Closer To Heaven
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This video is produced by the South Pacific Division Discipleship team.
Week 9_ Turn Their Hearts_ study this lesson for Nov 27 from SPD Discipleship on Vimeo.
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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/9-turn-their-hearts-spd-discipleship-video/
You can view an in-depth discussion of Turn Their Hearts in the Hope Sabbath School class led by Pastor Derek Morris. Click on the image to view:
With thanks to Hope Channel – Television that will change your life.
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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/9-turn-their-hearts-hopess-video-discussion/
Deuteronomy 30:1-10 reveals the grace and goodness of God for backsliders and sinners, even when those sinners and backsliders were previously blessed by God in unique ways: “For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the LORD our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him?” (Deuteronomy 4:7). Even despite all that He had done for them, and despite the fact that they had no real excuse or justification for their sin, they sinned anyway (can anyone relate?).
And yet, even then — what?
Image © Consualo Udave at Goodsalt.com
Ultimately, they had to make the choice to return to Him, and to obey Him, with all their hearts. In one sense, the real issue was their hearts, because if their hearts were right with God, their actions would follow: that is, they would be obedient.
This is why they were given the wonderful promise that if they “returned” to the Lord, sincerely turned to Him, then He would work in them and would “circumcise” their hearts. They have to make the choice, amid their captivity, to return to God, and He would then bring them back to Himself and to the land. And then there, in the land, He would bless them. And part of the blessing is that He would work in them to change their hearts even more toward Him, so that they and their children would “love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.”
In the end, responding to the promptings of God (see Acts 5:31), they would have to truly repent of their sins. And, although dealing with a different historical context, Ellen G. White wrote: “The people mourned because their sins had brought suffering upon themselves, but not because they had dishonored God by transgression of His holy law. True repentance is more than sorrow for sin. It is a resolute turning away from evil.” — Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 557. And this is a truth that we can see in Deuteronomy 30:1-10.
| How can we know the difference between being sorry for the consequences of our sins, which anyone can do, and being sorry for the sins themselves? Why is this distinction so important? |
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Source: https://ssnet.org/blog/wednesday-with-all-your-heart/
All through the book of Deuteronomy, a key theme appears: obey the Lord and be blessed, disobey and you will suffer the consequences. It’s no different in the New Testament. “Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life” ( Galatians 6.7-8, NKJV).
Unfortunately, at least after the Fall, sin seems as easy and as natural as breathing. And despite all the warnings and promises — “For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off” (Deuteronomy 30:11) — many of the people did precisely that: they fell into the sins that God had warned them about.
Image © Kevin Carden at Goodsalt.com
And yet, even then, God was willing to take them back if, using their free will, free choice, they repented and returned to Him.
The idea is simple and straightforward: if you mess up, terrible consequences will result for you and your family. That’s what sin does. However, even then, you can repent, and the Lord will take you back and bless you.
Numerous times the same Hebrew root word behind teshuvah appears in these verses. In Deuteronomy 30:2, the text says “and you return to the LORD your God” (NKJV, emphasis supplied); in Deuteronomy 30:8, though it is often translated, and correctly so, “you will again obey the voice of the LORD,” it could be translated literally, “And you return and obey the voice of the Lord.” Finally, in Deuteronomy 30:10, where it reads “and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,” again the word “turn” is really “return.”
In other words, despite all that happened to them, despite their utter violation and breaking of the covenant, the Lord was not through with these people, and if they didn’t want Him to be through with them, they could manifest that desire by repentance.
| Though dealing with the nation as a whole, how do these texts, despite the different context from us today, still reflect the reality of how central true repentance is to us as believers who, at times, violate the covenant we have made with God, as well? |
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All through the Bible we find evidence of God’s foreknowledge. That is, He knows beforehand all that will happen. Whether the rise and fall of world empires (Daniel 7) to individual actions just hours before they occur — “Assuredly, I say to you that this night, before the rooster crows, you will deny Me three times” (Matthew 26:34) — the Lord knows the end from the beginning. His foreknowledge, even of our free choices, has no bearing whatsoever on the freedom of those choices.
Thus, the Lord knew, even before He brought the children of Israel into the land, what they would do when in the land.
Image © Kevin Carden at Goodsalt.com
In the verses before, the Lord tells them specifically not to make idols and not to worship them (Deuteronomy 4:15-20). Yet, the following verses pretty much say that making idols and worshiping them is exactly what they are going to do, despite all the warnings.
Notice that in Deuteronomy 4:25, Moses is clear that it won’t happen immediately. After all that they just had experienced, they weren’t likely to fall into idolatry right away. However, over time, after a generation or so, the tendency to “forget” (Deuteronomy 4:9) what the Lord had done for them, and what He had warned them against, would lead them to do exactly what He warned against.
God’s grace is amazing. Even after they fall into the horrific evil of idolatry, even after they have received the due consequences of their sins, if they turn to the Lord, He will forgive them and restore them. In short, if they freely choose to repent, He will accept their repentance.
The word in Deuteronomy 4:30, often translated “turn,” really means “to return.” That is, they are going back to the Lord, to where they were supposed to have been all along. The Hebrew word teshuvah, from that same root word for “to return,” means “repentance.”
Thus, at the core, whatever else is involved in repentance, it is a return to God after we have been separated from Him by our sins.
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