New Testament Explanation of Deuteronomy 30: Part 2

Deuteronomy 30:4-5 in the Light of the New Testament

DEUTERONOMY 30:4

Deuteronomy 30:4 says, “Even if you have been banished to the farthest horizon, He will gather you and return you from there.”

“Even if you have been banished to the farthest horizon.”

Ephesians 2:17 tells us that the fulfillment of this prophecy is in Christ.

Ephesians 2:17 says, “He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.”

Those far away were the Gentiles whom our Lord visited and saved throughout the world (Ephesians 2:17). They became near and united to our Lord and to regenerate Jews by salvation in Christ (Ephesians 2:14-16).

Those “near” were “near” in the sense of God having separated Gentiles, not allowing sinful Gentiles into the most holy parts of the Temple. 

But our Lord had planted the exiles’ bodies as seed in far-away places. He planted them with Gentile bones (Hosea 2:23; Romans 9:23-26).

Jesus went to them in the Apostles (Ephesians 2:17). 

They were very dry bones (Ezekiel 47:1-28). Ezekiel, in a vision preached to those bones, and they came to life by the preaching of the word of God.

They came to Him by faith. 

Those near were the Jews whom God saved under the terms of the New Covenant.

They included saved Gentiles in Christ. They became Jews by God’s adoption in Christ (Galatians 3:29).

Banishment to the farthest horizon pictures banishment into the great depths of sin in which Gentiles lived.

God banned Adam from the Garden of Eden.

God banned mankind from living near the Garden of Eden.

Sin was so pervasive that God destroyed the entire world (except those He saved by grace) with a flood (Genesis 6:5).

Genesis 6:5 says, “Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great upon the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was altogether evil all the time.”

God wanted mankind to spread out over the world because of the contagion of sin (Genesis 11:6).

Genesis 11:6 says, “And the LORD said, “If they have begun to do this as one people speaking the same language, then nothing they devise will be beyond them. Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”

God banished Israel and Judah from the promised land, which was a symbol of Heaven.

“He will gather you and return you.”

This is the gathering of the elect Israel which had sprouted from the dry bones of Ezekiel 37.

God accomplished this by the preaching of the Gospel and by placing them in the Heavenly Places in Christ. It was a gathering in salvation. 

“Gathering you” was figurative language like God used the phrase, “how I carried you on eagles’ wings” (Exodus 19:4).

Exodus 19:4 says, “You have seen for yourselves what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself.”

Paul explains God’s gathering of the Jews and Gentiles by quoting Hosea 2:23 in Romans 9:25 as follows:

“As He says in Hosea: “I will call them [Gentiles] ‘My People’ who are not My people, and I will call her [Gentiles] ‘My Beloved’ who is not My beloved” (Romans 9:25).

Paul also quotes Isaiah 10:22-23 in Romans 9:27-28 to show that God will only save a remnant of the Israelites.

“Isaiah cries out concerning Israel: ‘Though the number of the Israelites is like the sand of the sea, only the remnant will be saved. 28For the Lord will carry out His sentence on the earth thoroughly and decisively.’” (Romans 9:27-28).

So, the gathering of God’s people that He prophesied in Deuteronomy 30:4 is the New Testament gathering in Christ. 

We either must throw the New Testament out or admit its truth that Jesus fulfilled Deuteronomy 30:1-4.

It follows that our Lord also fulfilled the whole of Deuteronomy chapter 30.

DEUTERONOMY 30:5

Deuteronomy 30:5 says, “And the LORD your God will bring you into the land your fathers possessed, and you will take possession of it. He will cause you to prosper and multiply more than your fathers.”

“The land which your fathers possessed” is the land of Canaan. It is also known as the land of Israel.

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob understood that the land God promised them was only “infant Heaven.”

But while the Patriarchs were there, the Canaanites continued to possess it.

God did give them the title to it, but not the possession.

According to the New Testament, they knew that the promised land was the promised Heaven (Hebrews 11:10, 13, 16).

Hebrews 11:10 says, “For he [Abraham] was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God.”

The city which Abraham expected was the New Jerusalem. It was the heavenly city that our Lord Jesus went to prepare for all believers (John 14:2-3).

