Eighty-Five Years Old

Joshua 14:9
So on that day Moses swore to me, 'The land on which your feet have walked will be your inheritance and that of your children forever, because you have followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.'

This follows up yesterday's verse. Caleb's reward was material, was land, was wealth. Also, he was given health, he notes: "So here I am today, eighty-five years old! I am still as strong today as the day Moses sent me out; I'm just as vigorous to go out to battle now as I was then."
Picture this tough old warrior, grizzled and leathery, no doubt, but sharp-eyed and full of wisdom from his years of following Yahweh wholeheartedly. God, please let that be me at 85, strong, vigorous, wholehearted for You.

Wholehearted

Joshua 14:8
but my brothers who went up with me made the hearts of the people melt with fear. I, however, followed the LORD my God wholeheartedly.

As I was reading Joshua in my daily Bible, I came across this verse, which did not come up in the word search. To be complete, I may go back and re-search (interesting, does 'research' mean to search again?) the books I've already been through. Maybe as I proceed I should search for heart, hearts, and wholehearted.
Because I like this, I think it goes along with the study. This was spoken by Caleb as they had come to the point of dividing the promised land among the tribes. He and some of the family (Judahites) went to Joshua, and he began his speech: You know what Yahweh said to Moses about you and me...
What a great lead-in. God had talked about Caleb to Moses. Of course, it was all good. Let my life be such that God can talk about me!
He recounts the incident that put him on the right side of history forever, how he went to explore the land and brought back a report 'according to my convictions.' Then follows verse 8. He and Joshua, brave and faithful, were outnumbered by the faint-hearted, with huge consequences for the nation. In spite of the numbers, Caleb never let his heart be divided. It belonged to God alone.

Joshua Heart

Joshua 22:5
But be very careful to keep the commandment and the law that Moses the servant of the LORD gave you: to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to obey his commands, to hold fast to him and to serve him with all your heart and all your soul."

With this we go to Joshua, and then quickly into Judges, Samuel, etc. This verse very much continues Deuteronomy, even calling on the name of Moses "the servant of the LORD", echoing Moses' theme that obedience was to be a heart matter, not merely motions. Joshua was Moses' protege, one of the great men of the Bible in his own right. Though he never attained servant of God or friend of God status as Moses did, he showed his heart when he argued for going into the promised land when they first arrived, and he had the heart to be Moses' successor as leader of the nation. He had a special name: it means Yahweh saves. They might have said it Yeshua. It is Jesus' Hebrew name.
He said this after the first wave of conquest was done, when he allowed the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and Manasseh to go to their territory, which was across the river from the rest of them. I like all these commands: to love, to walk, to obey, to hold fast to him and to serve with all your heart.
I was thinking about that at my break, asking God, how can I please you, what can I do to please you? I wish that somehow I could do it and have done, but it's not like that, it is done day by day and even hour by hour. Do it and redo it. From the heart.

The Words that are Life

Deuteronomy 32:46
he said to them, "Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law.

Moses gave to Israel a song to remind them of all God had done. Then he summed it up one last time in verse 46. "Take to heart all the words..." He adds that they are not just idle words--they are life. Those words should be taken into my secret thoughts, displacing the idle thoughts, negative musings, misplaced longings.

Turning Heart 2

Deuteronomy 30:17
But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them,

In that case, you will certainly be destroyed.
That's the word. No relativism here. No wiggle room.
God, please turn my heart toward you, always toward you. When I start to look toward amethyst necklaces and visits from kids and holiday feasts for my happiness, turn my heart right back to you. Help me to be a branch on the vine.

Heart Word

Deuteronomy 30:14
No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

Verse 11 says that the commands are not too difficult, or beyond our reach. The next verses go on to say that the Word isn't in heaven, or across the sea. No, it is in my heart.
That's cool, yet it takes away all the excuses. I don't have to search for some rare book, or pay to take a workshop, or follow some self-proclaimed guru. The Word is in my heart. My job is to obey it!

Turn

Deuteronomy 30:10
if you obey the LORD your God and keep his commands and decrees that are written in this Book of the Law and turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

What comes before this verse is: The LORD will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers...
I love how each of these heart verses from Deuteronomy has a slightly different aspect. This verse adds to keeping the commands turning to Yahweh with all the heart.
Turning is a physical image, ceasing to gaze on one view as I rotate my position to gaze the other way. It also brings to mind repentance, "turning away". I turn from a lesser god to the one true God, not just superficially, but all the way to my core. My secret thoughts no longer linger on false gods, they are devoted to the real God.
Then God delights in me. I would like that. Actually, that is the very thing I have been longing for, to feel delight coming my way.
God, please help me to turn with all my heart.

Pruned Heart

Deuteronomy 30:6
The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.

