Context No. 2407 of 4322 · Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy 30:1-10: in context

1It shall happen, when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, 2and return to the LORD your God and obey his voice according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3that then the LORD your God will release you from captivity, have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. 4If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back. 5The LORD your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you will possess it. He will do you good, and increase your numbers more than your fathers. 6The LORD your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your offspring, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. 7The LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. 8You shall return and obey the LORD’s voice, and do all his commandments which I command you today. 9The LORD your God will make you prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, for good; for the LORD will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers, 10if you will obey the LORD your God’s voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law, if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

Looking past the exile he warns is coming, Moses promises a return. When the people, scattered among the nations, come to their senses and turn back to the LORD with all their heart, he will gather them even from the ends of the heavens and bring them home. And then the heart of it: the LORD your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your children, so that you will love him with all your heart and live.

The order matters. They are told to return and love God with their whole heart, and then told that God himself will circumcise their hearts so they can. The very love the covenant demands is also a gift God gives, an inward work only he can do. This is not a loophole that excuses the turning; it is the assurance that the turning is not left to willpower alone. No exile is too far for him to reach, and no heart is too hardened for him to soften into love.

Am I straining to manufacture a love for God that I can only receive from him as a changed heart?

Sources

Deuteronomy 30:6: The LORD your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your offspring, to love the LORD your God with all your heart.
Deuteronomy 30:4: If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you.
Ezekiel 36:26: I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you.