And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. (Deuteronomy 6:6)
In Jewish thinking, the statement above alludes to the notion that God’s Words are to be upon our heart just as certainly as His Words were inscribed by His finger upon the two tablets of stone. Interestingly, the two stone tablets Moses received from God were called, in Hebrew, luchot ha’edut – “the witness stones.” By receiving these words from God and consenting to follow them, they embarked upon their singular mission to be the oracles of God and be witnesses of Him to all the nations of the earth. Thus it is written: “You shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation” (Exodus 19:6).
Of course, we know that Israel was not always faithful to that call and, collectively speaking, their hearts became as hard as the stone God first used to write His commandments upon. In fact, before they entered the land of Canaan, God acknowledged that it wasn’t truly in their hearts to do these things but that, in time, they would turn their hearts away from Him and embracer other gods and philosophies. That being said, He promised that there would come a day when He would break the hardness of their hearts and write His words upon renewed hearts of flesh. Through Ezekiel He said, “I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh” (Ezekiel 36:26). Through Jeremiah He said, “I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts (Jeremiah 31:33).
We believe that, in Messiah, these prophecies begin to take shape. In other words, because we love Him, we obey Him and follow His example. Instead of hardening our hearts to His Word, we should embrace it gladly, including those times when His Word stings our flesh and calls upon our will to bow to His. But this is the path leads to life, following the example presented to us by the Messiah who, in the words of David said, “I delight to do Your will, O my God, and Your law is within my heart” (Psalm 40:8). So, may it always be that our will is to do His Will and may His Words always find a receptive heart in which to abide.
Blessings and Shalom,
Bill
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