April 5, 2023

Passage Read: Psalm 95-98
Meditation Verses: 95:7-11

Thought

"Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts." The Israelites heard His voice once directly, from fire above the mountain, all the rest of the time was through Moses, with multiple confirmations that the Lord was speaking to and through him. So God expected them to obey Him from His words through Moses and through any other prophet or through the words already recorded. He expected His people to respond quickly and from the heart, otherwise, they were people who didn't know His ways, and would be kept out of His rest. Responsiveness to His Word, obedience to it, shows a soft heart, a heart of flesh; ignoring His Word reveals a heart of stone that will not enjoy His favor. And because His people were more characterized by hardness of heart, He made the promise of the new covenant: to give them a heart of flesh with His Law written on it, and His own Spirit to dwell in us and move us to obey Him.

Application

Since I have forgiveness and cleansing and a heart of flesh and God's Spirit in me, I have no excuse whatsoever not to listen to and obey His Word. I hear it every day as I read it; I must not harden my heart against His voice. He saved me to change my life and how I live; He saved me to make me responsive, submissive and obedient to His Word, to trust and believe in Him and His wisdom. To resist His Word is to court rejection by Him. I have no excuse! If I harden this new heart against Him and His Word, there remains no hope for me.