Deuteronomy 30 – The Choice

A. Restoration for a repentant Israel.

1. (1) When the blessing and the curse comes upon Israel.

“Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God drives you,

a. Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you: Under the inspiration of the LORD, Moses carefully explained the blessings and curses that would come upon an obedient or disobedient Israel. Under the same inspiration, Moses knew that all these things would come upon Israel.

i. From the height of blessing during the reigns of David and Solomon, to the depth of cursing at the fall of Jerusalem, Israel’s history has been a legacy of either being blessed or cursed under the terms of the old covenant.

b. You call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God drives you: God knew that Israel would be eventually scattered and exiled and that more than once. Here through Moses, God called the Jews dispersed among the nations (the Diaspora) to remember the promises of the blessing and the curse.

2. (2-5) God’s promise to restore Israel in the Promised Land.

And you return to the LORD your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, that the LORD your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. Then the LORD your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.

a. Return to the LORD your God: As Israel would return to the LORD, God would bless them and bring them back from captivity having compassion on them.

i. This was fulfilled in part by the return of the Babylonian exiles during the times of Ezra and Nehemiah. But a greater fulfillment of this would await the twentieth century, when God gathered Israel in the Promised Land. This modern regathering is a larger, broader, more evidently sovereign, and a more miraculous restoration than what was recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah after the Babylonian captivity.

ii. “The Hebrew phrase translated ‘restore your fortunes’ [bring you back from captivity] signifies a total change, a return to a former state, and indicates that Israel would return to the position of being under the blessing of the Lord in their own land.” (Kalland)

iii. Return to the LORD your God: “By sin we run away from God; by repentance we return to him.” (Trapp)

b. From all the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you: The modern restoration of Israel more accurately fulfills this promise than the return from the Babylonian exile. Today, Israel is populated by Jews from virtually every country in the world. The breadth of this promise is emphasized by repetition, highlighted by the gathering of the Jews from the farthest parts under heaven.

i. Adam Clarke, writing in 1811, recognized that this gathering must be fulfilled in a future time: “As this promise refers to a return from captivity in which they had been scattered among all nations, consequently it is not the Babylonish captivity which is intended; and the repossession of their land must be different from that which was consequent on their return from Chaldea.”

c. To the land which your fathers possessed: The restoration had to happen in the land of Israel. The modern restoration of Israel more accurately fulfills this promise than the return from the Babylonian exile. On the return from the Babylonian exile, Israel was still a vassal state of the Persians. But in the modern restoration of Israel, you shall possess it was literally fulfilled by an independent Jewish state.

i. In the early days of the Zionist movement, the British government offered the territory of Uganda as a place to establish a Jewish state. If that would have happened, and if Jews from all over the world had flocked there to establish a Jewish state, it would not fulfill the promise of restoration stated here and in other Old Testament passages. This could only be fulfilled in the land which your fathers possessed.

d. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers: This promise was fulfilled in a greater sense in the modern restoration of Israel, more than in the return from the Babylonian exile. In the days of the return from the Babylonian exile, the Jewish community was small, weak, and poor. But today, under the modern restoration of Israel, the state of Israel does indeed prosper and the promise to multiply you more than your fathers is fulfilled. Israel, as a nation, is larger, stronger, and richer than at any time after the Babylonian exile.

3. (6) The spiritual restoration of Israel.

And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.

a. And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart…to love the LORD your God with all your heart: As remarkable and as prophetically meaningful as the modern restoration of Israel is, it is yet incomplete. The spiritual dimension of the restoration – the circumcision of the heart – has not yet been accomplished.

i. “Paul equated circumcision of the heart with spiritual renewal, especially in the Epistle to the Romans.” (Merrill)

ii. Today Israel is a largely secular nation. Among many Israeli Jews there is some measure of respect for the Bible as a book of history and national identity. Yet there is not, and has not been, a true turning to the LORD God, particularly as a nation.

iii. The religious or Orthodox Jews have not truly turned to the LORD. Though they have had an important and precious part in God’s plan for Israel in helping a spiritual consciousness for the Jewish people to survive through the centuries of the Diaspora, they have yet to truly turn to the LORD. This is true because the character and nature of the LORD are perfectly expressed in His Messiah, Jesus. Jesus said, He who believes in Me, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees Me sees Him who sent Me (John 12:44-45). Since the Jewish people (except for a precious remnant) reject Jesus, they are rejecting the LORD God.

