The Word is in Your Heart – July 13, 2025
Deuteronomy 30:9-20, Colossians 1:1-20
July 13, 2025
This week might be a bit confusing. That’s because we’re going backwards in time, but forward in the Bible. Last week we were in Exodus, and Joshua had gathered the people at Shechem in the promised land. This week, even though we’re forward in the Bible, in Deuteronomy, we’re back with Moses on the plains of Moab. And the people were about to enter the promised land.
Now the reason for that is the nature of the book of Deuteronomy. I may have said before that the theme of that book is “remembering.” As one author said, it’s about remembering God’s faithfulness, remembering God’s commandments, remembering God’s mercy and forgiveness, and remembering so you don’t repeat past mistakes! (That was a big one for the people of Israel!)
So, the book of Deuteronomy contains the same history and lessons of the first four books – Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. It’s a reminder of all of that. That’s why, for instance, there are two places in the Bible where we find the giving of the Ten Commandments. We first find them in Exodus 20. But then we find then again in Deuteronomy 5. So the writer of Deuteronomy is reminding the people of all of that history.
So now, moving forward – or should I say, backwards – we find the people on the plains of Moab, with the Exodus and the wilderness behind them. Now, they were now about to enter the promised land. And in our reading for today, Moses was giving them his final “address.”
If you remember the story, he himself would not be going with them. As he tells them in the next chapter, he was 120 years old, and his health was failing. But, if you remember, it was more than that. God already told him he would not enter the promised land, because of the disobedience he had displayed at the giving of “water from the rock.” Do you remember that story? God allowed him to see the promised land from Mount Nebo. But there he died. And he was buried on the plains of Moab.
So, what did Moses want to tell the people that day? As you can imagine, keeping with the theme of Deuteronomy, he started by “reminding” them – again – of all that God had done for them! And he reminded them of the importance of keeping God’s law and his commandments. And then we pick up our reading for today. And even though it’s sort of in the middle of a paragraph, it was at the heart of the matter!
Moses said, “The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of the ground. For again, the Lord will take delight in prospering you as he took delight in your fathers.” But there was a “catch.” ” He will prosper you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, keep his commandments and his statutes, and turn to him with all your heart and with all your soul.”
This was a call to obedience, and a call to devotion, wasn’t it? “Obey God, and turn your hearts to him.” And I love this next little section. He says, “This is not so hard! “This commandment is not so high above you in heaven that someone else might have to go find it for you.” “And it’s not so far away beyond the sea, that it’s outside of your world.” “No.” he says. “The word is very near to you. It’s in your mouth, and it’s in your heart!”
I love that thought for today. “The word is in your heart.” Because sometimes we do make the word of God too hard, don’t we? We make it out to be so far above us, that it’s something we can never attain. Or we make it so far outside of our world, that we feel like we can never be part of it.” Moses would tell us, “No.” “The word is in your heart!”
Let that phrase go around in your minds. “The word is in your heart.” Let it be like that song you can’t get out of your head. Obedience and devotion to God is not so hard! Don’t make it complicated. It’s not so hard because, “The word is in your heart!”
Jeremiah would later echo that thought. And I think when he did, he was remembering these words of Moses. Speaking for God, he would say, “I will put my law within them. I will write it on their hearts.” (Jeremiah 31:33)
Paul – the good pharisee – also knew Moses’ words. And he too would pick up on that idea. He would tell the Corinthians, “You will show that you are [the word of God in] Christ from us, written not with ink but with the spirit of God, and not on tablets of stone but on tablets of human hearts.” (II Corinthians 3:3)
With that thought in their minds – and in their hearts – Moses ends with an exhortation like the one we heard last week from Joshua. He says, “Choose.” If you remember from last week, the people had entered the promised land and had gathered at Shechem, and Joshua also asked them to choose. He said, “Choose this day who you will serve.” And I’m sure he got that idea from Moses. I’m sure he remembered him that day saying, “Choose.”
In this case, Moses said to the people, “Behold, I set before you life and good, death and evil.” “So choose life.” “Choose life by obeying God and following him.” “You’re about to go into this new land, do so knowing that God has brought you here!” “He will prosper you in this land, in fact he will take delight in prospering you, as long as you choose to follow him.” “That’s part of this deal!”
I like that thought. Throughout the Bible – throughout the teachings of Jesus – God is pictured as one who wants to bless his people. He is pleased to give us all good things, as Jesus said. As Moses said here, he “takes delight in prospering his people.” That’s the nature of God!
The problem with that is that some have tried to make that into a “prosperity Gospel.” You may have heard that term before. They’ve tried tell us that we “get things” if we ask correctly, and if we have enough faith. But that’s not the deal! The deal is that God wants to bless us. He loves us as his children! But hand in hand with that, he wants to be part of our lives. And obedience and devotion have always been part of that. God is not, as one person said, “just a big Amazon delivery service in the sky!” He’s way more than that! But there’s a big picture to it. And it involves obedience and devotion!
Sometimes that’s the part we aren’t so crazy about. Sometimes we rebel against that, don’t we? We’d rather just have the “prosperity Gospel.” We’d rather just ask the right way and get what we want. We’d like to have the good without the obedience. (We’re like perpetual teenagers in that respect!)
But Moses lays it out very clearly here. He says, “Behold, I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day! I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore, choose life, loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice, and cleaving to him.”
Moses gives us the same challenge. And like he said, that’s not that hard. It’s not so far above you that you can’t attain it. It’s not so far away that it’s not part of your world. The word of God is very near to you. Because the word is in your heart.
Prayer
Eternal God, help us to know that your word is indeed written in our hearts. Help us to have the strength we need to be obedient and devoted to you. Help us to know your joy of our relationship with you, and how pleased you are when we follow you. And so, teach us to follow more closely the great example you gave us in your Son Jesus, and we pray in his name, Amen.