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30
1 One day after you experience all this, the blessings and curses I've told you about, you'll think about them, living in all the different nations where the Lord your God has exiled you. 2 When that happens, and when you and your children come back to the Lord your God, and when you do what he says with all your mind and all your being in accordance with everything I'm telling you today, then the Lord your God will be merciful to you. 3 He will bring you back home, gathering you from all the nations where he scattered you. 4 Even if you're exiled to the ends of the earth, I will gather you from there and bring you back.
5 The Lord your God will bring you home to the country that belonged to your forefathers and you will own it again. He will make you successful, and you will have even more descendants than your forefathers. 6 The Lord your God will make you and your descendants his again,*“Make you and your descendants his again”: literally, “circumcise the hearts of you and your descendants.” Circumcision was a sign of God's “ownership” of the people, and circumcision of the heart was a description of true dedication to the Lord. and you will love him with all your mind and with all your being, so that you'll live.
7 Then the Lord your God will place all these curses upon your enemies instead, on those who hate and persecute you. 8 You will once again do what the Lord tells you and follow all his commandments that I'm giving you today. 9 The Lord your God will make you successful in everything you do, you will have children, your livestock will be productive, and you will have good harvests. The Lord will once again be happy to do you good, as he did to your forefathers, 10 if you obey the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and regulations written in this book of the Law, and if you come back to him with all your mind and with all your being.
11 The instruction I'm giving you today isn't too difficult for you to follow. It's not as if it's so far from you that it's impossible to achieve. 12 It's not in heaven so you have to ask, “Who is going to go up to heaven to get it for us and let us know what it says so we can obey it?” 13 It's not across the ocean so you have to ask, “Who is going to cross the ocean to get it for us and let us know what it says so we can obey it?” 14 No—you have this instruction right there before you. It's in the words you speak and in the thoughts you think, so obey it.
15 Listen! Today I've placed a choice before you: life and what's good, or death and what's evil. 16 I'm telling you today to love the Lord your God, to follow his ways, and to keep his commandments, rules, and regulations, so you can live and grow in number, and so the Lord your God may bless you in the country that you are entering and will own.
17 If you disregard this and you refuse to listen, if you're lured into bowing down to other gods and worshiping them, 18 then I warn you right now that you will definitely die. You won't live long in the country that you're going to own after you cross the Jordan.
19 I call on heaven and earth to be my witnesses against you today that I have placed before you life and death, blessings and curses. Choose life, so you and your descendants will live, 20 so you will love the Lord your God, obey him, and hold onto him. For he is your life, and he will give you long lives in the country that the Lord promised to give your forefathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

- Deuteronomy
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- 30
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*30:6 “Make you and your descendants his again”: literally, “circumcise the hearts of you and your descendants.” Circumcision was a sign of God's “ownership” of the people, and circumcision of the heart was a description of true dedication to the Lord.

© 2018 Dr. Jonathan Gallagher