iv. As Paul wrote in Romans 11:28-29: Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and calling of God are irrevocable.

v. But God’s promise still stands. As the final aspect of the promise to restore Israel, God will restore them spiritually. He promised to circumcise the heart of Israel. This idea is repeated in the promises of the new covenant (Ezekiel 36:26-27). The ultimate salvation in Jesus Christ of most Jewish people is promised (Romans 11:26). Jesus promised He would return to a Jewish people who welcomed Him in the name of the LORD (Matthew 23:39).

vi. Some people claim that because the modern restoration of Israel has not yet demonstrated this spiritual aspect that it has nothing to do with these prophecies. But the spiritual aspect is properly listed last in this passage after Israel has been restored to the land. The same order is seen in Ezekiel 37, the vision of the dry bones, seeing Israel restored and strong, before the LORD breathes the breath of His Spirit in them. The modern restoration of Israel is a remarkable sign, and an extremely significant – but thus far only partial – fulfillment of these prophecies.

4. (7-10) Blessings upon repentant Israel.

“Also the LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. And you will again obey the voice of the LORD and do all His commandments which I command you today. The LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the LORD will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

a. Also the LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies: As Israel was restored to the land and restored to a true relationship with God through Jesus their Messiah, God would defend them and curse their enemies, the men who hate the Jewish people and have persecuted them.

i. These promises – much like the promise God made to Abraham, to bless those who bless you and to curse him who curses you (Genesis 12:3) – show how foolish it was for Christians and the institutional church to persecute the Jewish people.

b. You will again obey the voice of the LORD and do all His commandments: This is the ultimate restoration of the Jewish people to the Lord, through Jesus Christ, the LORD’s Messiah (Romans 11:26, Ezekiel 37, Zechariah 12:10). The Lord will again rejoice over the Jewish people, as He did over their fathers. All this will be seen when Israel turns to the LORD with their all their heart and soul, as He is revealed in Jesus the Messiah.

i. You will again obey the voice of the LORD: “Come again to thyself, as the prodigal, who had been for some while beside himself.” (Trapp)

c. The LORD your God will make you abound: In part, these prophecies are fulfilled now in the modern restoration of Israel. Yet their ultimate fulfillment will happen in the Millennium when restored Israel has truly turned to the LORD and His Messiah, Jesus.

B. Moses concludes his great sermon: choose life!

1. (11-14) Israel’s capability to keep the covenant.

“For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

a. For this commandment which I command you today: The covenant God made with Israel – the old covenant – was not too mysterious for them, nor was it far off. Israel could indeed keep this covenant. God did not expect the impossible from Israel when He expected them to keep this covenant.

i. “This passage is used by Paul in Romans 10:6–8…. God now approached men in Christ and as the living Lord He asked not for some superhuman effort but only for a glad acceptance of his grace in Christ.” (Thompson)

b. But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it: However, this is not intended to mean that the Mosaic Law could be perfectly kept and that a person could be obedient enough to the Mosaic Law to earn a righteous standing before God.

i. The law was only one aspect of the old covenant. There were also the aspects of sacrifice and choice. God never expected Israel to perfectly obey the law and find righteousness through law-obedience. That is why He provided for the sacrifice – the punishment of a perfect, innocent victim in the place of the sinner. God did not expect an Israelite to trust in his obedience to the law to save him (though God wanted Israel to love His law). God expected an Israelite to trust in the atonement made by sacrifice to make him righteous, and to understand that this sacrifice pointed towards a perfect sacrifice God would one day make through the Messiah. In this, a godly Israelite, in the old covenant, trusted in the work of Jesus the Messiah to save him even before the time of Jesus.

ii. The outline of salvation by grace through faith was clear and was near to the Israelite. There were things right before them that they could easily grasp.

· They knew that they were sinners both because of the law, and the existence of the sacrificial system.

· They knew that salvation came by sacrifice, a substitute judged in their place.

· They knew that animal sacrifices could never be enough, because they had to be continually repeated.

