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Tara Leigh Cobble
Hey, Bible readers, I'm Tara Leigh Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap. Yesterday, Moses finished telling the Israelites about the blessings for keeping their covenant with God and the curses for breaking it. Today he opens by basically telling them, look, you're going to break this covenant. God knows it. I know it. You know it. So here's what you need to remember when that happens, Repent. Turn back to God. He won't abandon you. He will restore everything you lost when you turned your back on Him. Yesterday we read in 29:4 that God has not yet given them a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. But today we read about what will happen when they do sin and are carried into captivity. God will use those circumstances to change their hearts. Chapter 30, verse 6 says, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul that you may live. God promises that he will change their hearts. Then they will turn to him and begin to obey Him. Finally, that's what happens. When God gives someone a new heart. Their desires change. Remember that the word heart here is a mingling of the words we use for heart and mind. It's where desire and will overlap, and it's what drives our actions. Without a new heart, it's impossible to walk in ways that are pleasing to God. The only way for their choices and decisions to reflect the things of God's heart are if he changes their hearts. And since what he's after is our hearts, then even if our actions appear to be good on the surface, none of it matters if the heart isn't engaged. Only when he changes our hearts will our actions be ones that are responding to him rightly. Remember how he always starts out by reminding them of the relationship he has with them before he tells them to obey. It serves as evidence that he doesn't just want to be obeyed. He wants to be known and loved. Moses appeals to them again to obey God's commands and warns what will happen if their hearts turn away from God. He wants them to experience not just the land God has promised them, but also the life that is found in relationship with God. Moses can only speak on the experience of one of those things. Moses doesn't get to enter the Promised Land. Since the day he met God, his assignment has been to live in the desert with sinners. But because he knows God, his experience contains a surprising peace and an irreplaceable Intimacy. Even without the earthly benefits, his relationship with God is joy inducing. And despite how hard the Israelites have made his life, Moses wants joy and freedom for them too. He knows that a relationship with God is transformative and they need to be transformed. Moses tells the Israelites he's about to die and that he's not going to get to go into the promised land. This is probably terrifying for them. All they've ever known is Moses. He's been their leader for 40 years. For some of them, that's been their entire lives. He probably wants to calm their fears because he knows firsthand how much fear can lead to rebellion. So he starts by reminding them that God is actually their leader. God himself will go before them into the promised land. He will fight against the nations that live there, and he will win. Then Moses calls Joshua up in front of all the people and says lots of the same things to him. He reminds Joshua not to fear, just like he reminded the Israelites not to fear. And in both instances, the antidote to fear was not to think about how awesome they are or to believe in their dreams, but to remember the nearness of God. That's what Moses suggests as the antidote to fear. And I'm guessing he's had plenty of opportunities to learn that. After Moses commissions Joshua for the job of leading the Israelites, he tells them that they should read the law aloud. All of it, every seven years during the Feast of Booths, which will take place in the city where God establishes the tabernacle. All the Israelites and even the sojourners living among them will travel to that location once every seven years and they'll be reminded of all the laws. Then God speaks to Moses and calls a meeting with him and Joshua. God doesn't have great news. Moses, you're about to die. Joshua, you're about to lead these people. And guess what? They're about to rebel. This reminds me of when God first called Moses to go talk to Pharaoh about releasing the Israelites. Remember what God told him? He basically said, go ask Pharaoh to do this thing. And by the way, I'm going to harden his heart so that he says no to the thing I'm telling you to go ask him to do. It says a lot about their trust in God that they did these things after he told them they'd amount to apparent failure. At first. Most of us have the idea that if God tells us to do something, it's guaranteed to succeed. God says he will bless the people with plenty. Then they will get comfortable in their easy lives and they'll break the covenant. They rebelled in the lack of the wilderness and they will rebel in the abundance of the promised land. God will be angry with them and they will be devoured. Instead of remembering the things Moses just said to them and repenting of their idolatry, they'll question God's love for them and his nearness to them. Then God commissions Joshua, just like Moses had already done, and God reminds him, I will be with you. Joshua is going to need that reminder soon when his mentor dies and everything goes south with the people he's leading. We ended today with God telling Moses to write a song about all of this, so the Israelites will have this song as a reminder. Tomorrow we'll read this song, but as for today, what was your God shot? I can't get over the kind of love that knows how much betrayal it will endure, knows it will be doubted, forgotten and falsely accused of abandonment, but still it persists nonetheless, knowing the future, and especially a future like that could easily threaten a lesser love. But not Yahweh. He enters in with full knowledge of the pain he will endure, knowing we will not be worth it. And still he doesn't let go. We can't change his mind or talk him out of his choice to set his heart on us. No one else loves like him. He's where the joy is. Did you know we have versions of the Bible Recap in other languages? We're currently available in Spanish and American Sign language, and our YouTube channel has the videos for both. Not only that, we have the Bible Recap book in Spanish and our Spanish language podcast and reading plan are on the Bible app. The Spanish version is called La Synopsis de la Biblio, and you'll need to adjust your language settings to Spanish before you search for it. We hope to keep adding to this list so that more people can join us in reading, understanding, and loving the Bible More. Check out the Language tab On our website thebiblerecap.com for more info or or click the link in the Show Notes.