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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Chapter 30 Prosperity
After Turning To The Lord (ch. 30:1 - 10)
We've been talking about
the curses and the blessings in the Law of Moses.
As I've said before, these are more than just warnings.
They are prophetic. This
can be seen in verse 1 when the text says, "when all these
blessings and curses …" The
word "when" tells you that these blessings and curses are more
than simple warnings. They
will take place. This
passage is in fact prophecy. The question is,
"when will these blessings and curses take place"?
It is my thinking that the curses are now rounding down.
It is also my opinion that the blessings will take place at the
end of this age when Jesus returns to set up his kingdom in Verse 2 and 3 state that
"when" Verse 4 speaks of
"distant lands under the heavens" where God had scattered the
Jews. Back in the days of
Moses people knew nothing about In verse 5 we see that Verse 6 gives us the New
Testament picture of these Old Testament Jews.
God says that "He will circumcise the hearts" of the
generation of Jews that He is speaking about.
Again, it is God that does the circumcising.
This will be miraculous. He
will circumcise the hearts, not the foreskin of Israelis.
Truly, this is a New Testament concept, although hints of it can
be seen in the Old Testament. You
know from this that the generation of Jews spoken of here was not an Old
Testament generation. This
is not a prophecy that was fulfilled in the Old Testament.
It is yet to be fulfilled. You
therefore notice that when the Jews return to their God, because of this
circumcision of heart, you know they are returning in New Testament
terms, that is, in Jesus. In verse 7 we note that
the curses that had been on The rest of this section
confirms the days of The
Offer Of Life Or Death (ch. 30:11 - 20) In verses 11 to 14 Moses
basically states that the commands the Lord is giving I think what Paul, Moses,
and really, God, is saying is that these command should become part of
you. As you meditate on
them, speak about them, and teach them, they live in your heart, and,
what is in the heart, the mouth will speak, and the right life you will
live. Simply put, give your
heart to the commands of God and you will obey them.
In verses 15 through 17
God is setting forth either life or death for Note in verse 16 that
it's not simply about obeying rules.
When given rules to obey, it sooner or later becomes a drudgery.
God says to love Him, and walk with Him.
That's really the foundation to obeying the commands of God.
It's all about a loving relationship with Him. It's all about
walking each step of your life with Him.
We often think that the Old Testament is simply a matter of
obeying rules, but that's not so. Simply
obeying rules is something the church is good at.
We've become very legalistic and humanistic, but the bottom line
is to love the Lord with all we have.
Jesus Himself confirms that.
Note in verse 17 the Lord
says, "if your heart turns away and you do not obey me…"
The point to be made here that disobedience is a matter of the
heart. Before one outwardly
disobeys God, he inwardly disobeys.
This is easily seen in husband wife relationships.
If a woman leaves her husband, she first left him in her heart.
The same would apply if a man leaves his wife.
Heart issues always affect outward issues.
They always precede outward actions. Verse 18 begins with
"I declare…" If
God declares something, you know for a fact, that what He declares will
take place. He declared the
destruction of This is one important
date in Israeli history. In
verse 19 God says that He calls heaven and earth as witnesses to what He
is saying. All of the
heavenly beings are standing intently, watching this covenant unfold
before them. God is setting
life and death before One of the important
things to understand from this chapter is the New Testament style in
many verses. We see heart
matters spoken of. It's not
that God has really changed from Old Testament times to New Testament
times. He has always been
interested in matters of the heart.
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