Deuteronomy 10:12-16: What Does the Lord Require of Me?

I have said it before and I will say it again: if you feel like the Bible is dull, or if your personal devotion times have been dry lately, read Deuteronomy 1-12. I truly believe that these twelve chapters are some of the most heart-warming and beautiful chapters in all of scripture. If you need encouragement, read them. If you need conviction, read them. Just read them, and I promise that if you read them with an open heart that you will be amazed at the power of God's Word.

What does the Lord require of us? If just for a moment we break down all the specifics, ignore all of the legalities, and seek to look only at the core of the issue, what does the Lord require of us? What does Yahweh want from us? What does the Creator God desire out of our lives? What does God the Father require from us, his sons?

Moses clearly tells us in Deuteronomy 10:12-13:

"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?" Deut. 10:12-13

There are five simple actions that we find here, and they certainly all go together. What does the Lord want from us? He wants us to fear, walk, love, serve, and obey him (keep his commandments). Are there thousands of ways that each of those are worked out? Certainly. But at the heart of all of those other commands, both for us and the Israelites, there is one commandment of God: to fear, walk, love, serve, and obey him. If we do this, all of the others will certainly follow.

Remember how we spoke of in our last devotional about how our obedience is truly a heart problem? Well, Moses continues in his explanation of this here. A few verses later, Moses encourages the Israelites to "circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn." I'm not sure about you, but that sounds painful. But joking aside, it is painful, because the circumcision of our hearts means to have "cut off" all of the stubbornness, impurities, and uncleanliness that exists in our hearts. But why? Ultimately, because we will never fear, walk, love, serve, and obey God unless our heart is circumcised. We cannot love and obey the Lord unless the natural stubbornness of ourselves is removed from us.

Yet how is our heart circumcised? You ask. Well, I'm glad you asked that. Let us fast forward and observe Deuteronomy 30:6: "And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live." Here we find that it is not us who circumcise our own hearts, but rather God who circumcises our hearts. We cannot clear our hearts from our stubbornness, only God's power can do so. Yet he has promised to clear our hearts from his clutter if we ask him to. Praise the Lord! He has commanded us to fear, walk, love, serve, and obey him but also has provided a means by which we can do so. All glory be to him alone.

So, my dear friend, so you have a circumcised heart? Do you desire to fear, walk, love, serve, and obey the Lord, or is there some stubbornness in your heart that has to be cleansed before you do so? My brother, I encourage you to plea to God for him to circumcise your heart, that you might stand pure and blameless before him, even as you live and obey him with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength. Amen!