Joshua's heart was committed to the Lord.  He spoke from his heart and he followed the Lord fully.
He reminded the people to love God, to walk in His ways, to keep His commands, to hold fast to Him and to serve Him with all their hearts and souls.  He told them to incline their hearts to the Lord.
To "stretch" towards the Lord and away from idols.  To freely and willingly pledge their hearts to the Lord.

In Judges we find that Deborah had a heart of compassion towards the commanders.  We find that the leaders had resolved hearts and that there was much searchings of heart among those who did not come to help their countrymen.

Samson told Delilah all that was in his heart - and then she betrayed him.
The heart can be merry or glad.  The heart also refers to "self".

Lord God, rule in my heart today.  Incline my heart to Yourself.  Keep Your Word in my heart and may my every intention and thought be stretched towards You always.  I commit myself willingly and freely to love and serve You and to obey Your Word.  Help me to do so Lord!  Thank You.  Amen

The heart... is mentioned 46 times in the book of Deuteronomy.  Interesting in a book we often think of as the Law.  In chapter 5:29 the Lord says " Oh that they had such a heart in them, that they would fear Me, and keep all my commandments always, that it may be well with them and with their sons forever." 

The Lord our God wants us to be blessed, joyful, and well.  He desires what is good for us.  He knows the way for that to happen and it all focuses on our hearts.

We need to remember what God said and did - keep it in our hearts.
We need to seek Him with our hearts and we will find Him.
We need to know in our hearts that He is the Lord , the God of heaven and earth and there is no other.
We need to love Him with all our heart and soul and might.
We need to keep His Word in and on our hearts by teaching them, talking about them, wearing them, and filling our homes with them.  Surround ourselves and our families with the Word of God.
We need to remember God when when fears or doubts trouble our hearts.
We need to understand that the Lord disciplines us, humbles us, tests us - because He is our Father and He wants to see whether we will obey Him, to know our hearts; and so we can know our own hearts that He loves us.
We need to know that the Lord doesn't want us to have proud or boastful hearts so that we forget Him or take credit for ourselves when we  succeed.
He doesn't want us to lie to ourselves or others, but to speak truth in our hearts.
He doesn't want us to think that we are so righteous that we deserve His blessings.

The Lord requires us to :  fear Him, walk in His ways; love Him, and serve Him with all our hearts and souls. 
He wants us to circumcise our hearts and not be stubborn.
He wants us to listen and obey.
He wants us to be careful and watch lest our hearts are deceived.
He wants us to impress His Word on our hearts and souls.
He wants us to be discerning - to not listen to false prophets but to follow Him by obeying His word, listening, serving, and clinging to Him.
He wants us to love others, especially those in need - not hardening our hearts towards them, not being selfish or hostile towards them, but being generous.
He wants us to know that giving generously will  keep our own hearts from being grieved.
He warns that wealth and power are dangerous because they can turn our hearts from Him.
It is from observing His Word that our hearts are kept from turning aside or thinking we are better than others.

Our hearts can be full of anger or full of fear. They can be absorbed in our immediate needs.
When we obey God's word with all our hearts we are choosing life. 
When we are disobedient to His word we are choosing madness, blindness, bewilderment, trembling, despair and dread.

God will give us a heart to know Him if we will turn to Him.
He will restore us.
He will cut away the stubborn evil in our hearts and the hearts of our descendants if we will obey His word with all our hearts and souls.
He will put His word in our hearts so we can obey it.

But we need to keep choosing Him.  Our hearts can turn away.  Stubborness destroys and leads to death. Loving and serving Him with joy and gladness of heart is His desire for us.

Father in heaven, You are the Lord, our God, maker of heaven and earth, and the Ruler of my heart.
Impress Your image deep on my heart.  I love You and desire to walk in Your ways, to listen and obey Your voice and to keep steadfast in the Lord Jesus Christ. Grant me a heart to know You more and more I ask, in Jesus' name, Amen

The heart...

It is in Genesis that we begin learning about our hearts.  It is there that we are confronted with the fact that our hearts are evil.  It is in our hearts that our intentions are found - our conceptions, our imaginations, and our determinations.  And these intentions guide our thoughts - our plans and our purposes.  It is in our hearts that we decide to love or to hate.  It is  in our hearts that fear is found. It is there in our hearts that we determine to sin or believe.

