God still seeks such a heart as Daniel had
The suffering of Christ at Calvary was infinite! None can grasp that reality in its fullness! How can anyone, genius or average, hope to comprehend the pain of one who tasted death for every human being? However, Calvary was neither the beginning nor the end of divine anguish. God suffered before Calvary and He suffers after Calvary.
The worst of that divine anguish may be directly related to the serious deficits in the lives of His people. The reason for these deficits is traceable to the lack of one thing for which God longs and pleads: a firmly made up mind.
This searing agony boils over in Deuteronomy 5:29 where God cries out for earth and heaven to hear Him: “Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!”
What exactly is God crying for in this poignant verse when He calls for “such a heart” (mind)? While the verse mentions “keep all my commandments”, that is not the primary emphasis of the passage. It is merely an outcome.
The focus of the verse is encased in the expression “such a heart.” This is what God so earnestly and painfully desires of His people—then and now. If He can only get that from them, the “keep all my commandments” would follow. Indeed, there is no acceptable commandment keeping unless there is “such a heart” first.
So what does “such a heart” mean? As much as Abraham is accepted by Jews, Christians and Muslims alike as their spiritual father, so equally is Moses accepted as their law-giver. This lawgiver uttered what is regarded by many as the classic dictum on monotheism: a view of God largely shared by three great monotheistic religions of the world, Judaism, Islam and Christianity. This is eloquently stated in Deuteronomy 6: 4-5, “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one!” You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” What Moses means here is that all who profess the name of God should love Him intensely, totally, fully, unreservedly, completely and exclusively.
A stirring example of this total commitment to God shines brightly in the book of Daniel. Beginning in 605 B.C., and ending in 586 B.C., Nebuchadnezzar carried out three increasingly punitive invasions into the southern kingdom of Judah. On the first military campaign he took many captives back to Babylon, including the best and brightest Hebrew youth of whom Daniel was a shinning example.
It was the king’s intention to train these talented young people to administer his kingdom. As a vital part of their training, he recommended the finest Babylonian food and wine. But Daniel instantly took a life-threatening stand against it. (See Daniel 1:5-8)
Knowing full well the cruelty of the Babylonian King, the account says that “Daniel purposed in his heart” not to eat the royally recommended diet. He made this defiant commitment with his heart and soul and strength.
Daniel’s firm stand was fully matched by that of his three colleagues who also opposed the king’s diet. In the face of certain and possibly cruel death what kind of commitment is required for one to stand firm and not wilt, waver nor weaken? Nothing less than a purposed heart, poised to act at once, the kind of heart God cries for in Deuteronomy 5:29.
In Daniel, chapter one, we see that God took the defeat of Daniel’s life as he was taken into captivity, and turned that into victory. God could do that for Daniel and his three friends, only because they loved God unreservedly, with all their heart, soul and strength. God is still seeking such a heart in our day. And to those that love God with such a heart, will also experience victory even in the face of sure defeat.
Alvaro Sauza is pastor of the Sandpoint Seventh-day Adventist Church.