Thread by @GPrater85015

#GeraldsDevotional
The Important Choice to Turn Around

In yesterday’s message, we looked at several examples in the Old Testament of the choices that the Lord had placed before the children of Israel, including His instructions through Moses at the end of Deuteronomy chapter 30. Today we will go back to that chapter and see what He

said right before that about the importance of choosing to return to Him.

When I read through today’s verses, I can see a clear example of how God’s word is indeed timeless and speaks to us in so many ways. Hebrews 4:12 says that the word of God is alive and active and it judges

the thoughts of men. You see, at that time when Moses gave these words to the people, they were wondering around in the wilderness because of their rebellion and stubbornness. God told them that they would be scattered among the nations (again because of their pride and refusal

to obey His word). But the Lord said that “if” at that time they would choose to turn around and listen to (obey) Him, He will re-gather them from being scattered, bring them back to the land that He promised to them and that He would bless them exceedingly.

This again, is a

timeless word that resonates all throughout the bible. The obvious picture we can see in this example is the Babylonian exile when they were taken from their land and scattered because of their rebellion only to be re-gathered later during the Persian Empire. Another clear and

more modern example is when in 70 A.D. the nation of Israel was again scattered throughout the world after it was destroyed by the Roman Empire. They stayed scattered for two millennia and were not even recognized as a world nation until miraculously God again re-gathered them as

a nation in 1948 on the very same land that He had promised to them.

All of this is still only an image or a shadow of the ultimate re-gathering that the Lord will do with all of us when He brings us back to the ultimate Promised Land. There we will once again dwell with Him as

we did in the Garden and He described it as being “very good.” When we disobeyed Him shortly thereafter, we were banished from the Garden and scattered throughout the world. But in order to be re-gathered, we have a very important choice to make today. Just as it was with the

children of Israel, we have to listen to His word, forsake our own ways, and choose to return to Him. Forsaking our own ways means leaving EVERYTHING behind and simply following (obeying) Him.

That choice is not an easy one because we are pretty set in our ways we strongly

resist change. But even in that, He offers to help us by changing our hearts, and the hearts of our children, and the hearts of their children. All we have to do today is to simply choose to turn back or to simply ask Him for help, surrendering and earnestly saying “Lord I need

You!”

Now let’s see how He described all of this in His words through Moses at the beginning of Deuteronomy chapter 30.

A Call to Return to the Lord
1 “In the future, when you experience all these blessings and curses I have listed for you, and when you are living among the

nations to which the Lord your God has exiled you, take to heart all these instructions. 2 If at that time you and your children return to the Lord your God, and if you obey with all your heart and all your soul all the commands I have given you today, 3 then the Lord your God

will restore your fortunes. He will have mercy on you and gather you back from all the nations where he has scattered you. 4 Even though you are banished to the ends of the earth, the Lord your God will gather you from there and bring you back again. 5 The Lord your God will

return you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will possess that land again. Then he will make you even more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors!

6 “The Lord your God will change your heart and the hearts of all your descendants, so that you will love

him with all your heart and soul and so you may live! 7 The Lord your God will inflict all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate and persecute you. 8 Then you will again obey the Lord and keep all his commands that I am giving you today.

9 “The Lord your God will

then make you successful in everything you do. He will give you many children and numerous livestock, and he will cause your fields to produce abundant harvests, for the Lord will again delight in being good to you as he was to your ancestors. 10 The Lord your God will delight in

you if you obey his voice and keep the commands and decrees written in this Book of Instruction, and if you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and soul. - Deuteronomy 30:1-10

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