"Remember the Lord (Deuteronomy 10:1-11:7)", Thad Yessa | 3/15/26
Deuteronomy 10:1-11:7 | 3/15/26 | Thad Yessa
10 “At that time the Lord said to me, ‘Cut for yourself two tablets of stone like the first, and come up to me on the mountain and make an ark of wood. 2 And I will write on the tablets the words that were on the first tablets that you broke, and you shall put them in the ark.’ 3 So I made an ark of acacia wood, and cut two tablets of stone like the first, and went up the mountain with the two tablets in my hand. 4 And he wrote on the tablets, in the same writing as before, the Ten Commandments that the Lord had spoken to you on the mountain out of the midst of the fire on the day of the assembly. And the Lord gave them to me.5 Then I turned and came down from the mountain and put the tablets in the ark that I had made. And there they are, as the Lord commanded me.”
6 (The people of Israel journeyed from Beeroth Bene-jaakan to Moserah. There Aaron died, and there he was buried. And his son Eleazar ministered as priest in his place. 7 From there they journeyed to Gudgodah, and from Gudgodah to Jotbathah, a land with brooks of water. 8 At that time the Lord set apart the tribe of Levi to carry the ark of the covenant of the Lord to stand before the Lord to minister to him and to bless in his name, to this day. 9 Therefore Levi has no portion or inheritance with his brothers. The Lord is his inheritance, as the Lord your God said to him.)
10 “I myself stayed on the mountain, as at the first time, forty days and forty nights, and the Lord listened to me that time also. The Lord was unwilling to destroy you. 11 And the Lord said to me, ‘Arise, go on your journey at the head of the people, so that they may go in and possess the land, which I swore to their fathers to give them.’
12 “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, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? 14 Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. 15 Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. 16 Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. 17 For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. 18 He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing.19 Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. 20 You shall fear the Lord your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear. 21 He is your praise. He is your God, who has done for you these great and terrifying things that your eyes have seen. 22 Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.
11 “You shall therefore love the Lord your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. 2 And consider today (since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it), consider the discipline of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, 3 his signs and his deeds that he did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land, 4 and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how the Lord has destroyed them to this day,5 and what he did to you in the wilderness, until you came to this place, 6 and what he did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel. 7 For your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord that he did.
Main Idea: Remember the Lord and respond to Him with wholehearted love and obedience.
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1. Remember God’s Mercy (10:1-11)
After Israel’s rebellion with the golden calf, the covenant relationship between God and His people appeared shattered. Moses had broken the stone tablets in response to Israel’s idolatry (Exodus 32:11), symbolizing that the covenant had been violated. Yet Moses then interceded for the people for forty days and nights, pleading with God not to destroy them. What follows in Deuteronomy 10 is God’s gracious response to that prayer.
God commands Moses to cut two new tablets of stone like the first (Deut. 10:1–5). The law that Israel had broken would be written again. At this moment, Israel had not suddenly become more faithful. They had not earned another chance. Instead, the renewal of the tablets shows that God Himself was showing His mercy by being willing to restore the covenant relationship. What Israel had shattered through sin, God in His mercy was willing to renew.
The first set of tablets had been written by the very finger of God (Ex. 32:16), highlighting that the law reflected the divine order of creation itself. The Ten Commandments were not arbitrary rules but the moral structure of God’s world. By rewriting the tablets, God demonstrates that His purposes for His people have not changed, even though they have failed.
God also instructs Moses to place the tablets in the ark. The ark crafted by Bezalel and Oholiab and placed in the tabernacle as the central symbol of God’s presence among His people. Inside the ark were the covenant tablets, the very record of God’s law. But above the ark sat something equally important: the atonement cover, often called the mercy seat. It was on this golden covering that sacrifices would be made to atone for sin. In other words, the place where God’s law was kept was also the place where mercy was given. The ark therefore represented both God’s holy rule and His gracious provision for forgiveness.
This stands in stark contrast to the golden calf. The calf was Israel’s attempt to create a god they could control. The ark, however, testified to the true God who reigns in holiness yet graciously provides a way for sinners to remain in covenant with Him.
Moses assures Israel that the Lord had heard his prayer (10:10–11). God did not abandon His people. The covenant was restored, and Israel would still enter the promised land according to the oath God made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Their future was secured not because of their righteousness, but because of God’s mercy and faithfulness to His promises.
Failures along the Way
Complaining at the Red Sea: Immediately fearful after leaving Egypt, the people doubted God.
Complaining about the lack of water at Marah.
Complaining about hunger, leading to the provision of manna.
Lack of Water at Rephidim: Testing God's presence.
