Deuteronomy 30 · The Lantern

The Promise of Restoration

And it shall be, when all these things come upon you — the blessing and the curse that I have set before you — and you turn them back to your heart among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you,

and you return to the LORD your God and listen to his voice, according to all that I am commanding you today — you and your sons — with all your heart and with all your soul,

then the LORD your God will turn back your captivity and have mercy on you; and he will turn and gather you from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.

If your outcasts are at the end of the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will take you.

And the LORD your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and he will do you good and multiply you above your fathers.

And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, for the sake of your life.

And one of the scribes came, and having heard them reasoning together, and perceiving that he had answered them well, asked him, Which is the first commandment of all?

But when the Pharisees had heard that he had put the Sadducees to silence, they were gathered together. Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question, tempting him, and saying, Master, which is the great commandment in the law? Jesus said unto him, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind.

And, behold, a certain lawyer stood up, and tempted him, saying, Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life? He said unto him, What is written in the law? how readest thou? And he answering said, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and with all thy mind; and thy neighbour as thyself.

And the LORD your God will put all these oaths on your enemies and on those who hate you, who pursued you.

And you will turn back and listen to the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments that I am commanding you today.

And the LORD your God will make you overflow in all the work of your hand — in the fruit of your womb, and in the fruit of your beasts, and in the fruit of your ground — for good; for the LORD will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers,

when you listen to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes written in this book of the instruction — when you return to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

The Choice of Life or Death

For this commandment that I am commanding you today — it is not too wonderful for you, and it is not far away.

It is not in the heavens, that you should say, “Who will go up for us to the heavens and take it for us, and make us hear it, so that we may do it?”

And it is not across the sea, that you should say, “Who will cross for us to the other side of the sea and take it for us, and make us hear it, so that we may do it?”

For the word is very near you — in your mouth and in your heart, to do it.

See — I have set before you today life and good, and death and evil.

Therefore, let us acquire eternal life. Let us acquire what is available to us. God does not give it to us; He offers it to us: "Behold, I have offered you life." It is available to us to stretch out our hands to good deeds, to take possession of life and to keep it in our soul.

Let us ponder the nature of life and of death. Life is the enjoyment of the gift of breath, death the deprivation of it. Further, this gift of breath is considered by most people as a good. And so life is this, the enjoyment of goods, but death is the divestiture of them.

It is now clear that there are ten precepts of the sacred decalogue. In the first three, right ordering toward God is commanded; in the fourth, right ordering and beneficence toward parents; in the other six, right ordering and innocence toward one's neighbor is commanded.

For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments — and you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land into which you are going, to possess it.

But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, and you are drawn away and bow down to other gods and serve them,

I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you will not lengthen your days on the ground that you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.

I call the heavens and the earth to witness against you today: life and death I have set before you, the blessing and the curse. And you shall choose life, so that you may live, you and your seed —

loving the LORD your God, listening to his voice, and holding fast to him; for he is your life and the length of your days, to live on the ground that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.

Deuteronomy30

The Promise of Restoration

The Choice of Life or Death