Love, Obey, And Hold Tight.

This morning, my Bible studies led me to Deuteronomy chapter 11, where Moses is teaching the children of Israel about the land in which they are going to dwell. He is also reminding them of the importance of God’s law, and why they need to honour and adhere to it. I was particularly struck by the words of verses 22-23. “If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow—to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him— then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.”

It is important to note that these words were originally written to a nation on the verge of entering the land God had promised them, and that Moses was giving a warning that their blessings would be conditional upon their obedience. We see this most clearly in verses 13-17. “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 your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied. Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you.”

God explains that the best way of ensuring his people won’t be enticed to wander is for them to keep his laws and his words ever before them. “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.” (Deuteronomy 11: 19-21.)

What the Lord is advocating here is a little more than just having a daily quiet time, then spending the rest of our days doing our own thing. he’s telling the Israelites, and likewise us, to make the whole of each and every day a worship-filled experience of constantly dwelling on God and his word. This doesn’t mean we have to spend all day reading our Bibles. The Lord knows we have many things demanding our time, and he isn’t telling us to neglect our work or families, or to go and shut ourselves away from the rest of the world. If we did that, how could we reach those who haven’t yet accepted Jesus with the gospel?

I believe the Lord is talking here about having a mindset that brings him and his word into everything we do, every conversation we have, and perhaps hardest of all, every thought we think. This doesn’t mean we need to be quoting Bible passages all the time, or purposefully weaving Gospel truths into every chat with a non-believing friend. That would soon quench many friendships, but if our conversations are seasoned with grace and the love of God, they may feel led to ask us more about our faith. It’s a standard I’m far from reaching, but it’s something I attain toward, and with God’s help, I’d like to think I become better at it with every year of my life that passes. I suppose the questions we need to be continually asking ourselves are: “What would Jesus do?” , “What would Jesus say”, or: “Would these thoughts be pleasing to Him?”

I am reminded of Psalm 119: 9-11. “How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart
that I might not sin against you.” If God’s word is hidden in our hearts, we won’t have to be reading or speaking it all day long to know what God wants our attitudes and conversations to be. It’ll come more naturally the more time we spend getting to know his precepts.

We don’t know who wrote Psalm 119, but Psalm 16 is clearly accredited to David, and he says in verses 7-9: “I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me. I keep my eyes always on the Lord. With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken. Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;”.

The message in the highlighted passages from both the above Psalms is the same as Moses conveyed to God’s people in Deuteronomy. By knowing what God wants from us, we will become more obedient, and will therefore experience a greater closeness with him and ultimately more blessings in our lives.

Verse 22 of Deuteronomy 11 lists 3 things we will want to prioritise if we desire to keep his precepts at the forefront of our minds. We will love God, walk in obedience to him, and hold fast to him. Remember that old song: “To know, know, know him, is to love, love, love him”? You can’t truly love someone deeply without spending time getting to know them, and that applies as much to God as it does to other human beings.

Walking in obedience grows in proportion to how much we trust and respect the person we are to obey. Once again, trust and respect for our Saviour increases as we read of his faithfulness, the miracles he’s performed, and the way he can be trusted to come through for his children time and time again, even if it isn’t always in the way we expect him to.

Finally, I love the idea of holding fast to God. It reminds me of when I was a child, clinging tightly to my mother’s hand in a crowded building or a noisy street. I instinctively knew that if I kept holding on, she would look after me. No matter how much we were jostled or bumped, she wouldn’t let go of my hand. If she felt it was safer, she’d sweep me up in her arms and carry me, lifting me above the tumult and keeping me safe close to her heart. That’s what I believe Jesus does with us. However, it is up to us to hold tightly to him in order for him to do that. If we let go and choose to go our own way, we forfeit our blessings and safety, just like the Israelites did when they walked in disobedience to the one who’d shown his love to them by miracle upon miracle and blessing upon blessing.

Never in Scripture are we promised a bed of roses. There is no magic formula for the trouble-free life, and in many ways, I’m glad of it, because struggles strengthen our faith and push us toward greater dependence upon God. Yet, if we keep the Lord ever before us, loving him more day by day, seeking to obey his regulations and clinging tightly onto him no matter what is happening around us, I believe he will bless us with peace in the midst of the storm, and a richer life of intimacy with him. This, in turn, is bound to have an affect on our quality of life, our relationships with others, and our own sense of well-being, both spiritual and emotional.