Deuteronomy 30:1-10

When all these things have happened to you,¹ the blessings and the curses that I have set before you, if you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you,² and return to the Lord your God, and you and your children obey him with all your heart and with all your soul, just as I am commanding you today,³ then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, gathering you again from all the peoples among whom the Lord your God has scattered you.⁴ Even if you are exiled to the ends of the world, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back.⁵ The Lord your God will bring you into the land that your ancestors possessed, and you will possess it; he will make you more prosperous and numerous⁶ than your ancestors.⁷ Moreover, the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,⁸ in order that you may live. The Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on the adversaries who took advantage of you.⁹ Then you shall again obey the Lord, observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today,¹⁰ and the Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all your undertakings, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your soil.¹¹ For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, just as he delighted in prospering your ancestors, when you obey the Lord your God by observing his commandments and decrees that are written in this book of the law, because you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.¹²

1 Makes the assumption of the exile clear.

2 Again, exile clear.

3 Fascinating – he says, “as I am commanding you today”, yet he is giving a command meant to apply 700 years in the future!

4 There is still hope.

5 Making it clear that God can do anything, can restore them no matter how far they've fallen.

6 In fact, he can restore them to even more than they were before.

7 Strange, because in the story “your ancestors” that they are “more prosperous then” are the people he's actually talking to in the moment.

8 God will do the work to help them love Him.

9 Can't go without a little revenge!

10 Like everywhere else in Deuteronomy, the central objective is obedience to the commandments.

11 Prosperity, fertility, and security (the curses on the enemies) are the central blessings.

12 Obedience to commandments and fidelity to God are necessary for this to come to pass.

Take-home: After all the curses, a message of hope for the exiles – if they will return to God, inwardly and outwardly, then God will restore them, inwardly and outwardly.