Deeper Commentary
Deu 30:1 When all these things have come on you, the blessing and
the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all
the nations where Yahweh your God has driven you-
We're wrong to think that God passionlessly waits for us to repent or pray
to Him, and then He will forgive or act for us. He loves us, simply so; and
with all love's manipulation of circumstances, seeks to pour out His love
upon us. Thus repentance itself is a gift which God gives and is not totally
upon human initiative (Dt. 4:29-31; 30:1-10; 1 Kings 8:58).
Moses by the end of his life had a great sensitivity to the likely failures of Israel, and in this he points forward to the Lord Jesus. He often reminds them that he knows that they will turn away from the Covenant he had given them (e.g. Dt. 30:1; 31:29). He knew that one day they would want a king, even though God was their king (Dt. 17:14). He knew that there would always be poor people in the land, even though if the Law was properly kept this would not be the case (Dt. 15:4mg, 11). He knew they would accidentally commit murder and would need a way of escape; therefore he twice repeats and explains the law concerning the cities of refuge (Dt. 4:42; 19:5). These being a symbol of the future Messiah (Heb. 6:18), this emphasis would suggest that like Paul and Jacob, the mind of Moses in his time of spiritual maturity was firmly fixed on the Lord Jesus Christ. He foresaw how they would see horses and chariots and get frightened (Dt. 20:1-4).
Deu 30:2 and return to Yahweh your God and obey His voice according to all
that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart
and with all your soul-
This point of return of repentance is when all the curses of Dt. 29
have come upon Israel (:1). But as noted on Dt. 29:23, the level of curse
stated there has never come upon Israel: "The whole land is sulphur, salt
and burning, that it is not sown nor giving produce and no grass grows
therein, like the overthrow of Sodom". It waits to be fulfilled therefore
in the last days, and so this 'returning' ultimately speaks of the latter
day repentance of a minority in Israel once the tribulation comes upon the
land. Revelation gives more details of all this.
Deu 30:3 then Yahweh your God will turn your captivity and have compassion
on you. He will return and gather you from all the peoples where Yahweh
your God has scattered you-
God’s attempt to regather Judah from captivity
before they had repented
therefore indicates His grace, operating at times beyond the conditions
which He has stated in His own word.
Deu 30:4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from
there will Yahweh your God gather you, and from there He will bring you
back-
Time and again in the context of the restoration it is emphasized
that God would return to His people if they returned to Him (Zech. 1:3;
Mal. 3:7). And they didn't return to Him- most chose not to return to the
land, and those who did for the most part did not return to their God in
their hearts. The whole basis of Israel's covenant relationship with God
was that if they were exiled from the land for their sins, they must
repent and
then
God would return to them (Dt. 30:1-10). Yet God graciously states to
the exiles: "I am returned unto you" (Zech. 1:16; 8:3). Here was grace
indeed. Passages like Ez. 36:24-31 therefore speak as if God's grace to
the exiles was effectively a new covenant- which has in essence been
extended to us. Having stated the conditionality of His 'returning' to His
people, and recognizing they hadn't fulfilled their part of the
conditions- God all the same returns to them, such was and is His almost
desperate desire for relationship with His beloved people. This is a
lesson for us in our relationships with others- to continue our acceptance
and 'return' to them, even if they don't fulfill their part of the deal.
For this, day by day, is how our God deals not only with us but with His
weak and wayward people as a whole.
Deu 30:5 Yahweh your God will bring you into the land which your fathers
possessed and you shall possess it, and He will do you good and multiply
you above your fathers-
"Drive out" is s.w. "possess". We must note the difference between the
Canaanite peoples and their kings being "struck" and their land "taken" by
Joshua-Jesus; and the people of Israel permanently taking possession. This
is the difference between the Lord's victory on the cross, and our taking
possession of the Kingdom. Even though that possession has been "given" to
us. The word used for "possession" is literally 'an inheritance'. The
allusion is to the people, like us, being the seed of Abraham. The Kingdom
was and is our possession, our inheritance- if we walk in the steps of
Abraham. But it is one thing to be the seed of Abraham, another to take
possession of the inheritance; and Israel generally did not take
possession of all the land (Josh.
