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Deuteronomy 30:1-6 - Cycle Breaker

  • Writer: Chad Werkhoven
    Chad Werkhoven
  • Aug 26
  • 4 min read

God transforms your heart to reshape your life.


A tan and white dog playfully chases its tail in a grassy field with scattered dandelions, conveying a fun and energetic mood.
Like a dog chasing its tail, man is stuck in an endless sin cycle until God supernaturally releases us from it.

Deuteronomy 30:1–6


CONTEXT: Moses is addressing Israel right before they enter into the Promised Land.


30 When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come on you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, 2 and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, 3 then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes  and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. 4 Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back. 5 He will bring you to the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. 6 The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.

Canons of Dordt

Point 4 - Irresistible Grace


Article 12: Regeneration a Supernatural Work


Regeneration, is the new creation, the raising from the dead, and the making alive 

  1. so clearly proclaimed in the Scriptures, 

  2. which God works in us without our help. 

But this certainly does not happen only by outward teaching, by moral persuasion, or by such a way of working that, after God’s work is done, 

  1. it remains in human power whether or not to be reborn or converted. 

  2. Rather, it is an entirely supernatural work, 

    1. one that is at the same time most powerful and most pleasing, 

    2. a marvelous, hidden, and inexpressible work, which is not less than or inferior in power to that of creation or of raising the dead, as Scripture (inspired by the author of this work) teaches. 

    3. As a result, all those in whose hearts God works in this marvelous way 

      1. are certainly, unfailingly, and effectively reborn and do actually believe. 

      2. And then the will, now renewed, 

        1. is not only activated and motivated by God, 

        2. but in being activated by God is also itself active. 

For this reason, people t­hemselves, 

  1. by that grace which they have received, 

  2. are also rightly said to believe and to repent.


Summary


Nobody was under any illusion that everything moving forward would be sunshine and roses for the Israelites. Those first generations of freed slaves following their God across the wilderness had already demonstrated time and time again the pervasive effect that sin has on mankind. No sooner had one cycle of blessing → sin → curse → repentance → rescue run its course, the cycle would repeat as the people fell back into sin.


Everybody there knew it: Moses, who spoke these words as Israel was on the threshold of the Promised Land, but who himself had been banned from entering it due to his own sin, the people whom Moses spoke to, who knew their own sinful hearts all too well, and certainly the LORD God, whose divine omniscience knows all things. They all knew that sooner or later the presently obedient people, basking in God's blessing, would forget the LORD's commands and relapse into sin.


But notice that these words of admonition do more than just warn and threaten a people who would most certainly fail their God time and time again. No, these are words of promise and hope.


Their failure would result in their dispersal among the nations, Moses proclaimed to Israel, but when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you. God's grace would be stronger than they were.




  Dig Deeper  


Today's passage comes near the end of the book of Deuteronomy, which is a word that simply means 'second law.' It's not that the stipulations contained in it are different than the laws given in Exodus or Leviticus. Rather, it's a summarized restatement of the Law given to the people as they prepared to enter Canaan.


But the law that Israel had been given merely regulated external behavior; indeed, that's all any law can do. It's impossible to codify internal attributes like attitude and motivation. Something more was needed in order to break the people's perpetual sin cycle.


The people needed the sign of the covenant - circumcision (an external cutting away of flesh) - applied internally to their hearts (representing their emotion, intellect and volition) so that they would love him with all their heart and with all their soul, and live.


John Calvin explains what heart circumcision is all about:

There is a metaphor in this word circumcise whereby people were initiated into the service of God. The expression, therefore, is equivalent to God saying, He will create you spiritually to be new men, so that, cleansed from the filth of the flesh and the world, and separated from the unclean nations, you should serve Him in purity.

This is the circumcision you've experienced through Christ.



  • ACKNOWLEDGE WHO GOD IS: Our Father, who restores the fortunes and will have compassion on those who return and obey Him;

  • ALIGN YOUR LIFE WITH GOD'S WILL: Pray that having had your heart circumcised by the Spirit's regenerating power, that you would "serve the LORD in purity;"

  • ASK GOD FOR WHAT YOU NEED:

Read the New Testament in a year! Today: 2 Corinthians 3

 
 
 

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