Give Your Heart to God

PASSAGE FOR THE DAY:
Deuteronomy 10 (click the link)


KEY VERSES:
12 “Now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require from you, but tofear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and love Him, and to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, 13 and to keep the Lord’s commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today for your good? 14 Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the highest heavens, the earth and all that is in it. 15 Yet on your fathers did the Lord set His affection to love them, and He chose their descendants after them, even you above all peoples, as it is this day. 16 So circumciseyour heart, and stiffen your neck no longer. 17 For the Lord your God is the God of gods and the Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God who does not show partiality nor take a bribe. 18 He executes justice for the orphan and the widow, and shows His love for the alien by giving him food and clothing. 19 So show your love for the alien, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear the Lord your God; you shall serve Him and cling to Him, and you shall swear by His name. 21 He is your praise and He is your God, who has done these great and awesome things for you which your eyes have seen. 22 Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven. (Deuteronomy 10:12-22, NASB)


REFLECTIONS:
An overview of the book of Deuteronomy (provided in the NASB Study Bible) indicates that this book reflects Moses’ final acts of transferring leadership to Joshua and delivering his farewell addresses to prepare the Israelites for their entrance into Canaan.  Deuteronomy’s spiritual emphasis and its call to total commitment to the Lord in worship and obedience inspired references to its message throughout the rest of Scripture.

The context for today’s passages is one of Moses’ addresses reminding the Israelites of God’s love for their forefathers and EVEN for Moses’ present audience (I believe sarcasm may have been intended by Moses in this reference to “even you above all peoples”).  Then in Moses’ call for the Israelites’ obedience to God, he states the following: “So circumcise your heart and stiffen your neck no longer” (verse 16). Let’s break this sentence down to better understand the meaning of Moses’ instruction.  Beginning with the last part of the sentence, “stiffen your neck no longer.”  Moses used this “stiff-necked” terminology because God, Himself, had called the Israelites “stiff-necked” when He was speaking to Moses on Mount Horeb.  While Moses was spending 40 days fasting with God on Mount Horeb, receiving the tablets of the covenant, the Israelite men (who had already grown weary of awaiting Moses’ return) gathered gold earrings from their wives and children to create a god for themselves, a golden image of a calf. Meanwhile, God was fully aware of the sinfulness going on at the foot of the mountain and instructed Moses to go back down immediately to deal with their perversion.  The Mount Horeb conversation between Moses and God is recounted in Deuteronomy 9:12-14, but I prefer the more complete version presented in Exodus 32:7-14. Just imagine the Lord God Almighty saying the following sentences to Moses (verses 9-10)… 

“I have seen these people,” the Lord said to Moses, “and they are a stiff-necked people. Now leave me alone so that my anger may burn against them and that I may destroy them. Then I will make you into a great nation.” (NIV) 

How often do you suppose God has referred to you as “stiff-necked”?  I fear He has smoldered about my “stiff-necked” behavior more than once, but let’s not recount any of those transgressions here!  In case any of you need further help with the term “stiff-necked,” the notes I found for this term originated in reference to obstinate oxen or horses.  While I have no personal experience with oxen, I have certainly spent a fair amount of time pulling on the lead of an obstinate horse to know first-hand what "stiff-necked" means. =:-0

 

“So circumcise your heart…” is the first part of verse 16.  What is this about?  “Covenants in biblical times were often sealed by severing an animal, with the implication that the party who breaks the covenant will suffer a similar fate. In Hebrew, the verb meaning to seal a covenant translates literally as "to cut". It is presumed by Jewish scholars that the removal of the foreskin symbolically represents such a sealing of the covenant” (Mark Popovsky, Encyclopedia of Psychology and Religion).  Ok, so obviously Moses was not instructing the Israelites to cut flesh from their heart, instead Moses was instructing them to submit to God and give Him their whole being.  Moses repeats this same instruction more clearly in Deuteronomy 30:6—“Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.”

 

Our take-home message is as clear today as it must have been in roughly 1406 B.C.—Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and, oh by the way—STOP being so darned stubborn!  

 

 

PRAYER:

Heavenly Father, help us to repent from our obstinate sinfulness and willfulness to do things our way.  Please help us THIS MOMENT to come to You with clean hearts willing to submit to Your will for our lives. We ask this in Your glorious Son Jesus’ name.

 

 

WHO AM I?

I am Linda Stewart and while a number of my very own family members would possibly rate me quite high on the “stiff-necked” scale, I thought you would enjoy seeing the family member of the Stewart household who could give lessons on being “stiff-necked.”  This photo, however, does not depict TJ’s “stiff-necked” pose.