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Commentary on Deuteronomy in Wycliffe Bible Commentary
by Meredith G. Kline here Quote:
D. Ultimate Restoration. 30:1-10.
Beyond the curse of exile opened the prospect of restoration (vv. 1-10; cf. Deut 4:29-31; Lev 26:40-45). The redemptive program is not to be frustrated by the fall of those who were of Israel yet were not faithful Israelites. An obedient remnant together with the remnant of the Gentiles will be restored to the covenant Lord in his glorious kingdom. Of this ultimate restoration, the OT return from Babylonian exile was typical. The one vast complex of typical and antitypical restoration is embraced in this prophetic blessing of Moses. The section of the treaty concerned with covenant ratification (Deut 27-30) closes with the call for decision, in which Moses reminded the people of Israel that they could not plead ignorance of God's demands (vv. 11-14) and warned them that the alternatives set before them in the covenant curses and blessings were those of life and death (vv. 15-20).
Deuteronomy 30:1-10
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,
Verse 1-10. In Deut 28:64 ff. Moses portrayed the hopelessness of unbelieving Israelites in their dispersion among the nations. 1. When all these things are come upon thee. Here he looked beyond the Exile, indeed beyond all the curse and blessing described hitherto in these covenant sanctions, and extended to his people the hope of restoration, the hope of a new covenant. 2. Shalt return unto the Lord. The way into this new beatitude would be the way of a renewed and true consecration to the Lord against whom Israel had rebelled (cf. v. 10). 6-8. The origin of that repentance and heart-love for the Lord would be in a divine work of qualification - the Lord ... will circumcise thine heart. What had been externally symbolized in circumcision, the OT sacrament of consecration, would be spiritually actualized by the power of God (cf. 10:16; Jer 31:33 ff.; 32:39 ff.; Ezek 11:19; 36:26-27).
As the development of this theme in the prophets shows, the renewal and restoration which Moses foretold is that accomplished by Christ in the New Covenant. The prophecy is not narrowly concerned with ethnic Jews but with the covenant community, here concretely denoted in its OT identity as Israel. Within the sphere of the New Covenant, however, the wall of ethnic distinctions disappears. Accordingly, the Old Testament figure used here of exiled Israelites being regathered to the Lord in Jerusalem (Deut 30:3 b,4; cf. Deut 28:64) finds its chief fulfillment in the universal NT gathering of sinners out of the human race, exiled from Paradise, back to the Lord Christ enthroned in the heavenly Jerusalem. 3 a. Turn thy captivity (AV), or turn thy turning, refers to a radical change of condition. 9. The Lord ... will make thee plenteous in every work. Along with the spiritual gifts of regeneration, conversion, and sanctification by which the rebels are transformed into faithful servants, the Messiah will give them a new world of prosperity and peace as their inheritance (vv. 3 a,5,9; cf. 28:4,62). The restored theocratic kingdom in Canaan is used as a typical figure for the anti-typical reality, the eternal kingdom of God in the renewed universe. That will be secured by a divine judgment, for while the people of God are to inherit the earth, their enemies will be plagued with every curse (v. 7). The Messianic salvation is, thus, a new exodus and conquest, a renewal of the covenant mediated through Moses and Joshua, first at Sinai and afterwards in Moab and at Ebal and Gerizim.
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