Jewish Children and the Shema.

God places His identifiable stamp of approval on His people to distinguish the genuine from the counterfeit. In the days of ancient Israel, when the heathen nations around them were polytheists who worshiped multiple gods, Israel’s clear, identifiable, powerful statement of faith was found in Deuteronomy 6:4, also known as the Shema. Twice a day, in the morning and in the evening, Jewish families repeated: “ ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!’ ” (Deut. 6:4). Throughout the centuries of their exile, the chanting of the Shema reminded Jews of the spiritual vision and path that united them as a people. The chanting of the Shema also strengthened the people’s resolve to resist the various attempts to force them to abandon their spiritual vision and path.

Deuteronomy 6:4 was one of the first verses that a Jewish child in ancient Israel was taught as soon as he or she learned how to speak. In addition, Jewish mothers continually taught their young children to chant the Shema before going to sleep.

There is an amazing example of the power of this faith identity point that took place immediately after the Second World War ended in 1945. Some leading rabbis visited Christian orphanages in search of Jewish children. During the war, many Jewish parents in Europe had placed their children in Christian orphanages to save them from the Nazis. It was the hope of these parents that they would later be reunited with their children after the war. If they (the parents) did not survive, they hoped that surviving relatives or friends would find their children.

After the war, most of the priests and nuns who ran these orphanages were unwilling to release the Jewish children back into the custody of their families. The priests and nuns often denied that they had any Jewish children in residence. During one visit, a leading rabbi asked the priest in charge of an orphanage to allow him to return in the evening when the children were going to sleep. The priest reluctantly agreed to the rabbi’s request. When the rabbi returned, he entered the children’s room, and as he walked through the aisles of beds, he chanted the Hebrew words of the Shema. One by one, children burst into tears and cried out, “Mama!” Many repeated the words of the Shema. The priests were caught completely by surprise. They were unable to erase these children’s memories of their Jewish mothers putting them to bed every night with the Shema on their lips. The head priest had no choice but to admit that he was “mistaken”; thus, these lost children of Israel were able to return “home” to their people and to their Torah. Burned into the consciousness of these children, indelibly impressed upon their minds, were those words that confirmed their Jewish identity. “ ‘The Lord our God, the Lord is one!’ ” (Deut. 6:4).

Amidst the traumas of the final days of this world’s history God’s people will also have an indelible rallying point (our Shema.) Revelation 14:6-12 calls that message “the everlasting gospel.” It is the eternal good news of Christ’s life, death, resurrection, high priestly ministry, and soon return. It is the good news that Jesus saves us from our sin and empowers us to overcome. To understand the gospel is to grasp the significance of God’s undying, unfathomable, exhaustless love for us. The gospel begins in the heart of God. Before we have reached out to Him, He is reaching out to us. Before we ever sought Him, He was seeking us. Before we ever made one move toward Him, He was drawing us to Himself through the power of His love. The apostle John attests to this truth in these memorable words: “This is real love—not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” (1 John 4:10, NLT).

In the gospel, God, in Christ, takes the initiative in our salvation. Christ lived the perfect life we should have lived, died the death we should have died, draws us to Himself through the Holy Spirit, and, through His love, grace, and power, transforms our lives. Through the Cross, sin’s hold on our lives is broken. By receiving God’s grace, accepting His sacrifice, and believing His promise of eternal life, we become His sons and daughters. This is our Shema.

The end-time message is all about Jesus. It leads us to abandon all human pride and self – righteousness. It compels us to trust Jesus completely for our salvation. It leads us by faith to accept His righteousness in the place of our unrighteous behaviour. The perfection of Christ’s life is ours when we receive Him as our crucified Redeemer. The gospel invites us to come to Jesus just as we are, but it does not leave us there. In response to Jesus’ love, we will desire to live godly lives. His grace not only covers our past, but it also works as a dynamic principle in our lives, empowering us to obey. The apostle Paul makes this point clear in Romans 1:5: “Through Christ, God has given us the privilege… to tell Gentiles everywhere what God has done for them, so that they will believe and obey him, bringing glory to his name.” This is the incredibly good news of the gospel. When we are saved by His grace, charmed by His love, and changed by His power, our natural response is to share with others what Christ has done for us. Our Christian witness is the overflow of a heart filled with God’s love. When the gospel breaks our hard, sin-polluted hearts, we long to tell the story of His grace. Understanding the everlasting gospel is the very foundation of our witness (Shema) to the world. The gospel of Revelation 14:6 that is proclaimed to the ends of the earth is a gospel that each one of us has experienced personally in our own lives