#355 But Now I See

And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the Lord thy God hath driven thee,

2 And shalt return unto the Lord thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;

3 That 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 thy God hath scattered thee.

4 If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the Lord thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:

5 And the Lord thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.

6 And the Lord thy God 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.

7 And the Lord thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.

8 And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the Lord, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.

9 And the Lord thy God will 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:

10 If thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes 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.

11 For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.

12 It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?

13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?

14 But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

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 the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commandments and his statutes and his judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it.

17 But if thine heart turn away, so that 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, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it.

19 I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live:

20 That thou mayest love the Lord thy God, and that thou mayest obey his voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto him: for he is thy life, and the length of thy days: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. Deuteronomy 30 KJV

The thing about God is that He doesn't change. Though hearing this may come as a warning it also carried a dual invitation along with a continued prediction of things to come. The first invitation is the blessing of following God's command, of coming to God in gratitude and recognition of His many provisions. The second is the return to God spurned by fear, and chastening, for whom He loves, He also corrects to be conformed to the image of His Son, since He need not change. This nation has so many times been lost to the captivity of idolatrous people, inheriting the chains of their own delusion. They have been dispersed throughout the planet, yet have even in the century prior come to form a small nation and establish the Hebrew language again. It is viewed oddly enough by the modern world as anticlimactic, even though it is all predicted in scripture. The world throughout history has had a love affair of hating the Jews, but why?

Just like the story of the prodigal son, they in verse one remember. He remembered his father's house and what it was like to be a servant there. He had thrown away his inheritance but was now brought down low, amongst the swine. I see what I did now, why not say I am wrong? Why not ask God for help, acknowledging I am weak, begging for mercy. I would rather be Christ's slave then suffer any longer at the hands of my own vanity. Can He circumcise my heart? I no longer feel the outward expressions of religion. I no longer trust in myself or token relics. Like the Psalmist pleads, "create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within me." I beg to have the integrity of sincerity, to realize the joy of my salvation, to teach my children the knowledge of God. For just like Paul's conversation to Agrippa, none of this was done in secret. You knew or had the opportunity to know, and ignorance will not be accounted bliss. Agrippa stood accused of knowing God's law. I stood accused of setting aside God's word, of leaving it on the shelf. My excuse was that I heard it was wrong, that it had been proven a fraud and unreliable. I finally went to further such proof, then reconcile what I could from it or come to some sort of peace about the matter, but found it more reliable than all of humanity. I stood accused then of believing it to be greater than myself, but hoped that I could walk away and deal with the implications at another time. My heart was still hard and though not guaranteed another time or chance to repent, I walked away. I put it back down and to the side. Lord, we do need to be circumcised of heart, to have the heart of stone within our chest replaced with one of flesh. I need my ears unstopped and my eyes opened, like every outward miracle you performed, except upon my heart. Christ did His miracles in the open, and Paul rightly accuses Agrippa for he knew what the scriptures said of Messiah. Jesus raised the dead indicating that He had power over death and life. He healed the blind showing that He could bring us to see. He fed the 5000, demonstrating that He was God and that nothing was made without Him. He brought the message, and it was not hidden from us for Christ walked among us and left His word. It was given in the law of the OT, in the many pictures of sacrifice, the tabernacle, priests and prophets. God help us.

And you were dead in the trespasses and sins 2 in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— 3 among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body[a] and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.[b] 4 But[c] God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, 5 even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— 6 and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, 9 not a result of works, so that no one may boast. 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand, that we should walk in them. Ephesians 2:1-10 ESV