All ears perked up when Jesus was asked, “Of all the commandments, which is the most important?” Before giving the imperative to love God with all your heart, soul, mind and strength, Jesus prefaced it with a Hebrew creed from the book of Deuteronomy known as the Shema,
“Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.”
These words were recited every morning and evening my devout Jews. At that time in history, Israel was surrounded by polytheistic nations who created their own gods. The Shema means, “We are loyal to the God of Israel, who is God alone; there is no other God.”
With this introduction, Jesus was giving His allegiance to the God of Israel, and directing our love to this One true God. The significance here is that we are to embrace this God only, not any other god, nor even a god of our own making.
A visual representation of God is not only impossible, it’s prohibited. God chose to reveal himself through His Word.
To deviate from the revealed nature and character of the One true God, the God of Israel, is idolatry. To say, “the God I serve is love, mercy and compassion, but not a God of wrath and judgment”—this too is idolatry. And the attempt to have a relationship with the god of our own making is ludicrous because that god does not even exist, except in our own mind.
Can you see why many sincere people have not found intimacy with God? It’s because they’re determined to worship someone other than the One true God.
The accurate view of God is not my description of Him, but rather God’s description of Himself. In His Word, He tells us who He is, and what He is like. He carefully and meticulously included every single thing He wanted us to know about Him.
The One true God reveals Himself in the one true Book!
The Old Testament sets the foundation for our knowledge of God. If we ignore the Old Testament how can we get to know the God of Israel, the One Jesus pointed us to? And how can we love a God we do not know?
When choosing what to memorize next, don’t overlook the gems in the Old Testament.
A question our readers: which books and passages have you memorized from the Old Testament? Any favorites? Recommendations?
Jonah is my first Old Testament book to memorize. Not only is it an epic story packed with the action of a shipwreck, man overboard, whale swallowing man, evangelistic crusade through the NYC of the day, but it is a picture of Jonah’s struggle with the idol of his own heritage. In his mind, the Jews might be worth saving, but surely not those wicked Ninevites. But, in the belly of the whale his eyes are opened when he says “those who cling to worthless idols forfeit the grace that could be theirs”. Jonah is a small book but God’s presence in the story is huge!
I don’t qualify to answer this as I haven’t memorized any from the OT yet, but that’s not going to keep me from mentioning that the book of Ruth will probably be my first. It is so rich.
I have done Ruth and Esther and i recommend both. Besides Psalms I have also done Isaiah 53 and 55. This year I also did Deuteronomy 6.
I am still so new at this and there are so many NT books I would love to do. But after hearing my friend reciting Daniel, it made me look into the OT. Then after seeing Jonah at the Sight and Sound theater in Lancaster, I knew that was it. I am just wrapping up Jonah and what a beautiful picture of God’s redemption! “…yet You have brought up my life from the pit, O Lord, my God!” Jonah 2:6b
Deuteronomy 6 is on my list. I’ve done Isaiah 61, and Psalms: 1,5,19,23,27,33,100,103,121,139. I did The book of Ruth just this past year. Loved, loved, loved Ruth! So many illustrations of the Redeeming power of our Rescuer Who was to come. My fave passage of the whole book was Ruth 2:12, where Boaz, (dude of all dudes!) says,”The Lord repay you for what you have done, and a full reward be given you by the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to take refuge!” (ESV). This is the only book I’ve done in the ESV so far.
King David’s psalm of thanksgiving in I Chronicles 16 is good!
A great question. Thank you, Janet. I have memorized Ps 1, 119, 121, 130, 131, and am in chapter 1 of Genesis. And recommend all. I addressed Genesis in my comment to Helen, so I’ll deal with the psalms here. Ps 1 because it serves as a foundation to all the psalms, and as a foundation for true worship. See the depth at which a worshipper of our Lord aspires: “his delight is in the law of the LORD, and in His law he mediates day and night.” See the outcome of true worship: [the worshipper] shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water…” Hope to continue this in another post in a day or two.
Habakkuk; I memorized the first two chapters several years ago. When I finish Philippians, I will go back to it. My favorite Old testament book.