BE REPENTANT

 

2/19/2012

1. PRESERVING AND AFFIRMING GOD’S LAW (DEUTERONOMY 27:1-26)

CHAPTER 27:

• This chapter begins Moses' third oration, which regards the future in the land.
• The covenants which God makes are divided into two different classifications: conditional and unconditional. 
• We could call them eternal and temporary covenants. 
• The eternal covenant is unconditional; the temporary covenant is conditional.

I. For the helping of their memories, that they might not forget the law as a strange thing. They must write all the words of this law upon stones (Deu_27:1-10).  II. For the moving of their affections, that they might not be indifferent to the law as a light thing.—Matthew Henry on Deuteronomy 27

2. ENUMERATING BLESSINGS AND CURSES (DEUTERONOMY 28:1-68)

CHAPTER 28:

• This chapter continues the section regarding the future of Israel. 
• Moses has pronounced the conditional part of the covenant. 
• The people of Israel would be blessed only as they obeyed God. 
• Their disobedience would bring curses, which are spelled out for them here.

3.     STANDING BEFORE AND RETURNING TO THE LORD (DEUTERONOMY 29:1—30:10)

CHAPTER 29:

• This is the fourth oration of Moses.
• Chapters 29 and 30 are considered the Palestinian Covenant. 
• The covenant proper is in the first ten verses of Chapter 30. 
• Chapter 29 is an introduction to the covenant.
• The covenant which God is going to make with them here relates to the land, and it is called the Palestinian Covenant.
• God makes this covenant with them just before they enter into the Promised Land.

CHAPTER 30:

You will notice that there are no "Ifs" in this covenant. 

It is an unconditional covenant.

There are several great promises which God makes in this chapter.

3A. REPENTANCE IS POSSIBLE (DEUTERONOMY 30:1-4)

"So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the LORD your God has banished you,

·         Israel would be plucked off the land because of its unfaithfulness.

2 and you return to the LORD your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons,

·         There will be a repentance of Israel in the dispersion. 

·         They are going to come back to God.

3 then the LORD your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.

The promises of this and the following verses had no doubt their partial fulfillment in the days of the Judges; but the fact that various important features are repeated in Jer 32:37 ff, and in Ezek 11:19 ff, 34:13 ff, 36:24 ff, shows us that none of these was regarded as exhausting the promises. In full analogy with the scheme of prophecy we may add that the return from the Babylonian captivity has not exhausted their depth. The New Testament takes up the strain (e.g. in Rom 11), and foretells the restoration of Israel to the covenanted mercies of God. True these mercies shall not be, as before, confined to that nation. The "turning again of the captivity" will be when Israel is converted to Him in whom the Law was fulfilled, and who died "not for that nation only," but also that he might "gather together in one the children of God that were scattered abroad"

(from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)

As the development of this theme in the prophets shows, the renewal and restoration which Moses foretold is that accomplished by Christ in the New Covenant. The prophecy is not narrowly concerned with ethnic Jews but with the covenant community, here concretely denoted in its OT identity as Israel

(from The Wycliffe Bible Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1962 by Moody Press)

4 If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back

NASB

·         Israel will be restored to the land. 

·         This is an unconditional promise. 

·         No amount of scattering can change the fact that in the future God will bring them back to the land.

3B. GOD WORKS IN REPENTANT HEARTS (DEUTERONOMY 30:6-8)

6 Moreover 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, in order that you may live.

·         There will be a national conversion of the nation Israel.

This promise remains yet to be fulfilled. Their heart, as a people, has never yet been circumcised; nor have the various promises in this chapter been ever yet fulfilled.

(from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Biblesoft)

7 And the LORD your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. 8 And you shall again obey the LORD, and observe all His commandments which I command you today.

NASB

·         The enemies of Israel will be judged and that Israel will return and obey the voice of God.

·         In Verse 9 we see that Israel will receive her full blessing from God.

4.     CHOOSING LIFE OR DEATH (DEUTERONOMY 30:11-20)

4A. LIFE COMES DOWN TO A CHOICE (DEUTERONOMY 30:15-20)

15 "See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity;

Ignorance of the requirements of the law cannot be pleaded (Deut 30:10-14); hence, (Deut 30:15-20) life and death, good and evil, are solemnly set before the people for their own choice; and an earnest exhortation to choose the better part concludes the address.

(from Barnes' Notes, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1997 by Biblesoft)

Were there no such thing as free will in man, who could reconcile these sayings either with sincerity or common sense? God has made the human will free, and there is no power or influence either in heaven, earth, or hell, except the power of God, that can deprive it of its free volitions; of its power to will and nill, to choose and refuse, to act or not act or force it to sin against God. Hence, man is accountable for his actions, because they are his;

(from Adam Clarke's Commentary, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1996 by Biblesoft)

16 in that I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the LORD your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. 17 But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You shall not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, 20 by loving the LORD your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them. " 

NASB

Every man is moved and governed in his actions by hope and fear, hope of good and fear of evil, real of apparent. "Now," says Moses, "I have tried both ways; if you will be either drawn to obedience by the certain prospect of advantage by it, or driven to obedience by the no less certain prospect of ruin in case you be disobedient-if you will be wrought upon either way, you will be kept close to God and your duty; but, if you will not, you are utterly inexcusable." 
(from Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible: New Modern Edition, Electronic Database. Copyright (c) 1991 by Hendrickson Publishers, Inc