Catholic Commentary on Deuteronomy 30

"I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live." (Deuteronomy 30:19)

The Promise of Restoration

After the curses of chapters 27-28 and the covenant renewal of chapter 29, Deuteronomy 30 opens with a word of profound grace: when all these blessings and curses have come on you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, and when you return to the LORD your God with all your heart and soul, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes. He will gather you from all the nations. He will bring you to the land. He will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants to love him with all your heart and soul, so that you may live. The law is not distant; it is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

Then the climax: I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live. Love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. The Catechism calls this the most direct summation of the moral life in the Torah: the human person stands before the most fundamental choice possible, and God calls loudly for the right one. Choose life (CCC 1696). The heart circumcision God promises in verse 6 is the new covenant reality fulfilled in Baptism and the indwelling Spirit.

Living the Word

Brothers and sisters, choose life. The choice is set before you today, not in the abstract but in the specific decisions of this day. Choose the way that draws you toward God: the prayer, the Mass, the act of love, the refusal of the sin that crouches at the door. Choose life so that your children may live. The choices you make today are part of what your children inherit.

Prayer

Lord God, you set before us life and death and you call out for us to choose life. We choose. We choose you. Love, listen, hold fast: these are your commands. Circumcise our hearts so that we love you with everything we have. You are our life. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.

30
The Promise of Restoration
(Nehemiah 1:1–11)
1 “When all these things come upon you—the blessings and curses I have set before you—and you call them to mind in all the nations to which the LORD your God has banished you, 2 and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today, 3 then He will restore you from captivity * 30:3 Or restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you from all the nations to which the LORD your God has scattered you. 4 Even if you have been banished to the farthest horizon,† 30:4 Or to the extremity of the heavens He will gather you and return you from there.‡ 30:4 Cited in Nehemiah 1:8–9
 
5 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. 6 The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.
 
7 Then the LORD your God will put all these curses upon your enemies who hate you and persecute you. 8 And you will again obey the voice of the LORD and follow all His commandments I am giving you today. 9 So the LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your land. Indeed, the LORD will again delight in your goodness, as He delighted in that of your fathers, 10 if you obey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to Him with all your heart and with all your soul.
The Choice of Life or Death
 
11 For this commandment I give you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven § 30:12 Cited in Romans 10:6 to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’ 13 And it is not beyond the sea, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea * 30:13 See Romans 10:7. to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’ 14 But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,† 30:14 Cited in Romans 10:8 so that you may obey it.
 
15 See, I have set before you today life and goodness, as well as death and disaster. 16 For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.
 
17 But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.
 
19 I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. Therefore choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

*30:3 30:3 Or restore your fortunes

†30:4 30:4 Or to the extremity of the heavens

‡30:4 30:4 Cited in Nehemiah 1:8–9

§30:12 30:12 Cited in Romans 10:6

*30:13 30:13 See Romans 10:7.

†30:14 30:14 Cited in Romans 10:8

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