A Heart Like God's Heart

Introduction: What Does Grace Produce?

The previous two verses that we looked at last week talk about the amazing sovereignty of God over the entire universe and the same sovereignty over our salvation. The doctrine of God's electing love is God's amazing free choice to save an undeserving people.

Well, verse 16 continues his discussion by giving us a logical conclusion. And the conclusion is not to be passive. True Calvinism never makes people passive. He says, “Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer.” He is saying that since God set His heart upon them, their hearts need to be soft towards Him. That by itself is significant.

But Moses does not stop with private sanctification. These verses show that a changed heart inevitably moves regenerate people to produce a changed society. A purely private Christianity does not reflect God's heart. How does God deal with society? In these verses Moses says that He is impartial, incorruptible, just, and compassionate. And He insists that believers imitate Him in the public sphere. So in these verses Moses concludes that we should therefore love the stranger. If we have tasted and seen that God is good, it should transform both our inward and our outward life.

And this is consistent with the previous exposition Moses has been giving of the first commandment. We have been seeing that this chapter binds together what modern people often separate: heart religion is bound together with high theology, public justice, personal compassion, and historical memory. The absence of any one of those things shows that something has taken the place of God in our lives. Since chapters 6-11 are the inspired application of the first commandment, we can conclude that a true keeping of the first commandment calls us to similarly value heart religion, high theology, public justice, personal compassion, and historical memory.¹

So the theme of verses 16-19 is this: Because our covenant Lord is incomparably great and compassionately just, He calls us to put away any stubbornness and display a heart that reflects His heart.

The Necessary Transformation: Circumcise Your Heart — verse 16

Verse 16 might require a bit of background explanation since most people are embarrassed to talk about circumcision in mixed company. But hey, the Old Testament repeatedly addressed this subject publicly with young and old alike. So I feel justified in doing so this morning. It says, "Therefore circumcise the foreskin of your heart, and be stiff-necked no longer." Physical circumcision was a ceremonial law that is no longer required in the New Testament, but it was a vivid reminder. The removal of the foreskin from the penis of a male marked Israel’s males as members of the covenant community. But an outward mark could never substitute for inward faith. It was simply a symbol. The outward covenant sign of circumcision that distinguished Israelites from the Gentiles pointed to the need for an inward circumcision of the heart - or a metaphorical separation from the world. So he says, “Circumcise the foreskin of your heart.”

That's a very graphic metaphor that pictures the removal of whatever makes the heart insensitive and resistant to God. Michael Grisanti explains that as physical circumcision signified covenant allegiance outwardly, heart circumcision signifies a similar inward allegiance to our covenant Lord.²

Moses joins that metaphor to another one: “be stiff-necked no longer.” The second picture in your outline illustrates what is meant by that second metaphor. It is a picture of an ox that stiffens its neck against the yoke and refuses to follow its master’s direction. Israel had repeatedly behaved this way. God spoke; they resisted. God led; they turned aside. God supplied; they complained. God covenanted with them; they made a calf. They were always pulling their necks away from God's good directions.

And I should point out that you can look good outwardly and still have a stiff neck. A person can be baptized, catechized, orthodox, active, and even be respected member of the community while still protecting a will that refuses correction in certain situations. The person may accept Scripture in the easy places where Scripture happens to agree with his views, but he stiffens his neck against any Scripture passage that touches his idol. He doesn't even want to think about it.

And its not enough to understand how this applied to ancient Israel. That keeps it academic. We need to make sure that our own hearts submit to this verse. Where do you become hardest to teach? That may be a clue. What command immediately produces qualifications and evasions? What Biblical criticism gets you immediately irritated and unwilling to consider what is being said? What habit have you renamed so that repentance will not be necessary? Those are all indications of spiritual stiffness of neck and an uncircumcised heart that is not sensitive to God.

And I probably should point out that heart circumcision can be painful just like physical circumcision was painful because it requires cutting away what has grown close to us. But the alternative is worse - far worse. Spiritual insensitivity eventually makes the voice of God seem distant and sin seem normal.

