Keep Your Soul Diligently by the Voice of God

Reading today in Deuteronomy 4:

"Only give heed to yourself and keep your soul diligently, so that you do not forget the things which your eyes have seen and they do not depart from your heart all the days of your life..." (v. 9)

These are the words which Moses spoke to Israel, God's people, in the wilderness. They are the words, which still speak today, to the people of God. They are an exhortation to God's people:

Give heed to yourself. Keep your soul diligently.

Why? Because we forget what we've seen and heard and the things God has done. Moses had to remind the people of God consistently to remember. Therefore one way a person keeps their soul and gives heed to themselves is to remember.

"Remember the day you stood before the Lord your God at Horeb, when the Lord said to me, 'Assemble the people to Me, that I may let them hear My words so they may learn to fear Me...You came near and stood at the foot of the moutain, and the mountain burned with fire to the very heart of the heavens: darkness, cloud and thick gloom. Then the Lord spoke to you from the midst of the fire; you heard the sound of words, but you saw no form--only a voice..." (Dt. 4:10-12)

Moses is saying: Remember that God has spoken to you. He did so by fire, cloud, darkenss, and thick gloom, yet did so without form. Moses calls the attention of the poeple to the event of God's voice.

Throughout this chapter one finds that Moses is explicitly reminding them that God did not show himself in form but he showed Himself by voice. The revelation of God comes by the word of God. In fact, the rest of the chapter shows that, idolatry comes from human hearts that long to seek "likeness" and "form" and "graven images." Human hearts want god's they can see. Not simply a voice. Yet, Moses consistently calls the people back to the words they have heard--the voice of the living God.

It goes the same for God's people today. We like images. We enjoy telivision. We want an image we can see. Words, for the most part, are of little importance. Image trumps word. Therefore one must keep watch over their soul and beware of the love of image and return to the love of word--God's word.

This is New Testament Christianity as well. One can tell that the writer of Hebrews 12, at the very end of the chapter , spent much time meditating on the work of Jesus, the God-man, and Deuteronomy 4. The New Testament people of God, have not come to the mountain blazing with fire, as the Israelites, but they have come to Mount Zion, the city and church of God, the angels, God the Judge, and to Jesus who has given the new covenant of His blood.

This writer, like Moses, also tells the Hebrews to which he writes, "See to it that you do not refuse Him who is speaking..." (12:25). God, the same God, who is a consuming fire, that spoke at the blazing mountain, now speaks in His Son, Jesus. This writer calls us to listen and not ignore the message of the Gospel. Like Moses called Israel to remember the event of voice at the mountain, so this writer calls God's new covenant poeple to remember the person and work of Jesus Christ and the words connected to the event that tell of Him.

God has spoken in Jesus. Therefore keep watch over your soul by remembering God's words in His Son. Read the Gospels. Listen to the words spoken by the apostles that tell of Him and the implications of that event in the New Testament Epistles.

Do not ignore this word. Remind yourself daily of the word God spoken in the person and work of Jesus. Listen to God's voice in your Bible. Keep your soul from the idolatry of images by reading the word of God, because if you begin to rely upon forms and images and move away from the word of God you will craft for yourself a god that is created in your own image. You were created in God's image, and thus, God's voice is to be heeded for the sake of your own soul. Heeding the words God's speaks creates the image of God in man. Ignoring them distorts man's very humanity.

Neglect of God's voice is the pathway to idolatry. Neglect of what the Bible tells of Jesus is the pathway to a different Jesus. A Jesus made in your own image. A Jesus formed by your own hands. A Jesus that is not Jesus at all.

"For if those did not escape when they refused him who warned them on earth, much less will we escape who turn away from Him who warns from heaven. And His voice shook the earth then, but now He has promised, saying, 'Yet once more I will shake not only the earth, but also the heaven...Therefore, since we receive a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us show gratitude, by which we may offer to God an acceptable service with reverence and awe; for our God is a consuming fire." (Heb. 12:25-29)

Keep your soul by the word and voice of God, and respond in fear, the kind of fear that is also full of gratitude.