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<title>Blue Letter Bible: Text Commentaries</title>
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<h2><a onclick="return mV('Deu',30,'1-');">Deu 30</a> - The Choice</h2>
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<p>A. Restoration for a repentant Israel.</p>
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<p class="c1">1. (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',30,1);">1</a>) <span><b><span class="c3">When</span></b></span><b><span class="c3"> all these things come upon you.</span></b></p>
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<p class="c2">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 <i>them</i> to mind among all the nations where the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God drives you,</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you</span></b>: Under the inspiration of the <span class="c6">Lord</span>, Moses carefully explained the blessings and curses that would come upon an obedient or disobedient Israel. Under the same inspiration, Moses knew that <b><span class="c3">all these things</span></b> <i>would</i> <b><span class="c3">come upon</span></b> Israel.</p>
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<p class="c5">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.</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">And you call them to mind among all the nations where the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God drives you</span></b>: God knew that Israel would be scattered and exiled, and here through Moses, God calls the <i>Diaspora</i> (Israel dispersed among the nations) to remember the promises of <b><span class="c3">the blessing and the curse</span></b>.</p>
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<p class="c1">2. (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',30,'2-5');">2-5</a>) God's promise to regather Israel in the Promised Land.</p>
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<p class="c2">And you return to the <span class="c6">Lord</span> 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 <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God has scattered you. If <i>any</i> of you are driven out to the farthest <i>parts</i> under heaven, from there the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. Then the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God will bring you to the land which your fathers <span>possessed,</span> and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">Return to the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God</span></b>: As Israel would return to the <span class="c6">Lord</span>, God would bless them and <b><span class="c3">bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you</span></b>.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. Of course, this was fulfilled in part by the return of the Babylonian exiles during the times of Ezra and Nehemiah. But the ultimate fulfillment of this would <span>await</span> the Twentieth Century, when God would regather Israel in the Promised Land. This modern regathering is a larger, broader, more sovereign, and more miraculous restoration than that recorded in Ezra and Nehemiah.</p>
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<p class="c4"><span>b</span>. <b><span class="c3">From all the nations where the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God has scattered you</span></b>: The modern regathering of Israel more accurately fulfills this promise than the return from the Babylonian exile. Today, Israel is populated from Jews from virtually every country in the world. The breadth of this promise is important, because God repeats the idea in verse 4: <b><span class="c3">If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the <span class="c6">Lord</span> God will gather you</span></b>.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. Adam Clarke, writing in 1811, recognized that this regathering had to 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."</p>
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<p class="c4">c. <b><span class="c3">Then the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God will bring you to the land which your fathers <span>possessed,</span> and you shall possess it</span></b>: The regathering had to happen in the land of Israel. The modern regathering of Israel more accurately fulfills this promise than the return from the Babylonian exile. In the return from the Babylonian exile, Israel was still a vassal state of the Persians. But in the modern regathering of Israel, <b><span class="c3">you shall possess it</span></b> is literally fulfilled.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. At one time, in the early days of the Zionist movement, the British offered the country of Uganda to the Jews as a place to establish a Jewish state. If that would have happened, and if Jews from all over the world would have flocked there to establish a Jewish state, it would <u>not</u> fulfill the promise of regathering stated here and in other Old Testament passages. The promise here is plain: T<b><span class="c3">he land which your fathers possessed</span></b>.</p>
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<p class="c4">d. <b><span class="c3">He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers</span></b>: This promise is fulfilled only in the modern regathering of Israel, not 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 regathering of Israel, the state of Israel does indeed <b><span class="c3">prosper</span></b> and the promise to <b><span class="c3">multiply you more than your fathers</span></b> is fulfilled. Israel, as a nation, is larger, stronger, and richer than at any time in Biblical history.</p>
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<p class="c1">3. (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',30,6);">6</a>) <span>The</span> spiritual regathering of Israel.</p>
