Old Testament - Deuteronomy 30 - May 20, 2022

 5/20/2022 – Deuteronomy 30

In this chapter the Lord continues to teach the Israelites about covenants with the Lord.  Very simply, when they keep the covenants they’ve made with Him, blessings will come to them. And when they fail to keep the covenants they drift further away from the Lord, and will experience many more problems—one of which is that they will be scattered because of their failure to keep their promises to the Lord.

At this point, the Lord has certainly gathered them together. He has worked to teach them during their 40 years in the desert. They are now entering Canaan, the land of their fathers. He then explains how the Lord will help them: He 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.” (v 6)  He is teaching them (and us) that He can help us all to become more tender in our thoughts and actions. In the following verses the Lord assures them that He can “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.” (v 9). In v ‘s 10-11 He continues to clarify how He will help us: “If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statues 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. For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden [the footnote says the word ‘hidden’ means ‘too hard for you’] from thee, neither is it far off. 

The Lord then describes what will occur if they pull away from Him and His commandments. Basically, He is teaching us that following His teachings will bring us more happiness and progress, but He follows that in v’s 12-14 with the reminder that we always have our free agency, and we can use that for our good, or for a path to further problems. “See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil.” (v 15)

He could not be more clear in the two different paths we can choose to follow.  I also love two verses from chapter 31:  v 6- “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, not be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee nor forsake thee.” And v 8- “…fear not, neither be dismayed.” 

We shouldn’t be surprised when we come upon hard times. These can be times that will bring us growth and understanding. All we have to remember is that He is there beside us during good times and bad. All we have to do is to reach out to Him.


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