Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi
Oy. I have a big ol' bite to chew today. Didn't realize that the second discourse in Deuteronomy covers chapters FOUR through TWENTY-SIX. There is some repetition...and some interesting thoughts.
There's a lot to look at here; I'm going to list all the verses out and we'll talk about the concepts pertaining to heart/ hearts...just be ready. Grab a cuppa and let's peruse this list together. All references today are, as usual, from the NIV 84.
"'Oh, that their hearts would be inclined to fear me and keep all my commands always, so that it might go well with them and their children forever!'" -- Deut. 5:29
"Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts." -- Deut. 6: 4-6
"Remember how the LORD our God led you all the way in the desert these forty years, to humble you and to test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commandments.... Know then in your heart that as a man disciplines his son, so the LORD your God disciplines you." - Deut. 8:2, 5
"Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery." - Deut. 8:12-14
"And now, O Israel, what does the LORD your God ask 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 observe the LORD's commands and decrees that I am giving you today for your own good?.... Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer." -- Deut. 10:12-13, 16
"Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the LORD your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm; the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharoah king of Egypt and to his whole country;" - Deut. 11:2-3
"So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today -- to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul -- then I will send rain on the land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil." -- Deut. 11: 13-14
"Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads." -- Deut. 11:18
"If a prophet, or one who foretells by dreams, appears among you and announces a miraculous sign or wonder, and if the sign or wonder of which he has spoken takes place, and he says, 'Let us follow other gods' (gods you have not known) 'and let us worship them,' you must not listen to the words of that prophet or dreamer. The LORD your God is testing you to find out whether you love him with all your heart and with all your soul." -- Deut. 13:1-3
"Give generously to [a needy brother] and do so without a grudging heart; then because of this the LORD your God will bless you in all your work and in everything you put your hand to. -- Deut. 15:10
" [The king] must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray. He must not accumulate large amounts of silver and gold." -- Deut. 17:17
"The Lord your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul." -- Deut. 26:16
First, the technical notes...I did go back to see which Hebrew words were used for 'Heart' and I found a couple of interesting things regarding the translation. All of the words rendered 'Heart' or 'Hearts' in this list are the same Hebrew word we've been looking at in the last couple of posts... Lebab (Strong's H3824)... except for Deut. 11:3. That one is Tavek (Strong's H 8432), which is rendered 'Midst' in other translations. I found the BLB listing to be kind of vague, so I actually pulled out our Zodhiates Study Old Testament (no affiliation there, just wanted to show what I was talking about) and looked it up in the Lexical Aids. Zodhiates rendered it 'Tawech', and reports that it is from an unused root word meaning 'to sever'. It has a prepositional construction, so in that verse it references a location: between, in the midst of, within. It is also used to mean 'in the innermost recesses of a man'...which could be poetically described as 'the heart of' someone, although that meaning isn't a primary interpretation of H8342. So including that verse in this list is entirely dependent upon the translation; had I looked up 'heart/ hearts' in a concordance based on a different translation, it wouldn't have shown up. But...God did do his work in the innermost parts of Egypt, so, yeah, poetic language. The other thing I found that puzzled me is also in Deut. 11...the voice is Moses' throughout the passage, but suddenly we have a blessing for obedience using the 1st person... 'I will send rain...'. Now, Moses was not going to send rain. But there's no indication that he's quoting. In fact, when I looked this up, the Hebrew really doesn't list a pronoun at all there....more like 'rain will be sent in its season'. That's a mystery beyond my elementary level comprehension, lol. But I had to mention those two things just to be fully transparent.
Now, if you actually read through all of that scripture with attention, give yourself a pat on the back. I know when a bunch of Bible verses are just listed like that we tend to glaze over and skim. But if you really read it...you will find, like I did, that it all fits together.
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