Deuteronomy 30:18, commentary and pictures

Moses denounces certain perishing and the loss of prolonged days and continued life in the land across the Jordan to be possessed when the heart turns away so as not to hear God, refuses to obey Him, and is drawn away to worship and serve other gods. It was spoken to the generation grown up in the wilderness as they prepared to cross the Jordan, with the law repeated so they would know the conditions for possessing the land sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. In contrast, loving the Lord, walking in His ways, keeping His commandments, statutes, and judgments, obeying His voice, and cleaving to Him as life and length of days brings life and good, blessing, living and multiplying, and dwelling in the land under God's blessing. The verse sets before Israel and before all a plain choice between obedience, life, and blessing and disobedience, death, and punishment, also described as blessing versus curse, light versus darkness, and happiness versus misery. What was a temporal loss of long life in the land points beyond itself, for applied to those nearing the heavenly Canaan the penalty for disobedience is eternal death, with obedience bringing eternal life and disobedience bringing death. The denunciation still applies to God's people called by His name who have great light, when they are unconverted in heart, pervert principle, and rebel and refuse the light He has graciously given, for God sets blessing before the willing and obedient and a curse before those who rebel.

Warning and Its Setting

The warning takes effect when the heart turns away so as not to hear God, refusing to obey Him, and is drawn away to worship other gods and serve them. Turning away from God to worship other gods and disobeying Him brings certain perishing rather than prolonged days upon the land across the Jordan to be possessed. Disobedience and idolatry forfeit life and multiplication and blessing in the land and dwelling in the land sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

For that turning away the verse denounces surely perishing, certain death, destruction and punishment, and not prolonging days and not continuing to live in the land across the Jordan to be possessed. Disobedience would cut short time in the land entered, prevent living long in it, and bring loss of the inheritance. Obedience is the way to life and blessing, while disobedience is the way to misery and death.

It was spoken to the generation that had grown up during the wilderness journey as they prepared to cross the Jordan, with the law repeated so they would know the conditions for possessing the land. That land was the land sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and the place given under principles plainly defined from the pillar of cloud. Walking contrary to those plainly defined principles brings the denounced consequence of surely perishing and not prolonging days in the place given.

In contrast, loving the Lord, walking in His ways, keeping His commandments, statutes, and judgments, obeying His voice, and cleaving to Him as life and length of days brings life and good, blessing, living and multiplying, and dwelling in the land under God's blessing. Life and blessing were promised for loving God and keeping His commandments, and Israel was urged to obey and cleave to God who was their life and the length of their days. The commandments themselves, if obeyed, would be their life, while disobedience to them would bring punishment and cause perishing rather than continued living in the promised land.

Life or Death Choice

The verse sets before Israel and before all a plain choice between obedience, life, and blessing on the one side and disobedience, death, and punishment on the other. That choice is also described as life and good and blessing, with living and multiplying under God's blessing in the land through loving the Lord, walking in His ways, and keeping His commandments and statutes and judgments, versus death and evil and cursing, with loss of the land, through refusing to hear and turning to other gods. It is blessing versus curse, a blessing if willing and obedient and a curse if rebellious and refusing the light graciously given, with God not to be trifled with but coming near by His judgments if hardness and impenitence continue. It is light versus darkness, which may be chosen, and loving obedience to the Creator as the road to happiness versus disobedience or sin as the road to misery, with turning that signpost around causing people to mistake the path to happiness. Its principle is that people may obey and live or disobey and perish, with disobedience bringing death and forfeiture of life in the land.

Life and death are set before Israel as strong motives to choose life. The call is to choose life by loving God, obeying His voice, and cleaving to Him who is their life and the length of their days. In contrast to certain death and failure to live long in the land entered for turning away, refusing to obey, and worshiping other gods stands the life and blessing promised for loving God and keeping His commandments.

What was a temporal consequence of losing long life in the land points beyond itself, for applied to those nearing the heavenly Canaan the penalty for disobedience is eternal death. The whole matter centers on obedience bringing eternal life and disobedience bringing death. The covenant's terms remain unaltered, so that at the heavenly judgment obedience receives life while transgression receives death. The same probation principle applied to the dwellers in Eden and to the angels, who could retain their happy state only through fidelity to their Creator.

Warnings for Later Generations

The denunciation of certain perishing and of not prolonging days in the place given applies to His people called by His name who have great light. It applies especially to men in responsible positions at the heart of the work when they are not converted in heart and soul. In that condition they mingle their own spirit with counsel, pervert principle, and confederate to do the very things God expressly forbade, walking contrary to the principles He plainly defined from the pillar of cloud. By that course God is insulted, His honor abused, and He is misrepresented, and justice and mercy and love for God and man fall.

The same denunciation of certain perishing and loss of prolonged life in the land for disobedience applies to parents who disregard His laws, despise His Sabbath, and fail to teach His commandments to their children. His spoken requirements demand obedience, and disregard brings rebellion against God, controversy with God, and kindled wrath. Had parents diligently instructed their children to love and fear God and to obey all His commandments and become acquainted with the law, the world would not be in its present terrible state as in the days of Noah.

The whole matter centers on obedience bringing eternal life and disobedience bringing death. Those who claim to be God's messengers must therefore make honest, wise, prayerful search of the Word of life in the Spirit of Christ to know what God says, and such search will be rewarded. If teachers speak the words of the great apostate instead of God's words, it will end in their shame and ruin, and they will carry those they deceived to ruin with them, as Satan in his rebellion carried out of the heavenly courts those who accepted his words instead of God's words. God sets a blessing before the willing and obedient and a curse before those who rebel and refuse the light He has graciously given. He will not be trifled with but will come near by His judgments if they continue in hardness and impenitence, for light or darkness is before them and they can choose which they will, and choosing rebellion leads to surely perishing while the enemies of God exult in their destruction.