Deuteronomy 30 Description of Israelites in Exile
1-5 “Here’s what will happen. While you’re out among the nations where God has dispersed you and the blessings and curses come in just the way I have set them before you, and you and your children take them seriously and come back to God, your God, and obey him with your whole heart and soul according to everything that I command you today, God, your God, will restore everything you lost; he’ll have compassion on you; he’ll come back and pick up the pieces from all the places where you were scattered. No matter how far away you end up, God, your God, will get you out of there and bring you back to the land your ancestors once possessed. It will be yours again. He will give you a good life and make you more numerous than your ancestors.”
During the mid-and late-nineteenth century, the Zionist movement sprang up, partially as a response to waves of anti-Semitism in central Europe and Russia. Zionism sought to establish a Jewish homeland in Palestine with as many Jews and as few Arabs as possible. The Zionists based their claims on Biblical evidence. Early Zionist settlers in Palestine suffered. There were swamps, deserts, and religious persecution. The British government veered back and forth in its loyalties to Jews and Arabs. Finally, in 1948 the State of Israel declared its independence, after which a war immediately broke out. But Israel prevailed. Many Jews from around the globe came to Israel as a result of the horrors of the concentration camps. Many more came to build up a Jewish state. Today, Israel continues to face many enemies but has led in technology, dry land farming techniques, and a host of other areas.
6-7 God, your God, will cut away the thick calluses on your heart and your children’s hearts, freeing you to love God, your God, with your whole heart and soul and live, really live. God, your God, will put all these curses on your enemies who hated you and were out to get you.
8-9 And you will make a new start, listening obediently to God, keeping all his commandments that I’m commanding you today. God, your God, will outdo himself in making things go well for you: you’ll have babies, get calves, grow crops, and enjoy an all-around good life. Yes, God will start enjoying you again, making things go well for you just as he enjoyed doing it for your ancestors.
10 But only if you listen obediently to God, your God, and keep the commandments and regulations written in this Book of Revelation. Nothing halfhearted here; you must return to God, your God, totally, heart and soul, holding nothing back.
Are all the Jews in Israel devout worshipers? Far from it! There are many secular Jews, many Jews who are observant but not extreme, and then many ultra-conservative Jewish believers. But generally, there are large numbers of Israelis who observe the commands of Moses.
11-14 This commandment that I’m commanding you today isn’t too much for you, it’s not out of your reach. It’s not on a high mountain—you don’t have to get mountaineers to climb the peak and bring it down to your level and explain it before you can live it. And it’s not across the ocean—you don’t have to send sailors out to get it, bring it back, and then explain it before you can live it. No. The word is right here and now—as near as the tongue in your mouth, as near as the heart in your chest. Just do it!
Forget Nike! Millenia before Nike came out with this slogan, God was already adjuring the Israelites to “Just do it!” God values sacrifice far more than any kind of material wealth. Remember that Jesus commended the widow who put two small coins into the temple offering box, for she was giving everything she had.
15-18 “Look at what I’ve done for you today: I’ve placed in front of you Life and Good, Death and Evil. And I command you today: Love God, your God. Walk in his ways. Keep his commandments, regulations, and rules so that you will live, really live, live exuberantly, blessed by God, your God, in the land you are about to enter and possess. But I warn you: If you have a change of heart, refuse to listen obediently, and willfully go off to serve and worship other gods, you will most certainly die. You won’t last long in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.”
All of these warnings came to pass. When the Israelites got so far from God that there was no return, He moved the Assyrians and the Babylonians to attack Israel, slaughtering many and carrying others away to their lands. Before that happened, sieges brought starvation and even cannibalism. Those who had worshiped idols were dragged off to pagan nations in chains where those idols were the main religion. Faced with the results of their failures, many did repent and turn back to God.
19-20 I call Heaven and Earth to witness against you today: I place before you Life and Death, Blessing and Curse. Choose life so that you and your children will live. And love God, your God, listening obediently to him, firmly embracing him. Oh yes, he is life itself, a long life settled on the soil that God, your God, promised to give your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”
Moses is desperate! Even though Moses is speaking the words God has commanded him to speak, Moses is also pleading with his people. Moses is fully aware of the idols, the charms, the secret rituals his people have been carrying out when they think nobody is looking. As a prophet, Moses can already see what might happen, and the vision is horrific. Moses is not merely repeating God’s message; he is warning people and begging them to obey. These words are those of a 120-year-old man who has witnessed history and who knows how vital it is for the Israelites to keep God’s covenant. After all, Moses has only failed to obey once in his walk with God and that failure has cost him the opportunity to enter the Promised Land.
We read these warnings and wonder why anybody in their right mind could possibly refuse to follow God’s commands. But people are deceived because they first deceive themselves, convincing themselves that their sin is really not too bad. Nobody wakes up one morning and proclaims, “WOW! I think I’ll worship an idol today!” Our idols are different-we worship work, possessions, social standing, and our personal goals. More than a century ago, James Russell Lowell had it correct:
For a cap and bells our lives we pay,
Bubbles we earn with a whole soul’s tasking:
‘Tis heaven alone that is given away,
‘Tis only God may be had for the asking.
C.T. Studd, the founder of the WEC Mission, had this to say: “Only one life-twill soon be past. Only what’s done for God will last.”
Once more, it’s all about choices. Will we follow God or our own whims? Choose wisely.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and caring for us. Lord, help us to follow You whole-heartedly without compromise. Help us to be true to You, no matter what. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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