Deuteronomy 30:2

Deu 30:2 And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;

Ver. 2. And shalt return to the Lord.] By sin we run away from God; by repentance we return to him.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu_30:2

And shalt return unto the Lord thy God.

The proper signs of repentance

Moses is here dealing with the signs of repentance, which begin in the humiliation of the heart, and end in the reformation of the life. In the New Testament there two words translated by our English word repentance: one of them conveys specially the notion of changing ones mind as to things--seeing things in a different light, and then shaping ones conduct accordingly. But it is necessary for us to distinguish even between sorrow for sin and repentance. Sorrow has two results; it may end in spiritual life or in spiritual death; and, in themselves, one of these is as natural as the other. Sorrow may produce two kinds of reformation--a transient or a permanent one. Sorrow is in itself, therefore, a thing neither good nor bad; its value depends on the spirit of the person on whom it falls. Fire will inflame straw, soften iron, or harden clay; its effects are determined by the object with which it comes in contact. Warmth develops the energies of life, or helps the progress of decay. It is a great power in the hothouse, a great power also in the coffin; it expands the leaf, matures the fruit, adds precocious vigour to vegetable life; and warmth, too, develops with tenfold rapidity the weltering process of dissolution. So too with sorrow. There are spirits in which it develops the seminal principle of life; there are others in which it prematurely hastens the consummation of irreparable decay. Repentance is a state of mind and heart, but it may be merely a cherished sentiment, in which, as a mere sentiment, the man hopes to find his satisfaction. Such repentance is, and it always must be, ineffective. It is self-centred; it is disguised pride. By its fruits you must know it. The repentance that does nothing is nothing. This is our constant difficulty--men are perpetually trying to sever sentiment from con-duet. They want to keep the two spheres separate, and hope to be right towards God in heart, and to do what they like in their life. This self-delusion Gods Word persistently resists. Religion cannot keep only in the heart sphere. It must come out and show itself in the life. It will be white and frail as a plant growing in a dungeon if it be kept wholly within. Every element of the religious life must act, must speak. Shut it up and it will fade away. And now let us see if we can trace the stages of the Divine dealing still, with individuals, in Moses foreshadowings of Gods dealings with His people Israel.

1. Gods will, as He has been pleased to reveal it, controls heart and conduct; and enables each man to judge and appraise himself. When Job came into the full sense of God, what could he do but exclaim, I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.

2. Mans self-will, resisting the Divine will, brings man into sin. Pollok pictures, in his poem, the misery of lost souls as this, that they see the words wherever they turn, Ye knew your duty, and ye did it not. That is sin.

3. Sinful man comes under Divine discipline, which may take the ordinary forms of the natural consequences of transgression, or which may be special afflictive Divine dispensations. The prodigal son only came into the sufferings and humiliations that always follow a life of vice.

4. The aim sought to be reached by Divine discipline is the conviction of sin, self-humiliation on account of sin, and the earnest desire to recover from sin. The sufferings following sin may bring remorse, but that is no holy feeling. God would work the godly sorrow of repentance. Remorse keeps a man away from God, hugging to himself his bitterness. Repentance leads a man to God, dissolves him in the tears of confession, and yet kindles a new hope in the soul. And now--

5. We come to the point of our text. When a penitent comes back to God, He looks for the signs of the penitence. He finds them partly in that very return to seek His forgiveness; but He looks for it also in the steadfast endeavour of the penitent henceforth to obey. (The Weekly Pulpit.)

Repentance necessary

We have heard much of the Gospel containing comfort for the mere sinner, and if by the mere sinner be meant one that has nothing to plead but the mercy of God, through the atonement, like the publican in the parable, it is for such, and only such, that the Gospel contains consolation. But if by the mere sinner be meant the impenitent, though distressed sinner, it has no comfort for such in their present state. Repentance is necessary to forgiveness, in the same sense as faith is necessary to justification; for it is not possible for a sinner either to embrace the Saviour, or prize the consolations of the Gospel, while insensible to the evil of sin. There is no grace in the Gospel, but upon the supposition that God is in the right, and that sin is exceedingly sinful, and, consequently, none to be perceived or prized. (Andrew Fuller.)

Thoroughness in repentance

In the War Cry there was a picture of a man kneeling at a table and praying, Lord, make a good job of me. The words are rough enough, but the meaning is, in many respects, admirable. The poor man feels that he is a failure, and that he needs new making. His feeling is that none but the Lord can accomplish the necessary renewal. His fear is lest he should not have the full work wrought upon him, and that his conversion should not be thorough and complete. He has no need to fear that the Lord would not operate effectively, for the great Worker never leaves His work half done. Still, the very fear of being but partly sanctified shows his earnestness and his desire to be truly and fully converted from the error of his ways. Lifeless, questionable religion is poor stuff. Oh, that the Lord would make a good job of us. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Repentance

Repentance is neither base nor bitter, it is good rising up out of evil. It is the turning of the soul from the way of midnight to the point of the coming sun. Darkness drops from the face, and silver light dawns upon it. True regret for wrong never weakens, but always strengthens the heart. As some plants of the bitterest root have the whitest and sweetest blossoms, so the bitterest wrong has the sweetest repentance, which, indeed, is only the soul blossoming back to its better nature.

