What does the Lord require of you?
During this Lenten season, as we reflect on our Lord’s 40 day desert experience, we can find ourselves being drawn to the story of the Israelites.
After their dramatic liberation from Egypt, they spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness. Ironically, had they taken a direct route, their journey would have taken a mere 11 days. However, they had much fear and distrust to work through and work out before they were ready to enter the Promised Land.
Deuteronomy 10 captures a profound moment as Moses, now an old man approaching death, asks them this question as they stand on the cusp of the promised land:
“What does the Lord your God ask of you?”
In essence, what will keep you from repeating the patterns of the past that lead to slavery? What will allow you to wholeheartedly receive this blessing that God has bestowed on you?
The answer is as surprising as it is simple: fear.
“Fear the Lord your God, walk in obedience to him, love him and serve him with all your heart and all your soul” (Deut 10:12)
Fear is not the word most of us would choose in this leadership moment, so what is going on here?
One rabbi wisely suggests that it is because at every junction in the desert, fear is what grabs hold of the Israelites hearts and determines their behaviours; to devastating effect.
Moses is inviting God’s people to allow Him to take that place in their hearts and be the one who determines their behaviours - for his glory and their good.
And what does fearing God look like?
Moses breaks it down in two ways. The first is obedience. He commands them to live in such a way that demonstrates God’s heart, by doing things his way. In so doing, not only will those around them get a glimpse of what life with God is like, but it will also be good for God’s people.
That’s not to say that the surrounding nations will like what they see, (most of them won’t), nor is it to say that doing things God’s way will always feel good for them (sometimes it will, sometimes it won’t). Yet the call to trusting obedience remains the same.
The second way they are to fear God is through devotion.
Deuteronomy 10:14-22 beautifully outlines just how outrageous it is that God desires to be in relationship with them. Devotion, Moses explains, is the only appropriate response to the affectionate overtures of the King of the universe stretching out his hand towards them. In light of that glorious reality, they are instructed ahead of entering the Promised Land to circumcise their hearts and loosen their stiff necks. To cut off the tough skin and excess baggage that has numbed them to God’s promptings and presence and begin to look around for new ways to do things, lest they repeat the patterns of the past.
And so this Lent, you are invited to pause and ponder this same question: What does the Lord your God ask of you?
Not just generally, but specifically?
In your life and leadership, where have you allowed your heart to become hard and your vision narrow?
How might God be inviting you to demonstrate the values of his Kingdom in your decisions and actions, even if it feels costly?
To begin to unpack the answers to such questions requires giving Him space to speak, and that’s what Lent invites us into. A time of decluttering our hearts and lives to prepare a way for him. An invitation to heed the call of John the Baptist, crying out in that same wilderness his ancestors spent years wandering to “make straight paths for him”, so that in our own walks with God, an 11 day journey need not take us 40 years.