Fully Committed • Deuteronomy 30:11-20
By Ralph Henson
It almost seems as if God overlooked the sins of the Patriarchs.
Abraham twice passed his wife off as his sister, and then had a child with his wife’s servant Hagar. Isaac also passed his wife off as his sister, and had multiple wives and mistreated them. Jacob tricked Esau and his father with the help of his mother. Judah slept with a prostitute who turned out to be his daughter in law! Moses killed a man. And yet, God told Moses, I am the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob.
They didn’t get away with it; they just put off God’s blessings. Because of their sins, the promise of a nation was not fulfilled until Joshua led the children into the land some 500 years after it was promised to Abraham. Instead of depending upon God, each of the Patriarchs responded to their neighbors or the environment, slowing down God’s promise. The promise to the nation had to go through individuals in the nation.
God predicted the delay of his blessing well before this sermon by Moses at the end of their forty years in the wilderness. And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years (Genesis 15:13 KJV). Abraham didn’t experience the promise of the land due to his own sins, as did each of the Patriarchs.
Here in our passage, Moses has completed the third message to Israel as they prepare to enter the land, (Deuteronomy 1-4, 5-11, and 12-26), followed by the ceremony of blessings and curses. Now Moses includes final warnings to the people of Israel, that the promise of the land collectively is always dependent upon their individual love for God and their obedience to Him.
While some may look at us today and think that we got away with it, we didn’t. We must choose which path we will follow. Life or death, good or evil. They head in opposite directions. You can’t slide between the two. If I left Mississippi and headed to Dallas or Atlanta, I can’t go anywhere near the same way. Opposite directions. Opposite destinations. There is no path of compromise that will arrive at both destinations. That’s how life and blessings are directionally opposite from death and curses. According to Deuteronomy 30:20, life and blessings come when we love the Lord, obey His voice, and cling to Him, since He is our life.
Some think they can play around with sin; they see it as a short detour off the path to God and church. But it will take them a long way from where they are supposed to be, and will lead where they really want to go. You can never head the wrong way and end up in the right place.
God had a plan for Israel which took generations to come to pass. Today it is the same. While individuals may miss the blessings of obedience, the church can see revival. But God’s plan for the church must go through individuals in the church.
Choose life. But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it (Deuteronomy 30:14 KJV). The Word of God must come from within where it lives, so we will want to obey God. But how can we put His Word within? The New Testament has the final answer.
In Romans 10, Paul uses these verses from Deuteronomy to explain how we can obey God’s Word; he completes the picture that Moses began to draw. That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation (Romans 10:9-10 JV).
For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved (Romans 10:13 KJV). God’s blessings await those who will turn to Him through Jesus. When individual obedience begins, family, church, community, and even national blessings can follow.
Henson is pastor of Mt. View Church, Meridian.
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