Deuteronomy 10 Devotional
by Pastor Lawrence

Reminding Israel once again of their rebellion at the foot of Mt. Sinai in worshipping the golden calf and of their many stubborn ways manifested throughout the forty years in the wilderness, Moses exhorts this new generation to fear the Lord, to walk in his ways, to love and serve him with all their heart by keeping his commands. Even though there are many laws that are given unto Israel, it is these overarching commands to fear God and to love him that are primary. Merely attempting to keep various laws of God and offering some sacrifice to God when one did not wasn’t what the Lord desired. From the beginning, the Lord has always prized a relationship with his redeemed people.

To emphasize this expectation, the Lord reminds Israel that he owns all of heaven and earth but specifically set his heart in love upon their fathers and upon them above all peoples. He wants them to know how special they are in His sight and how he yearns for them to draw near to Him in faith and love. He then appeals to them to circumcise the foreskin of their hearts that they would no longer walk in their own stubbornness but by faith in God’s promises. Circumcision of the flesh was always meant to point to a spiritual circumcision of the heart in the same way that the baptism of the flesh points to spiritual baptism of the soul. The water itself has no saving power. The act itself does not ensure that the recipient is right with God. It is always the softened heart and the soul that is in love with God that it is meant to point to. Therefore, if we find ourselves rather dull in spirit and stubborn in heart, it is the Spirit that convicts us to cry out for more of this type of faith and love when it senses that it is dreadfully lacking. But even when we don’t sense a special movement of the Spirit in our lives, the exhortation of the Word of God itself serves to shake us up to cast off our doubt and lethargy and to ask God to give us the Holy Spirit, for he promises to give this good gift to his children when we ask Him. And when we do and the Lord answers our prayers, He will become our praise, for them we shall love to serve Him, to hold fast to him and to speak in His name.