Moses' Powerful Appeal (and Paul's Proof that Righteousness is Only by Faith) -- a study of Deuteronomy 30:11-20
- mww
- 5 days ago
- 19 min read
Updated: 4 days ago
You would think that "choose life" would be an easy decision.
Bible Study Ideas for Deuteronomy 30 (and Romans 10)
Moses closes his final speech to the people with a moving call to choose life -- choose obedience and faithfulness to God -- and God will bless them and their families for generations. The Jews will ultimately conclude that their obedience is the key to righteousness, but Paul will see in Moses' words proof that righteousness is by faith.
Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20 love the Lord your God, obey him, and remain faithful to him.
Thanksgiving!
I prefer to not repeat material, so I skimmed back through previous Thanksgiving week posts (more on this below). One thing I've not yet suggested -- do a little research on the history of Thanksgiving as a holiday. David was just telling me about a book he is reading on the subject that is filled with some really interesting historical perspective. In case he wants to use any of that in his sermon, I'll not spill any beans. But that shouldn't stop you from doing some light research online! Here are two specific questions:
What are "harvest festivals" and how are they connected with Thanksgiving?
Why did America decide to make Thanksgiving a national holiday?
That will actually help us understand this week's passage -- the call to intentionally celebrate God's blessings as a people.
Thanksgiving to Whom?
You know that I can't well-enough leave alone. If I'm not stepping on toes at least once per study, I'm not studying the Bible very hard. In the law, God gave the Israelites two major cycles:
weekly cycles of rest, emphasizing thanksgiving and praise;
seasonal cycles of thanksgiving related to the various harvests.
You should have learned in your earlier research that harvest festivals are basically "firstfruits offerings" -- the people bring the firstfruits of whatever harvest to a common place, and together they celebrate God's gracious provisions. (If you're really industrious, you might investigate what separated a Jewish harvest festival from a pagan one.) It's all about thanksgiving to God for God's gracious provision.
In your family's Thanksgiving traditions, how do you specifically and intentionally celebrate God's provision in your lives? Are you satisfied that you put enough time and energy into that? Do you think your kids/grandkids come away from Thanksgiving with the right perspective of actual thankfulness to God?
We're doing this lesson before Thanksgiving, so you have plenty of time to make any amendments to your family plans . . . 😎
Previous Thanksgiving Lessons
2024: No specific Thanksgiving material! That lesson was on Paul's Fourth Missionary Journey, and you can tell from reading my post that I was really into the material.
Black Friday and Thanksgiving football
Thanksgiving traditions
Integrating a new person into your holiday traditions
The giant and over-the-top foods available at a county fair
It's Too Hard
Shelly and I stream workouts in our garage. Over the years, we've followed a number of different instructors, and in every one of however many hundreds of workouts, the instructor has said (probably multiple times), "DON'T QUIT!" I'm going to assume that means that they expect people following along at home to give up during the workout because it's too strenuous. For those of you who are members of a gym, is that different for in-person classes? I would assume not.
We all have a threshold for deciding that something is too hard. And that's normal. What's the most recent thing you gave up on because you decided it was too hard?
Here's my physical example: I decided I could dismantle the giant root balls from the hurricane manually, and so I started with a shovel and a pickaxe. And I was wrong. I'll just let them erode naturally over time. My mental example: I decided I needed to become an expert in a particular piece of software, and so I started to learn the manual. And I was wrong. I'll just learn enough to get by.
The transition is to get personal: when did you last decide that something in the Christian life is too hard? Some sort of a habit you need to break? A discipline you need to start? A sin that you just don't think you can overcome?
In this week's passage, Moses is going to put that attitude in its place. God did not make obeying Him too hard. God does not expect superhero Christians. "Normal men and women" are all we need to be to live a life of obedience.
The Choices You Make
This idea is so nebulous that I'm not exactly sure what to do with it. Maybe run it through ChatGPT to firm it up (ha!).
This week's passage is all about choices -- choices with major consequences. What is a recent major decision you've made, and how did you decide what to choose?
Again, this is super-nebulous. Maybe you've made a decision about a job or a house or a treatment or a relationship. We all make significant decisions pretty regularly. What's your decision-making process for something like that?
I'm going to hope that you attempt to be biblical in that (and every) choice. But the Jews had clear biblical guidelines and still made the wrong choice, so let's not get too cocky.