In Exodus we are confronted with a "hardened heart".  A hardened heart is stubborn.  It has no concern for others.  It refuses to listen.  It chooses to sin.  Pharaoh hardened his own heart... and we do this too.  We are stubborn, we refuse to listen or care.  We choose to sin. ( 4:21, 7:3,13,14,22,23;)

 But, we are also told that the Lord hardened Pharaoh's heart too.  In Ex. 9:14 Moses is told to tell Pharaoh that the plagues were being sent "to his heart" SO THAT he would know that there is no one on earth like the Lord.  ( a personal revelation)
And in 10:1 the Lord tells Moses that the reason He is hardening Pharaoh's heart is 3 fold -
So that the Lord may perform the signs;
so that the Israelites would testify about how God had made a "mockery of the Egyptians";  
and so that they, the Israelites, "may know that I am the Lord." ( A national revelation)

Later in Exodus 25 and 35 we learn that hearts can be "moved" "made willing", and "stirred".
God's people, who do not harden their hearts, and come to know that He is the Lord.. begin to have changed hearts!  They have a desire to give, to teach, and to work.  God gave Bezalel a heart of wisdom and skill to perform the work on the tabernacle. The people's hearts were moved to give and to work.  Quite a contrast from the stubborn heart of Pharaoh.

There are only 2 references to the heart in Leviticus.  19:17 where the Law is given "You shall not hate your fellow countryman in your heart;"  and Lev. 26:16 where the penalty of disobedience to God's law includes the "soul to pine away" - deep sorrow in the heart.

There are also 2 references in Numbers.  Chapter 15:39 tells of the purpose of tassels added to the garments of the Israelites - " to look at and remember all the commandments of the Lord, so as to do them and not follow after your own heart and your own eyes after which you played the harlot." 
When we forget that He is the Lord and forget His Word, and follow our own "hearts" we end up where we started - hearts, desperately wicked, hardened, barren, and filled with hate. And when that happens we will know the deep sorrow, our heart will "pine away".

Father in heaven, we pray for soft hearts and willing minds.  We pray that You will be Master of our hearts, letting Your will be done.  Stir our hearts once again, filling us with Your Spirit, that we might walk in Your ways and not our own.  Thank You for loving us and forgiving us all our sins as we confess them before You.  May Your Truth fill our hearts today, we ask in Jesus' Name, Amen.

Zechariah 12-14  Another oracle is given to Zechariah.  This one contains prophecy about the "day" when everything changes. He tells about the return of Christ and the judgements against those who refuse to worship Him.  There are statements that we know were fulfilled at Christ's first coming and those that will not happen until He returns again.  He tells about Jerusalem and living waters and unending light.  He tells of the day when everyone and everything will be Holy to the Lord.

Even so, come Lord Jesus!

The books of Haggai, Zechariah, and Malichi were written after the return of the Jews to Jerusalem. Most of the other books of prophecy were written prior to the exile with several written during the time in Babylon.  Zechariah's oracles looked forward to the coming of the Messiah. He was instrumental in encouraging the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. But, his heart was focused on a time when the King would come and reign forever.

......

I awoke this morning with thoughts about what it really means when we talk about our "heart".  It has prompted me to take a look at that word as it is used in Scripture.  I will be taking a little side-step from my usual study through the Old and New Testaments to  write about this....

The first time the word "heart" is used ( according to my concordance) is Genesis 6:5 where God sees the heart of men and proclaims that "every intent of the thoughts of his heart" are continually evil.
The intent - the conceptions, the imaginations, and the determinations; of the thoughts - the plans, purposes; of the heart.  In 6:21 God declares that the inclination of mens hearts are evil from youth.

Because men have evil hearts, we are told, God's heart was grieved. ( Gen. 6:6)

Abraham spoke to himself, to his own heart, about the likelihood of Sarah having a child.
Abimelech spoke to God in a dream about the integrity of his heart.
The servant sent to find a wife for Isaac prayed in his heart and was immediately answered.
Esau determined in his heart to kill his brother, Jacob.
Joseph's brothers trembled in their hearts when they found their money in their bags.
And Jacob's heart was stunned when he learned that Joseph was still alive.

Genesis teaches us that our heart is the place of our thoughts and intentions; it is where we determine our plans -for good or for evil, but where evil seems to have free reign.  It is my heart that doubt and fear can grow. It is where I decide to hate or to love.  But, it is also where my prayers are lifted up to God. My heart is where God's amazing grace will stun me and I will praise Him.

