God makes it clear again that it's about our hearts, about wholly loving Him.
God, your God, will cut away the thick calluses on your heart...freeing you to love God, your God, with your whole heart and soul and live, really live. (30:6-7)But, it requires more than desire or willpower on our part, it requires cutting, surgery, and transplant.
I'll give you a new heart. I'll put a new spirit in you. I'll cut out your stone heart and replace it with a red-blooded, firm-muscled heart. Then you'll obey my statues and be careful to obey my commands. You'll be my people! I'll be your God! (Ezekiel 11:19-20, Msg)What is God cutting away from Israel's heart and my heart that is so bad? What is it that so offends Him? What keeps me from whole-heartedly loving Him?
"I told Israel they needed to cut away all the stubborn self-centeredness that covered their hearts so that they could love Me as I commanded....But they couldn't even do that. So I revealed for the first time My plan to do it for them. In Deuteronomy 30:6, I made it clear that I would change their hearts so they could love Me as I asked....They needed a changed heart, a circumcised heart where the thick cover of self-centeredness would be recognized, repented of, and cut off. They needed a new heart." (66LL, p. 20)So, they couldn't perform the surgery on their own hearts, just as I can't cut my own chest open and hope to live. It requires God's intervention, His mark that we are His Chosen.
The uncircumcised who keep God's ways are as good as the circumcised -- in fact, better....Don't you see: It's not the cut of a knife that makes a Jew. You become a Jew by who you are. It's the mark of God on your heart, not of a knife on your skin, that makes a Jew. (Romans 2:25-29, Msg)And how does God put His mark on my heart, how does He give me a new heart?
But they had not power to provide one [a new heart] for themselves. So I promised to give them one....Read Deuteronomy and realize that no one can please me unless I put the life of My Son, who always pleases Me, into their hearts. And that's what I promised to do. That's what I have done. I'm faithful to faithless people." {66 LL, p. 20)
God didn't abandon them. Do you think their faithlessness cancels out his faithfulness? Not on your life! (Romans 3:3-4, Msg)
Thank You God that my faithlessness does not cancel out Your Mark on my life, doesn't negate the new heart You have given me in Your Son. I am free to really love you and to really live.
4 comments:
I was amazed at today's reading, as I considered part of it from a ministry/service perspective. Here, the Israelites have Moses, their leader, sold out for and obedient to God. God meets with Moses and tells him, "you're about to die and be buried with your ancestors. You'll no sooner be in the grave than this people will be up and whoring after the foreign gods of this country that they are entering. They will abandon me and violate my Covenant that I've made with them." (31:16) That's a fun note to go out on.
I think of all the exhausting times of ministry when I'm ready to give up b/c "they're not getting it" or "they're not really committed" or the progress seems so slow and hardly worth my precious time. I wonder how Moses felt when God told him that His people would abandon Him and go whoring after other gods! I mean, if Moses can't lead 'em straight, who can??! If this were performance-based, as our society is, then Moses seemingly failed.
But then, I stop thinking with my flesh and the outcomes that seem unfair for such a great man. Ministry and serving is so not about me. Moses obeyed God step by step, and wholeheartedly. I obey the Lord by ministering to people. But He works on their hearts. In His time and in His way. And His ways are not our ways - they're higher than ours.
"Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up." (Gal 6:9) I guess I'll stick to the obedience and not giving up part and leave the peoples' responses up to God.
Love this, Staci! What an encouragement to remember that God has given us a new heart in Christ...we are new creations in Him, and His mark is a permanent one....no longer merely outward circumcision, but an eternal mark that He Himself put on our hearts.
I also love the idea of our God removing the "thick calluses" on my heart. Oh, how I wish I did not understand what thick calluses felt like...what a great word picture of a very real heart condition. Soft, tender hearts work so much better...
I thank God for His promise to continue to cut away at my ugly, hard heart until it resembles His own. "There has never been the slightest doubt in my mind that the God who started this great work in you would keep at it and bring it to a flourishing finish on the very day Christ Jesus appears." Philippian 1:6 MSG
Wow, what great points, Stacey. I love the ministry perspective. It's so easy to get frustrated, to want to give up on people, to want to give up myself when I don't see things happening like I want them to. I can't imagine being in Moses' shoes. I would've just wanted to throw in the towel and ask, "What was the point of all of this if my people aren't even going to listen?"
But Moses was called to be faithful, to follow God, and be obedient to his own calling. We are to do the same.
Let us not grow weary in doing good, even when it seems like the "good things" we are doing (whether it's praying for certain people, sharing the gospel or Scriptural truths with others, or even just taking a stand for our faith) - even when those things seem like they aren't producing fruit and are "pointless" - we are called to keep doing good, to keep serving our God and let Him do the rest.
Great thoughts, ladies!
In my reading of the passage I too was drawn to think about Why God would tell Moses, these people are going to blow it and blow it quickly they will soon begin whoring after other gods. How sad! Did Moses really need to hear this ? How painfully sad. He's seen them complain and gripe and fail over and over again, I'm certain that with their being on the edge of finally getting to move into the promised land, Moses might have been hopeful they had truly changed.
I even wondered if the next verse would reveal Moses yet again pleading to God on behalf of Israel to spare them of his wrath.
I can't see the purpose in it, but I know that God had a reason. Perhaps so that we today could also learn from it. I appreciate Stacey's comments in applying this to our own lives.
Post a Comment