Where We Are in Deuteronomy
I strongly encourage you to walk your group through all of chapters 29/30. The chosen focal passage largely echoes what we've been studying, and the rest of these chapters has some incredibly valuable lessons.
Moses is rapidly approaching the end of his life, and he is speaking with great urgency. We just finished Moses' "second speech" in Deuteronomy, which he ends with a summary of blessings and curses related to what they do with God's law.
Chapters 29 and 30 are Moses' "third speech" to the people. All that follows in Deuteronomy is the commissioning of Joshua, and "the song of Moses" (which was actually dictated to him by God), and Moses' final blessing/prophecy for the tribes.
29:1-18 -- a call to renew the covenant
29:19-29 -- the wasteland as a testimony of unfaithfulness
30:1-10 -- "after you have failed miserably" and finally repented
30:11-20 -- now and in the future, choose life
The meaning of our focal passage is bound up in verse 11 -- in what way is it not too hard for the people to obey the law? For that answer, we need to turn to Romans.
This Week's Big Idea: Romans. Wait, Romans?
Because we believe that scripture is the best interpreter of scripture, the key to understanding this week's passage is in Romans, specifically in Paul's moving section on God's ongoing relationship with the children of Israel:
9:30 What should we say then? Gentiles, who did not pursue righteousness, have obtained righteousness—namely the righteousness that comes from faith. 31 But Israel, pursuing the law of righteousness, has not achieved the righteousness of the law. 32 Why is that? Because they did not pursue it by faith, but as if it were by works. They stumbled over the stumbling stone. 33 As it is written, Look, I am putting a stone in Zion to stumble over and a rock to trip over, and the one who believes on him will not be put to shame.
10:1 Brothers and sisters, my heart’s desire and prayer to God concerning them is for their salvation. 2 I can testify about them that they have zeal for God, but not according to knowledge. 3 Since they are ignorant of the righteousness of God and attempted to establish their own righteousness, they have not submitted to God’s righteousness. 4 For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes, 5 since Moses writes about the righteousness that is from the law: The one who does these things will live by them. 6 But the righteousness that comes from faith speaks like this: Do not say in your heart, “Who will go up to heaven?” that is, to bring Christ down 7 or, “Who will go down into the abyss?” that is, to bring Christ up from the dead. 8 On the contrary, what does it say? The message is near you, in your mouth and in your heart. This is the message of faith that we proclaim: 9 If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 One believes with the heart, resulting in righteousness, and one confesses with the mouth, resulting in salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, Everyone who believes on him will not be put to shame, 12 since there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, because the same Lord of all richly blesses all who call on him. 13 For everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.
14 How, then, can they call on him they have not believed in? And how can they believe without hearing about him? And how can they hear without a preacher? 15 And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. 16 But not all obeyed the gospel. For Isaiah says, Lord, who has believed our message? 17 So faith comes from what is heard, and what is heard comes through the message about Christ.
This very famous passage (which you might not have realized is related to Deuteronomy) distinguishes between a righteousness by faith and by works (works of the law).
In Romans, Paul seems to be seeking support for a new mission work he wants to start, and he wants the church in Rome to sponsor him. He knows they have questions -- Paul did not plant the church in Rome -- so this letter is a summary of his beliefs and "call to action". One of the biggest, thorniest questions in early Christian mission work is "The Place of Israel". Paul devotes three brilliant chapters to the question (9-11) --
Divine Sovereignty (9:1-29) -- God has always worked by election (i.e. Abraham, Isaac but not Ishmael, Jacob but not Esau, and now the Gentiles) and always shown mercy;
Human Responsibility (9:30-10:21) -- God has never reduced humans to puppets but always given them freedom of choice to submit to Him or not;
God's Purpose (11:1-36) -- God has always kept a remnant a faithful Jews, and one day (in His timing) God will restore Israel to Himself as a people.
In his explanation of Human Responsibility, Paul cites this week's passage (Deuteronomy 30:11-14) to prove that Paul isn't making any of this up. God has always given people the freedom to choose their own path.
In 9:30-33, Paul explains that Israel chose to reject God, not the other way around. God accepting the Gentiles is a consequence of that choice, not its cause.
In 10:1-4, Paul explains that the way Israel chose to reject God is through their attainment of righteousness. God had always taught that righteousness was by faith, but the Jews chose to attempt to make it by works.
