Ready For Redemption?

 Deuteronomy 29:9-31:30, “You Are Standing”, Nitzavim

This section of scripture picks up with Moses addressing the people.  He doesn’t leave anyone out.  He calls them out by groups; Chiefs, tribes, elders, officers, men, little ones, wives, the aliens who are living with the Israelites, even the workers (the one who chops wood and the one who draws the water).  In Deuteronomy 29:15 he even expands this list to include the unborn children of each of these groups.

What Moses is saying is that each of the people and all of their children and all of their children’s children throughout all of their generations are, by the hearing of the parents, binding themselves to the covenant conditions and promises as a single people.

As I read this, I can’t help of thinking about the first two chapters of Ephesians where Paul is talking about Christ “making in Himself…one new man”.  This entire section of Ephesians is circulating around the promises and the inheritance offered to the children of God as a people.

Going back to Deuteronomy and this week’s readings, from what I see, those promises, and the inheritance are summed up in 29:10-13 (NASB).

“You stand today…..that you may enter into the covenant with the LORD your God, and into His oath which the LORD your God is making with you today, in order that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

The three things I pick up on here are:

• This is a cumulative journey,
• It is inclusive of men, women, teachers, students, natural Jews, gentiles who join Israel, elders, laborers, children, and all future generations, and
• The fulfillment of the covenant is the fulfillment of the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

This re-establishes where we have been going with these blogs over the past few weeks.  This week we are going to take a final look at how this week’s writings confirm that the fulfillment of these specific promises:

• Have not passed from Israel to the gentile church,
• That the fulfillment of these promises is the hope of the New Testament church, and
• That none of what has transpired over the last 3,500 years has strayed from God’s plan of salvation.

As we progress through the scripture, we come to the beginning of chapter 30.  Notice in verse 30:1 the Word says “So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you,…”

By this point, God is not just giving the people a list of what will happen IF they do or do not keep the covenant promises.  By this point in what Moses is sharing, the Word of the Lord has become a prophetic statement.  This WILL be the journey.  Some might argue that the last of the curses, being the exile, was fulfilled during the time that the Jewish people were captive in Babylon.  Based on scripture this simply is not possible.  This will become far to apparent as we address the three conclusions noted above.

In Deuteronomy 30:4-6 God tells us that after the exile (the last of the curses) He will gather us together to Himself.  The image of this regathering is very specific.  It will be in the land of our fathers which we will possess, He will multiply our family, He will circumcise our heart and the heart of our generations.  He will be our God and we will be His people.  This is a direct fulfillment of all the promises made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  No one could possibly argue that these promises are being made to the people of Israel and all the people Moses is specifically addressing.

For proper context it is important to look at exactly where God says He will be gathering the people from.  In Deuteronomy 30:4 (KJV) we read: “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”.  Going back to 30:1 the timing of when this heavenly gathering takes place is established as “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”.

From these two verses, we can conclude that the re-gathering:

• Will take place at the end of the exile,
• Will include those living and those in the heavenly realms, and
• Will be the beginning of a time when the people God is talking to will be supernaturally gathered to Israel and the fulfillment of the covenant promises will be fulfilled.

Now let’s look at a few Testament scriptures:

Mark 13:27 (KJV) “And then He will send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven.”

Matthew 24:31 (KJV) “And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.”

Luke 21:28 (KJV) “But when these things begin to take place, straighten up and lift up your heads, because your redemption is drawing near.”

Let’s start with the basics and then I will let you go back and do your own research for the deeper points and understandings.  At the most basic level I don’t think anyone could reasonably argue that Jesus was not specifically referring to same event as outlined in Deuteronomy 30:1-4 when He was telling His disciples about what would happen in these future events.  The terminology and imagery is just too specific and is just too perfect of a match.  As you go back and research each of these sections of scripture you will see that Jesus is specifically talking about when He will return to set up His rule and reign on earth.  He is telling His disciples about these things in the context of telling them that He will be betrayed, turned over to the authorities, and put to death.  He is telling them that the time of gentiles is beginning and as such, this is the transition into the last of the curses.  He is assuring them that after a time of great tribulation, He will return and all the promises of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob will finally be fulfilled.  He is assuring them that Deuteronomy 30 still stands, it is still true, and that they can remain in hope knowing that God is not done with them.  The Luke scripture connects what will be taking place to the "redemption" that is clearly defined throughout scripture as this final ingathering from the heavenly and earthly realms with the establishment of His earthly kingdom.

In 1 Thessalonians Paul shares what he sees transpiring on that day.

1 Thessalonians 4:16-17 (NASB) “For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first.  Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord.”

Finally, in Revelation 20:4 we see John sharing what Jesus showed him about end times as he specifically references this same re-gathering from the heavens and the earth and the redemption.  The context of Revelation 19-20 perfectly parallel everything that Matthew, Mark, and Luke tell us Jesus taught on His return, the setting up of His Kingdom, and the re-gathering of His people.  Revelation perfectly parallels Deuteronomy 30 in that it is a promise of a 1,000-year physical reign where the “people” who Moses was speaking to will finally live in the promises of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The scripture is simply overwhelming.  I could quote from Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah, and several other prophets.  I could add quotes from the Old Testament, and I could add additional quotes from the New Testament.  The amount of scripture that supports this understanding is simply overwhelming.

Understanding that Jesus and the New Testament authors all continued to see the fulfillment of Deuteronomy 30 as a future event leaves us no choice but to accept that God is not done with the Jewish people.  It forces us to understand that the rejection of Jesus by the Pharisees, the crucifixion, the time of Gentiles, and the exile are all a part of God's plan of salvation.  The New Testament writings force us to look into the future and understand our destiny so that we can start thinking about what we have believed, what we have rejected, and what it really looks like to make "Jesus Lord".

In summary, from beginning to end, the hope of the bible is the restoration of the “people” to the land of Israel, to live in harmony with God, to have Him here on earth with us, to walk with us, and to talk with us, to teach us, and to help us see and understand Him in the way in which He as always wanted to be seen and understood.  In this, we will be His people, and He will be our God.  It will be a time when He is able to fulfill all the physical promises of the covenant, when we will fulfill our side of the covenant,  and when we, “His people”, will finally be a blessing to the nations.

This is the promise that was given to Abraham, it is the faith that the saints of Hebrews 11 believed in, it is the future that Jesus spoke of, it is the understanding and inheritance that Paul wrote about, and it is the vision that John was given.  From beginning to end this is the image of things to come, it is the end of our journey here on this earth, and the conclusion of what must take place before the creation of the New Heaven and the New Earth.  It is the image of our spiritual journey before the books of life are opened and the conclusion of all things is established.  It is our destiny.  It is our future.  It has been promised.  And it will take place.  Do you believe?

I pray that this has been a blessing and an inspiration.  Amen amen.