This comes a few verses after yesterday's, so it comes after the prophecy that God would bring Israel back to Israel, more numerous and prosperous than before. Moreover, God would circumcise their hearts, with the result that they can better love him with all their hearts.
I once heard a good radio preacher speak on circumcision, and I wish I could remember all he said. He analyzed circumcision as a ritual with spiritual meaning. I remember he said circumcision affected the root of creativity, or something to that effect.
Circumcision, I've witnessed a few of them, from my days assisting Dr. Dotson to sitting with baby Christian. In the olden days I believe it was done more in a religious setting, with a flint knife. The baby lies restrained, his most delicate external areas exposed, and a bit of skin is cut off. Interesting, the skin might be argued to have some function, and it can usually stay on without hurting anything, but it can be cut off. Not without hurting. It does hurt. Dr. Blair used novocaine, too humane to "do surgery without anesthetic," but that hurts in itself. The experience is frightening, if not terrifying. But it heals. Some say the private member is then more hygienic, less likely to spread certain diseases to the mate, even "more handsome." It is unmistakable in appearance, at any rate.
How does that apply to circumcision of the heart? If it were similar, you could say it hurts, and is upsetting, and it takes off something, like pruning the vine, something that might seem natural and even good.
You would have to say the heart--the innermost self, the core--is better off. It looks different, it has God's trademark on it. It is cleaner, less likely to harbor evil.
And it is enabled to love God wholly as it never could before.

Obedient Heart

Deuteronomy 30:2
and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today,

This follows yesterday's verse, about taking to heart the blessings and curses, and it is followed by:
then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you.
Elaboration of that follows, making it clear that God showed Moses Israel being scattered and then returned to that small, God-given bit of land.
Obedience from the heart, submission of the whole core to God's will and command, brings blessings unimaginable. The abundance and prosperity I seek! It is like the branch life Andrew Murray talks about in the intercessory prayer book. When I am abiding in Christ, as the branch in the vine, my prayers are answered, because I know how to pray.

Take It To Heart

Deuteronomy 30:1
When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come upon you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations,

The blessings and curses mentioned are from the previous chapters. There was no question they would come. Then the job of the Israelites was to take them to heart. No matter where they were--Poland, Russia, Ethiopia...
Skimming through this chapter, I find that the heart comes up again and again. But I would like to take them one at a time and not jump ahead. I want to take a few minutes to consider this idea, of taking the blessings and curses to heart. That is actually one way of looking at what I have been trying to do of late--to stop going through daily activities numbly, but to take into my heart the blessings and the curses, so that I can adjust my course accordingly.
I guess that has been one good in changing my job. Instead of going day to day to day, I've been stopped in my tracks and forced to pay attention. Now, of course, over two months in, I feel myself in danger of going on automatic again.
But I don't want to. I want to be alive and sensitive to blessings and curses alike.

Turning Heart

Deuteronomy 29:18
Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.

Moses is discussing the covenant God made with Israel. In the verse preceding this one, he reminds them of the gods of Egypt and Canaan, "detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold", and he cautions the whole community to supervise each other's worship. One individual's worship of false gods can poison the whole nation, so they all were to be vigilant.
The heart can turn from right to wrong. Jesus knew the fickleness of the human heart. I don't think there are any magic formulas to guard the heart. I believe it is done a day, an hour at a time. Check the secret thoughts and desires, read the Word, study it, offer the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving, learn from wise Christians, talk it over with God, repeat as necessary.

Despair

Deuteronomy 28:65
Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart.

The chapter begins by describing all the blessings that will come to Israel if they obey God's commands. Then begins a longer section detailing the bad things that will happen if they do not obey. The list of horrors begins with a list of curses that reverse all the blessings of the first part of the chapter. But then the terrors and calamities continue to pile up, eventually to extremes, the worst things one could imagine. The siege of Jerusalem, Auschwitz, all foretold...
This verse describes the emotional state of a people who plunged from God's favor to God's wrath: anxiety, weariness, longing...and a despairing heart.

Observant Heart

Deuteronomy 26:16
The LORD your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.

The chapter begins with the command to bring in firstfruits and tithes, with declarations to say as they are presented. There is this great 15th verse:
Look down from heaven, your holy dwelling place, and bless your people Israel...
Then comes the general command. Follow these decrees and laws...
In fact, carefully observe them with all your heart!
Among all the heart verses of Deuteronomy, I don't recall this exact command, to observe the decrees and laws with all the heart. When bringing the firstfruits, it is not a mere ritual to carry out, with the secret thoughts engaged elsewhere. I bring my heart along with the basket of grain and fruit. I worship God as I give Him what He owns anyway.

Monogamous Heart

Deuteronomy 17:17
He must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.