Father in heaven,  teach me Your ways.  Let my heart not be troubled.  Let me not grow weary.  But strengthen me in Christ, the Lord of my heart.  I ask this in His name. amen.

Zechariah 9-11 This "burden" or oracle from the Lord is "against the land of Hadrach, with Damascus as its resting place."  These city-states were located north of Israel in the country of Syria. "Hamath" was originally a separate city - state north of Damascus, but became merged with Damascus after both were conquered by Assyria. Also mentioned in this passage are:
Tyre and Sidon, which were city-states in the land of the Phoenicians, northwest of Israel ; and
Ashkelon, Gaza, Ekron, and Ashdod which were all located in the land of the Philistines, southwest of Israel.
All of these places were judged because of their idolatry and sin.  They were all conquered by Alexander the Great.

This word from Zechariah also contains prophecy of the coming Messiah.  Here, we find that He will come in peace, riding on a donkey.  Here we also find prophecy of His second coming, when He will rule the whole world, from sea to sea.  Zechariah was told to portray the good Shepherd and then to portray the foolish shepherd.  Israel would reject the Good Shepherd.  They would be devoured by the foolish one.

Throughout this oracle there are words that encourage and give hope, interwoven with facts that are otherwise devastating.  God is just and His wrath against sin and rebellion will be meted out.  But, He is also full of compassion and He will be with His people and has not given up on them.

Father in heaven, help us to understand Your Word.  Times and nations are in Your Hands.  We have seen Your Word fulfilled and look toward the final fulfillment of Your promises when the Messiah, Jesus returns to rule over all the earth.  Thank You for the hope we have in Jesus.  May our eyes be open and may we be ready for the day of His return.  Be glorified in all the earth!  May I walk in righteousness and truth,  in all the ways that please You today, I ask in Jesus Name, Amen.

Zechariah 7-8  In the 4th year of king Darius's reign, two years before the temple is completed, men from Bethel came to Jerusalem to speak to the priests there.  Their questions had to do with the fast that was to be held in the fifth month.  According to the Holman Bible Dictionary, this fast was observed on the 9th day to mourn the destruction of the temple.  This seems a reasonable question since the temple was now being reconstructed.  

Zechariah's response was a Word from the Lord.  "Say to all the people of the land and to the priests, 'When you fasted and mourned in the fifth and the seventh months these seventy years, was it actually for Me that you fasted?  And when you eat and drink, do you not eat for yourselves and do you not drink for yourselves?'"  The Lord reminds them of Israel's history.  Before the exile, the prophets had warned Israel that their external religious activity was not what the Lord required.  They did not listen and that is why Jerusalem had been made desolate.  Here is what Isaiah had spoken,

"Why have we fasted and Thou dost not see?

Why have we humbled ourselves and Thou dost not notice?

Behold on the day of your fast

you find your desire.

And drive hard all your workers.

Behold, you fast for contention and strife

and to strike with a wicked fist.

You do not fast like your do today

to make your voice heard on high.

Is it a fast like this which I choose, 

a day for a man to humble himself?

Is it for bowing one''s head like a reed,

and for spreading out sackcloth and ashes as a bed?

Will you call this a fast, even an acceptable day to the Lord?

Is this not the fast I choose,

to loosen the bonds of wickedness,

to undo the bands of the yoke,

and to let the oppressed go free, 

and to break every yoke?

Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry,

and bring the homeless poor into the house;

when you see the naked to cover him;

and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?"

( Isaiah 58:3-7)

Because they refused to listen and made their hearts "like flint" the Lord "scattered them with a storm wind among all the nations whom they had not known..."  Now the returned remnant needed to learn the lesson that their ancestors had failed to learn.   " Thus has the Lord of hosts said, 'Dispense true justice, and practice kindness and compassion each to his brother; and do not oppress the widow or the orphan, the stranger or the poor; and do not devise evil in your hearts against one another."  ( v9-10)   

" These are the things which you should do:  speak the truth to one another; judge with truth and judgement for peace in your gates.  Also let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love perjury, for all these are what I hate, declares the Lord." ( 8:16-17)

The Lord does answer the question about the fasts.  Yes, they should keep them... 

The fast of the fourth month ( observed for the taking of Jerusalem)

The fast of the fifth month ( observed for the destruction of the temple)

The fast of the seventh month ( the Day of Atonement and the Feast of tabernacles)

The fast of the tenth month ( observed for the siege of Jerusalem)

But, these would now be observed with "joy, gladness, and cheerful feasts" instead of solemn fasts!