But let me highlight a phrase later in the book of Deuteronomy. In this passage God commands, “Circumcise your heart.” That points to our duty to submit to spiritual circumcision. But in Deuteronomy 30:6 Moses promises, “The LORD your God will circumcise your heart.” And the picture of physical circumcision was a perfect analogy. Converts had to be willing to submit to the surgery of circumcision (not something that a nominal convert would ordinarily do), but the surgery itself was always performed by the Levites - at least after the time of Moses. The males were circumcised and baptized and the females were only baptized, but their baptism was called a circumcision. So there was a duty to submit to the surgery, but the person was passive on the surgery itself. And that points to the fact that the duty is truly ours, yet only grace can perform the deepest transformation in our hearts. We must repent, believe, and continually bring our sins to the cross of Christ, but we must also recognize that even this response depends upon God’s renewing Spirit.

So this verse is calling us to be willing to let God have His way with our hearts - to radically submit to Him. Just as physical circumcision could be scary - because it was submitting a very sensitive organ to the Levites (who performed the operation), spiritual circumcision can also sometimes be scary because it is submitting sensitive parts of our hearts to God. But God is good and we can trust Him - as verse 17 goes on to say. Or to use the analogy of that ox in the second picture - don't fight God's call upon your life. It only causes tension, and God will not give up on you till you have learned the lesson. So you might as well submit earlier rather than later. It will be a whole lot easier.

The Compelling Reason: Consider Who Your God Is — verse 17a

Moses now makes explicit that this heart surgery identifies us with God. He says, “For [Here is the reason that we can submit to heart-circumcision - "For"] the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great God, mighty and awesome.” We can trust Him because there is nothing greater than Him. He's not going to make mistakes when He performs surgery on your heart.

“God of gods and Lord of lords” is the language of supremacy. It does not mean that Yehowah is just a greater deity than the pagans had. It declares that every claimed power, every ruler, and every spiritual authority (including demons) are beneath His dominion. Peter Craigie observes that those titles confess God as absolute sovereign while the words “great, mighty, and awesome” describe Him as the God who entered history to redeem His people.³ So He is not a sovereign who stands aloof and afar off. It also shows that He is totally willing and able to transform our hearts.

We often attempt to cure stubbornness with a few psychological techniques or parenting techniques. Especially those who are activist-oriented are always looking for human techniques and cures. But that doesn't go deep enough; that's just putting a bandage on the problem and making the problem less visible. Moses enlarges our vision to focus on God as being sufficient for our needs. A small god can be postponed, managed, or compartmentalized. That's the kind of god that humans prefer. That way they can maintain some degree of independence. But the true God is great, mighty, and awesome. The only proper response is to submit to Him in reverence and godly fear.

And here is the benefit: the fear of God loosens the grip of every lesser fear. We've looked at this before, so I won't expand on it here. But it really is true that the fear of God loosens the grip of every lesser fear.

If a politician is convinced that God is Lord of lords, he is not as easily manipulated by His peers to redefine justice. He can obey God even if it means standing alone for God against a coalition of politicians and lobbyists who slander him. If you are convinced that Yehowah is God of gods, then cultural idols cannot claim our worship, and we can rebuke demons in the name of God. We do not need to be fearful of demons. If He is mighty, obedience is not reckless even when it is costly. He can sustain us through that costly time. If He is awesome, casual worship and casual sin are both irrational. His awesomeness stirs our hearts to respect and adore Him.

The Moral Pattern: God Cannot Be Corrupted — verse 17b

Moses immediately moves on to connect the divine majesty of God with His moral perfection. He says that God “shows no partiality nor takes a bribe.” The literal Hebrew for “shows no partiality” is that God does not lift up faces. The opposite is to cast down a face - where that person obviously disapproves of you and of your actions because his face is not happy; it's cast down. But God is not looking to make people impressed. In other words, He does not change the standard because an impressive person is standing before Him.

Human systems tend to do the opposite. They tend to bend toward the powerful, the influential, or the people that just won't leave you alone. They lift up the face. They care more about people's opinions than they do about God's opinions. In business and politics, money buys access. Friendship can easily soften our judgment. Status can easily attract our sympathy. Tribal loyalty can easily excuse conduct we would condemn in an opponent. We see this in both political parties, where they expose the hypocrisy in the other party and turn a blind eye to hypocrisy in their own party. But God’s courtroom cannot be captured by anything less than His own justice.

This is both comforting and terrifying - depending on our relationship to God and whether our heart is circumcised or not. This knowledge comforts the weak and fearful because their cause will not be ignored merely because they lack influence. Praise God! But it should terrify those who are comfortable in their sins because God doesn’t care about their religious pedigree, wealth, office, and public usefulness. Those things cannot purchase an exception to His standards.

