most difficult questions, Christ sang a children’s lullaby.
As Jesus’ ministry continued to grow, and more and more people began to follow Him. The religious elite at the time, The Pharisees and Sadducees, tried to stumble Jesus with obscure religious questions that would divide the crowds into arguing factions and hopefully end His Ministry. Previously, the Pharisees asked whether the Imperial Tax should be paid to Caesar, while the Sadducees asked about marriage after the Resurrection.
When Jesus was again challenged by the teachers of the Law, asking what the greatest commandment was, they were laying down another desperate rhetorical trap, hoping to finally have an excuse to criticize and condemn Him. This mob consisted of some of the most highly educated and trained religious leaders in the Nation of Israel. They would have had the equivalent of a Doctorate in Theology or Law and their extensive education made them feel as though they should be the ones the crowds should be clamoring to hear from.
When Jesus finally answered their question, the audience would have been astonished to have heard the familiar tune that they all knew from their childhoods, pass from His lips.
The words were all the same, but some mother’s sang to their children with lovely sweet tender voices, while others were rough and raspy but still filled with love for their baby and the G3D who had blessed them with their little marvel.
Yisra’eil, Adonai Eloheinu, Adonai echad
The stanza was a command directed to all of Israel, but modern Followers should still head its Wisdom.
Shema Yisra’eil
Hear, O Israel
Somehow, hear doesn’t quite fit everything that is being said. It’s probably best translated as “Listen”. G3D doesn’t want us to just hear His Voice, He wants us to Listen and Obey.
Adonai Eloheinu
The Lord is our G3D
Though they were surrounded by pantheons of false foreign gods, they knew they belonged to the One True Living G3D. And if He was their G3D, it meant that they were His People and had the blessed opportunity to worship and praise Him.
Adonai echad
The Lord is One
Better understood as the “Lord alone”, meaning they were to serve G3D exclusively. Though the Romans worshiped not only their gods but also their emperors and government, G3D’s People instead were to serve Him exclusively.
Love the Lord Your G3D with all your Heart, Soul, Mind, & Strength.
The rest of Christ’s response was also possibly sung as well and is the focus of the Greatest Commandment. We are to love our Creator with every aspect of our being.
While the religious leaders of the day sought to try to make obeying G3D complex and complicated, so that the average worshiper was required to go through them to understand the Law, Jesus presented a different option. The Greatest Commandment was the very first prayer a Jewish child learned to recite and something that every member of the community would have already known by heart. This prophetic lullaby was simple and fundamental and was also the basis for hearing and serving G3D.
Incidentally, the Shema is the accidental basis for PMT’s motto. It is the inaugural Prayer children learned, its first word instructs reciters to Hear what is being said, and the closing lines explain how we can Obey our G3D through the many facets of our three part being.
Following Christ doesn’t need to be complicated. We say Pray, Hear, & Obey; It’s the Christian Way. For the audience who was watching Jesus being confronted by the religious leaders of His era, He put it in a way every man, woman, and child could understand: He sang the Shema, a prophetic children’s song.
To learn more about Prophetic Songs and Lullabies, check our our latest CPN podcast at the link below.
Prepared by, Kent Simpson, Apostolic Prophet & Eric Sepulveda, PMT Administrator
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Apostolic Prophet, Kent Simpson
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