There are a lot of things to comment on in Deuteronomy 30. First, I'd note an insight I gained from N. T. Wright, a New Testament scholar I really enjoy. That insight is that Israel in Jesus' day thought that the exile had never really ended, Sure, they had returned from their exile in Babylon, but they more most definitely not more prosperous than they had been when they left--even 600 years later! Longing for the end of exile--that describes a deep dynamic that explains the life and hopes of Israel when Jesus came on the scene.
A second thought is the hermeneutical one, that is, a thought about how to appropriately bring the story of Israel to bear on modern day, New Testament Christians. Here's the key thing: the scattering of Israel was a covenant curse. Historically, Israel was scattered following the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC as a result of their chronic breaching of the covenant by following other gods. It wasn’t an absolute rejection of Israel. The Lord kept a remnant in the land and brought a portion back from exile because His promise would be fulfilled through Israel. (Not all Jews returned to the land. A Jewish population remained in Babylon; another developed in Egypt; still others grew in Asia Minor and points west.)
However, the scattering of Israel in the exile and beyond ceased to be the biblical story after the ministry of Jesus. Then, it was the scattering of the church that mattered. The church was not scattered as a punishment but as a mission strategy. So, for example, everyone knows that the so-called Great Commission does not contain a command to go. The word there is a participle: ‘while you’re on your way’ is a better translation. (I don’t know why the English translations make the choice they make.) God’s people are scattered like seed throughout the earth to produce a great harvest for the kingdom.
The gathering of Deuteronomy 30 has its historical fulfillment in 538 BC, when the first exile return to ruined Jerusalem. But for the church, the gathering becomes an end-time event; the return to the land becomes the advent of the new heaven and new earth; and the circumcision of hearts—now by faith—becomes the reality of renewed lives in God’s good presence. So, as I often point out, let's be careful with applying passages like Deuteronomy 30 to our national life in the US.
Third, Paul cites Deuteronomy 30 in Romans 10. It's a great passage about the necessity of preaching (you can read it here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=rom%2010&version=NIV). The thing that strikes me, though, is that Paul is not making a random defense of preaching; rather, that defense of preaching is embedded in a larger context (Romans 9-11) in which Paul is struggling with what went wrong with Israel that so many Jews were not prepared to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. I suspect that part of the deep background of this passage is the fact of Israel's covenant unfaithfulness. Someday I'll have to do more work on Romans 9-11 to see how this works out.
Third, Paul cites Deuteronomy 30 in Romans 10. It's a great passage about the necessity of preaching (you can read it here: http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=rom%2010&version=NIV). The thing that strikes me, though, is that Paul is not making a random defense of preaching; rather, that defense of preaching is embedded in a larger context (Romans 9-11) in which Paul is struggling with what went wrong with Israel that so many Jews were not prepared to recognize Jesus as the Messiah. I suspect that part of the deep background of this passage is the fact of Israel's covenant unfaithfulness. Someday I'll have to do more work on Romans 9-11 to see how this works out.
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