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<p class="c2">And the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God with all your heart and with all your <span>soul, that</span> you may live.</p>
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<p class="c4"><span>a</span>. <b><span class="c3">And the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God will circumcise your heart...to love the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God with all your heart</span></b>: As remarkable and as prophetically meaningful the modern regathering of Israel is, it is incomplete. The spiritual dimension of the regathering has not yet been accomplished.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. Today Israel is a largely secular nation. There is respect for the Bible as a book of history and national identity, but there is not, and has not been, a true turning to the <span class="c6">Lord</span> God, particularly as a nation.</p>
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<p class="c5">ii. We can say that in a sense, not even the religious or Orthodox Jews have completely turned to the <span class="c6">Lord</span>. 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 <i>Diaspora</i>, they have not truly turned to the <span class="c6">Lord</span>. We can say this because the character and nature of the <span class="c6">Lord</span> is perfectly expressed in His Messiah, Jesus. Jesus said, <i>He who believes in <span>Me</span>, believes not in Me but in Him who sent Me. And he who sees <span>Me</span> sees Him who sent Me</i>. (<a onclick="return mV('Jhn',12,'44-45');">Jhn 12:44-45</a>) Since the Jewish people, except for a precious remnant, reject Jesus, they are rejecting the <span class="c6">Lord</span> God.</p>
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<p class="c5">iii. But God's promise still stands. As the final aspect of the promise to regather Israel, God will restore them spiritually. He promises to <b><span class="c3">circumcise your heart</span></b>. This is an idea repeated in the promises of the New Covenant, in passages like <a onclick="return mV('Eze',36,'26-27');">Eze 36:26-27</a>: <i>I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in <span>My</span> statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them</i>. Indeed, Paul promised that <i>all Israel will be saved</i> (<a onclick="return mV('Rom',11,26);">Rom 11:26</a>). Jesus said that He would not return until Israel embraced Him as Messiah: <i>For I say to you, you shall see <span>Me</span> no more til you say, "Blessed is He who comes in the name of the <span class="c6">Lord</span>!"</i> (<a onclick="return mV('Mat',23,39);">Mat 23:39</a>)</p>
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<p class="c5">iv. Some have thought that because the modern regathering of Israel has not yet demonstrated this spiritual dynamic that it has nothing to do with these prophesies. But the spiritual dynamic is properly listed in <a onclick="return mV('Deu',30,'2-6');">Deu 30:2-6</a> as the last of the blessings of regathering. Also, the picture of regathering in <a onclick="return mV('Eze',37,'1-');">Eze 37</a> - the vision of the dry bones - shows Israel regathered, and strong, <i>before</i> the <span class="c6">Lord</span> breathed the breath of His Spirit on the regathered Israel. We regard the modern regathering of Israel as a remarkable sign, and an extremely significant - but thus far only partial - fulfillment of these prophesies.</p>
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<p class="c1">3. (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',30,'7-10');">7-10</a>) Blessings upon repentant Israel.</p>
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<p class="c2">Also the <span class="c6">Lord</span> 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 <span class="c6">Lord</span> and do all His commandments which I command you today. The <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God will make you <span>abound</span> 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 <span class="c6">Lord</span> will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, if you obey the voice of the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, <i>and</i> if you turn to the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God with all your heart and with all your soul.</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">Also the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God will put all these curses on your enemies...The <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God will make you abound</span></b>: In part, these prophesies are fulfilled now in the modern regathering of Israel. But perhaps their ultimate fulfillment will happen in the millennium, when Israel has regathered as a people truly turned to the <span class="c6">Lord</span> and His Messiah, Jesus.</p>
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<p>B. Moses concludes his great sermon: <i>choose life!</i></p>
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<p class="c1">1. (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',30,'11-14');">11-14</a>) Israel's capability to keep the covenant.</p>
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<p class="c2">For this commandment which I command you today <i>is</i> not <i>too</i> mysterious for you, nor <i>is</i> it far off. It <i>is</i> 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 <i>is</i> 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 <i>is</i> very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.</p>
