Reflex Obedience: When the Word Is Written on Your Heart (Ekev)

Ekev | עקב | "Consequence"                    08.16.2025

Torah: Deuteronomy 7:12 – 11:25

Prophets: Isaiah 49-:14 – 51:3

Brit Hadasha: John 13:31 - 15:27; James 5:7-11; Romans 8:31-39

For those of us here today, we have probably read this Torah portion over and over so many times.  We think we know what it says.  And maybe we do know what it says.  But is it written in our hearts or only in our brains?

And how do we know if it’s written in our hearts?  As I sat there this morning pondering the answer to that question, I believe the Lord gave me the word “reflex.”

A reflex is an automatic action.  The doc hits a particular spot in your knee and your leg moves. You don’t think about it.  You certainly don’t tell your leg to move.  It instinctively knows to move.

Another allegorical example: I love my children with all my heart.  If I hear one of my boys call for me, this mama goes running.  Doesn’t matter where.  Doesn’t matter the cost.   I’ll fight the bear, the devil.  You name it.  It’s reflex.  And that love for them, it is engraved on my heart.

And I believe that’s how we should be with God.  That the right choices, the right actions throughout our days, even when no one is looking - should be a reflex.  Just an automatic internal direction to follow the right path.

I’ll give you an elementary example.  We are to love our neighbor, right?  That’s an easy one in knowing, but not so easy in application.  How many times this week have we overlooked opportunities to love our neighbors?

Did you see someone in a wheelchair struggling to shop at Walmart and just walk on by pretending not to see?  Or do you automatically offer help without thought?

Did you see someone hungry or someone with a need and look the other way?  Or did you offer assistance?  Did you scroll past all of those prayer requests you saw online, or did you actually stop what you were doing, and go to the Father in prayer?  How many times DAILY are we everyone BUT the good Samaritan?

So that’s where I feel like we are pressured to get.  Not that we have to run out and try to conquer being good Samaritans to all people.  We aren’t God.  But sometimes He does want and expect us as his children to be good ambassadors of His kingdom, to the be the hands and the feet of God himself, working through us as human agency.

But what I mean is that I feel a huge pressure that we should be ensuring that this is carved into our hearts.  I feel a sense of urgency that we are nearing the end of the days of preparation.  Our lights should be trimmed and our oil full.  And we should be fully prepared, at least as best as we can be.

I believe this is going to be harder for us, perhaps harder than any other nation. America is spoiled.  Even our poorest live in luxury compared to many other countries. We are drowning in overabundance. We pride ourselves as being a “selfie” generation.  We take more pictures of ourself than any other generation ever before and we celebrate that.  But it’s disgusting.  We are vain and self absorbed.  Which is exactly the polar opposite of the design that scriptures outline for us. 

Colossians 3:12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

I believe our hardest lessons are yet to come.

It’s not about us.  

This was hard for the Israelites too.  The scripture talks about a greater exodus than that from Egypt, and I laugh to myself thinking, is it because it is larger in number, or greater in complexity.  It was somewhat easy for them to physically leave Egypt, but much more difficult to actually let it go and not long to be there.  But can you imagine how much harder it will be for us? We may get out of America, but how many will be able to get America out of us?

There are so many lessons to be learned from their wilderness experience.  But today we are going to focus on 2. 

Choosing who we will serve:  our actions, our path.    

  -             And                      -

It’s not about us. 

Throughout this book Moses is constantly repeating himself in some form or fashion.  He reminds them to keep the commandments and when they do, practically everything concerning them will be blessed. And he warns them, if you don’t keep the commandments, you’ll be serving other gods and you’ll be fruitless and die.

Deut 7 ¹¹ Therefore, take care to follow the commands, decrees and laws I give you today.

¹² If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will keep his covenant of love with you, as he swore to your ancestors. ¹³ He will love you and bless you and increase your numbers. He will bless the fruit of your womb, the crops of your land—your grain, new wine and olive oil—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you. ¹⁴ You will be blessed more than any other people; none of your men or women will be childless, nor will any of your livestock be without young. ¹⁵ The Lord will keep you free from every disease. He will not inflict on you the horrible diseases you knew in Egypt, but he will inflict them on all who hate you.

Deut 8:¹⁹ If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. ²⁰ Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.

And it seems that God and Moses have tried many different ways to reach the people.  God has told the people directly.  Moses has carried the message to the people.  It’s been spoken and it has been written. There have been many, many tests with repercussions.  There have been examples, in their face.  There have been living experiences themselves of both miracles and judgement.  There’s been teachings and reminders and repetition, but still the Israelites have stumbled and failed, but God remains faithful.

