This week's scriptures: Deuteronomy 7:12-11:25; Isaiah 49:14-51:3; Hebrews 11:8-13; Romans 8:31-39.
Some of the biggest battles we will fight in this life, the most difficult trials we experience, and the most important victories we win, take place in the depths and the secrecy of our own hearts – often without anyone else knowing. No external suffering, no persecution, no difficult circumstance, possesses quite the same power to challenge our serving the Lord as the subtle rebellions of the heart.
Indeed, it is the state of our hearts that will determine our responses to these external pressures and ultimately the impacts they will have on our lives – more than the other way around.
Stumbling Blocks
As Israel were poised to enter the Promised Land (finally!) after 40 years of wandering in the desert, Moses was keen to stress the great plans God had in store for them. Abundant blessings, victory over enemies, long life - the Father's desire to bless His children is more than apparent in these chapters. But with these promises of blessing came strong warnings of what would happen if they turned away from Him.
The stumbling blocks that God outlines in these chapters are all – I believe – ultimately about the human heart, and so they are applicable to all mankind, including us today. What were they? After 40 years of learning to lean upon the Lord and being disciplined by Him to walk in His ways, what were the Children of Israel expressly warned would nevertheless tempt them away from God if they weren't careful – despite all their training and discipleship?
1. Other gods (Deut 7:16; 8:19; 11:16-17): Moses repeatedly warned the people against being enticed to worship and adore anything above or instead of the Lord. The words used here – entice, snare – carry a warning of how subtly persuasive and dangerously attractive these idols can be. Whatever physical form they take – wood, stone, metal, electronic, flesh – they all too easily become a hiding-place for the heart, through which we feel better or more secure.
2. Fear (Deut 7:17-21; 9:1-3): Israel were warned against allowing themselves to be cowed by external threats or intimidating circumstances – but the lesson here was not about minimising the threat, but about maximising their view of God's power and learning to trust in His ability to fight for them. Fear is given ground when we lose sight of who God is and forget to trust Him.
3. Pride (Deut 8:12-14, 17-18; 9:4-6): Moses knew that blessings can easily begin to take up heart space that rightfully belongs to God, putting people at ease so that they forget their need of Him or begin to trust in themselves instead. God becomes a last resort instead of a first resort – and our own desires start to come first.
Each one of these snares leads back in some way to the idol of self - the putting of our own needs, desires and securities above our love for God and faith in His ability to be all to us. Moses was warning Israel in various ways to avoid at all costs the trap of loving themselves more than God.
He used a different turn of phrase, talking instead about the human tendency to be "stiff-necked" (Deut 9:6, 9:13) – that is, hard-hearted, rebellious, stubborn, arrogant, difficult and unwilling to listen. At the root of this, as at the root of all sin, is selfishness.
The Narrow Path
Being stiff-necked is the human condition – for the Children of Israel, for you and for me. Recognising the truth of this is the first step towards allowing God to overcome it for us. We will get nowhere in the battle against sin unless we first recognise that it exists (Rom 7:21-25) and that consequently our own hearts cannot be trusted.
Choosing to deny our sinful desires - laying down idols, removing the comfort blanket of fear, uprooting the foundation of pride and trusting God instead – is difficult. It is a narrow path that requires us to become both vulnerable before God, abandoning our desires and needs into His hands, and humble before Him, acknowledging that He alone is our provider, our protector, our victory.
What sustains us along this difficult road? What protects us against temptation and keeps our priorities right? What lights the path ahead when all seems utterly dark? What comforts us when we are forced to face up to the darkness in our own hearts? Only faith in the truth of who the Lord is and what He has done.
Constant Reminders
That is why, through these chapters of Deuteronomy, Moses emphasises again and again that the people were never to forget the Lord or what He had done for them – or that it was He who was the source of all their blessings and prosperity, past, present and future (e.g. Deut 8:11-18; 9:5). Their lives were to be marked, even defined, by constant praise and worship (Deut 8:10), remembrance of His character and mighty deeds, remembrance of where they had come from and who had brought them thus far, and a contrite understanding of their own sinfulness and need of Him.
They were to find any and every way possible to fix the truth of all this in their hearts and minds (Deut 11:18) and build it into their everyday lives and relationships (Deut 11:18-21).
How much more should we do likewise with our hectic and abundant lives, busy and full to the brim with 'stuff'? How many Christians fall away from the Lord not by wilfully choosing to rebel, but by simply allowing the stuff of life to creep in subtly and crowd Him out, so that they soon forget their need of Him? If we allow Him to be pushed out of our lives, there are always plenty of other things waiting to step in and fill the vacuum. But if we build every area of our lives around God, how much more will our everyday existences become redolent with His Presence, Love and Glory?
More Than Conquerors
Our hearts are deceitful and will betray us at a moment's notice. There is no escaping this in this life - nobody said that walking in God's way would be easy. But though often steep, we can proceed boldly thanks to the Lord Jesus, who Himself is The Way and stands ready to help us in every step if we will but submit ourselves to His Lordship.
Let us be courageous and faithful this week in the face of our own inadequacies, for "in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom 8:37-39).
Author: Frances Rabbitts