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<p class="c4"><span>a</span>. <b><span class="c3">For this commandment which I command you today</span></b>: The covenant which God made with Israel - the Old Covenant - was not <b><span class="c3">too mysterious for you, nor is it far off</span></b>. Israel could indeed keep this covenant. God was not expecting the impossible from Israel when He expected them to keep this covenant.</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it</span></b>: However, this is not intended to mean that the Mosaic Law could be perfectly kept, and that a person could be sufficiently obedient to the Mosaic Law to earn a righteous standing before God.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. Remember that the <i>law</i> was only one aspect of the Old Covenant. There were also the aspects of <i>sacrifice</i> and <i>the choice</i>. God never expected Israel to perfectly obey the law and find righteousness through law-obedience. That is why He provided for the <i>sacrifice</i> - 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 <i>sacrifice</i> 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.</p>
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<p class="c4">c. <b><span class="c3">That you may do it</span></b>: Yet the Old Covenant, <i>as a whole</i>, including the aspects of law, sacrifice, and choice could be kept. It wasn't beyond Israel's capability to keep.</p>
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<p class="c1">2. (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',30,'15-18');">15-18</a>) <span>The</span> choice.</p>
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<p class="c2">See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the <span class="c6">Lord</span> 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 <span class="c6">Lord</span> 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 <i>your</i> days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess.</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil</span></b>: Under the terms of the Old Covenant, Israel had a choice: <b><span class="c3">life </span></b>or <b><span class="c3">death</span></b>, <b><span class="c3">good</span></b> or <b><span class="c3">evil</span></b>. It was up to them. God was going to glorify Himself through Israel one way or another. How it would happen was really their <i>choice</i>.</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">The <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess</span></b>: Under the terms of the Old Covenant, Israel, if obedient, would see blessing. If disobedient, then Israel would <b><span class="c3">surely perish</span></b>. It was up to Israel, and based on their conduct.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. It is essential for us to understand that we, in Jesus Christ, <i>do not</i> relate to God on the terms of the Old Covenant, but on the terms of a better covenant: The New Covenant. Under the New Covenant, my relationship with God is not based on what <i>I do</i> for God, but on what <i>Jesus has done</i> on my behalf. There is, of course, more to the New Covenant than this, but this is one crucial distinction between the two covenants.</p>
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<p class="c5">ii. If this Old Covenant is inferior to the New Covenant, and if there was a high price to pay for rejecting the Old Covenant, should we not know there is an even greater penalty for rejecting an even greater covenant? (<a onclick="return mV('Hbr',10,'28-29');">Hbr 10:28-29</a>)</p>
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<p class="c1">3. (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',30,'19-20');">19-20</a>) <b><span class="c3">Choose life</span></b>.</p>
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<p class="c2">I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, <i>that</i> 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 <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He <i>is</i> your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the <span class="c6">Lord</span> swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">I call heaven and earth as witness today against you</span></b>: In these most solemn words, Moses set the choice before Israel. They had to choose between <b><span class="c3">life and death, blessing and cursing</span></b>.</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">Therefore choose life</span></b>: At the same time, though the choice belonged to Israel, God cared about <i>what</i> they chose. When Moses pled with Israel, crying out <b><span class="c3">choose life</span></b>, we know he reflected the heart of God toward Israel. How God glorified Himself through Israel was up to them, but it was obviously God's preference that He <span>glorify</span> Himself through an obedient, blessed Israel. So He pled, <b><span class="c3">choose life!</span></b></p>
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<p class="c5">i. Man today, even outside the Old Covenant, is confronted with the choice. But 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, <i>He who is not with <span>Me</span> is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.</i> (<a onclick="return mV('Luk',11,23);">Luk 11:23</a>) Jesus is still asking the question, <i>who do you say that I am</i> (<a onclick="return mV('Mat',16,15);">Mat 16:15</a>), and our choice in answering that question determines our eternal destiny.</p>
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<p class="c4">c. <b><span class="c3">That you may love the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God</span></b>: To love God this way, to really trust Him, is explained well in <a onclick="return mV('Deu',30,20);">Deu 30:20</a>. To love and trust God means to <b><span class="c3">obey His voice</span></b>, for a child who really loves and trusts their father will obey him. It means to <b><span class="c3">cling to Him</span></b>, for if we really love and trust Him, we will be attached to Him. It means to regard Him as our <b><span class="c3">life and the length of your days</span></b>, because if we love and trust Him, He is not <i>part</i> of our life, He <i>is</i> our life.</p>
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