Hebrews 11:13 says, “All these people died in faith, without having received the things they were promised. However, they saw them and welcomed them from afar. And they acknowledged that they were strangers and exiles on the earth.”

Abraham did not possess the literal promised land according to the verse above. 

But Deuteronomy 30:5 says that the Patriarchs possessed the land.

“The things they were promised” included Heaven. And they saw Heaven in visions and welcomed it from the literal promised land. 

Thus, they knew that the ultimate land was what God promised to them in visions. It was the new Heaven, the new earth, and New Jerusalem where righteousness dwells.

Hebrews 11:16 says, “Instead, they [Patriarchs] were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.”

God gave them visions in which they saw Jesus and the land (John 8:56).

John 8:56 says, “Your father Abraham rejoiced as he looked forward to my coming. He saw it [in a vision] and was glad.” NLT

The “fathers” of the wilderness generation are Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Deuteronomy 30:20b).

Deuteronomy 30:20b says, “For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.”

The “fathers” were all born-again. They all personally believed in Yahweh Jesus. As such, they were a microcosm of the Church.

Note that in Genesis 30:20b the land is “the land He swore to give to your fathers.” But in Deuteronomy 30:5 it is the land the Patriarchs “possessed.”

So, in a sense they possessed it, that is, they possessed what the land represented. But they did not literally possess it.

God saved them individually under the terms of His covenant of promise (Galatians 3:14-29).

But God saved national Israel materially and corporately through the terms of the Law of Moses (Hebrews 8:6). It was not spiritual salvation like we have in Christ and in the terms of the New Covenant. Parentheses mine.

Israel did occupy the land of Canaan in the dimensions that God promised to them in Genesis 15:18-21; 2 Kings 4:21.

But the “forever” aspect of the promise of land does not apply to the natural land. The only way to live in the land “forever” is to be in the “Eternal Person, Jesus Christ.

Hebrews 8:6 says, “Now, however, Jesus has received a much more excellent ministry, just as the covenant He mediates is better and is founded on better promises.”

JESUS HAS AN ETERNAL PRIESTHOOD.

He has a better covenant. 

Jesus has better promises in that He promises to not only demand obedience, but to graciously cause believers to overcome sin. See Genesis 18:19; Romans 4:1-3; 8:3-4.

Genesis 18:19 says, “For I have chosen him, so that he will command his children and his household after him to keep the way of the LORD by doing what is right and just, in order that the LORD may bring upon Abraham what He has promised.” Underline mine.

And God declares us righteous when we believe in Him (Genesis 15:6) rather than waiting until the final judgment for condemnation.

Genesis 15:6 says, “Abram believed the LORD, and it was credited to him as righteousness.”

The only Person who ever obeyed the legal covenant completely was our Lord Jesus. God sees Christians as obedient to the Law of Moses in Him.

The “better promises” of Hebrews 8:6 were the promises of the New Covenant, in which His commandments were also His enablings. See Genesis 18:19 above.

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NATIONAL ISRAEL AND TRUE ISRAEL.

The Patriarchs and Matriarchs, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Rebecca, Jacob, and Leah were all born-again people.

But their children did not all have spiritual birth.

God birthed Isaac by the Spirit but not Ishmael (Romans 9:6-9). 

Romans 9:6-9 says, “It is not as though God’s word has failed. For not all who are descended from Israel are Israel. 7Nor because they are Abraham’s descendants are they all his children. On the contrary, “Through Isaac your offspring will be reckoned.” 8So it is not the children of the flesh who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are regarded as offspring. 9For this is what the promise stated: “At the appointed time I will return, and Sarah will have a son.”

God birthed Jacob by the Spirit but not Esau (Romans 9:10-12).

Romans 9:10-12 says, “Not only that, but Rebecca’s children were conceived by one man, our father Isaac. 10Yet before the twins were born or had done anything good or bad, in order that God’s plan of election might stand, not by works but by Him who calls, she was told, “The older will serve the younger.”

God did not allow either Ishmael or Esau to live in the land of promise. 