11:23 13:1; 16:10; 18:3; 23:4). The language of inheritance / possession
is applied to us in the New Testament (Eph. 1:11,14; Col. 3:24; Acts
20:32; 26:18; 1 Pet. 1:4 etc.). Israel were promised: "You shall possess
it" (Dt. 30:5; 33:23). This was more of a command than a prophecy, for
sadly they were "given" the land but did not "possess" it. They were
constantly encouraged in the wilderness that they were on the path to
possessing the land (Dt. 30:16,18; 31:3,13; 32:47), but when they got
there they didn't possess it fully.
Abraham was promised that his seed would have Yahweh as their personal
God, and would eternally inherit the land. In a sense, the promises that
the seed would inherit the land, and that God would be their
God were fulfilled straight after God said them. He became Isaac's God
(Gen. 31:42,53 refer to this), the God of Abraham's son. Time and again
God reminds Israel that He is their God. And that land in a sense
was given to the Jewish fathers (Gen. 15:18; Dt. 28:63; 30:5 NIV;
Josh. 1:2-9; 21:43; 1 Kings 4:20,21). David could praise God simply
because He was ''my God'' (Ps. 118:28)- an allusion back to the Abrahamic
promise. Of course, the main fulfillment of this promise will be in
the Kingdom; but in principle, the promise has already been
fulfilled to Abraham's seed- i.e., us!
Deu 30:6 Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your
seed-
If Israel took the initiative in attempting to circumcise their
hearts (Dt. 10:16; Jer. 4:4), then God would confirm them in this by doing
what man cannot do- operating directly upon the human heart to cut off the
flesh from it (Dt. 30:6). Col. 2:12 presents baptism as the equivalent in
our day if we wish to enter the new covenant, which is based upon the same
promises to Abraham. But there is more to new covenant relationship than
simply the ritual of baptism. Circumcision spoke of a cutting off of the
flesh in the most private and intimate place. We always read of
circumcision as being done to a person. Water baptism enables us to
receive the birth of the Spirit, whereby the Lord will work through the
Spirit to change our hearts, to cut off our flesh in the most private and
personal recesses of human hearts. Col. 2:11
explains: "In him you were also
circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of
the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ". Through
baptism, we enter the "in Christ" status, and our flesh is as it were cut
off, by status we are in Him and not in the flesh. This is repeated in
Paul's argument in Romans 1-8, although there he stresses that our flesh
still remains; but from God's perspective, it is cut off. It takes faith
to believe this- faith in God's operation, that the circumcision operation
was really performed by Him (Col. 2:12). Baptism is the means by which we
become "in Christ" and in spiritual terms cease to be uncircumcised (Col.
2:13).
There will be a psychological action of God upon the hearts of Israel,
healing their sin (see on :3). This will be as a result of accepting the
new covenant which we now accept at baptism, when the law is written on
our hearts, and God's Spirit transforms our spirit / heart (Jer. 31:33;
Heb. 8:10; 10:16).
To love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul,
so that you may live-
Some time, read through the book of Deuteronomy in one or two sessions.
You'll see many themes of Moses in Deuteronomy. It really shows how Moses
felt towards Israel, and how the Lord Jesus feels towards us, and
especially how he felt towards us just before his death. For this is what
the whole book prefigures. "Love" and the idea of love occurs far more in
Deuteronomy than in the other books of the Law. "Fear the Lord your God"
of Ex. 9:30; Lev. 19:14,32; 25:17 becomes "love the Lord your God" in
Deuteronomy (Dt. 6:5; 7:9; 10:12; 11:1; 19:9; 30:6,16,20). There are 23
references to not hating in Deuteronomy, compared to only 5 in Ex. - Num.;
Moses saw the danger of bitterness and lack of love. He saw these things
as the spiritual cancer they are, in his time of maturity he warned his
beloved people against them. His mind was full of them. The LXX uses the
word ekklesia eight times in Deuteronomy, but not once in Moses' other
words (Dt. 4:10; 9:10; 18:16; 23:1,2,3,8; 32:1). Responsibility for the
whole family God had redeemed was a mark of Moses; maturity at the end of
his life, at the time of Deuteronomy. It is observable that both as a
community and as individuals, this will be a sign of our maturity too.
