10.7 Choosing and setting direction

Scripture speaks of setting, inclining, turning and directing the heart.

"Incline your heart to the Lord, the God of Israel" (Joshua 24:23).
"Incline my heart to your testimonies, and not to selfish gain!" (Psalm 119:36).
"Direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only" (1 Samuel 7:3).
The heart can be whole or divided: "unite my heart to fear your name" (Psalm 86:11), against "a double heart" (Psalm 12:2). Solomon's "heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God" (1 Kings 11:4).
It can be stubborn. "The stubbornness of their evil hearts" runs through Jeremiah (Jeremiah 7:24).

"Everyone whose heart stirred him, and everyone whose spirit moved him" (Exodus 35:21) puts heart and spirit side by side.

Fear can stop a choice that has already been made. The young man was told by his father to kill the captive kings, "But the young man did not draw his sword, for he was afraid, because he was still a young man" (Judges 8:20). Saul ordered his armor-bearer to kill him, "But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly" (1 Samuel 31:4). In both, the order came from outside, and fear held the hand back. Fear can also hold a whole army to its word. The soldiers were faint with hunger and found honey, "but no one put his hand to his mouth, for the people feared the oath" (1 Samuel 14:26).

Fear can set a direction as well as stop one. Uriah "was afraid and fled and escaped to Egypt" (Jeremiah 26:21). When the hail was announced, "whoever feared the word of the Lord among the servants of Pharaoh hurried his slaves and his livestock into the houses, but whoever did not pay attention to the word of the Lord left his slaves and his livestock in the field" (Exodus 9:20–21). There the fear of God's word is what made the difference in what people did. Proverbs turns the same word into a quality of the wise: "One who is wise is cautious and turns away from evil, but a fool is reckless and careless" (Proverbs 14:16). "Cautious" renders the fear word.

When God speaks to fear before an act, he does not only take the fear away. He sends the person forward, and he gives the reason. "Be strong and courageous. Do not fear or be in dread of them, for it is the Lord your God who goes with you" (Deuteronomy 31:6). "Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord" (Exodus 14:13). "Be careful, be quiet, do not fear, and do not let your heart be faint" (Isaiah 7:4). The commands that come with "fear not" are commands to stand, to go on, and to be still. The reason is that God goes with them.

Jehoshaphat set the fear of the Lord before the judges: "let the fear of the Lord be upon you. Be careful what you do, for there is no injustice with the Lord our God, or partiality or taking bribes" (2 Chronicles 19:7). And when "the dread of the Lord fell upon the people", "they came out as one man" (1 Samuel 11:7).

Scripture sets life itself before the inner being as a choice. "I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live" (Deuteronomy 30:19). Turning that chooses life is described as a considered act: "Because he considered and turned away from all the transgressions that he had committed, he shall surely live; he shall not die" (Ezekiel 18:28). Chapter 2 gives the account.

Death is set before the inner being in the same words: "Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death" (Jeremiah 21:8). A way can seem right and still end there: "There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death" (Proverbs 14:12). Esau chose with death in view: "I am about to die; of what use is a birthright to me?" (Genesis 25:32). And Christ's death sets a direction for those who live: "he died for all, that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised" (2 Corinthians 5:15).

Connections: from feeling (10.1), where fear holds back or turns aside; from remembering (10.3); from thinking (10.4) and wanting (10.6); into the deed (the path in 10.0); before God (10.9); with life set before a person (Chapter 2).