9.28.25 ~ Put Your Heart Into It

Good morning!

After 7 weeks of consolation (Isa. 40-54), we have now come to the 10 days of awe where every believer within God's people has the privilege of experiencing His mercy to the highest degree (Deut. 30:1-16).

In yesterday's zoom call, we examined 3 different prophetic passages urging us to come back, to return/shuv, to our covenant partner (Hos. 14; Mic. 7; Joel 2). This season leading up to Yom Kippur is all about returning, so that we may be in a position to receive mercy from the Most Merciful! Are you returning or just drawing near with your lips (Matt. 15:8; Isa. 29:13)?

‘These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me. And in vain they worship Me, Teaching as doctrines the commandments/mitzvah of men.’  (Matt. 15:8)

Therefore the Lord said: “Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me,  And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment/mitzvah of men, (Isa. 29:13)

When you read this verse, what do you think it means?  Enquiring minds want to know :-) Yes, we see God’s complaint that the people only serve Him outwardly.  They say the right things.  They follow the right rituals.  But He complains that they don’t serve or reverence Him with their hearts. Is He saying that all He wants is our hearts, not our practices?  For many, they think that God's people, Israel, were superseded by the Church because they continued to hold on to conventions or traditions no longer part of God’s plan; They didn’t convert because of their fixation on rules and routines.
 
The implication is that if we are going to please God we must not do what these people did, namely, act in "Jewish" religious ways (Keep the Sabbath, God's appointed times, eat clean, judge righteous judgments, etc...).  We need new forms of worship, not old "Jewish" ones.
 
But the real meaning of the verse isn’t about traditions at all.  It’s about not following God's commandments/mitzvot with heart and hands.  What God wants is true obedience, motivated by love and function, not form.  There is nothing here that suggests the form is wrong in itself.  It just isn’t sufficient.  “The rules of observance are law in form and love in substance.  The Torah contains both law and love; spirit and truth.  Law is what holds the world together; love is what brings the world together and moves it forward...and it's His love that causes us to return to Him!

Could it be that  it is, we, in  the modern Church, that causes God to say, “This people draw near with their words and honor Me with their lip service, but they remove their hearts far from Me”?

It's a good question to mull over in my mind's heart as I handwrite the Song of Moses this week (Deut. 32 :-)

Chag Sameach!

Shalom,
Alan

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