Chapter 30

The last chapter ended with Moses anticipating the fall of the Sinai covenant due to non-performance by Israel - especially in the area of  idol worship.  This chapter opens with the anticipation of the  scattering of the people to various countries, but not in their homeland  anymore.  The curses have won out over the blessings.

Even after rebellion, if Israel will return to the Lord, He will bless them even more than he blessed their fathers.

Moses tells them that even after rebellion at this level, God will not have completely forgotten them.  These verses:

1 "And 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 has driven you, 2 and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. [Deu 30:1-3 ESV]

I believe the gathering spoken of here is the Millennial gathering where the hearts of the Jews are changed, and they come back to God, and they come back to Israel.  If that is right, then these verses are looking all the way past the Church Age, the Age of the Gentiles, to the reinstatement of the promises to the nation of Israel, and with it, entwined with that, the fulfillment of the unconditional promises to Abraham.  I do not see this as referring to the New Covenant.

2021 - I agree even more with the previous evaluation that these verses are about Trib, Great Trib, and the Millennial.  The gathering here is the return to God by the Jews.  Moses knew this is where it was all going.  But there is not one hint that I can see about the Age of the Gentiles.  It says they will be scattered - which is what we're going through now - but it doesn't hint at it being a different age, a different dispensation.

This verse ties the description here to the verses in Ezekiel where God will take away the stony heart and give them a heart of flesh:

6 And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. [Deu 30:6 ESV]

Here are the verses I believe reinforce this:

19 And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, [Eze 11:19 ESV]

26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. [Eze 36:26 ESV]

These verses in Ezekiel continue and talk about how the crops will be restored, the land will be tilled, the numbers of Jews at that time will be greater than the numbers previously....all these things would seem to require some time to fulfill.  However, the land in Israel is being tilled at this time, and has been again since 1948.  The current population of Israel is about 8.6 million - per internet.  When they left Egypt, there were 600,000 men, plus women and children.  So the population part is also currently true.  The Jews are coming home to the land of their fathers, they are cultivating that land, and their numbers are great and increasing.  However, I think the radical change of heart that is talked about is still future.  For the most part, Israel is still a mostly secular country.  So the change of heart is, in my opinion, yet to come.

2021 - I think the change of heart is a God thing.  I don't think some miraculous rabbi will arise in Israel and turn their hearts back to God.  I just don't.  I think God Himself will circumcise their hearts, just as it is God who saves us today according to His will, not according to ours.

2021 - These verses:

12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, 'Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?' 13 Neither 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?' [Deu 30:12-13 ESV]

I think this is now the third place I have seen these words about who will ascend to heaven.  In fact, if you do a search of the ESV for that word, there seem to be about seven places the word is used, and perhaps all are related.  Ascend seems to be a rare word in the Bible.  I don't think I'm going to dig into this today, but there is a lot in this verse that is recurring in both OT, and then carried over into the NT.  Yet I do not see the phrase in Psa/Proverbs as I remembered it.  I found those when I searched for "ascended" in past tense.  I am not up for diving into this right now, but it would make an excellent study I think.  There is some "mystery" here that ought to be searched out.

MSB says the whole point of the passage here is that the way to obtain all these blessings from God is not far away in heaven, so that someone must go and find it, bring it back, and explain it, nor is it on earth but far away.  These people have all they need of God's word through Moses, given in easy, simple terms that they and theirs can understand and follow.  The point here is that it is NOT a mystery but a plain and simple truth that they can all grasp with not need to resort to anyone else - even to Moses at this point, as he has held nothing back.  (So sort of a direct hit on Roman Catholicism and their priests!)  So with this understanding of the original use of this phrase, study the other uses and see if they are appealing to the same interpretation.

14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. [Deu 30:14 ESV]

This implies that it was possible, at that time, to meet God's requirements.  The sacrifices imply that you couldn't keep them all, but this verse implies that you can.  This was after the 10, so thoughts were part of the requirement, not just performance, but thinking.  Maybe the point is that vs. 14 is to Israel, and the 10 are to each individual separately.  The point is that if they obeyed in their hearts and stayed dedicated, then the sacrifices would be sufficient to keep them in God's favor.  It was possible to obtain perpetual forgiveness of their sins if they obeyed the law, and if their hearts were right.  Surely they would continue to sin, but as Jesus blood covers us now, the sacrificial blood postponed the price of sin then.  Maybe the point here is that God did not make their part of the Sinai Covenant impossible for them.  The rules were within their grasp.  It was what was in their hearts that made keeping the Law, and shunning idols, that would make or break their part of the covenant.  This is a hugely important point that Moses is making.  They must be committed...as we must.  This is common between the Sinai and the New Covenants.

Their choices are succinctly stated here:

16 If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. [Deu 30:16-18 ESV]

Salvation has always been internal.  Always about hearts, never about deeds.