Key Verses: Deuteronomy 10:12, 10:16, 10:19
After recounting how God gave new tablets and renewed the covenant following the golden calf, Moses poses one of Scripture’s great summarizing questions: “And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments of the LORD?” He calls them to “circumcise... the foreskin of your heart” and be no longer stubborn, for the LORD, who is God of gods and Lord of lords, mighty and impartial, “executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner.” Therefore Israel, too, must love the sojourner, “for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt.”
The chapter gathers the whole demand of the covenant into a single, memorable summary: fear, walk, love, serve, and obey the LORD with all the heart. These are not separate duties but facets of one wholehearted devotion. Moses’ call to “circumcise your heart” reaches past external religion to the inner disposition, exposing that the real need is not merely outward obedience but a transformed heart — a need that Deuteronomy will later promise God Himself to meet (30:6). And the God who is mighty and impartial is also tender toward the vulnerable, loving the orphan, widow, and stranger, and calling His people to reflect that same compassion because they, too, were once strangers whom He loved.
Key Terms & Words:
- מָה (mah) - Deuteronomy 10:12 - “What”; “what does the LORD require of you?”
- וּמַלְתֶּם (umaltem) - Deuteronomy 10:16 - “Circumcise”; the foreskin of the heart to be removed
- גֵּר (ger) - Deuteronomy 10:19 - “Sojourner”; the stranger God loves and Israel must love
Cross-References:
- Micah 6:8 - What the LORD requires: to do justice, love kindness, walk humbly
- Deuteronomy 30:6 - God promising to circumcise the heart to love Him
- Romans 2:28-29 - Circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit
- Matthew 22:37-40 - The summary of the law in love for God and neighbor
Discussion Questions:
- How does Moses summarize the whole requirement of the covenant?
- What does “circumcise your heart” reveal about Israel’s deepest need?
- How does God’s love for the vulnerable shape His people’s treatment of the stranger?