Deuteronomy 30

Deuteronomy 30:1-10

This chapter contains, 1. Exceeding great and precious promises made to repenting Israel, ver. 1—10. 2. The righteousness of faith set before them in the plainness and infirmity of the commandment that was now given them, ver. 11—14. 3. A fair reference of the whole matter to their choice, ver. 15—20. a Lev. ceni. b Chap. xxviii. Pld. cvi. 45. Rev. vii. 1. Jer. xxvii. 2. Jer. xxviii. 3. Jer. xxviii. 4. Chap. xxviii. 64. Nob. i. 9. AND ‘it shall come to pass when ‘all these things are come upon thee, the bleiting and the curle, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee, 2. And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice, according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul: 3. ‘That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compaction upon thee, and will return and ‘gather thee from all the nations whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee. 4. ‘If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will be fetch thee. 5. And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it: and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers. 6. And ’the LORD thy God will circumcize thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayst live. 7. And the LORD thy God, will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which periscussed thee. 8. And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day. 9. ‘And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for ’the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers. 10. If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God to keep his commandments, and his statutes, which are written in this book of the law, and if thou turn unto the LORD thy God with all thine heart and with all thy soul. There is with God grace abounding to the chief of sinners; none that return to him shall be, in any wise, cast out. We have here, 1. The penitent return of Israel, and therein also of every sinner. 1. It begins with serious reflection on the fulfilment of God’s word, beginning humbling conviction on the heart. Note, The first step towards return to God, is always conviction of our sin and ingrantitude, and a sense of the just desert of both. 2. Faith in a reconciled God must be exercised. We must, like the prodigal, call him our God and father in Jesus Christ, though we acknowledge ourselves utterly unworthy to be called his children. 3. Conversion will follow from a contrasting sense of God’s transcendent compulsion; the few will engage the heart, and we shall desire, without reserve, to yield up ourselves to him, from a principle of love, and with universal devoidness of body and soul to his service. 4. Fervent and unfortunate prayer will express the earnest breathings of the heart after God. Should he prayeth, in the sign of every returning sinner. Hereupon God promises, 2. To hear and answer them, not upbraiding them with their sins, nor rejecting them, because not of trouble they cry to him, but according to their necessities he will supply them: his bowels of compulsion will yearn over them. Such are God’s tender mercies to the vilest, that bow with contrate hearts before him; he will from the distant lands rethave them; however far gone in sin, they shall be recovered: their captivity shall be lured, the bonds of sin shall no longer enslave them; God will do them good, temporal good, in refouling them to plenty and affluence in their long-lost heritages. Note, Return to God is often attended with great blessings in our worldly affairs. Spiritual good is better still. He will circumcise their hearts, will cut off their vile affections, and shed abroad his holy love within their souls; hereby enabling them for the obedience he requires, and focuring them from future departures from him: their enemies shall now fall before them, and feel the power of victorious grace; thus sin shall have no more dominion over the returning penitent. Finally, by ten several repetitions God engages to regard them as their covenant God, to their great and endless comfort.—Happy the sinner that thus returns to God, and finds God thus return to his poor soul! 11. ¶ For this commandment which I command thee this day, ‘it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off. 12. ‘It is not in heaven, that thou shouldst say, Who is shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it? 13. Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldst say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it? 14. But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

Deuteronomy 30:11-14

The plainness of the precept is a strong plea for obedience to it; the knowledge of God’s will was not hidden from them in dark speeches, or hieroglyphical figures; nor far from them, that they need travel in quest of it; nor above them, that it exceeded their comprehension; or so deep, that it was obscure or unintelligible; but near to them, written plain on tables, and easily inculcated by the priests and Levites, in a language they could not fall of understanding, and which ought to link deep into their hearts. The apostle, Rom. x. 6, with beautiful propriety, applies this to the gospel; and it is by many thought that Moses intended it. The doctrine of grace in a Redeemer is clearly revealed, and easily comprehended by the enlightened mind, brought nigh to us by the mindity of the word: we need not climb the skies to enquire, if his incarnate is come down to teach us; nor need we go down to the deep in search for him, who is arisen from the dead, and hath accomplished the work of redemption: So that, if with our mouth we confess him as our only hope, and in our heart cleave to him as our only Lord, we shall infallibly be saved. 15. ¶

15. See I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil: 16. In that I command thee this day to love the LORD thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his judgments, that thou mayst live and multiply: and the LORD thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goeth to possess it. 17. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them: 18. I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land whither thou passeth over Jordan, to go to possess it. 19. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: 20. That thou mayst love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayst obey his voice, and that thou mayst cleave unto him (for he is thy life, and the length of thy days) that thou mayst dwell in the land which the LORD fware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

16. 15-20. Warm, and urgent when such important concerns were at stake, he seeks to his some abiding implications on their heart, or at least to leave them inexcusable. 1. The safe was plain, and for their choice it depended to be happy or miserable, they had every argument passed upon them to avoid death, every motive urged to engage them to seek the life God promised. The love of God, and obedience to his will, would infallibly procure the one, disobedience and idolatry inevitably expose them to the other. But if under the law, where the promises and threatenings were chiefly temporal, these arguments were so strong, how much more are they to us, before whom death and life eternal are set, according as we believe and obey, or be our disobedience and unbelief reject the gospel of Jesus? 2. He appeals to heaven and earth for his faithfulness, and urges them to check the way of duty, as the path of life. They who perish will have only themselves to blame; they would not receive the knowledge of the truth, that they might be saved, which they who hear and chuse it will own it to be not of themselves, but the gift of God. He that is saved owes it to God’s grace; every man that is damned has only himself to blame. 3. He again returns to exhort them to love, serve, and cleave to God, as the author of their life, and all the comforts of it; and that they may dwell in the land which he fware to give their fathers, and by their fidelity maintain a long and uninterrupted enjoyment of it. Thus closing with a remembrance, how much in interest, as well as duty, they are bound to obedience.