A Transformed Heart
For Meditation (Corey Widmer)
As Moses brings his first great sermon to a close, he sums up all he has been saying to the people of Israel. Scholar Chris Wright calls this passage “one of the richest texts in the Hebrew Bible.” It follows a familiar rhythm in Deuteronomy: first the indicative, then the imperative.
Moses begins with God’s gracious acts of love. The Lord of heaven and earth set his affection on Israel and chose them—not because of their strength or merit, but out of sheer love (vv.14–15). This is the foundation of the whole Torah: God’s gracious and saving love.
Then comes the response. What does God require? Two things stand out:
“Circumcise your hearts” (v.16): turn from stubbornness, repent, and open your inner life to God’s love and ways.
“Love the foreigner” (v.19): extend that same love outward, especially to the vulnerable neighbor.
These two commands are not in tension but inseparably linked. A heart truly transformed by God’s love will overflow in love for the stranger, the poor, and the powerless. To love God with the whole heart is to love those he loves.
Questions for Reflection/preparation:
Moses reminds Israel of God’s electing love (vv.14–15). How might remembering God’s prior love for you change the way you approach obedience?
What does it mean to “circumcise your heart” today? Where might you sense God inviting you to soften or open yourself more fully to him?
Why do you think Moses chose “love the foreigner” as the key expression of Israel’s response to God’s love?
Who are the “foreigners” or vulnerable neighbors in our community today, and what might it look like to love them practically? How could we do that as individuals, as a group, as a church?
How might loving God with your whole heart and loving the vulnerable around you be more deeply connected than you’ve realized?
Deuteronomy 10:12–22
And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God ask of you but 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 that I am giving you today for your own good?
To the Lord your God belong the heavens, even the highest heavens, the earth and everything in it. Yet the Lord set his affection on your ancestors and loved them, and he chose you, their descendants, above all the nations—as it is today. Circumcise your hearts, therefore, and do not be stiff-necked any longer. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome, who shows no partiality and accepts no bribes. He defends the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreigner residing among you, giving them food and clothing. And you are to love those who are foreigners, for you yourselves were foreigners in Egypt. Fear the Lord your God and serve him. Hold fast to him and take your oaths in his name. He is the one you praise; he is your God, who performed for you those great and awesome wonders you saw with your own eyes. Your ancestors who went down into Egypt were seventy in all, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars in the sky.
Read along with us this fall! Download our Deuteronomy Reading Guide here.