And even through all of that… Moses continues to plead and warn and teach, because He knows them.  Intimately well at this point.  And He just can’t get this through to them enough. 

Keep the commandments and live bountifully.  If you don’t remember them, you will be cursed and die. It’s really that simple.

Deut 8: ⁶ Observe the commands of the Lord your God, walking in obedience to him and revering him. ⁷ For the Lord your God is bringing you into a good land—a land with brooks, streams, and deep springs gushing out into the valleys and hills; ⁸ a land with wheat and barley, vines and fig trees, pomegranates, olive oil and honey; ⁹ a land where bread will not be scarce and you will lack nothing; a land where the rocks are iron and you can dig copper out of the hills.

Deut 11: ¹³ So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today—to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul— ¹⁴ then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and olive oil. ¹⁵ I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.

¹⁶ Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. ¹⁷ Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you. ¹⁸ Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.

And so it is the same for us.

One in particular that’s in this week’s portion. Warning.. we do not live on bread alone. 

Deut 8: ² Remember how the Lord your God led you all the way in the wilderness these forty years, to humble and test you in order to know what was in your heart, whether or not you would keep his commands. ³ He humbled you, causing you to hunger and then feeding you with manna, which neither you nor your ancestors had known, to teach you that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord.

But generally speaking…We are fat and happy.  How are we going to hold up under test? We saw and we’ve read that God let them get on the brink of dying without both food and water.  He was testing them.  And we have a test to come.

We know for a fact that the day will come where we have to make a choice. We will not be able to buy or sell without taking the mark of the beast. When your belly starts growling, how are you going to do?  Are you going to cave at the first grumble?  The fifth grumble?  The 25^th grumble?  Or will you wait upon the Lord?  What if He tarries?

Again, we see another deep correlation with the Israelites. They’re about to go into a land of plenty.  They’ll eat bread with no scarcity. They’ll live in houses and cities they didn’t build.  Their crops and their herds will all be bountiful.  Moses doesn’t say, “You’ve made it! Go wild and party!”  No!  He said whoaaa…. Hold up…. This is still dangerous.  You’re going to be tempted to forget that it is God who provided all of this. 

Deut 8: ¹⁰ When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. ¹¹ Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. ¹² Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, ¹³ and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, ¹⁴ then your heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. ¹⁵ He led you through the vast and dreadful wilderness, that thirsty and waterless land, with its venomous snakes and scorpions. He brought you water out of hard rock. ¹⁶ He gave you manna to eat in the wilderness, something your ancestors had never known, to humble and test you so that in the end it might go well with you. ¹⁷ You may say to yourself, “My power and the strength of my hands have produced this wealth for me.” ¹⁸ But remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you the ability to produce wealth, and so confirms his covenant, which he swore to your ancestors, as it is today.

¹⁹ If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods and worship and bow down to them, I testify against you today that you will surely be destroyed. ²⁰ Like the nations the Lord destroyed before you, so you will be destroyed for not obeying the Lord your God.

There’s danger in getting comfortable in your blessings.

You didn’t earn this.  You don’t even deserve this. This is because He loves you and He made this promise to your Fathers. And Yahweh is a God of his word.

And look at us.

Here we are. We eat everything without scarcity.  Generally speaking, we overeat, in gluttony. We are blessed in the fruit of our wombs so much so that our citizens are going out and murdering the unborn.  And sometimes, the already born.

We remember God when we are in need, or when we are hungry.  But when we’ve eaten and we are full, He is merely an afterthought, if a thought that crosses our minds at all.  And thus was the warning.

If they get comfortable with their abundance and success, then it will be tempting to for them to credit themselves as something they’ve earned, but if they fall into that trap, then they’ll perish.  Because it is NOT them. The blessings, the opportunities, the abilities, ALL come from God.   He is the giver of the good gifts. They’ve done nothing.  You can’t earn the blessings.  You can’t earn salvation.  We serve Him out of love, commitment and loyalty.  We SERVE HIM.  It’s all about HIM.  

But again, here in America (and I’m not anti-American!  I’m a patriot and die-hard member of the GOP) we are so twisted in our thinking.  Speaking generally, we are self-entitled and have an over inflated sense of self-importance.  We carry no honor for our leaders, our elders, or even our neighbors for that matter.  Hospitality is gone.  Manners and etiquette are things of the past.  And many, even in this movement, have this puffed up sense of self righteousness and knowledge that makes them better than everyone else. Phooey. 

Just like God said.  They are rebellious, stiff necked and, I say, should be pitied.

Deut 9: ⁶ Understand, then, that it is not because of your righteousness that the Lord your God is giving you this good land to possess, for you are a stiff-necked people.

