"Thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might." Deut. 6:5. Here lies the secret of all true practical godliness. Without this all is valueless to God. "My son, give Me thine heart." Where the heart is given, all will be right. The heart may be compared to the regulator of a watch which acts on the hairspring, and the hairspring acts on the mainspring, and the mainspring acts on the hands as they move around the dial. If your watch goes wrong, it will not do merely to alter the hands; you must touch the regulator. God looks for real heart work, blessed be His name! His word to us is, "My little children, let us not love in word, neither in tongue; but in deed and in truth." 1 John 3:18.
How we ought to bless Him for such touching words! They do so reveal His own loving heart to us. Assuredly, He loved us in deed and in truth; and He cannot be satisfied with anything else, whether in our ways with Him or our ways one with another. All must flow straight from the heart.
"And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart"—at the very source of all the issues of life. This is peculiarly precious. Whatever is in the heart comes out through the lips, and in the life. How important then to have the heart full of the Word of God, so full that we shall have no room for the vanities and follies of this present evil world. Thus shall our conversation be always with grace, seasoned with salt. "Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." Hence we can judge of what is in the heart by what comes out of the mouth. The tongue is the organ of the heart—the organ of the man. "A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things." Matt. 12:35. When the heart is really governed by the Word of God, the whole character reveals the blessed result. It must be so, inasmuch as the heart is the mainspring of our entire moral condition; it lies at the center of all those moral influences which govern our personal history and shape our practical career.
In every part of the divine volume we see how much importance God attaches to the attitude and state of the heart, with respect to Him or to His Word, which is one and the same thing. When the heart is true to Him, all is sure to come right; but, on the other hand, we shall find that where the heart grows cold and careless as to God and His truth, there will, sooner or later, be open departure from the path of truth and righteousness. There is, therefore, much force and value in the exhortation addressed by Barnabas to the converts at Antioch: he "exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord" (Acts 11:23).
How needful then, now, always! This "purpose of heart" is most precious to God. It is what we may venture to call the grand moral regulator. It imparts a lovely earnestness to the Christian character, which is greatly to be coveted by all of us. It is a divine antidote against coldness, deadness, and formality, all of which are so hateful to God. The outward life may be very correct, and the creed may be very orthodox; but if the earnest purpose of heart be lacking-the affectionate cleaving of the whole moral being to God and His Christ—all is utterly worthless.
It is through the heart that the Holy Ghost instructs us. Hence, the Apostle prayed for the saints at Ephesus that the eyes of their "understanding [heart; J.N.D. Trans.]" might be "enlightened." And again, "That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith."
Thus we see how all Scripture is in perfect harmony with the exhortation recorded in Deut. 6:5, 6. "And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart." How near this would have kept them to their covenant God! How safe too from all evil, and specially from the abominable evil of idolatry—their national sin—their terrible besetment! If Jehovah's precious words had only found their right place in the heart, there would have been little fear of Baal, Chemosh, or Ashtoreth. In a word, all the idols of the heathen would have found their right place, and been estimated at their true value, if only the word of Jehovah had been allowed to dwell in Israel's heart.
And be it specially noted here how beautifully characteristic all this is of the book of Deuteronomy. It is not so much a question of keeping up a certain order of religious observances, the offering of sacrifices, or attention to rites and ceremonies. All these things, no doubt, had their place; but they are, by no means, the prominent or paramount thing in Deuteronomy. No; THE WORD is the all-important matter here. It is Jehovah's word in Israel's heart.
The reader must seize this fact if he really desires to possess the key to the lovely book of Deuteronomy. It is not a book of ceremonial; it is a book of moral and affectionate obedience. It teaches, in almost every section, that invaluable lesson that the heart that loves, prizes, and honors the Word of God is ready for every act of obedience, whether it be the offering of a sacrifice or the observance of a day. It might so happen that an Israelite would find himself in a place, and under circumstances, in which a rigid adherence to rites and ceremonies would be impossible; but he never could be in a place or in circumstances in which he could not love, reverence, and obey the Word of God. Let him go where he would; let him be carried as a captive exile to the ends of the earth, nothing could rob him of the high privilege of uttering and acting on those blessed words, "Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee." Psalm 119:11.
Precious words! They contain in their brief compass the great principle of the book of Deuteronomy; and we may add, the great principle of the divine life at all times and in all places. It can never lose its moral force and value. It always holds good. It was true in the days of the patriarchs; true for Israel in the land; true for Israel scattered to the ends of the earth; true for the Church as a whole; true for each individual believer amid the Church's hopeless ruins. In a word, obedience is always the creature's holy duty and exalted privilege—simple, unhesitating, unqualified obedience to the Word of the Lord. This is an unspeakable mercy for which we may well praise our God day and night. He has given us His Word, blessed be His name, and He exhorts us to let that Word dwell in us richly—dwell in our hearts, and assert its holy sway over our entire course and character.