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might". Time and again, Moses in his final hours used these words, as he pleaded on that last day of his life for Israel to grasp the nettle, to take on board the idea of loving God, of giving our all (Dt. 6:5; 10:12; 11:13,22; 13:3; 19:9; 30:6 ; an impressive seven-fold emphasis). I can almost hear his voice cracking as he stressed the word "all". Having pleaded six times for them to love God with all their soul and all their might, Moses then makes the point that if they enter the Kingdom, there they will be made by God to love Him then with all their soul and might (Dt. 30:6). The logic is over-powering. In the Kingdom, our very nature, every fiber of our being, will be bent towards love of God. If this will be our eternal destiny, isn't it logical that we at least aspire to it now?
Deu 30:7 Yahweh your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on
those who hate you and persecuted you-
The curses upon Israel will then come upon their haters. This is
exactly the message of the book of Revelation, once we accept the book
speaks of the latter day events to come upon the earth / land of Israel.
The seals, vials and trumpets are all rather similar in their imagery and
effect- because the judgments which come upon latter day Israel [the
seals] then come upon their abusers within the land promised to Abraham-
after the repentance of a Jewish remnant, which is presented in the
visions of the 144,000. What the beast coalition did to Israel is done to
her- a major theme of Revelation.
Deu 30:8 You shall return and obey the voice of Yahweh and do all His
commandments which I command you this day-
The Hebrew word for ‘hear’ is also translated ‘obey’ (Gen. 22:18; Ex.
19:5; Dt. 30:8,20; Ps. 95:7). We can hear God’s word and not obey it. But
if we really hear it as we are intended to, we will obey it. If we truly
believe God’s word to be His voice personally speaking to us, then we will
by the very fact of hearing, obey. The message itself, if heard properly
and not just on a surface level, will compel action. We can delight to
know God’s laws and pray daily to Him, when at the same time we are
forsaking Him and His laws; if we are truly obedient, then we will delight
in God’s law (Is. 58:2 cp. 14). We have a tendency to have a love of and
delight in God’s law only on the surface. John especially often uses
‘hearing’ to mean ‘believing’ (e.g. Jn. 10:4,26,27). And yet the Jews
‘heard’ but didn’t believe. We must, we really must ask ourselves: whether
we merely hear, or hear and believe. For we can hear, but not really hear.
Deu 30:9 Yahweh your God will make you plenteous in all the work of your
hand, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock and in the
fruit of your ground, for good. Yahweh will again rejoice over you for
good, as He rejoiced over your fathers-
I have explained above that the scenario here envisaged is when the
curses of Dt. 29 have come upon Israel, which they have not yet done. This
is yet to come, and as a result, a remnant of Israel will repent and their
curses will come upon their latter day abusers. The description here of
material blessing then applies to the situation when a restored Israel
become the basis of the Kingdom of God upon earth. Yahweh rejoicing over
His people is the prophetic picture of that time (Is. 62:5; Zeph. 3:17).
Deu 30:10 if you will obey the voice of Yahweh your God to keep His
commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law,
and if you turn to Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your
soul-
Deu 30:11 For this commandment which I command you this day is not too
hard for you, neither is it far off-
Moses assures them that full obedience to his Law is possible (even
if finally nobody achieved it). It was "not grievous" (LXX), and the LXX
is quoted and applied to us in 1 Jn. 5:3. It was Judaism and legalism
which made obedience to the law "grievous" (Mt. 23:4), and again this LXX
passage was alluded to by the Lord in saying that. The individual
commandments of the law of Moses were designed to reinforce each other and
to make obedience relatively easy. Hence NET Bible: "This commandment I am
giving you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it too remote". It wasn’t as if they had to climb up to
Heaven or go down beneath the sea, they had to simply from the heart obey
it as a way of life and thinking. In Rom. 10:6-9 Paul quotes this passage,
having observed that in practice nobody has actually succeeded in fully
keeping the Law. He says that the going up to Heaven was done by Christ at
His ascension, and going beneath the sea and returning by Christ at His
resurrection; and so what remains is not to keep the Mosaic law but to
believe in the word of Christ; and the “life” promised here (:15) will be
eternal life for those in Christ.
