The Deuteronomic Covenant-Part 2

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The Significance Of The Promises

The previous article addressed the background of the Deuteronomic Covenant and its six promises that God made to Israel. This article will consider six significant things that should be noted concerning the promises of the covenant and some additional related matters.

First, God made these promises to the same national group which He later banished through dispersion to other nations because of disobedience to Him (Deuteronomy 28:15- 68; 29:24-29; 30:1, 3). In other words, God made these promises specifically to the literal nation of Israel, including all 12 tribes (Deuteronomy 29:10). Thus, these promises are to be fulfilled with literal Israel.

Second, these promises indicate that God always leaves the way open for unfaithful Israel to be reconciled to Him (compare Ezekiel 16). God never has and never will perma­nently terminate His special relationship with literal Israel.

Third, the ultimate fulfillment of these promises with Israel is still future. Moses indicated that fulfillment will not take place until all the curses of Deuteronomy 28 have been com­pleted and Israel has genuinely returned to God and obeyed Him (Deuteronomy 30:1-3). Literal Israel has not yet returned to God as a nation and is not now obeying Him. In light of the persistent problems that Israel has in the Middle East today and the continuing pres­ence of anti-Semitism in many places around the world, it is evident that all the curses of Deuteronomy 28 have not yet been completed.

Fourth, the fact that God intends to fulfill these promises with Israel when all the curses of Deuteronomy 28 have been completed with that nation indicates that literal Israel will survive all of its God-ordained curses. This, therefore, is another guarantee of Israel’s permanent existence as a nation. God has chastened Israel severely for centuries because of its unfaithfulness to Him, but He will never destroy its existence as a nation.

Fifth, the fact that God promised to restore Israel to the land (which He gave to their ancestors) when all the curses of Deuteronomy 28 have been completed is another guar­antee of Israel’s permanent ownership of that land. Even though Israel has been dispersed outside Canaan for much of its history because of its disobedience to God, it has never lost its God-given ownership of that land.

Sixth, the promises of the Deuteronomic Covenant guarantee that literal Israel will re­pent and become saved spiritually in the future. God indicated that, when all the curses of Deuteronomy 28 have been completed (when He has completed His program of chasten­ing Israel), the Israelites will return to Him and obey Him (Deuteronomy 30:1-2), and He will regenerate them (Deuteronomy 30:6). Centuries after Moses spoke these promises of Israel’s future repentance and salvation, other great spokesmen of God repeated them.

The Prophet Hosea declared that the sons of Israel would remain without king or prince and sacrifice for many days. However, they “shall… return, and seek the LORD their God, and David, their king, and shall fear the LORD and his goodness in the latter days” (Hosea 3:5).

The Prophet Zechariah indicated that the same national group which would have the Messiah crucified would later repent (change its mind concerning the Messiah) and be­come saved: “they shall look upon me whom they have pierced, and they shall mourn for him, as one mourneth for his only son, and shall be in bitterness for him, as one that is in bitterness for his first-born” (Zechariah 12:10). Zechariah signified that God will cleanse Israel from its sin in response to this repentance: “In that day there shall be a fountain opened to the house of David and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for sin and for unclean­ness” (Zechariah 13:1).

Not long after Jesus Christ (the Messiah) died, was resurrected bodily, and ascended to heaven, the Apostle Peter gave the following address to a crowd of Jews in the temple area in Jerusalem: “Ye men of Israel,… the God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified his Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let him go. But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you; and killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses…. And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers. But these things, which God before had showed by the mouth of all his prophets, that Christ should suffer, he hath so fulfilled. Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord; and he shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you; whom heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy prophets since the world began” (Acts 3:12-21). In line with the promises of the Deuteronomic Covenant and the prophetic statements of the Prophet Zechariah, Peter indicated that literal Israel (the nation that rejected the Messiah and had Him killed just as the Old Testament proph­ets had foretold) should repent and be saved spiritually. Peter further indicated that, when the literal nation of Israel will repent and be saved, the Messiah will return to the earth from heaven and establish the times of refreshing and restitution of all things of the future Millennial Kingdom.

Years after the Messiah’s death, resurrection, and ascension to heaven the Apostle Paul taught that Israel’s repentance and salvation will take place at Messiah’s Second Coming: “blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved; as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob; for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins” (Romans 11:25-27).

Paul continued by indicating that, even though the people of Israel are enemies of the gospel during this present dispensation, on the basis of God’s sovereign choice He contin­ues to love them for the sake of their fathers to whom He made covenant commitments. God’s past calling of Israel to be a special people to Him is irrevocable. As a result, He will be merciful to them in the future (Romans 11:28-32).

Thus, the promises of the Deuteronomic Covenant will be fulfilled in conjunction with the Messiah’s glorious Second Coming to the earth after the end of the future Tribulation pe­riod. The Tribulation period will be the last and most terrible segment of the curses of Deuteronomy 28 upon Israel. It will be God’s instrument to break Israel’s rebellion and bring that nation back to Himself.

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