· They knew that it was faith that brought the benefit of the great sacrifices that all the priesthood and its ceremonies pointed to.

iii. What the Israelite could see, they could see as if it was by moonlight. Since the incarnation, life, ministry, suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension of Jesus, all this is seen by the brightest sunlight. It was true that the word had come near to Israel; even more so, it has come near to us.

c. That you may do it: The old covenant including the aspects of law, sacrifice, and choice could be kept. It wasn’t beyond Israel’s capability to keep. When they failed to keep the law, there was a partial remedy through the sacrificial system, all pointing towards the life and sacrifice of Jesus Christ.

2. (15-18) The choice.

“See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess.

a. I have set before you today life and good, death and evil: Under the terms of the old covenant, Israel had a choice. God set before them life or death, good or evil. It was up to them. God was determined to glorify Himself through Israel one way or another. How it would happen was their choice, and their choice would be seen in their obedience and faithfulness to the covenant.

i. This was an appeal to all Israel but spoken to them as individuals. “As elsewhere, now at the end of his addresses, Moses stressed the personal involvement of the people with the Lord.” (Kalland)

b. The LORD your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess: Under the terms of the old covenant, Israel, if obedient, would see blessing. If disobedient, then Israel would surely perish. It was up to Israel and based on their conduct.

i. It must be understood that believers in Jesus Christ do not relate to God on the terms of the old covenant, but on the terms of something better: the new covenant. Under the new covenant, a relationship with God is not based on what the believer does for God, but on what Jesus has done on behalf of His people. There is more to the new covenant than this, but this is at least one crucial distinction between the old and new covenants.

ii. The curses of Deuteronomy show that there was a terrible price to pay for unfaithfulness to the old covenant. Yet because the new covenant is a greater covenant, the price for rejecting it is even greater (Hebrews 10:28-29).

3. (19-20) Choose life.

I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; that you may love the LORD your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

a. I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you: In these most solemn words, Moses set the choice before Israel. They had to choose between life and death, between blessing and cursing.

i. Moses did not call upon angels, demons, or a supposed “council of the gods” to witness this covenant. He called upon creation itself (heaven and earth) as witnesses. “In similar ancient Near Eastern legal transactions the witnesses usually were the gods of the respective litigants, but the monotheism of Israel’s faith dictated that such appeal be to creation, to heaven and earth, for only it would endure into future ages.” (Merrill)

b. Therefore choose life: Though the choice belonged to Israel, God cared about what they chose. When Moses pled with Israel, crying out that they would choose life, he displayed God’s heart toward Israel. In some sense, how God would glorify Himself through Israel was up to them, but it was clearly God’s preference that He glorify Himself through an obedient, blessed Israel. Therefore, God (through Moses) pled with Israel to choose life.

i. “Man is accountable for his actions, because they are his; were he necessitated by fate, or sovereign constraint, they could not be his.” (Clarke)

ii. “The final decision was Israel’s to make. It was one for the free choice of the people. The covenant mediator speaking on Yahweh’s behalf could only make the alternatives clear and then appeal to Israel to choose life.” (Thompson)

iii. Man today is confronted with the choice. But since the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus, the choice focuses first not on “Will I obey God or not?” but on “Will I trust in Jesus for my standing before God?” Jesus said, He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters. (Luke 11:23) Jesus still asked the question, who do you say that I am (Matthew 16:15), and man’s choice in answering that question determines his eternal destiny.

iv. “The gospel, which is the perfect revelation of God in Christ, brings every one of us face to face with the great alternative, and urgently demands from each his personal act of choice whether he will accept it or neglect or reject it. Not to choose to accept is to choose to reject. To do nothing is to choose death.” (Maclaren)

v. To choose life meant much more than saying, “I would prefer life than death.” It required faith and the true intent of being faithful to the covenant. “Choosing life meant choosing to enter into the covenant with the Lord and to be true to its principles.” (Merrill)

c. That you may love the LORD your God: To love God this way, to really trust Him, is explained well in Deuteronomy 30:20. To love and trust God means to obey His voice, for a child who really loves and trusts their father will obey him. It means to cling to Him, for if we really love and trust Him, we will be attached to Him. It means to regard Him as our life and length of…days, because if we love and trust Him, He is not part of our life, He is our life.

i. Adam Clarke noted the connection between love and obedience: “Without love there can be no obedience…. Without obedience love is fruitless and dead.”

Pin3

3 Shares