I am pondering true love for God. It seems a rare thing even among Christians. Bring up some feelings for God and people sort of lose interest. Now, it were one thing if it were done in a weird or obnoxious way. But one can be careful and introduce the topic slowly, thoughtfully within normal Christian conversation. It still seems love for God has been edged out (or kicked out) by religious and even not so religious solutions to man’s problems. To find someone who’d bless our soul with sweet recollections of Jesus’ love would be a FIND! And I must hasten to add that though writing this, I myself may not leave another believer feeling it either. It is possible to identify a problem and still not evince the solution. My wife and I talk about these matters. So much talk is about God, around religion, involving church. Yet, it seems to circumnavigate the Person. It’s reductionistic in nature. And it is the “air” we breathe. Do we fight it? Is that to be our modus operandi? Yet, we must believe that seeing it is part way to resolving the problem.
Enter Deuteronomy 29:4 . . .
This blew my away this morning. Let me give the context with the preceding two verses:
2 And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 3 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders.
Moses reminds them of God’s powerful grace exhibited toward them. These are the historical record of God’s dealings with man, and they deserve recognition. More, they demand worship! He is grounding their being, their existence, yes, even their future prospects as the holy people of God (abundant life), in the certainty of God’s previous and clear mercies. In short, there is very good reason to trust God, to adore God! Saying that does not accomplish it, as we know.
Next, and here is an astonishing statement:
4 But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.
It’s as if He were saying, “You have the history, the evidence and it’s etched in your memory. It is documented as a legacy, passed down orally as well as in written form! But, so far you do not have the accompanying and necessary heart to rightly understand and appreciate that history.”
So, it’s one thing to read what God has done, quite another to relate to it. Question is, does God always give this kind of heart to his creatures? Are we not commanded to hear and understand? Forty years had passed as they wandered through the desert, the older and generally faithless generation dying off in the process due to their unbelief. Still, even those remaining and left to hear Moses’ sermons in preparation to enter the promised land, even they had not been given a “heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear.” They had something to be sure! They evidently believed more than their forbears; they were allowed to live and enter the land!
So, what is the meaning of this “heart” and “eyes” and “ears?” And are we all waiting on God to give us these? Is there anything we can do to promote such a knowledge? Does the New Testament unveil a new way? If so, why is it still that seemingly so few enjoy such an "interior" life? Oh, let us ask these questions. It is THIS kind of knowledge to which Jesus as referring in salvation: "This is eternal life that they KNOW you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent" (John 17:3). Please, give us a "heart to understand, eyes to see, ears to hear."
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