When we look back at the Old Covenant it can be easy to see all the rules and think that the covenant just amounted to rule keeping. We can even begin to think of the Old Covenant as if it were a matter of business-like transactions: ‘If I just do X, Y, and Z that is commanded in the covenant, then God will give me A, B, and C and I can go on with my life.’ We know that this is how God’s people began to view the covenant. Instead of being faithful and loyal exclusively to the Lord, they began to practice syncretism, which is to say they began to mix elements of pagan religion with their worship to the Lord. They never completely stopped worshipping the Lord, but they began worshipping other gods alongside him (for example, see Zeph. 1:4). They thought that if they performed the rituals of the law and external acts of obedience the Lord would still bless them.

In fact, it was not merely external acts of obedience that God wanted from his people. In the book of Deuteronomy, when Moses reestablished the covenant with the people of Israel, God made it clear that he demanded their full and undivided loyalty and their glad and willing obedience from the heart. God warned the people that if they were unfaithful to him, he would punish them for their wickedness. “All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you… Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things, therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything.” (Deut. 28:45-48, italics added).

The punishment for the stubborn and unfaithful Israelites who refused to serve the Lord with glad and joyful hearts was that they would serve cruel, foreign nations. How much better it would have been for them to serve the Lord who gave them an abundance of all things than to serve their wicked enemies. But they refused to listen to the Lord and love him with all their heart, soul and might. They did what was right in their own eyes instead of trusting that what the Lord commands is always best. They made a mockery of God by offering empty, hollow worship from hearts that were lifeless and devoid of love for their Lord who saved them. They did not give God the undivided loyalty he deserves. They did not serve him with glad and willing obedience from the heart. May we never forget that God wants our hearts, our love, our loyalty. May we always love him and serve him with joyfulness and gladness of heart!