Page 111 - Pentateuch

includes this incident of forgetting him (9:7) and the consequences to those who forgot (9:19-21). Moses
includes reference to similar incidents at Massah and Kadesh Barnea and to their basic rebellious nature
(9:22-24). The second set of stone tablets had been made. They were placed in the ark to be carried with
Israel everywhere (10:1-9), a portable reminder of God’s presence among them.

Finally, he calls this present generation to “fear the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, to love
him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to observe the LORD’s
commands and decrees (10:12-13).” He calls them to “circumcise” their hearts and “be stiff-necked no
longer” (10:16), all because of God’s love for them (10:15, 18) and his awesome power (10:17, 22). The call
becomes a drumbeat as Moses ends this address.

“Love the LORD your God and keep his requirements… (11:1).”
“Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today (v. 8).”
“So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you – to love the LORD (v. 13).”
“If you carefully observe the commandments I am giving you – to love the LORD (v. 22).”
“Be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today (v. 32).”

From our future standpoint, we know of Israel’s repeated failures. They were unable to keep God’s law or
treasure him. Once again, we are reminded of God’s design through the Old Covenant. The sinful human
heart responds to the law by producing more sin. These life-giving commandments brought death. The law
is, of course, good and perfect, but humans cannot follow it. God’s design in that day, as with us today, is to
push his people to his Son. “Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death? Jesus Christ, our
Lord. (Rom. 7:25).”

Perhaps the most tell-tale sentence in this section is the command, “Circumcise your hearts (10:16). The
initial point is clear. Obedience begins at the core of a person’s being. But how does one carry out such an
operation? The language is a metaphor, certainly, yet the metaphor is designed to communicate the
impossibility of the command. Can a person operating in the physical realm open his own chest cavity and
fix a problem with his heart? Impossible! Then how can a person operating in the spiritual realm change his
spiritual heart?

The call did not end with Moses. Jeremiah spoke to the people of his day just as forcefully. “Circumcise
yourselves to the LORD, circumcise your hearts, you people of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem, or my
wrath will flare up and burn like fire because of the evil you have done – burn with no one to quench it (Jer.
4:4).” History tells us of the predictable result in the day of Jeremiah as the nation was carried off to
Babylon for seventy years of captivity.

Not until Jesus ascended into heaven and sent the Holy Spirit to dwell in the hearts of all who would believe
in him could this command be obeyed. “In him [Christ] you were also circumcised with a circumcision not
performed by human hands. Your whole self, ruled by the flesh, was put off when you were circumcised by
Christ (Col. 2:11).” We might ponder God’s timing. Why did he wait for so many years and generations to
pass? (Check out Paul’s answer in Ephesians 1:8-10; 3:2-6; etc.) Yet our pondering should not diminish our
joy in his change in us, a change that Old Testament saints could only dream about and long for.

The second commandment (12:1-31) commands Israel to destroy all the places of worship already in
existence in the Promised Land. They are to “break down their altars, smash their sacred stones and burn
their Asherah poles in the fire; cut down the idols of their gods and wipe out their names from those places
(12:3). Idolatry could not be tolerated.

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