| CIRCUMCISED HEART |

For Your Good

Deuteronomy 10:12–13 is packed!

And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good?

Five verbs: fear, walk, love, serve, keep.

This is what the Lord requires. All of this flows from having their eyes fixed on the Lord and is for our their good. What an amazing thing that what the Lord requires of his people is what is for their own good.

This is the command of the Lord, who made and owns the heavens. This is the same Lord who has set his “heart in love” to fashion for himself a people. That he would be their God, and they would be his people.

Circumcise Your Heart

You may recall that circumcision was the mark of the covenant. It marked the men of the community as a sign that the whole of the community belonged to God. But circumcision is only an outward sign. The question is, are the people’s hearts marked so that they belong to God? Do their hearts take pleasure in being the people of God?

Lord and God

For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. – Deuteronomy 10:17

What powerful words! We cannot understand a single sentence of scripture if we do not first understand this verse. God of gods, Lord of lords, great, mighty, awesome. He is a helper and protector and rescuer and redeemer and savior. He is unlike any other king, master or lord. His rule is perfect and just. This is the LORD. He is God.

Everything that we read in these months together has as its foundation the fact that the Lord alone is God. And everything we read is also making the point that God is good. These two realities are the two most basic realities of the Gospel. We will see this most clearly when we read about Jesus in the Gospels. Jesus is the all-powerful God who gives his life to save his people. Jesus is the Lord, and the Lord is good.