[Note: this is the heart of Romans -- Paul has not invented the doctrine of justification by faith; God has clearly taught it from the beginning, yes seen in Abraham, but also seen in what God said about the law through Moses.]
Now let's get into how Paul sees this week's passage.
In 10:5, Paul explains that there is a righteousness which is by law. He cites Leviticus 18:5,
Keep my statutes and ordinances; a person will live if he does them. I am the Lord.
What the people never realized is they could not attain righteousness that way because they could never live up to the standard of the law. Here's a great quote from James Denney's commentary: "the law was not a collection of statutes, but a revelation of God's character and will, and he who sought to keep it did so not alone, but in conscious dependence of God whose grace was shown above all things else by His gift of such a revelation."
In other words, if the Jews had considered God's law carefully, they would have seen it aright and known that only with His help could they follow it. But they chose to attempt to follow it in their own strength, even modifying God's law as they saw fit to make it fit their abilities. But . . .
In 10:6-8, Paul explains that there is also a righteousness which is by faith. And to prove that, he cites our passage in Deut 30:12-14.
[Note: Paul has made some edits in his OT quotes. For example, the relationship between "sea" and "abyss". It's a fascinating discussion for another time. Read: it's above my head.]
When we study the Deuteronomy passage below, we will look at how the Israelites might have understood it. Here, though, we will explain how Paul understood it.
Righteousness by works says that God has not given us everything we need for salvation, so we must work it out on our own. In other words, someone needs to go into heaven to find the perfect sacrifice for full atonement for sin. And then after that sacrifice has been made, someone needs to go into hell to retrieve it so that resurrection and eternal life can be found. (Paul has already explained why Christ had to die and be raised. Those two facts of history are essential for salvation -- there was no other way God would do it.)
Of course, both of those actions are ridiculous. Blasphemous even for a human to think he can do it. Exactly so.
Did you realize that one of our favorite gospel presentation verses --
If you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
-- is directly connected to our Deut 30 passage? Righteousness/salvation by faith believes that God sent Jesus to earth and that God raised Jesus from the dead. Humans had nothing to do with, nor did we need to do anything. We simply accept God's gracious work by faith.
In 10:8, Paul quotes Moses declaring that God never intended humans to think they were supposed to do those impossible tasks. The word (of faith) was always available to them. God had never given them a burden they could not carry. The Jews tried to pick it up on their own by attempting to gain their own righteousness by works of the law.
There are entire books written on these chapters in Romans, and it's all so important to what Christians believe, but it also goes far beyond what we have time to cover in our brief study this week. So, long story short, Paul believes that our passage this week teaches righteousness by faith.
Now, let's see how the Israelites got it so wrong.
Part 1: You Have the Power to Choose (Deuteronomy 30:11-14)
11 This command that I give you today is certainly not too difficult or beyond your reach. 12 It is not in heaven so that you have to ask, ‘Who will go up to heaven, get it for us, and proclaim it to us so that we may follow it?’ 13 And it is not across the sea so that you have to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea, get it for us, and proclaim it to us so that we may follow it?’ 14 But the message is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may follow it.
Which command? I think Moses points back to verse 10 -
when you obey the Lord your God by keeping his commands and statutes that are written in this book of the law and return to him with all your heart and all your soul.
A big question is what we do with the word "today". Earlier in chapter 30, Moses explained that the people will indeed fail miserably, be severely punished, and finally come to a place of repentance in whatever place of exile they find themselves.
[Note: this is really encouraging to me! No matter how big the failure, no matter how gross the sin, repentance and forgiveness are always available.]
"Today" might mean that the commands God has given them are possible for them to obey today -- right now. They can do it! (But they won't.)
"Today" also might actually refer to the future, that in the future (after they repent) they will realize they can keep the commands Moses gave them today.
I think Moses is talking about the commands given today, not the obedience possible today. After all, Moses has just explained that they will all fail miserably.
And here is where Paul's perspective really comes to our rescue. Paul knows that everything in the Old Testament (everything!) points to Christ. In one sense, this means that Moses is pointing ahead to a time when Christ will literally "write the words of the law" on the hearts of those who trust Him for salvation -- circumcise their hearts. But in a more immediate sense, it means that true righteousness has always been by faith.
