Deuteronomy 30:1-10--Repentance and Forgiveness

Deuteronomy 30:1-10
English Standard Version

Repentance and Forgiveness
30 “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. 4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. 5 And the LORD your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. 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. 7 And the LORD your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. 8 And you shall again obey the voice of the LORD and keep all his commandments that I command you today. 9 The LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, 10 when you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

---

This is part of the Old Covenant that we conveniently forget about.  The purpose of the covenant was to call the people to repentance and show them their need for forgiveness.  Sound familiar?  That's what the New Covenant does too, only it shows us a much more complete picture than the Old Covenant did.  In the Old Covenant they had to trust that the propitiation would be provided, but in the New Covenant we can trust in the finished work of the One who is the propitiation for our sins.

The LORD would use the curses of the Law as a way to tell the people that they needed to repent and come back to Him.  When they did this, they would have the blessings of the Law restored (what we see in the famously quoted 2 Chronicles 7:14--a reiteration of this promise here to Solomon at the time the Temple was built--a specific promise for a specific people regarding a specific place of worship in a specific Promised Land.

We see hints of the New Covenant here where the LORD talks about circumcising their hearts--that's the same language used in Jeremiah 4:4, and this language is picked up by Paul in Romans 2:28-29.  Notice though that this is something that the LORD says He will do.  In other places in the Old Testament it seems to indicate that this is something the people need to do to themselves, but we can never change our own hearts, only the LORD can do that.

The LORD promises that if His people have these new hearts and are careful to obey everything that He has commanded (they will do so because they love Him--that's what Jesus told us), then the LORD will return the promises of blessing to His people and the curses for disobedience will be put on their enemies.  There are also promises of physical prosperity so that all the nations of the world will know that the LORD's blessing is on His people and that He rewards their obedience.  Some will see this and try to fake it and pretend to love the LORD and pretend to obey His commandments because they want the blessing to spill over on them, but it won't work because they never had the change of heart--that's what the gospel is all about and that's what the covenants of the Bible are about--making the gospel more and more clear to us.  There is still the culmination of the Covenant of Redemption that we await when we will made to be like Jesus and be one with Him as He and the Father are one.

Notice that the last thing that this section says as that the people need to turn to the LORD (that requires turning away from everything else they are trusting in) and believing by faith with their whole heart and soul (their whole person).  That is what we are still called to do today, just we know that we are believing on the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ now.  The people were called to be all-in and sold-out for God then and we are called to be all-in and sold-out for Christ now.  Believe in such a way where you are radically transformed--everything about you is made new--and live in a way that is consistent with that new person that the LORD has made you to be.