The Golden Calf: Making an idol at Mount Sinai while Moses was receiving the law
Complaining about their hardships.
Complaining about Food: Desiring meat and remembering the fish of Egypt.
Rebellion of Miriam and Aaron: Challenging Moses' authority.
The Spies/Kadesh Barnea: Refusing to enter the Promised Land due to fear.
Korah's Rebellion: A direct challenge to the priesthood and leadership.
The story of God’s people has always been a story of mercy. Apart from God’s mercy, Israel would not have remained a nation, and apart from God’s mercy, we could not belong to Him either.
Here we see Moses stood as an intercessor who pleaded for the people as a foreshadow for Jesus, who is the greater and true mediator. Where Israel broke God’s law, Christ obeyed it perfectly. Where the covenant was shattered by sin, Christ restores the relationship through His life, death, and resurrection. At the cross, God’s justice against sin and His mercy toward sinners meet perfectly.
Remembering God’s mercy keeps us humble, grateful, and dependent. Our standing before God has never rested on our performance but always on His grace. And the same God who restored Israel after their rebellion is the God who continues to forgive, restore, and sustain His people today.
2. Remember God’s Requirements (10:12-16)
Moses asks a question that gets to the very heart of the covenant relationship: What does God require of His people?
“12 “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, 13 and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good? “
He summarizes it with five actions:
Fear. Walk. Love. Serve. Keep.
To fear the Lord is to recognize who He truly is. It is reverent awe before the God who is holy, powerful, and sovereign over all things. When we see God rightly, we cannot treat Him casually.
To walk in His ways means that our lives begin to reflect God’s character. Faith is not merely something we profess; it becomes visible in the direction of our lives. We begin to walk the path that God lays out.
To love Him reveals the heart of all obedience. God does not merely want outward compliance. He wants our affection. He calls His people to love Him with their whole being.
To serve Him means that our lives are given over to His purposes. Worship, obedience, and everyday decisions are shaped by the desire to honor the Lord.
And to keep His commandments means that we listen to His Word and respond with obedience. But Moses reminds the people that these commands are not burdens meant to crush them. They are given “for your good.” God’s commands are gifts from a wise and loving Father who knows how life is meant to work.
Put together, these commands show that God is not calling for partial obedience or occasional devotion. He calls for earnest, fervent, wholehearted obedience. A life where the heart, mind, and actions are all aligned toward Him.
“An observational thing about us as humans is that we often refuse to live by what we already know to be true. Sometimes that refusal is open defiance. Sometimes it’s indifference. And sometimes it’s simply a lack of discipline.” - Ajith Fernando
1. Open DefianceSometimes we know what is right and simply choose the opposite.
We know we shouldn’t text and drive, but we do it anyway.
We know Scripture calls us to forgive, but choose to hold onto bitterness because they feel justified.
We know gossip is sin, yet we repeat private information about another because it feels satisfying in the moment.
We know sexual purity is commanded by God, but continues engaging in pornography even though it dishonors Him.
2. IndifferenceSometimes people know the truth but don’t care enough to act on it.
We know they should sleep more and take care of our health, but ignore it and keep pushing.
We know gathering with the church is important, yet we slowly drift from worship because other things feel easier or more enjoyable.
We know we should encourage others in the church, but rarely take the time to speak words that build people up.
We know there are people in the church who are hurting, yet assume someone else will step in to help.
We know prayer matters, yet it becomes an afterthought rather than a regular part of life.
3. Lack of DisciplineSometimes people actually agree with what is right but fail to live it out consistently.
We want to read Scripture regularly but struggle to make space for it in their daily routine.
We desire deeper relationships in the church but rarely take initiative to invest in others.
We want to grow in holiness, yet never develop habits of confession, accountability, or repentance.
We want to be generous but never plan or prioritize giving.
That’s why Moses calls Israel to have a circumcised heart. It’s one thing to admit that something is true or right, but it’s another thing entirely to actually live in light of it. Israel could outwardly keep the covenant sign of circumcision and still miss what God really desired. They might carry the sign of the covenant and yet lack the love that God required. What God wanted was not just external obedience but hearts that truly belonged to Him. They were meant to live according to the life God had set before them. In other words, fearing and loving God cannot be reduced to simply believing the right things. It means walking in His ways and shaping your life around Him.
That is why verse 16 gives the central command:
“Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn.” (Deut. 10:16)
A circumcised heart is open and responsive to God. It listens to His Word, receives correction, and allows itself to be guided by Him.
An uncircumcised heart does the opposite. It resists God’s authority, rejects correction, and hardens itself against His Word.
