This commandment is not too difficult.

Deuteronomy 30 from the daily reading in the One Year Bible

Restoration Promised

30 “So it shall be when all of these things have come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind in all nations where the Lord your God has banished you, ² and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart and soul according to all that I command you today, you and your sons, ³ then the Lord your God will restore you from captivity, and have compassion on you, and will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. ⁴ If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. ⁵ The Lord your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it; and He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers.

⁶ “Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live. ⁷ The Lord your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. ⁸ And you shall again obey the Lord, and observe all His commandments which I command you today. ⁹ Then the Lord your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for the Lord will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers; ¹⁰ if you obey the Lord your God 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 soul.

¹¹ “For this commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach. ¹² It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ ¹³ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’ ¹⁴ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.

Choose Life

¹⁵ “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity; ¹⁶ in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. ¹⁷ But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, ¹⁸ I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. ¹⁹ I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, ²⁰ by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

In today’s text God says:  “You shall again obey the Lord, and observe all His commandments which I command you today. Then the Lord your God will prosper you abundantly in all the work of your hand, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your cattle and in the produce of your ground, for the Lord will again rejoice over you for good, just as He rejoiced over your fathers;  if you obey the Lord your God 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 soul. This commandment which I command you today is not too difficult for you, nor is it out of reach.  It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will go up to heaven for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’  Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will cross the sea for us to get it for us and make us hear it, that we may observe it?’  But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may observe it.”   All that the Lord asked was obedience to all His commandments. He said that was not too difficult. For us, we are no longer under the Covenant of the Law because Christ has initiated a New Covenant of grace through the cross. For us then it is even less difficult; Christ is never out of reach. In Matthew 28:20 He says: “I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Still though, in John 14:15;21;23 Jesus says:  “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments…  He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me; and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him... If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him.”  So even with Christ; even with grace, there is still the need for obedience.  It is through obedience that we remain near to God.

In the text God says:  “See, I have set before you today life and prosperity, and death and adversity;  in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His judgments, that you may live and multiply, and that the Lord your God may bless you in the land where you are entering to possess it. But if your heart turns away and you will not obey, but are drawn away and worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today that you shall surely perish. You will not prolong your days in the land where you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess it. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to Him.”   In John 3:16-21 Jesus says:  “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.  He who believes in Him is not judged; he who does not believe has been judged already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. This is the judgment, that the Light has come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the Light, for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the Light, and does not come to the Light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the Light, so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God.”   It is not too difficult to keep God’s commandments, but it does require that we choose; that we choose obedience; that we choose light over darkness; that we choose, life and prosperity over death and adversity. The two headings in today’s text are, Restoration Promised and Choose Life.  Surely it is not too difficult, so choose life and receive the promised restoration of God through Christ.

Thank You heavenly Father that through Christ You have made it even easier for us to choose life. Thank You that we are restored to Your perfect image and likeness when we choose to believe; to love and to obey.  Amen.