ONE RAISED TO THE POWER OF ONE

On Friday, March 17, 2007 during a time of evening worship at home, I heard myself begin to cry out to the Lord,

You O Lord are ONE

And you are Lord over all!

It wasn’t my usual praise refrain, so when my prayer ended I began to wonder why the Holy Spirit had uttered those words.  Since every prophetic utterance has a foundation in the Scriptures I went to the Bible, and the passage that I searched for was one I didn’t know a whole lot about, but it was what was emblazoned on my mind.  I found it in Mark 12.

Hear O Israel

The Lord our God

The Lord is One

And you shall love the Lord God with all your heart

With all your soul

With all your mind

And with all your strength

Mark 12: 29-34 (NKJV).  As it happens, this text occurs at only one other place in the Scriptures, at Deuteronomy 6:4, where Moses spoke it as a prayer God dictated to the Children of Israel before they crossed over the Jordan River to possess the Promised Land.  In both occurrences in the Bible, the  second verse of this prayer sets a second priority: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. Mark 12: 34.

In the gospel of Mark, Jesus was repeating this same Hebrew prayer, which is called the Shema.  In my research, I’ve discovered that the Shema is the most important prayer in the Jewish faith.  In fact, strict observance requires that it be said twice per day.  Reciting of the first verse is viewed as accepting the yoke of the Kingship of God (in Hebrew, kabalat ol malchut shamayim).  The point is that our day and everything in it should begin and end with this prayer.  In fact, this prayer really is intended to align us, keep our continual focus on what our heart attitude should be like, and as we are changed, then reflect that heart attitude back to God.

Jesus was talking to a scribe at the time he quoted this prayer.  This scribe  was a learned man who had listened to Jesus debate the Sadducees and admired His responses.  So he decided to ask a question he really wanted answered, not just for debating purposes.   He asked Christ, Which is the greatest commandment of them all?  Now, this man well knew all the commandments.  He too knew the Shema and prayed it twice every day.   But still he asked the question.  There are many of us today who are learned, who have studied the Scriptures, sat in the temple and even discoursed with others on the Word of God but may still be missing a vital connection to the Heart of God.  This man who was a paragon of religious and intellectual knowledge asked Jesus what was the greatest commandment.  I believe that even though we might practice the mechanics and rituals of church life, it takes a different kind of understanding to know God’s priorities.

The Shema is really another form of the first commandment:  You shall have no other gods before Me.  Exodus 20:3.  The Shema prayer says, You O Lord are our God and you are only One.  You are not many,  You are not divided.  I believe this is actually our response to the first  commandment prayed back to God.  Why would God ask His people to recite this prayer often, and to teach it to their children?  He wanted them, as He wants us, to understand the YOKE OF KINGSHIP.  When He preached in Galilee, He said, Take My yoke upon you.   Matt. 11:29. It's our precious privilege to love God.  Loving Him will affect how we walk, talk and live, and the things we designate as most important.  It will affect how we treat others.  Show us Your Heart O Lord, and make our hearts as Yours!

Well, when I read this, I got to thinking about some "Holy Math."  You see, the prayer requires us to Love the Lord God with all our

1.Heart

2.Soul

3.Mind

4.Strength

The element of the whole human being that I see missing here is the spirit.  The 4 aspects of a human being that are mentioned relate to the heart, soul, mind and strength (referring to SOUL and FLESH).  Add the SPIRIT component, and these 5 total all the aspects of man.  I think  the Shema does not remind our spirit to love and obey God, because that already  is the human spirit’s natural disposition toward Him.  It is the other 4 elements of ourselves that cause us to stray.

Commentators say that the Shema is a verbal reminder of the Trinity of God, meaning that though he is Father, Son and Holy Spirit,  He is indeed One.  What happens when one multiplies itself?

1x1=1

The unity of One is maintained. One is a primary number that divides and multiplies everything, but itself cannot be divided to give another whole number.

Now, what happens when 5 is multiplied by 1?

5x1=5

The plurality is maintained.  The result will never be ONE. And if 5 is multiplied by 5, the result is even worse.  Do you see what I’m seeing?

I believe the call to us through the universal prayer dictated from the Heart of God is that we should submit the fragmentation of our members -- spirit heart, soul, mind and strength to His process for making one whole.  And that process, I believe, is to love Him first, and then to love our neighbor.  In practice that means hearing what He wants me to do and making that my first goal.  If He says I should write/ sing/ speak and share it with others, my first goal can’t be to get rich from it.  I can’t hoard or hide my resources from Him.  I can’t hate or criticize my neighbor (translation: friend, family member, pastor, boss, guy at the gas station, server in the restaurant) because they don’t meet my expectations for them.  

And what if the Body of Christ purposed itself to be one?  As Christians we often allow ourselves to be seduced by differences of opinion into trashing those of "like precious faith" as we are.  Or worse, we criticize how God moves in some, because He doesn't do the same in us.  Who are we to dictate how God should accomplish things?  Our finite minds do not know His measure.  God can move, speak and do anything He wants  - emphasis on what He wants, not what we think it ought to be.   Our testimony to the greatness and immeasurable breadth of God should be seen here first -- we cannot disparage our brothers because of how they respond to God or obey His call.

All these are big challenges.   Imagine being consistent in these areas even 50% of the time! 

In fact, Jesus prayed for us about our fragmentation:

Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word;

  That they all may be one; as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be one in Us: that the world may believe that Thou hast sent Me.

  And the glory which thou gavest Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as We are One:

  I in them, and Thou in me, that they may be made perfect in One; and that the world may know that Thou hast sent Me, and hast loved them, asThou hast loved Me.

John 17: 20-23.   I believe this prayer was not just against future division of the apostles and the brethren.  I  believe it was also a prayer against the fragmentation of ourselves as His children individually into spirit, soul and flesh, for those always tend to move in different directions.  And it was a prayer for our witness before those who do not yet know Jesus.  What a testimony we would have before those who watch us fight if we would begin to love each other with our words and actions.  What a breakthrough there would be in the Church.

The scribe to whom Jesus recited the Shema during their conversation experienced a breakthrough.  He said, Yes, to love God in this way, and to love your neighbor as yourself, is worth more than all the burnt offerings and sacrifices! We can perhaps understand what a great transformation had occurred in His thinking if we recall that the scribes were among those who were deeply embedded in the tradition and ritual of the Law.  Offerings and sacrifices were very important and great attention was paid to these -- with great reason because if they were done wrong someone might die.   Yet, here is one of the great legalists of that day saying offerings and sacrifices are worth nothing in comparison to the value of keeping the first and second commandments to LOVE!

Jesus recognized the opening of the scribe’s heart.  Based on the newfound wisdom in this man’s answer, Jesus told him, "You are not far from the Kingdom of God."  We can declare the Shema over our own lives and against the enemy.  Not literally, but in the attitude of our hearts before God.  In doing so, we will bring our fragmented selves back together, by application of the individual choice and the human will that God gave us.  We will bring ourselves back to one whole, walking in alignment with God’s Heart.  Then, when the awesome, eternal, omnipotent God multiplies us, the result will be

1  x  1  =  1. 

Holy Father, keep through Your own name those whom You have given me, that they may be One, as We are.   (John 17: 11).

Deanna