Who can go up to heaven to demand an audience with God for more explanation about these laws and the power to obey them? No one! No Jew would even consider such blasphemy.
Who can search out the world for someone who has the secret insight to God's laws and the tricks to obedience? No one! No Jew would even consider such blasphemy.
Again, Paul immediately realizes that in truth this is "no one . . . except for Christ". Consequently, for the Christian, their faith in Christ becomes the means by which they become able to "love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul".
But even the Jew could and should have realized this. Unfortunately, they were thinking in terms of righteousness by works -- they would do the equivalent of demanding an audience with God or seeking out the secret power. But if they had remembered the righteousness by faith (first seen in Abraham), they would have realized that this ability to obey was never theirs in the first place. It was always of God and graciously shared by God.
This is where that quote from Denney moves me -- God didn't have to give the Jews the law. He could have left them to find their own way in the world. He gracious chose to do so because He wanted to share something of Himself with them. And if He was willing to share that with them, why would they then assume that He would not also share the power to be the people He wanted?
God gave the Jews the ability to put their faith in Him. Instead, they chose to put their faith in themselves. (But more on this in the next section.)
And I guess that's the tragedy of this passage. Moses' audience heard it as an invitation to "try harder". But Moses gave it as an invitation to stop trying.
And what is that message (that "word") that is so near them? The message of faith.
[This seems like the perfect opportunity to make sure your group understands and can share the gospel.]
Part 2: You Have Two Choices (Deuteronomy 30:15-18)
15 See, today I have set before you life and prosperity, death and adversity. 16 For I am commanding you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to keep his commands, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and multiply, and the Lord your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess. 17 But if your heart turns away and you do not listen and you are led astray to bow in worship to other gods and serve them, 18 I tell you today that you will certainly perish and will not prolong your days in the land you are entering to possess across the Jordan.
Hear Moses' urgency and compassion. I don't think you need any help understanding his words; we've been talking about them for weeks. I did bold the word "heart" to make sure nobody misses how clear Moses made this.
This is the Old Testament equivalent of Paul's cry in 2 Corinthians 5:20:
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, since God is making his appeal through us. We plead on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God.”
Just as God gives people the power to choose today, God gave that power to the Jews in Moses' day. And that "today" has remained "today" for every generation (see Hebrews 3). People have the choice -- they can choose to come to faith in Christ and be saved, or they can reject Christ and be damned.
Today (2025), some people don't believe they need to be saved (i.e., there is no God, or there is no hell), or they believe they can be saved in any number of ways (i.e., religions or philosophies), and so they reject the gospel of Jesus Christ.
The Jews in Moses' day also rejected God's offer of salvation, but they did so because they thought they could achieve it on their own. They heard the Law of Moses and concluded, "We got this." Never once did they wonder to themselves, "Should we ask God for help?"
And worse, when things started going off the rails, they did not circle back around to, "Let's ask God for help. Surely the God of grace whom Moses claims to love us wouldn't give us an impossible task!"
So, in conclusion, the Jews did need to keep God's commands to be blessed in the land. But had they asked for God's help, God would have turned their hearts toward Him, thus enabling them to be the kind of people God desired. (I really don't want to open up the "spirit of the law vs. the letter of the law", but that's a factor.) Instead, they looked to themselves, and their hearts turned away from God.
On this side of Jesus, we have the clear teaching that God is interested in our hearts; our behavior is a product of our hearts. We don't clean ourselves up in order to be saved; salvation is the transformation we need to live a life that pleases God. And grace and mercy are renewed every moment to lift us up when we inevitably fall into sin.
That was the case in Moses' day, but those Jews did not see it (or refused to believe it).
You might say, "But wait, does that mean the Jews didn't need Jesus in order to be saved?" No, hear me out. Or much better, hear Paul out. This is something he explained in Romans --
3:21 But now, apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been revealed, attested by the Law and the Prophets. 22 The righteousness of God is through faith in Jesus Christ to all who believe, since there is no distinction. 23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God; 24 they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. 25 God presented him as the mercy seat by his blood, through faith, to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his restraint God passed over the sins previously committed. 26 God presented him to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so that he would be just and justify the one who has faith in Jesus.
Salvation has always been in Jesus. But before Jesus was born, nobody knew His "name". So, Paul says that God's grace extends to everyone who had faith in Him -- or more specifically, in His plan to take care of their sin problem.