Love, truth and peace would abound to the point that other nations would be drawn to the Lord. 

"So many peoples and mighty nations will come to seek the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord." 

A change would come to Jerusalem, the Lord promised,  because He loved Zion.  He was jealous for her.  He would return and make her "the City of Truth".  The mountain would be "called the Holy Mountain".  Men and women will live to old age.  The streets would be filled with children.  People would return from foreign lands.  The land and the people would be fruitful.  "If it is too difficult in the sight of the remnant of this people in those days, will it also be too difficult in My sight? declares the Lord." ( v6)  The Lord promises to save His people, to make them a blessing, and to do good to them.  He tells them to be strong and courageous. 

The people had asked a good question.  The answer was probably much more than they expected!

They wanted to know about a religious observance.  The Lord wanted them to know His will for their whole lives - changed hearts, transformed lives, renewed minds - each individual personally hearing His Word and living in loving obedience:

Doing justice

Practicing kindness

Showing compassion

Speaking truth

Seeking peace

Not oppressing the widow, orphan, stranger, or poor. 

Not devising evil towards anyone

Not lying

Unfortunately, we know that Israel continued to fall short of what the Lord wanted for His people.  Jesus spoke about these same things during His time on earth, "You hypocrites, rightly did Isaiah prophesy of you, saying 'This people honors Me with their lips, but their heart is far away from Me." 

They cared more about their outward images than their inward realities.  

It is a strong teaching for all of us.  Going to church, reading our Bibles, giving offerings, or even doing "good" works - are not going to please God if our hearts are far from Him.  We need to heed His Word and do what He has told us to do.  

Father, thank You that nothing is too hard for You.  You change our hearts and make us new creatures through Jesus our Lord.  You draw us near to Your own heart so that we honor You , not only with our lips, but with our whole lives as well.  Forgive our trespasses Lord.  Forgive us for being hypocrites... for worrying about our appearances and reputations instead of truly worshiping You with all of our hearts.   Remake me Lord.  Mold me in the image of Jesus.  May justice, truth, love, and peace flow from my life as You fill me with Yourself, I pray.  In the Name of the Savior I ask this, amen. 

Zechariah 4-6  As his vision continues, Zechariah is shown 4 mysterious sights:

A lamp stand with olive trees.
A flying scroll that is a curse.
A bushel basket with a lead cover, containing a woman that is a symbol for wickedness.
Four chariots, each with different colored horses.

In each situation the angel asks Zechariah to identify what he sees and then explains something about it.

The lampstand  represents the Word and the Spirit of the Lord.  The Lord promises that Zerubbabel will finish the temple, "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the Lord of hosts."

The olive trees represent two "anointed ones who are standing by the Lord of the whole earth." 

The scroll is a written judgement against those who steal and those who lie, giving false witness.

The "ephah" or bushel basket containing the woman called Wickedness,  is carried away by 2 winged women.  A temple will be built for her in Shinar ( Babylon).   Idolatry was contained and taken away, but not destroyed...

The chariots represented the "four spirits of heaven going forth after standing before the Lord of all the earth."  The one with black horses and the one with white horses went north.  The one with dappled horses was sent south.  The "strong ones" went out to patrol the earth.  Those who went north "appeased" the wrath of the Lord.

After this, Zechariah was told to take the silver and gold that came as an offering, and to make a crown.  He was to set it on Joshua's head.  Joshua was the high priest, not the king, so this was unusual.  This prophecy is given, " Thus says the Lord of hosts, ' Behold a man whose name is Branch, for He will branch out from where He is; and He will build the temple of the Lord, Yes it is He who will build the temple of the Lord, and He who will bear the honor and sit and rule on His throne. Thus, He will be a priest on His throne, and the counsel of peace will be between the two offices."

 Only Jesus Christ fulfills this prophecy.   He is our High Priest and our King.  The temple He builds is not made out of bricks and stone, but out of those who hear His voice and follow Him.

Father in heaven, how precious is Your Word to us.  You are actively at work in our world.  You judge the wicked and You redeem those who call upon Your Name and receive Your Son as Savior and King.  Jesus, the Branch, is coming again and we await that day.  Let Your Spirit fill us and work in us according to the power of Your might, to accomplish the building of Your temple, Your kingdom here on earth, through Jesus Christ our Priest and King. Amen.