Deu 30:12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, Who shall go up for us
to heaven and bring it back down to us and make us hear it, that we may do
it?-
Paul comments that truly Israel have already heard the essence of the
Gospel we preach, in that “the word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and
in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach” (Rom. 10:8). He
quotes here from Dt. 30:12: “For this command [to be obedient- or, as Paul
interprets it, the word of the Gospel]... is it not far from thee [cp. how
God is “not far” from anybody, Acts 17:27]. It is not in heaven above,
that thou shouldest say, Who will ascend for us into heaven, and bring it
to us, that we may hear and do it”
(Dt. 30:12 LXX). As noted on :11, obedience is presented as not difficult;
and this perhaps became true when the command to keep the old covenant was
reinterpreted as keeping the new covenant, through faith in Jesus. God
wants to save us; so conformity to His conditions [faith in Jesus] are not
difficult.
As Moses spoke these words on the last day of his life,
he was at the foot of Nebo, which he ascended for his final meeting with
God. He is surely alluding to the way in which he had ‘ascended to heaven’
before in ascending to God on Sinai, fulfilling Israel’s wish that he
should bring God’s word to them rather than God Himself speak with them.
He had returned bringing God’s word to them, to which they had agreed they
would “hear and do”. Earlier, in Dt. 5:27, Moses had reminded the people
how they had said: “Go thou near, and hear all that the LORD our God shall
say: and speak thou unto us all that the LORD our God shall speak unto
thee; and we will hear it, and do it”. Now he is telling them
that actually the word he had brought to them needn’t have been brought to
them as in essence it was within their hearts. It is for exactly this
reason that Paul could reason elsewhere in Romans that the Gentiles do by
nature the things contained in the Law, although they don’t know the
letter of the Law. And the same principle is found in 1 Thess. 4:9: “As
touching brotherly love, ye need not that I write unto you: for ye
yourselves [i.e. from within yourselves?] are taught of God to love one
another”. This is rather like how the Gentiles were not ‘written unto’ and
yet they knew from their conscience the essential spirit of the Mosaic
Law.
Deu 30:13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, Who shall go
down into the deeps for us and bring it up to us-
The depths or abyss may refer as in Rom. 10:7 to the
lands beyond Israel. The beast that comes out of the abyss comes out of
the sea (Rev. 11:7; 13:1). It seems that the geographical area referred to
is that just outside the eretz / land
promised to Abraham, the sea on the border of the land, as it were. Iran,
Egypt or Turkey would fit this. Israel had no need to go outside to the
Gentile world in order to find relationship with God.
And make us hear it, that
we may do it?-
LXX "make
it audible to us, and we will do it?". The allusion is how Israel had
shied away from hearing God's personal voice, and had asked Moses to go
and hear that voice and tell it to them, "that we may do it". But what was
in view was a new covenant, where the word would not be spoken
collectively through a mediator, but directly to the heart (:14).
Deu 30:14 But the word is very near to you, in your mouth and in your
heart, that you may do it-
What was hinted at was a new covenant, where after repentance, God
would put His word into their hearts (see on :3,6). And therefore these
words are quoted by Paul in the New Testament about the experience of
believers today. Acceptance of the new covenant means the receipt of the
Holy Spirit, and God placing His word in our hearts, writing His law in
our hearts as promised (Jer. 31:33; Heb. 8:10; 10:16).