In this section, Moses prophetically gives instructions for the future king of Israel. This is interesting, because that day was far in the future, beyond many judges and many years of history. Maybe it wasn't so hard to predict, given that the other nations had kings, but Israel travelled around the desert for a generation, and established their land, all without a king. When they did demand a king, Samuel was hurt, taking it personally as a rejection of his leadership. In God's eyes, it was a rejection of His leadership.
But here in Deuteronomy, none of that had happened yet. Moses, however, sees it coming. First the kingship, then the trappings, the possessions that possess: the horses, the wives, silver and gold.
The wives, he foresaw, would lead the heart of the king astray. The heart that would be totally full of God, serving and loving God only, can't admit many women. One woman, one mate, reinforces the pure, singular heart, that is not divided in loyalty and love.

Generous Heart

Deuteronomy 15:10
Give generously to him and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to.

This chapter brings up financial matters. All debts to fellow Iraelites were to be cancelled every seven years.
God's plan was that there should be no poor, because they would all be blessed by obeying him. Yet, realistically, there would be poor. God's provision for them is that those who have will be openhanded. A lovely, descriptive word, contrasted with tightfisted and hardhearted (in verse 7).
This was for Israel, but I can't help but feel the same principle will work now. If I give with a generous heart, not a grudging one, God will bless me in all my work. In everything I put my hand to!
I want to give! I am stopped by nervousness that I won't have enough, and by hardheartedness. I rationalize. Instead, I need to be ready to serve and worship God in that way also.

Testing, Part 2

Deuteronomy 13:3
you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul.

That prophet or dreamer is one who announces a miraculous sign or wonder--and it comes true! Impressive! Who wouldn't listen?
But then the prophet follows up with a call to worship another god. It is a test. Don't listen! The words can be persuasive, especially if they are backed up with supernatural power.
What matters is the god in question. This kind of cool because the believer is expected to use her head, not giving in to mere experience. We are expected to know the God of the Bible and to recognize when it isn't Him.
I can do that if I love Him with all my heart, if my heart isn't fragmented, with large chunks obsessed with myself, smaller bits enthralled with money, emotion, vanity. Those idolatrous obsessions leave me vulnerable to other gods.
"Blessed are the pure of heart, for they shall see God."

Rain

Deuteronomy 11:13
So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today-to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul-

This is a reaffirmation of the theme of this chapter, begun in the first verse. It relates as well to the previous paragraph, in which is a very interesting description of the new land, Israel. It was not like Egypt, where they planted seeds and watered on foot "as in a vegetable garden." No, Israel would be a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. Isn't that a lovely cool description? Even better, it would be a land God cares for and watches continually.
Then comes verse 13. So...with this wonderful prospect before us, the wild, beautiful land that is God's special property, love and serve Yahweh with all of my heart and soul.
Verse 14 continues, then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. 15 I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.
This is quite a promise, most appropriate for Texas. The promise is rain! The promise is abundance of the necessities, food and wine.
My part is to love and serve with all my heart.

Heart of Egypt

Deuteronomy 11:3
the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country;

The eleventh chapter begins: Love the LORD your God...
Love Yahweh. That command has come up often in this book. That would be a study in itself, but I think it is a new motif for Deuteronomy, along with the heart. Seeing it over and over, in different contexts, I find more shape to it. It is not just words, a feeling to conjure. I love God the way I love other things or people, by taking steps to have Him in my life, by thinking about Him, by trying to please Him.
This chapter in a sense actually elaborates on the concept of loving God. The first verse continues with: keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands...
Then comes the sequence of which the heart verse is a part. Moses asks the people to remember that their children did not see the great exit from Egypt, with all its miracles, the acts of God that would define the Jewish nation from then until this very day.
This verse uses heart to mean the vital, inner or chief part of anything; the center; core. In the vital, chief part of Egypt, in its very core, God struck with swift, surgical power, taking from every parent his firstborn, while the Hebrews were protected by a swash of blood painted on their houses. The blood: a symbol primitve and profound, more than a symbol because an animal died to provide it, a symbol that pointed straight to the ultimate solution for the human problem: the blood of Jesus, the blood of God.

Servant Heart

Deuteronomy 10:12
And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask 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,

In chapter 10 of the second telling, Moses revisits the second set of Ten Commandments, the set God made because Moses had broken the first one when he lost his temper. Moses stayed on the mountain 40 days this time as well, and while he was there, God listened to him. The decision? "It was not his will to destroy you." (v.10)
This is good news, the kind of news we hear everyday if we are so blessed as to wake up in the morning, and go to sleep in our beds at night. "It was not his will to destroy you." Thank you, God.
The plan to give the Israelites their new land was reaffirmed, and then comes the 12th verse. What does Yahweh ask of you?
Fear Him.
Walk in all His ways.
Love Him.
Serve Yahweh with all your heart and all your soul.
At a quick reading, it appears like 6:5, where the directive is to love God. Love is in the list here, too. But the heart is involved in serving. All of the heart.
Serve God with all the secret thoughts. I like that. All my pondering, my daydreaming, my imagining and remembering should serve God. If they don't, I need to take those thoughts captive.