We need a holy sensitivity to God’s words. We need to take them to heart, to receive them personally, and eagerly, with faith. Taking God’s words to heart is important because his words aren’t like other words. God’s words are wholly trustworthy, inspired, and for our everlasting good.

“In one ear and out the other.” You’ve heard that phrase, right? Parents know that speaking to their kids can feel like that. You’re speaking important words, only to be met with a blank stare or shifty eyes. You realize that whatever is going on, the listener isn’t taking your words to heart.

Moses knew what it was like to lead and speak to Israelites who had a history of waywardness. There were plenty of covenant people who let the words of God go in one ear and out the other. The message didn’t seem to land. The people weren’t internalizing what God had revealed.

Near the end of Moses’s life, God told him to teach the Israelites a song—a song they would take with them into the land and for the generations to come. This “Song of Moses,” which is found in Deuteronomy 32:1–43, exalted God’s faithfulness and power and uniqueness, as well as reminding the Israelites of their own failures and weakness and wandering.

Moses taught the song to the Israelites and finished speaking other words (Deut. 32:44–45). Then he said, “Take to heart all the words by which I am warning you today, that you may command them to your children, that they may be careful to do all the words of this law. For it is no empty word for you, but your very life, and by this word you shall live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess” (32:46–47).

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