Paul therefore defines the word here as "That is,
the word of faith, which we preach". The word of the simple Gospel-
that if you believe in Christ you shall be saved- was enabled by the
Lord's resurrection and shall come to full term in His descent from Heaven
at the last day (Rom. 10:6,7). "The word of faith" can simply mean that
the basic content of God's word is an appeal for faith in His Son. But it
is thereby also true that the word of the Gospel leads to faith. The Lord
foresaw in Jn. 17:20 that there would be those who would believe on Him
“through their word” (i.e. the word taught by the disciples). Our word of
preaching can bring others to faith. Our preaching leads to faith being
created in the hearers. “The word of faith, which we preach” (Rom. 10:8)
is the word (Gospel) that leads to faith; and a man cannot believe without
hearing the Gospel, and he will not hear it unless it is preached by a
preacher. Paul summarizes by saying that faith comes by hearing [the
Gospel] and hearing by [the preaching of] the word of God (Rom.
10:8,14,17). Paul’s point is that whoever believes will be saved (Rom.
9:33)- and therefore, we must preach to all, so that they might take
advantage of this blessed opportunity. In his repetitious manner, Paul
builds up the argument in this letter:
- Even under the law, Israel could believe God’s word
as preached by Moses and have righteousness imputed to them (Rom. 10:5-8)
- We preach, in essence, the very same word (Rom.
10:9,10)
- Isaiah said the same: that belief of his preaching would result in
justification (Rom.
10:11)
- We preach the same. Whoever believes in the Lord’s saving Name by
baptism will be saved (Rom.
10:12,13)
- Therefore preach the word, for without your doing this, people can never
believe it and therefore be saved (Rom.
10:14,15)
- Israel had heard the word of the cross preached in the past, so just
hearing the preacher will not automatically result in faith (Rom.
10:16-21). Both preacher and hearer must be aware of this.
Therefore there was a need for the preachers to turn to another wider
audience, i.e. the Gentiles.
Deu 30:15 Behold, I have set before you this day life and good, and death
and evil-
As with Israel, the ways of life and death are set before us (Dt.
30:15-20; Jer. 21:8). Moses, on the day of his death and at his final
spiritual maturity, realized that this was the ultimate choice. His appeal
to therefore chose life is painfully evident in its logic. We are
either on the road to the Kingdom, or to eternal death; from God's
perspective. We may not see the issues of life that clearly; we may not
see our direction as clearly as God does.
Deu 30:16 I command you this day to love Yahweh your God, to walk in His
ways and to keep His commandments, His statutes and His ordinances, that
you may live and multiply, and that Yahweh your God may bless you in the
land where you go in to possess it-
“If you love me you will
keep my commandments” (Jn. 14:15,21,23; 15:10) reflects a major identical
theme in Dt. 5:10; 7:9; 11:1,22; 13:3,4; 19:9; 30:16.
Moses at the end of his life, when he spoke Deuteronomy, was very much the
image of the future Lord Jesus.
God is His word (Jn. 1:1); to love God is to love His word. If we love Christ, we will keep His words (Jn. 14:15,21; 15:10). This is evidently alluding to the many Old Testament passages which say that Israel's love for God would be shown through their keeping of His commands (Ex. 20:6; Dt. 5:10; 7:9; 11:1,13,22; 30:16; Josh. 22:5). Israel were also told that God's commands were all related to showing love (Dt. 11:13; 19:9). So there is a logical circuit here: We love God by keeping His commands, the essence of which is love of people, therefore His commands are fundamentally about love. Thus love is the fulfilling of the law of God; both under the Old and New covenants (Rom. 13:10).
The Hebrew mishpat, "ordinances", has a wide range of meaning. The idea is of judgment, as if God and His Angels gave these laws as their considered judgment after considering the human condition, and Israel were to abide by them. But the word also the idea of a right or privilege; and that is how we should see God's laws. They are only felt as a burden because of human hardness of neck towards God's ways. His laws are not of themselves burdensome, but rather a privilege and blessing. The law was indeed "holy, just and good" (Rom. 7:12), designed to inculcate a holy, just and good life (Tit. 1:8), a way in which a man should "walk" in daily life (Lev. 18:4), a culture of kindness and grace to others which reflected God's grace to man. If we dwell upon the idea of "rights" carried within the word mishpat, we note that the law begins in Ex. 21:1,2 (also Dt. 15:12-18) with the rights of a slave- those considered to have no rights in the society of that day. The "rights" to be afforded by us to others are the essence of God's rightness / justice.
