Deuteronomy 29-30

INTRO

We’re almost done with the study of Deuteronomy and talking about how we believe everything in Deuteronomy points to the Messiah. What I’ve been encouraged by, is that many of the students are slowing down in their readings, allowing the Word of God to sink into their hearts. And that’s what we’re after. That, according to Deuteronomy 30, we’re allowing the Holy Spirit to circumcise our hearts. Here’s the outline of Deuteronomy 29. The first eight verses are basically a historical review. Deuteronomy contains a lot of repeating information. To make sure they understood everything, Moses repeated the Law to the younger generation who were about to go into the Promised Land. I think we need to do the same kind of thing in the United States––get all the younger people together and walk through the Declaration of Independence and other historical documents, because we don’t know them. Moses was possibly internally nervous that the younger generation would forget these laws, so he did the historical review, and then the covenant review (vv. 9-15)––the instructions to gather the stones, to write the laws on a white background, and to make a burnt offering. They were to remember what God had done and walk it out in their lives. Finally, in Deuteronomy 29:16-29, they were given the consequences of disobedience. According to verse 20, the names of the disobedient in the Old Testament will be blotted out.

TEACHING

Deuteronomy 30:1-3: Verse 1 says that when the Israelites came to their senses, from wherever they had been driven, after the blessings and the curses, God would restore them back to Himself. Tom Constable states that in these first ten verses is the key of restoration.¹Restoration can happen when we turn to the Lord, and He will have compassion on the people and gather them back to Himself. Nelson states that “God allowed Moses to foresee Israel’s future apostasy and God’s dispersal of the people among the nations . . . [and] he also saw Israel’s future repentance and return to the land,” possibly in a future fulfillment.²Here was a prophetic word being released. In Acts 3:19-21, the picture of repentance is shown through Peter, who said: “repent and turn back, so your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and He may send Jesus, who has been appointed for you as Messiah. Heaven must welcome Him until the times of the restoration of all things, which God spoke about by the mouth of His holy prophets from the beginning.” Ultimate restoration will come from Jesus, but it will start when we repent and turn back to Him (v. 19). That period of refreshing comes through Jesus. I believe that there is a partial fulfillment of this, but not all of it. There are some prophets who talk about how the restoration will come by turning back and repenting (Isaiah 54:7-8; Ezekiel 36:33-38; Hosea 14:4-8; Joel 3:16-21).

God is beginning to show our little team our role in these verses. Sixty percent of Israel is in the Negev wilderness, and God is beginning to turn it, little by little, into the Garden of Eden. People will eventually be in awe of what God is rebuilding and restoring, and God has promised to multiply the number of Jews, like a flock. In 1948, modern Israel was established as a nation, and the scattered people are beginning to return. Old City Jerusalem now feels like you’re moving through a flock of people. The Jews are already coming back to Jerusalem (Ezekiel 36:33-38). While things may seem desperate, God will heal their apostasy, and the people will return to live under His shade of rest and protection (Hosea 14:4-8). Jerusalem will be the holy city, and foreigners will never again overrun it. Egypt and Edom will become desert wasteland, but Judah will be inhabited forever. The Lord’s Presence dwells in Zion and eventually nothing will ever fall again in Jerusalem (Joel 3:16-21).

Deuteronomy 30:4: This verse promises that God will bring His people back even from the farthest ends of the world.

The question becomes, what do we do with Israel now?Wiersbe explains the various positions of how the new Israel can be interpreted. Some people believe that the church today has become the new Israel, or the spiritual Israel, and all of God’s promises will come through the church. They believe that all Old Testament prophecies and promises are being fulfilled now, through the church. Others say that these prophecies “must be taken at face value,” and that “we should expect a fulfillment of them when Jesus Christ returns to establish His kingdom on earth.”³That means that there is a pause button on some of these prophecies, for Jesus to return. Wiersbe says that “Moses seems to be speaking here to and about Israel and not some other ‘people of God’ in the future, such as the church.”⁴I think the “people of God” are actually the people of Israel. “The church has no covenant relationship to the land of Israel for God gave that land to Abraham and his descendants (Genesis 15).”⁵God gave this land to Israel, not to us, and all the blessings and the curses were given to Israel, not to us. Much of the promises were conditional of what the people of Israel did or did not do. Why do we feel we have to blend these two worlds together? Why do we think there can be a plan for Israel and a plan for the church?

Deuteronomy 30:5: “The LORD your God will bring you into the land your fathers possessed, and you will take possession of it. He will cause you to prosper and multiply you more than He did your fathers.” That’s not a promise for the church, because we never possessed the land. Israel today does not yet have all the land that was promised to them. The Lord has a plan for His people that will cause them to flourish and multiply. Israel is the apple of God’s eye.

Deuteronomy 30:6-7: “The LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and all your soul so that you will live.” This is a condition: “Therefore, circumcise your hearts and don’t be stiff-necked any longer” (Deuteronomy 10:16). “Circumcise yourselves to the LORD; remove the foreskin of your hearts,” (Jeremiah 4:4) . . . or God’s wrath will break out. We must also circumcise ourselves with the Word of God so our hearts can change, and we will live.

Deuteronomy 30:8-10: We are instructed to keep His statutes and “return to Him with all your heart and all your soul.” Why not choose life? Why not return to God and let His Word circumcise your life?

Deuteronomy 30:19-20: “I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, love the LORD your God, obey Him, and remain faithful to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land the LORD swore to give to your fathers Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

This proves that these verses are not for us. It’s important not to make things speak directly to us that weren’t meant to.

CLOSING

Acts 17:28 says, “For in him, we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we are also His offspring.’” Jesus comes to give us life and life abundantly. He does not want to bring us destruction. We get to choose whether we want to choose life or death. Choose life in Him!