Contemplative Bible Reading

Deuteronomy 30:6 (New Living Translation)

6 “The Lord your God will change your heart and the hearts of all your descendants, so that you will love him with all your heart and soul and so you may live!

Jehovah God is talking to the people about the laws and the results of obedience and disobedience. There are many ways to describe this sentence.

One thing to note is that God can change the hearts of people today and for generations to follow. God can arrange people so that they love one another instead of hate one another. God can arrange people to love books more than television or taking walks more than playing football or… well, whatever. And I wonder, “Who cares about books and television and walking and football?”

Those are little things that don’t matter. Yes, they are little things and no, they do matter. Human history is full of little things that had influence far greater than can be explained. Some college student put a book of faces on a website so that students could giggle and judge appearances. Silly college stunt. Oh, that became that gazillion dollar thing called Facebook. Did God cause our hearts to love that? Maybe not, but it is one of those silly little things that had far greater influence than it should have.

Back to God changing hearts. The decision to love, hate, or ignore is odd. I don’t understand it. Why would anyone love macaroni and cheese? (I don’t) Why would one group of people cling to the Bible, read it daily, and find guidance in an old book like that? What pricked their hearts? I guess the question is, “Who pricked their hearts?” Perhaps it was God who changed their hearts. That happens from time to time and place to place.