Deut 9:¹³ And the Lord said to me, “I have seen this people, and they are a stiff-necked people indeed! ¹⁴ Let me alone, so that I may destroy them and blot out their name from under heaven.

Deut 9:²⁴ You have been rebellious against the Lord ever since I have known you.

But back to speaking about the puffed up in our movement, some even, put on a front like God serves them. they walk around with their chests puffed out and flex their book smarts and put off this air that God owed them the blessings because of their legalism.  Phooey again.

Disclaimer: Just as we need lawyers today in the worldly realm, we do need experts on the law in this movement. But the scriptures refer us to Judah for that.  We are not lawyers. And I’m confident we don’t need as many self-appointed people in that role.  

But, we also have to keep in mind that lawyers report up to a judge.  They don’t make the rulings.  And it’s strange we don’t have these “lawyers” in our movement defending anyone or pleading cases, we only see lawyers who want to debate the law… And that’ doesn’t make for a system of justice.  So, as a movement should have a red flag that we are waaaaaay off. 🚩

I feel like we are modern day Hellenistic Greeks.  And just as they fell into decline or demise, our culture will also do. God’s cup is filling up.  We cannot continue to twist and corrupt, and parade our sin, kill our babies, look the other way and pray for mercy and grace.  Judgement day is coming.

How do we stack up?  Let’s start with a self-audit on our nation.

How does America do with pride?

How does America do with greed?

How does America do with wrath, anger and violence?

How does America do with envy?

How does America do with lust?

How does America do with gluttony?

How does America handle our work ethic?  Physically and spiritually?

Obviously, the answer is not good.  We fail.

So what now?  This torah portion tell us….   Destruction.

Micah 6 Listen to what the Lord says:

“Stand up, plead my case before the mountains;    let the hills hear what you have to say.

² “Hear, you mountains, the Lord’s accusation;    listen, you everlasting foundations of the earth.For the Lord has a case against his people;    he is lodging a charge against Israel.

³ “My people, what have I done to you?    How have I burdened you? Answer me.⁴ I brought you up out of Egypt    and redeemed you from the land of slavery.I sent Moses to lead you,    also Aaron and Miriam.⁵ My people, remember    what Balak king of Moab plotted    and what Balaam son of Beor answered.Remember your journey from Shittim to Gilgal,    that you may know the righteous acts of the Lord.”

⁶ With what shall I come before the Lord    and bow down before the exalted God?Shall I come before him with burnt offerings,    with calves a year old?⁷ Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,    with ten thousand rivers of olive oil?Shall I offer my firstborn for my transgression,    the fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?⁸ He has shown you, O mortal, what is good.    And what does the Lord require of you?To act justly and to love mercy    and to walk humbly^[a] with your God.

⁹ Listen! The Lord is calling to the city—    and to fear your name is wisdom—    “Heed the rod and the One who appointed it.^[b]10 Am I still to forget your ill-gotten treasures, you wicked house,    and the short ephah,^[c] which is accursed?¹¹ Shall I acquit someone with dishonest scales,    with a bag of false weights?¹² Your rich people are violent;    your inhabitants are liars    and their tongues speak deceitfully.¹³ Therefore, I have begun to destroy you,    to ruin^[d] you because of your sins.¹⁴ You will eat but not be satisfied;    your stomach will still be empty.^[e]You will store up but save nothing,    because what you save^[f] I will give to the sword.¹⁵ You will plant but not harvest;    you will press olives but not use the oil,    you will crush grapes but not drink the wine.¹⁶ You have observed the statutes of Omri    and all the practices of Ahab’s house;    you have followed their traditions.Therefore I will give you over to ruin    and your people to derision;    you will bear the scorn of the nations.^[g]”

What do we do about it?

1.       Pray God’s will

a.       Pray for the lost

b.       Pray for hearts to be open to conviction, repentance

c.       Pray on behalf of our ancestors and our country and of course ourselves

2.       Be a light to others

a.       A doer of the word, not a hearer only

3.       Start making a change in our own lives

a.       Start at our own heart – stay in the word and get it in your heart.  Work at it.  Practice it.  Until it is a reflex.

b.       Start at your own kitchen table.  Change first your house.  Then your neighborhood.  Then your city.  Then your state.  Before you know it, we can change a nation together.

c.       Disciple others.  Jesus took 12 men and changed the world.  If we are willing, there’s no reason that Yeshua can’t take 7-10, or more, of us to change our communities.

4.        Be ready.  Word in heart.  Lamps full of oil.  Be preparing as a bride for her husband.  And be found working when the Master returns.