It says that God takes no bribe — not even a religious bribe. What do I mean by a religious bribe? Well, it could be trying to compensate for our sin by making generous donations, or engaging in sacrificial service, or defending an unpopular theological position on Facebook, or getting involved in public activism. God does not permit us to place a pile of good works on one side of the scale so that He will overlook rebellion on the other side of the scale.

And this impartiality of God towards man should shape the way we relate to people - both inside and outside of the church. The book of James condemns giving the wealthy man the best seat while overlooking the poor. Elders must judge without favoritism. Parents must not excuse in one child what they punish in another child - just because the first child is cute. Christians must not adjust moral standards according to party, race, family, or usefulness to our cause.

The Surprising Display of Greatness: God Defends the Vulnerable — verse 18

Verse 18 tells us what this mighty God does: “He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the stranger, giving him food and clothing.”

The greatness of God does not make Him inattentive to small or insignificant people. That's comforting! His throne is high enough to see those whom earthly rulers tend to overlook. But this imagery goes way beyond the civil sphere. God not only protects them legally; He supplies the basic necessities of food, clothing, comfort, and consolation.

The fatherless lacked the protection and inheritance ordinarily supplied by a father. The widow often lacked economic security or lacked a person who could be an advocate for her in public life. The sojourner lacked ancestral land on which he could raise livestock and grow crops and he also lacked the protection of a native kinship network. These categories described people who could easily be exploited without consequence.

But God cared for such people. He placed Himself beside them as their advocate. This does not mean that every weak person is righteous or every powerful person is wicked. It means that God pays special attention where power imbalances create opportunities for oppression. He hates oppression and therefore insists that biblical justice be impartial. And impartial justice must deliberately notice people whom partial systems render invisible.

But it's not just about justice. Notice also the word “loves.” God’s concern is not imitated by an impersonal civil welfare system. The welfare system shows partiality. This is talking about personal care. He loves the stranger and gives concrete provision. Biblical compassion does not choose between affection and action.

The church must therefore ask whether vulnerable people in our community (like the vulnerable unborn who are being cut to pieces in abortion) can actually find justice. And if they can't, maybe they need an advocate to help them. Do refugees to our country have adequate food, clothing, and friendship? It is possible to praise the God who loves the stranger while structuring our lives so that we don't have to cross paths with a stranger. That is not imitating God's compassion. God went out of His way to minister to these vulnerable people, and this passage implies that so should we. If the first commandment is to properly frame our cultural involvement as individuals, then we need to take these verses seriously.

The Covenant Imitation: Love the Stranger — verse 19

Take a look at the conclusion Moses draws in verse 19: “Therefore love the stranger, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt.” God’s people must imitate God’s love. They should desire to have hearts that reflect God's heart.

The command is not merely, “Do not mistreat the stranger.” That would be a little easier to obey. This is a call to go beyond mistreatment and to actually love the stranger. Protection from abuse is the floor, not the ceiling. Israel must seek his good, receive him with humane concern, and ensure that law is not weaponized against him.

Daniel Block observes that the mention of God’s love in verse 18 triggers the command of verse 19.⁴ That's the significance of the "Therefore." Theology becomes ethics through imitation. We obviously cannot share God’s incommunicable attributes (like omnipresence), but we must reflect His moral character. We imitate Him, and we can only successfully do that when the Holy Spirit gives us God's heart.

Moses also appeals to memory: “for you were strangers in Egypt.” This is a call to take the history of God's people seriously (in other words, to take church history seriously). Israel knew the insecurity of alien life. They knew what it meant to be treated as convenient labor rather than as neighbors made in God’s image. They also knew what it meant for the Lord to hear their cries.

Redeemed suffering should produce compassionate memory. Pain can make us either tender or hard. We may say, “I suffered, so others should endure what I had to endure.” God says, in effect, “No. You suffered, so you should understand why mercy matters.”

This principle reaches well beyond immigration policy, though it certainly has public implications. While the Bible calls countries to exclude enemies who want to cross the border (justice calls for that exclusion), it calls countries to welcome foreigners who are willing to submit to Biblical law. It speaks to refugees, newcomers, ethnic outsiders, visitors, converts without Christian families, the socially awkward, the poor, the orphaned, and anyone who lacks the network that makes life easier for insiders. It didn't mean that they automatically obtained citizenship; they didn't without true conversion. But such refugees were still welcomed if they were willing to submit to God's laws.

