Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 10: God renews His covenant with mercy

Begin in prayer

Before considering the heart God requires, let us ask Him to search our hearts. Pray that our family would receive His word and learn the mercy of Christ.

I delight to do your will, my God. Yes, your law is within my heart.

Psalm 40:8

Father in heaven, You are worthy of reverence, love, and willing service. Expose the stubbornness in our hearts as we hear Your word. Show us Your mercy through Jesus and teach us to love the people You command us to love. Please open our eyes as we read Your Word, make us more like Christ, and bless our family as we worship You together. In Jesus' name, Amen.

See where we're going

The LORD gives Moses new tablets after Israel’s rebellion, and they are placed in the ark. Aaron dies and Eleazar succeeds him, while Levi’s appointment provides for service before the LORD. God then sends the people onward toward the land. Moses then asks what God requires of Israel. The answer reaches their whole life, including reverence, love, service, and obedience from the heart. The mighty God loves the foreigner and upholds the fatherless and widow. His people must reflect His care, remembering their own life as foreigners in Egypt.

As you read Deuteronomy 10, look for the answers:

Reflect together

Key truth

God renews His covenant in mercy and calls His people to love Him.

The new tablets show that Israel’s rebellion has not ended God’s merciful dealings with them. His commands still call for a response from the whole heart. Heaven and earth belong to Him, yet He set His love on Israel’s fathers and chose their offspring. Circumcising the heart means putting away the stubborn resistance that outward marks cannot remove. Their stubborn past shows they could not do this, and in chapter 30 the LORD promises to do it Himself. His greatness includes justice that cannot be bought and love for those lacking protection. Israel must love foreigners because God loves them and because Israel remembers being foreigners. The LORD Himself is their praise and the source of their growing multitude.

How does Deuteronomy 10 show us that God renews His covenant in mercy and calls His people to love Him?

God shows mercy after rebellion.

Moses receives new tablets bearing the same commandments. God hears his plea and commands the people to continue toward the land. Mercy restores their journey without lowering God’s holy requirements.

God calls for love from the heart.

The LORD requires fear, love, willing service, and obedience. He tells Israel to put away their stubbornness. Outward religious signs cannot substitute for a heart that yields to Him.

God loves those without protection.

The great God takes no bribe and shows no partiality. He defends the fatherless and widow and provides for the foreigner. Remembering Egypt should teach Israel to love the foreigner among them.

Memorise

Yahweh had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their offspring after them, even you above all peoples, as it is today.

Deuteronomy 10:15

Looking to Jesus in my life

Ask yourself in your heart, where is my heart stubborn, so that I need Jesus to change it?

Moses commands, “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked.” Israel needed a change deeper than an outward sign. God’s renewed covenant exposed the stubborn heart that His mercy alone could overcome.

The new covenant promises God’s law written within His people. Jesus secured that covenant through His death. He bore the punishment their hard hearts deserved. He rose again, and His completed work is enough to forgive sinners and give them new life.

Bring your stubborn heart to Christ. Turn from resisting God and come to Him, the Savior who welcomes anyone who trusts Him. He gives His people new hearts, and they love the God who first showed them mercy.

Parent's note

Tell your children that God showed Israel mercy after their sin, and that He defends orphans and widows and loves foreigners. Explain that such kindness follows a changed heart, and ask each child to seek Christ rather than trust outward religion. Call each child to turn from sin and trust Jesus, and pray that God would give them a new heart. Please do not tell them they are saved just because they grew up in a Christian home.

Pray together

Now please close your time together in prayer. Thank God for His mercy, and ask Him to change the stubbornness exposed by the heart question. Every child can pray, so allow each one time to respond.

For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days,” says the Lord; “I will put my laws into their mind, I will also write them on their heart. I will be their God, and they will be my people.

Hebrews 8:10

Father in heaven, thank You that You renew Your covenant in mercy. Turn our stubborn hearts toward Jesus and His finished work. Write Your word on our hearts, and turn each of us to trust Jesus. Teach us reverence, obedience, and love for our neighbors. In Jesus' name, Amen.