This had always been Israel’s struggle. The problem was not that they lacked God’s law, but that their hearts resisted it.
The imagery of circumcision also reminds us that this transformation involves exposure and vulnerability. Circumcision was not something done privately, and it had a communal effect and brought a person into the covenant community. In the same way, a circumcised heart is willing to come into the light before God, allowing Him to expose, shape, and transform it as He brings us into His family.
Moses then reminds Israel why this kind of response is appropriate.
“Behold, to the Lord your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the Lord set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them.” (Deut. 10:14–15)
Notice the contrast. Everything in heaven and earth belongs to the Lord. He is the sovereign ruler over all creation. Yet out of all the peoples of the earth, God freely chose Israel.
God was not obligated to choose them. He was not limited or constrained. The Lord who owns the entire universe could have chosen any people He wished. There was also nothing compelling about Israel that drew God’s affection towards them. God’s choice of Israel was not based on their greatness, strength, or righteousness. It flowed entirely from His sovereign love and delight. The same comfort is true for the believer; this God does more than call us to himself, He delights in us, takes pleasure in us. NOT because of who we were or potential.
Instead, He set His heart in love upon them and upon us.
And that should change how we understand the commands of this passage.
God does not say, “Obey so that I will love you.”He says, “I have loved you. Therefore live as my people.”
Obedience is not the cause of God’s love. It is the response to it.
The same truth ultimately points us forward to the gospel. No one has perfectly feared, walked, loved, served, and obeyed God with their whole heart except Jesus. But through Christ, God does what this passage calls for.
He gives His people a new heart.
“And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh,” Ezekiel 11:19
“And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Ezekiel 36:26
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people.” Jeremiah 31:33
Through the work of Christ and the power of the Spirit, God transforms stubborn hearts into responsive ones. He circumcises the heart so that His people can truly love Him and walk in His ways.
What God requires is not merely external religion.He requires a heart that is fully His.
3. Remember God’s Character (10:17-22)
At the heart of Moses’ appeal to Israel is a call to remember who God is to remember His character. Israel’s struggle with obedience was not merely behavioral; it was theological. When God’s people forget His character and His saving work, their hearts grow hard. But when we rightly remember who God is and what He has done, repentance begins to bear fruit. The fruit of repentance is not merely sorrow over sin, but a life that increasingly reflects the character of the God who has redeemed us.
Moses reminds Israel that loving God with all their heart is fundamentally an idolatry issue. The reason hardheartedness is such a serious problem is because God rightfully demands our full allegiance. Moses says, “For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God” (Deut. 10:17). Yahweh alone is God. There are no rivals beside Him. Because He alone is sovereign, He alone deserves our complete devotion. When our hearts drift from Him, we inevitably give our allegiance to something else. Idolatry is simply loving something more than God. Instead of God being the sun at the center of our lives, we try to place ourselves or something else in that place. That is why hardness of heart toward God is ultimately an idolatry problem. Loving God with all our heart means recognizing that He alone is worthy of our worship, trust, and obedience.
This great and awesome God is also the God who “is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing” (Deut. 10:17–18). The God who rules over heaven and earth is also the God who cannot be manipulated and who cares deeply for the vulnerable. His greatness does not distance Him from the weak; it moves Him toward them. And in response those who truly love God will begin to resemble Him. Loving God with all our heart inevitably shapes how we love others. If we know the God who defends the fatherless, we will care about the fatherless. If we know the God who loves the sojourner, we will grow in love for the outsider. Israel is called to love the outsider because they themselves were once outsiders. They knew what it was like to be vulnerable, oppressed, and dependent on mercy. Their history was meant to cultivate humility and compassion.
To love the sojourner is to remember that we ourselves were sojourners. In the same way, believers today remember an even greater redemption. We were once strangers to God, dead in sin and separated from Him, yet through Christ we have been brought near. God has shown us extraordinary mercy. Because we have been loved by God, we are called to love others. As Scripture says, “We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:19). When the grace of God truly grips our hearts, it produces visible fruit in how we treat others, especially those who are weak, vulnerable, or overlooked.
Moses ends this section by reminding Israel of God’s powerful saving work. Their ancestors entered Egypt as a small family of seventy people, yet the Lord multiplied them into a great nation “as numerous as the stars of heaven” (Deut. 10:22). Everything they had was the result of God’s grace. Remembering that grace was meant to shape the way they lived.
The same is true for us. When we remember who God is His greatness, His justice, His mercy, and His saving work our hearts are softened and transformed. Repentance begins to bear fruit as our lives increasingly reflect His character. Remembering the God who rescued us produces a people who love Him fully and who love others as we ourselves have been loved.
