Deuteronômio 30

Deuteronômio 30

Constable - The duty of obedience did not lie beyond the average Israelite's ability if he or she turned to Yahweh wholeheartedly (v. 10). God was not asking something impossible of His people (vv. 11-15; cf. Ro 10:6-8). He had given them the Mosaic Law so they could obey. Is not too difficult for you - The NLT paraphrases it "This command I am giving you today is not too difficult for you to understand, and it is not beyond your reach." It is not too complicated. While the meaning of not too difficult seems to mean to be not to difficult to understand, there is also a sense in which the commandment is not too difficult to obey (Bratcher - UBS Handbook: Deuteronomy). Of course it is IMPOSSIBLE to obey in our strength. And that is where the teaching on "cardiac circumcision" comes into play. HOW COULD ANY OT JEW LOVE GOD WITH A WHOLE HEART? SOME THOUGHTS In Deuteronomy 10:16 Moses instructs Israel "So (See context - Dt 10:12-15) circumcise your heart (Literally, the foreskin of your heart), and stiffen your neck no longer." Think about what he is telling them to do! Meade puts it this way "Given the full scope of redemptive history, this command is tantamount to telling a kleptomaniac to stop stealing without giving him or her any power to overcome the extreme desire to steal." (Reference) What Moses is saying in Deuteronomy 10:16 is literally impossible by reliance on human power! But in Deut 30:6 Moses explains to them that it is not they themselves who can carry out this internal "cardiac circumcision" but it is "the LORD your God (Who) will circumcise YOUR heart (ADDRESSED TO HIS HEARERS IN THE PRESENT) and the heart of your descendants (REFERRING TO THE FUTURE GENERATIONS OF ISRAEL)." Now imagine you are a Jewish man, you are physically circumcised, and you hear Moses teaching in Deuteronomy regarding circumcision of your heart. While we cannot know for certain their response, surely some of these Jewish hearers responded by asking Moses for further "exposition" regarding what he meant by "cardiac circumcision." (especially in light of how highly they held physical circumcision!) I would propose that there is but one way to attain the spiritual circumcision Moses' alludes to in Dt 10:16 and Dt 30:6 and that is the one way God has provided for sinful mankind from Genesis to Revelation. The one way (cf Jn 14:6) is by grace through faith (Eph 2:8-9) in the Gospel concerning the Messiah. We know that the Jews had "pictures" or "foreshadows" of Messiah Who was to come (cf Col 2:17), "shadows" going all the way back to the proto-evangelium in Genesis 3:15-note). Furthermore, we know that Abraham heard the proclamation of the "Gospel" (Gal 3:8-note) and by faith (Ge 15:6-note) he entered into the covenant God had cut with him in Genesis 15:12-18-note, especially Ge 15:18-note. Notice also that Paul in quoting from Deut 30:12-14 in Romans 10:6-7 uses the phrase "the righteousness based on faith speaks thus, "DO NOT SAY IN YOUR HEART, 'WHO WILL ASCEND INTO HEAVEN?' (that is, to bring Christ down), or 'WHO WILL DESCEND INTO THE ABYSS?' (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead)." By analogy, for an OT Jew to find righteousness based on faith, there is no need to ascend to heaven or descend to the abyss, since Messiah has been prophesied as the One in Whom that righteousness is attainable by grace through faith (in the Old Testament just as in the New Testament). The difference of course is that in Romans 10:6-7 Paul is alluding not to the prophesied coming of the Messiah but of the Messiah Who had come, had been crucified and had resurrected from the dead. The genuine believers in the OT were looking forward to the Messiah's substitutionary atonement on Calvary, whereas we in the Church age look back to the crucifixion, burial and resurrection of our Messiah. Both OT and NT saints are saved the same way, by grace through faith. For the OT saints "in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins" they committed as Paul explains in Ro 3:25-note. This I would propose is how a Jew would be able to love God with all his heart! This is the only way an OT Jew listening to (or reading) the words of Moses would have found this commandment not too difficult to obey! David