What God Truly Desires

Deuteronomy 10:12-13, 16

"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?"

In chapter 10, Moses speaks of the second set of stone tablets he received from God.

The first tablets had already been broken. When Moses came down from Mount Sinai carrying the word of God, he found the people bowing before a golden calf. In his fury, he hurled the tablets to the ground and shattered them.

That was not simply a matter of stone being broken. The covenant between God and Israel had been broken. The relationship had collapsed entirely.

And yet — God gives the tablets again. He makes the covenant again. He starts again.

And it is at this very point that God asks the question: "Israel, what is it that I require of you?" This is not the cold question of a lawgiver. It is the question of a God who has been betrayed, and yet reaches out his hand once more.

What is the answer? Fear me. Walk with me. Love me. Serve me. Obey me. It sounds like five things — but it is really one. Love me. That is all.

Then in verse 16, God goes deeper still. "Circumcise your heart, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer."

Circumcise your heart. Circumcision was the mark of Israel's covenant. But God is not asking for the circumcision of the body — he is asking for the circumcision of the heart. That hard, tough shell inside us — the stubbornness, the pride, the self-centredness — cut that away. That is what he means.

Then in chapter 11, God says to teach these words to your children. And when we reach chapter 12, we find this: "You shall not do as we are doing here today, everyone doing whatever is right in his own eyes."

That lands like a blade. How often do we live according to what seems right in our own eyes? Worshipping God on our own terms, conducting our faith on our own judgment, by our own standards and our own methods?

As we have been reading through Deuteronomy together, what becomes clear is that God repeats the same thing from beginning to end. Remember. Do not forget. Give me your whole heart.

Why does he say it so many times? Because we forget so easily. Israel did not make the golden calf because God was absent. They made it because, while God was out of sight, their hearts began to drift.

And we are no different. Even in the very place where we have received God's grace, our hearts are already beginning to turn elsewhere.

Beloved, this same question comes to us this morning. "Do you know what I require of you?"

Not flawless performance. Not impressive religious achievement. What God desires is a heart turned towards him — a life in which he holds the first place.

And there is a reason this is possible for us. Jesus, on the cross, tore open the hardened shell of our hearts in our place. By pouring out his Spirit, he has written God's law upon our hearts.

We are no longer people who keep the law out of fear. We are people who draw near in love.

So stand before this one question this morning. "Lord, am I still sitting on the throne of my own heart?"

Give that place to him. That is what God truly desires.

Amen.