This reality gives us tremendous freedom. If our standing with God is not based on how impressive we are but on the grace we have received in Christ, then we are freed from the exhausting pressure of trying to appear strong, polished, or put together.
The gospel gives us the freedom to stop performing.
Instead of trying to impress others with our strength, we can begin to be honest about our hearts. We can bring our weaknesses, our insecurities, and our vulnerabilities into the light. A circumcised heart is not a defensive heart that hides behind appearances. It is a humble heart that is willing to be known.
Why can we live this way? Because every single one of us comes to Jesus the exact same way.
No one arrives before Him with a résumé of righteousness. No one earns their way in by spiritual achievement. We come empty handed. We come as sinners in need of mercy. And Jesus meets us there with grace.
That means there is no hierarchy of worthiness among the people of God. At the foot of the cross, the ground is level. And because Christ has already fully seen us and fully loved us, we no longer have to hide. We can walk in the freedom of being honest with God and with one another, trusting that the same grace that met us in Christ continues to meet us in every place of weakness.
4. Remember God’s Works (11:1-7)
The Bible is never vague about what it means to love God. Scripture consistently connects love for God with obedience to His will.
"You are my friends if you do what I command you." - John 15:15
“By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.”- 1 John 5:2-3
Love is not merely a feeling or a declaration; it is expressed through a life that seeks to walk in God’s commands.
In Deuteronomy 11, Moses reminds Israel that the motivation for obedience is rooted in not just remembering who God is but what He has done. He calls them to reflect on “the discipline of the Lord your God, his greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm, his signs and his deeds” (Deut. 11:2–3). Moses then recounts acts of God: the events surrounding the Exodus (11:3), the destruction of the Egyptian army in the Red Sea (11:4), and the ways God dealt with Israel during their wilderness journey (11:5–6). Included in this is a reference to what is commonly known as Korah’s rebellion, when Korah, Dathan, and Abiram rose up against Moses and Aaron and were judged by God (Num. 16:1–35).
These examples reveal both God’s saving power and His holy discipline. Twice Moses urges the people to “consider” these things:
“Consider today—since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it—consider the discipline of the Lord your God” (Deut. 11:2).
The word translated consider comes from the Hebrew word yadaʿ, a very common Old Testament term meaning to know, recognize, or understand. Some translations capture the sense as remember. John Wesley observed that the intent is to “acknowledge and consider it with diligence and thankfulness.”
Moses is reminding the people of Israel that these are not far off stories, but that they had personally seen the great works of God
“Your eyes have seen all the great work of the Lord that he did” (Deut. 11:7).
Because of this, Israel had a responsibility to remember God’s mighty acts, especially His acts of discipline. Often when we think of God’s “greatness, his mighty hand and his outstretched arm,” we immediately think of miracles of deliverance. We think of the Red Sea parting or prayers answered in dramatic ways. But Moses also wants them to remember something else: God’s discipline.
This is an essential part of the life of obedience. God’s discipline warns us about the consequences of sin and urges us toward faithfulness. It teaches us that God is both gracious, loving, and holy.
Yet many would prefer to avoid these “uncomfortable” stories. But when we ignore this aspect of Scripture, we lose an important piece of the biblical worldview. Without it, our understanding of God becomes shallow, and we become more vulnerable to temptation.
Moses makes it clear that these events happened within the lifetime of those listening to him:
“…since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it” (Deut. 11:2).
In other words, this generation had personally witnessed the discipline of God. They were meant to remember it and speak about it. The same principle applies to us today. We should remember the ways God has acted in history and even within our own lifetime, both in mercy and in discipline. These stories are meant to be shared with others to testify of God’s work in us both the good and the bad. Though they may be uncomfortable, they serve as warnings that help guard our hearts.
When we remember them, they become a kind of spiritual alarm system. In moments of temptation, the memory of God’s past discipline can whisper a warning to our souls: “The last time this path was taken, it led to destruction.”
And that warning can help turn us back toward obedience and life.
Conclusion:
Moses’ call to Israel is simple: remember the Lord. Remember His mercy when you deserved judgment. Remember what He requires, that your life would be marked by wholehearted love and obedience. Remember His character, that the God you serve is great, just, and full of compassion. And remember His works, the mighty things He has done to redeem and discipline His people. When we remember these things, our hearts are kept soft toward God. And ultimately, all of this points us to Jesus Christ, the greater mediator who stands before God on behalf of His people. Through His life, death, and resurrection, our hearts are changed and our sins are forgiven. Because of Him, we are able to live as a people who remember the Lord, love Him with all our heart, and walk faithfully in His ways.