Whole-heartedness in religion

A dealer in pictures who makes it his business to find as many new painters as possible, both in this country and abroad, was asked recently in regard to his methods of selecting pictures to buy. He was very frank in his talk, and one thing which he said is shrewd enough to be worth quoting. Of course, he said, with my experience I am able to judge whether there is promise in a painters work, but I never buy with any idea of putting the painter on my list until I have seen the man and talked with him myself. I always watch him closely, and I never buy his pictures unless his eye lights up when I talk to him about his work and about his profession. The artist whose heart was really in his work could not discuss it without kindling, and the man who did not paint from the heart was not the one whose pictures the dealer wanted. And so God desires whole-hearted obedience to His commands.

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Deu 30:2. And shalt return unto the Lord — Here is a further description of true repentance. It is a returning unto the Lord, in humiliation, shame, and sorrow, and yet with confidence in him, as our God, with a fixed purpose of obeying him universally and heartily in future. This the Jews did, as a nation, in some measure, after they were carried captive to Babylon, since which time we read nothing of their idolatry. But they degenerated into other sins, which made them reject the Messiah when he was sent to them, for which they are punished to this day, and will be till they repent and be converted, Rom 11:23-26; Luk 21:24.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

30:2-3 with all your heart and all your soul: The expectation of these verses was clearly articulated in the Shema, Israel’s great statement of covenant faith and commitment (cp. 6:4). Obedience to the covenant was a prerequisite necessary for Israel to receive God’s forgiveness and return to its land.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

In true repentance is none hypocrisy.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

2. Expansion of Deu_4:30 b.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And shalt return unto the Lord thy God,.... By repentance, acknowledging their manifold sins and transgressions, particularly their disbelief and rejection of the Messiah, now seeking him and salvation by him; see Hos 3:5,

and shalt obey his voice; in the Gospel, yielding the obedience of faith to that; embracing the Gospel, and submitting to the ordinances of it:

according to all that I command thee this day, thou, and thy children; which was to love the Lord, and walk in his ways, directed to in the Gospel, and which were to be regarded from a principle of love to God and the blessed Redeemer; see Deu 30:6,

with all thine heart and with all thy soul; that is, both their return unto the Lord, and their obedience to his voice or word, should be hearty and sincere; which being the case, the following things would be done for them.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

And shalt return unto the Lord thy God; retrain from the worship of false gods to worship and serve Jehovah the one true God, the God of their fathers, and the God whom as a nation they had before wet-shipped. (cf. Neh_1:8, Neh_1:9)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

AND THOU SHALT RETURN UNTO THE ETERNAL THY G-D, AND HEARKEN TO HIS VOICE ACCORDING TO ALL THAT I COMMAND THEE THIS DAY, THOU AND THY CHILDREN. The meaning thereof is that you will return with all thy heart, and with all thy soul and you will take it upon yourself and upon your children throughout their generations to do according to all that I command thee this day, just as they did at the second redemption [i.e., the redemption from Babylon], as it is written, and they entered into a curse, and into an oath, to walk in G-d’s law, which was given by Moses the servant of G-d, and to observe and do all the commandments of the Eternal our G-d, and His ordinances and His statutes. Or it may be that the expression that I command thee this day, thou and thy children is like “command you — to you and to your children,” is gramatically difficult, because the verse begins with the accusative thee, and follows with the nominative thou. Ramban offers two explanations: First, that the verse contains two separate thoughts: that you will return to G-d, and that you will accept upon yourself and your children all that He commands us. Second, that the nominative thou is equivalent to the accusative thee [“to you”], and the verse is thus expressing a single thought: “that I command thee this day — to you and to your children.” Ramban proceeds to cite Scriptural examples of similar usage — a nominative in place of an accusative. similar to the expression ‘v’atah tzuveitha’ (and you) is to be understood as lecha (“and to you”). [meaning lecha tzuveithi — “to you I ordered that the command be given”]. So also, and they dealt ill ‘othanu’ is “us,” but Ramban interprets it in the context of the verse as if it means “to us.” means lanu (“to us”). (you) means lecha (to you). And in my opinion there is in this matter a great secret; for it alludes to that which the Rabbis said, “The son of David [i.e., the Messiah] will not come until all souls in the guf are exhausted.” I have already spoken of this matter.

Ramban (Nachmanides) on the Tanakh — English translation: “Commentary on the Torah by Ramban (Nachmanides). Translated and annotated by Charles B. Chavel. New York, Shilo Pub. House, 1971-1976” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.

And you will return. Your repentance will be in order to solely perform the will of your Creator. This is the type of repentance that reaches the Heavenly Throne.

And obey Him exactly. Not out of habit, as you did before now.

You and your sons. Even the children of the next generation will recognize this, as the verse states, “All of you know Me, from the young to the old” (Yirmiyahu 31:33).

Wholeheartedly. So that you will have no doubt.

With your whole being. Your desires of your soul will not prevent you, when you recognize the importance of the matter.

Sforno on the Tanakh — English translation: “Yalkut, Sifsei Chachomim Chumash, Metsudah Publications, 2009” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.