Yet this passage indicates that Biblical love must still be governed by truth and prudence. Loving a stranger does not require suspending justice, ignoring jurisdiction, or rewarding evil. God Himself is both compassionate and impartial. He punishes widows and strangers too since His justice is impartial. He doesn't favor the poor over the rich. That is not justice. That is being partial. But God is also compassionate. And in the same way, we may not use compassion to overthrow righteousness or use righteousness as an excuse for lovelessness. And I will admit that it is hard to maintain the kinds of balances that this chapter has been giving us. And that's why we need His grace - which is the last point:

Christ Gives Us a Heart Like God’s Heart

Jesus is the perfect example of a person who lived out this passage. He is Lord of lords, yet He stooped to identify with the lowly. He welcomed children, touched lepers, honored faithful widows, received outsiders, and preached good news to the poor. His mercy never compromised truth, and His justice never extinguished compassion.

At the cross, God’s impartial justice had to fall upon our sin in the person of our Substitute. Why? Because He is a just God. No bribe made our guilt disappear. Our guilt had to be punished. There was no other way. Yet the same cross displays the astonishing love that God had for those who were “strangers from the covenants of promise.” Christ bore our guilt; He bore judgment to bring aliens near. And it is only in Christ that justice and compassion can meet together.

Colossians 2:11 says, "In Him you were also circumcised with the circumcision made without hands, by putting off the body of the sins of the flesh, by the circumcision of Christ..." The Spirit removes the heart of stone and gives a sensitive heart that is renewed to God and to God's Word. This inward work creates a new community in which former strangers become fellow citizens and members of God’s household.

We will never love the vulnerable merely by being scolded. We must see ourselves as the spiritual strangers whom Christ welcomed at immeasurable cost. If we do that, it won't be a grudging obedience. Grace that is remembered becomes grace that is gladly extended to others.

Conclusion: The Mark of a Circumcised Heart

So - wrapping up - how can we tell whether our hearts that are willing to submit to God’s surgery? Moses does not direct us merely to an inward feeling. Obviously there are feelings. Even the metaphor of circumcision shows that. But there are objective criteria by which we can tell if we have God's heart.

He asks whether we bow beneath God’s yoke (which is the second picture in your outlines), whether we judge without partiality (which is the third picture), whether we ignore the homeless (which is the fourth picture), whether we sympathize with the vulnerable and welcome them (which is the fifth picture), and whether we love the stranger (which is the last picture).

Now, I have mentioned the killing of children in our city as one illustration. Involvement in opposing abortion is one manifestation of what this passage is calling for - but not the partiality that some prolifers have - where they are willing to sacrifice some unborn in order to save other unborn - all in the name of incrementalism. No. You don't trade some babies to save other babies and to score political points. That's not reflecting God's justice. Instead, if we are to have God's heart, then we must push for the total abolition of abortion. That keeps justice and compassion tightly bound together. And actually, all of these pictures belong together.

The great God who is the sovereign over the entire universe also has a heart for people the world considers small. Are you only attracted to the interesting people in this congregation, or do you reach out to those who are home-bound, or are shy, or are broken? A heart like God’s heart will increasingly share His concern.

So the bottom line of these verses is that we must submit both the sensitive and the stiff places of our lives to Christ. Ask the Holy Spirit to cut away the spiritual foreskin of pride, prejudice, favoritism, lack of self-discipline, self-protection, and indifference. Then put that prayer into practice. Learn a stranger’s name. Take him out for coffee and find out about his life and pray for him. I know some of you do this. Praise God! At the same time, we can't be naive when we do this by inviting dangerous people into our homes or we are not being just to our family. We must apply the same moral standard to friend and foe - that's justice. Don't see God's law as incompatible with love. These verses hold law and love together - and so does the New Testament. In John 14:15, Jesus said, "If you love Me, keep my commandments." Lawless love is a counterfeit love.

So these verses contain a sampling of illustrations of how the chosen people begin to resemble the God who chose them. By grace our hearts begin more and more to reflect His heart. May God enable us to do so more and more consistently in these coming months. Amen.