Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

Yesterday, Moses finished telling the Israelites about the blessings for keeping their covenant with God and the curses for breaking it.

Today, he opens by basically telling them, look,

you're going to break this covenant. God knows it. I know it. You know it. So here's what you need to

remember when that happens. Repent. Turn back to God. He won't abandon you. He will restore

everything you lost when you turned your back on him. Yesterday we read in 294 that God has not yet given them a heart to understand or eyes to

see or ears to hear, but today we read about what will happen when they do sin and are carried

into captivity. God will use those circumstances to change their hearts.

Chapter 30, verse 6 says,

The Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring so that you will

love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

God promises that he will change their hearts. Then they will turn to him and begin to obey

him. Finally, that's what happens when God gives

someone a new heart. Their desires change. Remember that the word heart here is a mingling of the

words we use for heart and mind. It's where desire and will overlap. And it's what drives our

actions. Without a new heart, it's impossible to walk in ways that are

pleasing to God. The only way for their choices and decisions to reflect the things of God's heart

are if he changes their hearts. And since what he's after is our hearts, then even if our actions

appear to be good on the surface, none of it matters if the heart isn't

engaged. Only when he changes our hearts will our actions be ones that are responding to him

rightly. Remember how he always starts out by reminding them of the relationship he has with them

before he tells them to obey? It serves as evidence that he doesn't just want to be obeyed.

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