GOD INTENDED THE OLD TESTAMENT LAND TO BE “BABY HEAVEN.” 

That is, prophetically speaking the land matured and became Heaven.

Our Lord’s earthly ministry was under the Law (Galatians 4:4). And it was in the literal promised land.

Rather than God dwelling in the land of Israel, Jesus dwells now at God’s right hand in Heaven (Acts 2:33).

That was because God intended the Old Testament land to be “immature Heaven.” When the Land matured, it became Heaven. That is, after Messiah Jesus ascended to Heaven, the Holy Spirit called the land in which His Jewish and Gentile believers dwelt, by the name “in Heavenly places” (Ephesians 1:3; 2:6; 3:10).

Further, our citizenship is in Heaven (Philippians 3:10).

Philippians 3:10 says, “But our citizenship is in heaven, and we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ.”

New Testament believers live in the “grown-up land” which is Heaven.

Since our Lord Jesus ascended into Heaven, and since God united us to Him spiritually, then we live in Heaven spiritually.

We are still citizens of the land of Israel, but the land of Israel has matured in Christ’s resurrection and ascension and is Heaven.

As Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob knew that the real land was Heaven (Hebrews 11:10, 13-16), Christians today know that our citizenship is in Heaven no matter where we live in the world. 

We should think of ourselves as citizens of Heaven, not of the world. And Christian Jews are exactly like Christian Gentiles.

We are pilgrims [foreigners] in the world just as Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were pilgrims in the promised land (1 Peter 2:11).

1 Peter 2:11 says, “Beloved, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from the desires of the flesh, which war against your soul.”

TABULAR VIEW OF NATIONAL AND TRUE ISRAEL

National Israel	True Israel
Born as Jews after Exodus.	Born Again in Christ in all ages.
Chosen corporately as a nation.	Chosen Individually
Example: The Exodus Generation whom God chose above all nations (Deuteronomy 7:6-8)	Examples: God selected Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Nicodemus   individually before saving them.
Consists of all Jacob’s descendants whether having faith or not.	Chosen Jews & Gentiles, whom God saved by faith in Christ (Galatians 3:29).
Terms of Mosaic Covenant: Obey and live by perfect obedience. Note: Only Jesus perfectly obeyed the Law.	Terms of the Promise Covenant: Repent and believe for justification and sanctification by God.
Adopted as a nation.	Adopted as individuals
Rebelled against God in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:5).	Trusted God in the wilderness (Numbers 14:22-24).
Rejected Christ & demanded His crucifixion.	Received Christ as individuals (John 1:11-13).
Said they were Jews but were not (Revelation 2:9; 3:9).	True Israel is the “Israel of God,” consisting of born-again Jews and Gentiles (Galatians 6:16).
They are Abraham’s descendants (John 8:37) but not Abraham’s true descendants (John 8:39).	All who have faith, whether Jew or Gentile, are Abraham’s true descendants (Galatians 3:29; Romans 11:7).
Descendants of the devil (John 8:44)	Children of God (John 1:11-13)
National Israel (Romans 9:6) “They are not all true Israel who are of national Israel.”	True Israel (Romans 9:6) “They are not all [true] Israel which are of national Israel.”
“A man is not a true Jew if he is only one outwardly” (Romans 2:28).	“A man is a true Jew if he is one inwardly (Romans 2:29).

When we isolate Deuteronomy 30:5 from the New Testament we conclude that it teaches the return of natural Israel to the earthly land of Canaan.

But when we read the New Testament’s quotations of Deuteronomy 30:5, we conclude that the ultimate meaning of Deuteronomy 30:5 is the return of the true Israel to God in Christ.

In our discussion of Deuteronomy 30:5 above, we showed that the specific Scriptures that lead us to the above conclusion are John 1:11-13; 8:37, 39, 44; Acts 2:33; Romans 2:28-29; 9:6-9; 9:10-12; 11:7; 1 Corinthians 10:5; Galatians 3:29; 6:16; Ephesians 1:3; 2:6; 3:10; Philippians 3:10; Hebrews 8:6; 11:10, 13, 16; 1 Peter  2:11; Revelation 2:9; 3:9.