DEUTERONOMY 30: THE PALESTINIAN COVENANT

Deuteronomy 30: THE PALESTINIAN COVENANT

Deut 30:1 And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, 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,

Deu 30:2 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;

Deu 30:3 That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.

Deu 30:4 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 he fetch thee:

Deu 30:5 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.

Deu 30:6 And the LORD thy God will circumcise 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 mayest live.

1. Within the context of the Old Covenant law, all of God’s blessings became conditional to obedience of all commandments, statutes and judgments of the Law (Deu 28:14, 58; 30:16, etc).

Deut 28:49 The LORD shall bring a nation against thee from far, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flieth; a nation whose tongue thou shalt not understand.

2. As part of the curse of the Law, Israel would be invaded by a faraway powerful nation (28:49).

Deut 28:64 And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other; and there thou shalt serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone.

3. History validates that while in captivity Israel finally stopped worshipping other gods and became Monotheistic.
4. Moses prophesied that the time would come when all Israel would remember its former covenant with God while in captivity (30:1).
5. All Israel would return from its lands of captivity (not as Christians) but as Hebrews determined to obey the Old Covenant Law (30:2). This did not occur in 538 BC, 457 BC or 444 BC and has not yet occurred. It is still future.
6. Seeing their sincerity, God will miraculously assist all Israel in its return to the land of promise (30:3).
7. God will regather the Hebrew people from the most regions of the Earth (30:4).
8. Israel will once again be blessed in the land (30:5).
9. The importance of physical circumcision as a token will be replaced by the importance of inner renewal and circumcision of the heart (30:6).
10. The literal wording indicates that eventually all Israel will finally be restored to their land in peace. “When all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse … That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity.” Moses was addressing all Israel. In 538 BC, 457 BC, 444 BC only Judah and Benjamin returned with part of the Levites and priests. None of the returns to date have involved a return of faith.

Heb 10:7 Then said I, Lo, I come (in the volume of the book it is written of me,) to do thy will , O God.
Heb 10:8 Above when he said, Sacrifice and offering and burnt offerings and offering for sin thou wouldest not, neither hadst pleasure therein; which are offered by the law;
Heb 10:9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will , O God. He taketh away the first, that he may establish the second.

11. Just as God personally guaranteed the Abrahamic Covenant as unconditional in Genesis 15, even so Jesus Christ –as Israel personified—has made the unconditional Old Covenant into a fulfilled unconditional covenant in which all the commands have already been perfectly kept (Heb 10:7-9; compare Mt 2:25).