And this brings us to the last major topic: the sacrifice of atonement.
You see, Moses has already made it extremely clear that the people would sin terribly and be punished severely. And in their exile, they would not be able to participate in the sacrificial system. So, how would God be able to forgive all of those sins? God has been very clear that His justice and holiness means that atonement demands a price (specifically the shedding of blood).
The Jew who -- in faith -- realized that God had graciously given them these laws to share part of Himself with them would also realize that God had a plan to take care of the myriad ways they would inevitably fall short of those commands. They would know that the sacrificial system was just pushing their debt into the future. Therefore, there would be something, somewhere in the future, where God would solve this dilemma.
They could not have predicted that God's plan would be to send His own Son into the world as a sacrifice for their sin! Nobody, not even the devil, could have predicted that. And God would not hold their lack of knowledge against them, any more than He would hold their sinful failures against them if they repented.
Rather, Paul realized that the Jews who trusted God to have a plan would be saved -- even if they had no idea what that plan would be. (Technically, they would eventually be saved when Jesus paid the once-for-all-time price on the cross; God is not limited by the passage of time.)
Does that make sense? The Jews of the Old Testament were saved the same way we are today -- through Jesus. But today, we have the blessing of the story in print (the New Testament). The Jews had to have faith in God and a future plan of salvation that they could only vaguely see. According to Paul, God always preserved at least a remnant of Jews would did just that.
In Romans, Paul explains how the Gentiles (us) are brought into this story, so Romans is where Christians can go to find the most obvious applications to ourselves (and most importantly of those, salvation).
But also in Romans, Paul explains that God is not finished with the Jews yet. And that must be a lesson for another time.
(We studied Romans in 2020, and you can read my notes on that relevant passage -- Mercy (Be Thankful, Be Humble) - A Lesson on Romans 11:17-32. I also reread my post related to this week's Deuteronomy passage -- Saved (What Is the Gospel?) - Romans 10:5-15 -- and was humbly reminded that every time we study the Bible, we learn something new.)
Part 3: Choose Life (Deuteronomy 30:19-20)
19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Choose life so that you and your descendants may live, 20 love the Lord your God, obey him, and remain faithful to him. For he is your life, and he will prolong your days as you live in the land the Lord swore to give to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Read these words carefully. In fact, memorize them. Does this describe a "religion of legalism"? I think not! Judaism (and now Christianity) was never about a religion of ritual and law but a relationship freely chosen by the people God created and loved.
In the ancient world, they regularly invoked their pantheon as a "witness" to a treaty. But the one true God is the only necessary witness. But since God is one party to this treaty, Moses simply called on everything else in creation.
Moses makes this so simple. Choose life! Who wouldn't want to choose life? And yet, that's exactly what so many people (including some of those Jews) will do.
Now, what do we do with "in the land"? Christians no longer live in Canaan, so do these verses no longer apply to us? Well, remember that the Promised Land has always been a symbol of salvation, so the essence of God's promise to the Jews remains true for us (more so, when we realize that salvation is a greater blessing than even the Promised Land!).
So, what is our choice today?
Start with salvation. Make sure everybody in your group has made that choice for salvation.
Then there's living a life of obedience. How are your group members doing with their behavioral obedience?
But there's also faithfulness. How are your group members doing with their attitudes, their affections, and their beliefs?
Lifeway just released a study showing that there's a lot of confusion in our country about fundamental biblical beliefs.
Is it a priority for the people in your group to understand the truths of the Bible and live them out? That's the foundation of remaining faithful to God.
So, do we really think we're going to cover all of this in an hour (or however long you really have)? No, no we don't. Encourage some at-home reading. And encourage some good ol' soul-searching. What a wonderful passage to inspire us!
Closing Thoughts: Forgiveness and AI Jesus
I've added this section the day after my post having just read this inevitable article,
I don't know the details, so I want to stay away from direct criticism (I'm still sorting through my thoughts in any event). But I can say three things for certain:
a Large Language Model is not the Holy Spirit;
following a Large Language Model (in any way) sounds like something Moses warned about in this week's passage;
God's grace is still available.
In other words, let's say our fears are realized and people go running off after "AI Jesus" (and they will). When they eventually come to their senses and repent, God will forgive them, just like how God had grace ready for the Jews after generations (!) of falling away.
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