Deuteronomy 10

Even under the Law, God gave Israel a second chance. If God were not merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love, Israel would have been utterly destroyed by His justice long before they reached the promised land. God used the intercession of Moses to save His people. The people needed to survive. He would send a Messiah from the descendants of Jacob. Furthermore the calling of God is irrevocable. The Lord still has plans to save many Jews. Why not today when so many Arabs are being claimed as new chosen people through the Jewish Messiah?

Back in the days of Moses, the Lord commanded His servant to cut a second set of tablets, and the Lord Himself again inscribed the Ten Commandments with His own finger upon those tablets. The tablets would be kept in the arc of the covenant at the center of worship and life for Israel.

The time of the Law continued, but one generation passed away and another came of age. Aaron died in the wilderness. Eleazar ministered in his place. The account of death that began after the fall continued to make its way even through the ranks of the chosen people. Yet from this nation, Life would one day be born. That life would not come from Law, but from Christ. Law exposes sin; sin leads to death. But Christ brings righteousness; and righteousness confirms life. How? God has given us life and peace through the death of the only Righteous One.

God called Israel to circumcise the foreskin of their communal heart. Just as the church is a person, Israel was a person, the chosen servant of the Lord. Israel was created to obey the commandments with a heart that was fully ready to hear and to follow the voice of God.

The evidence already in the wilderness did not give anyone any reason for optimism that this way of national obedience would ever work. An entire generation had died. The provision of a singular substitute for the nation was required. Today if you hear His voice, the voice of that appointed Substitute, do not harden your hearts as Israel did in the wilderness. The way to enter the secure rest of God would come to us through the Voice of the Messiah, the new Israel, and the Savior of the world.

He alone has had a circumcised heart. He heard the Voice of His Father, and He obeyed. His submission even included His death on the cross as the Lamb of God. His keeping of the Law has brought a permanent grace to Israel and to all the nations who will hear Him. All who receive Him, who believe in His Name, have all the rights of the sons of God. In Him they have become one body, both Jew and Gentile together, as the new servant of the Lord, the church. Christ lives in them by His Holy Spirit, and they have the circumcision of the heart.

The Lord loves the stranger, the sojourner. The God who gave a new beginning for Israel over and over again is not only the God of the Jews; He is the God of the Gentiles. But whether Jew or Gentile, the way of life only comes through a Jewish Messiah.

God will never be bribed. But He will accept a ransom payment in the blood of the only Law-Keeper who gave Himself for the ungodly. This is what Jesus has done for you. He is your God. He is your praise.

Israel started as only seventy people going down to Egypt. By the days of Moses they were over 600,000 fighting men. In our day there are millions of Jews all over the earth, But more than that, they have become a new Israel of millions upon millions who have bowed the knee to an everlasting Jewish King, the true Son of David and Son of God. In Him you have been given a second chance that can never fail.