Deuteronomy 30:17

_SEE, I HAVE SET BEFORE THEE THIS DAY LIFE AND GOOD, AND DEATH AND EVIL;_ See, I have set before thee this day life ... and death - i:e., the alternative of a good and happy, or a disobedient and miserable life. Love of God and compliance with His will is the only way of securing the blessings and avoiding the evils described. The choice was left to themselves; and in urging upon them the inducements to a wise choice, Moses warned, as he proceeded, into a tone of solemn and impressive earnestness similar to that of Paul to the elders of Ephesus (Acts 20:26)....

15-20 What could be said more moving, and more likely to make deep and lasting impressions? Every man wishes to obtain life and good, and to escape death and evil; he desires happiness, and dreads misery. So great is the compassion of the Lord, that he has favoured men, by his word, with such a knowledge of good and evil as will make them for ever happy, if it be not their own fault. Let us hear the sum of the whole matter. If they and theirs would love God, and serve him, they should live and be happy. If they or theirs should turn from God, desert his service, and worship other gods, that would certainly be their ruin. There never was, since the fall of man, more than one way to heaven; which is marked out in both Testaments, though not with equal clearness. Moses meant that same way of acceptance, which Paul more plainly described; and Paul's words mean the same obedience, on which M...

Ignorance of the requirements of the law cannot be pleaded Deuteronomy 30:10; hence, Deuteronomy 30:15 life and death, good and evil, are solemnly set before the people for their own choice; and an earnest exhortation to choose the better part concludes the address. Deuteronomy 30:11. “The righteousness which is of faith” is really and truly described in these words of the Law; and, under Paul’s guidance (see marginal references) we affirm was intended so to be. For the simplicity and accessibility which Moses here attributes to the Law of God neither is nor can be experimentally found in it except through the medium of faith; e

EXPOSITION DEUTERONOMY 30:1 Though rejected and exiled because of rebellion and apostasy, Israel should not be absolutely or forever cast off. When dispersed among the nations, if the people should return to Jehovah their God, he would again receive them into favor and gather them from their dispersion (cf. Deuteronomy 4:29, etc.; Leviticus 26:40, etc.). Moses, looking into the future, anticipates that both the blessing and the curse would come upon the people according as they were faithful to their covenant engagement and obedient to God's Law, or were disobedient and unfaithful. But even when the curse came upon them to the full, this would not amount to final re

BUT IF THINE HEART TURN AWAY,.... From the true God, and the right worship of him, and from his commands, statutes, and judgments: SO THAT THOU WILT NOT HEAR; the voice of the Lord and obey it, or hearken to his laws, and do them: BUT SHALT BE DRAWN AWAY; by an evil heart, and by the ill examples of others: AND WORSHIP OTHER GODS AND SERVE THEM; the gods of the Gentiles, the idols of the people, besides the one living and true God, the God of Israel....

26. THE DISPERSION, THE RETURN AND THE FINAL APPEAL CHAPTER 30 _ 1. The message of hope (Deuteronomy 30:1)_ 2. The final appeal (Deuteronomy 30:11) These things, which Moses spoke into the ears of the people were to come to pass. And they have been fulfilled. The people Israel are scattered among all the nations, and yet they have not been assimilated by the nations. They are kept as a separate people. Connected with the prediction of their dispersion is the message of hope, the prophecy relating to their return. The Lord promises, that if they return unto Him and obey His voice, that He will return unto them. “Then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD

DEUTERONOMY 30:11 was probably intended to close Dt. Deuteronomy 30:11 is applied and adapted by Paul in Romans 6-8. Prefix to Deuteronomy 30:16 the following words found in the LXX and necessary for the sense: If thou wilt listen to the commandments of Yahweh thy God (which, etc.). Deuteronomy 30:19 = Deuteronomy 4:26. Deuteronomy 30:20. to love:...

The Close of the Concluding Addresses The commandment is not too hard nor distant, but near, articulate, intelligible and practicable (Deuteronomy 30:11-14). Sheer life and death, good and evil, is set before Israel. Obedience means blessing, apostasy destruction (Deuteronomy 30:15-19 _a_). Choose life that thou mayest dwell in the land, sworn to thy fathers (Deuteronomy 30:19 _b_ Deuteronomy 30:20). The discourse turns back to the present of the (assumed) speaker and closes the whole series of his addresses upon the keynotes which have rung through them. As Driver says, -it

5. FINAL ENCOURAGEMENT TO CHOOSE THE PATH OF BLESSING RATHER THAN THE CURSE (Deuteronomy 30:15-20) 15 See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; 16 in that I command thee this day to love Jehovah thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his ordinances, that thou mayest live and multiply, and that Jehovah thy God may bless thee in the land whither thou goest in to possess it. 17 But if thy heart turn away, and thou wilt not hear, but shalt be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; 18 I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish; ye shall not prolong your days in the land, whither thou passest over the Jordan to go in to possess it. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you this day, that I have set before thee life and death, the blessing and the curse: therefore choose life,

PROMISES AND APPEALS A promise of restoration, even after abandonment and rejection, is held out, on condition of repentance; and an appeal is made to the people to choos the way of obedience and life rather than that of disobedience and death....