Deu 30:17 But if your heart turns away and you will not hear, but shall be
drawn away and worship other gods and serve them-
The heart that turns away
from God by free choice then becomes
drawn away by other forces.
Deu 30:18 I declare to you this day, that you shall surely perish; you
shall not prolong your days in the land, where you pass over the Jordan to
go in to possess it-
Moses pleaded with them to see that "this day... this day... this day"
he set before them life and death, forgiveness or salvation (Dt.
30:15-19). The Lord Jesus had His mind on this when He told the thief with
the same emphasis that "this day" He could tell them that he would be
saved, not condemned (Lk. 23:46). He felt like Moses, but greater than
Moses, in that He not only set before men the choice, but could grant them
the salvation they sought. The fact Israel did prolong their days for some
centuries in the land, despite their disobedience, is therefore a
reflection of God's great patience with them.
Deu 30:19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day that I
have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse; therefore
choose life, that you may live, you and your seed-
Finely aware of the seriousness of our relationship with God, Moses
pleads with Israel to "choose life", not with the passivity which may
appear from our armchair reading of passages like Dt. 30:19. I wonder if
he wasn’t screaming this to them, breaking down in the climax of logic and
passion which resulted in that appeal. Yet he knew that the majority of
Israel would not choose life. When he appeals to them to choose obedience
he is therefore thinking of the minority who would respond. Yet he knew
that the majority of Israel would not choose life. When he appeals to them
to choose obedience he is therefore thinking of the minority who would
respond. Our Lord Jesus, with his knowledge of human nature, must have
sensed that so many of those called into his new covenant would also turn
away; He must have known that only a minority of Israel would choose the
life which He offered. Yet like Moses He doubtless concentrated his
thoughts on the minority who would respond. Moses spoke Deuteronomy
without notes. It was no set piece address. All these things were in his
heart; their proneness to failure, the coming of judgment for sin, his
knowledge of their future apostasy. Enter into the passion of it all. The man who was willing to give his eternal life for them, about to die for the sake of their provocation- singing a final song to them, giving a final speech, which showed that he knew perfectly well that they would turn away from what he was trying to do for them, and therefore the majority of them would not be saved.
"Blessing" is parallel with "life", and eternal life may ultimately be in view in Moses' mind. The connection between blessing and forgiveness / salvation is widespread throughout Scripture: Dt. 33:23; Ps. 5:12 (blessing = grace) Dt. 30:19; Ps. 3:8; 24:5; 28:9; 133:3 (= salvation); Ex. 12:32; 32:29; Num. 24:1; 2 Sam. 21:3; Ps. 67:1 (cp. context); Lk. 6:28; Acts 3:26; Rom. 4:7,8; 1 Cor. 10:16; Gal. 3:14 (= forgiveness).
Deu 30:20 Love Yahweh your God, to obey His voice and to cling to Him; for
He is your life and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the
land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac and to
Jacob, to give them-
Yahweh was to be loved with all the heart, soul and mind (Dt. 6:5).
This is understood by Joshua as meaning that those who loved Yahweh would
not "mix with" and intermarry with the nations and accept their gods
(Josh. 23:11,12,16). "Love" for God was not therefore a feeling; Joshua
said that they must "take good heed therefore to yourselves, that you love
Yahweh" (Josh. 23:11). This is the love of conscious direction of the
mind, the love which is a choice rather than an emotion.
"Cling" is "cleave". The idea of 'cleaving' to God is a big theme of
Moses in Deuteronomy (Dt. 4:4; 10:20; 11:22; 13:4,17; 28:21,60; 30:20);
the only other time Moses uses the word in his writings is in Gen. 2:24,
concerning a man cleaving to his wife. Moses seems to have been suggesting
to Israel that their covenant relationship with God meant they were
marrying God. This was a real
paradigm breaker. We may be used to such things. But against the
theological background of the time, not to say the generally low level of
spirituality among Israel, this was a shocking idea. It reflected the
heights to which Moses had risen.
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