OT Study: Deuteronomy Pt. 5

Review

It is crucial to remember that this is book is both a covenant document and also a sermon. This was a message that was given by Moses to the people on the border of the Promised Land. The covenant document began with a Historical Prologue. Then it moved to general stipulations (10 Commandments) and specific stipulations (laws that stem from each of the 10 Commandments). Now after learning of the laws and rules that God’s people were to follow, we will read of the blessings that they would receive for obedience to the whole Law or curses for their disobedience of any of the Law’s stipulations. 

V. Blessings and Curses ()

Main point

The main point of this section is to...

Structure 

This main point is seen in the following structure: 

Accountability Reinforced ()

Blessings and Curses ()

Exposition

1. Accountability Reinforced ()

A. To the Leadership - A Law Stone (27:1-8)

1Now Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep the whole commandment that I command you today. 2And on the day you cross over the Jordan to the land that the Lordyour God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them with plaster. 3And you shall write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over to enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you. 4And when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, concerning which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster.

See how this section begins with Moses charging the elders of the people, the leadership to keep the entire Law. Notice that he calls the Law the commandment. Even though the Law is made up of multiple commandments and stipulations, it is seen as one singular entity. Therefore, the Law must be obeyed in its entirety. As James says in , “10 For whoever keeps the whole law but fails in one point has become guilty of all of it.” Moses then instructs the elders to erect massive stones that are painted with white plaster and write the entire law on them once they pass into the Promised Land. After doing so they were to place these stones on Mount Ebal. Remember that in Moses instructed Israel to go up to Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim once they entered the Land and there declare the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. It is significant that Moses instructs the leaders to place these stones on Mount Ebal for that is where the curses were to be declared. He does this to emphasize the accountability that Israel had to keep the entire Law before God. These stones were a negative reminder of the punishment that will come to the people when they break God’s law. 

B. To the People - A Dynamic Proclamation (27:9-26)

11 That day Moses charged the people, saying, 12 “When you have crossed over the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. 13 And these shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. 14 And the Levites shall declare to all the men of Israel in a loud voice: 15 “ ‘Cursed be the man who makes a carved or cast metal image, an abomination to the Lord, a thing made by the hands of a craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’

26 “ ‘Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’

Here, Moses introduces the Blessings and Curses to the people. He gives instruction for that day when they enter the Promised Land and come to Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal by dividing the tribes into two groups of 6. The Levites were then to read the blessings for disobedience and the blessings for obedience and the tribes on each mountain were to respond by saying, amen. Notice that Reuben, the firstborn of Jacob was not standing with his blood brothers on Gerizim, but on the mountain of cursing. Remember that he was a terrible son who sought to dominate his brothers and claim the birthright of Jacob. This inferiority complex is passed down into future generations. It was individuals from the tribe of Reuben who joined in Korah’s rebellion. Lastly it was Reuben, along with Gad and the ½ tribe of Manassah who did not want to settle in the Promised Land. Their placement on Ebal was a visual demonstration of how an individual’s guilt affected that individual’s future generations. This was a foreshadow for how well Israel would do at keeping God’s Law and avoiding it’s curses. 

The chapter ends with 12 curses. These are curses in response to individual stipulations of the Law. In chapter 28, blessings and curses will be recorded but they are not as specific in nature as the curses that are found here. These 12 curses were designed for this specific setting of Mount Ebal and Gerizim. Furthermore, they encapsulate the entirety of the law. One is cursed when he or she rejects God’s supremacy and authority in Heaven and on earth (Curses 1-2). One is cursed when he or she violates the law in secret (Curses 3-5 and 10-11). One is cursed when he or she violates the law in open (curses 6-9). In summary, if you do not confirm the words of the law by doing them, you will be cursed. There is no mention of a corresponding list of 12 blessings for a reason. The Law will only expose Israel’s sin, they will not be able to keep it all and therefore they will be receiving curse. 

2. Blessings and Curses ()

A. Blessings (28:1-14)

1 “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. 3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. 7 “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. 8 The Lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 9 The Lord will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. 10 And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. 11 And the Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The Lord will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, 14 and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

Israel’s covenant blessings are predicated on their obedience to the entirety of the Law. If they obey all the commandments God will give them all these blessings. There are 6 specific categories of blessing given here. First there is the blessing of Israel’s location, in their cities and in their fields. Second there is the blessing of their fruitfulness, of the fruit of their wombs, their livestock’s wombs and the fruit of the ground. Third, there is the blessing of their produce of their harvest and bread baskets would be full. Fourth, all of their everyday activities would be blessed, in their coming in and going out. Fifth, they would be blessed with victory over their enemies who would flee before them seven ways. Sixth, they would be blessed with in all their work, both in their barns and in all that their hands undertake. Moses then declares that YHWH would establish Israel as His holy people and make them and do to them all that He has sworn. He will bless them with rain in the land and so much prosperity that they would lend to many nations. All these things He would do for them if they obeyed the commandments of their God and not turning aside to the right or to the left of the words that He commanded them. 

B. Curses (28:15-29:1)

15 “But if you will not obey the voice of the Lord your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. 16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. 17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. 20 “The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me. 21 The Lord will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 22 The Lord will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought and with blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. 23 And the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron. 24 The Lord will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed. 25 “The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away. 27 The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with tumors and scabs and itch, of which you cannot be healed.

30 You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit.

43 The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. 44 He shall lend to you, and you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. 45 “All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you. 46 They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever. 47 Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and gladness of heart, because of the abundance of all things,

48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness, and lacking everything. And he will put a yoke of iron on your neck until he has destroyed you. 49 The Lord will bring a nation against you from far away, from the end of the earth, swooping down like the eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, 50 a hard-faced nation who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young. 51 It shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed; it also shall not leave you grain, wine, or oil, the increase of your herds or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish. 52 “They shall besiege you in all your towns, until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout all your land. And they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land, which the Lord your God has given you. 53 And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you. 54 The man who is the most tender and refined among you will begrudge food to his brother, to the wife he embraces, and to the last of the children whom he has left, 55 so that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because he has nothing else left, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns. 56 The most tender and refined woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because she is so delicate and tender, will begrudge to the husband she embraces, to her son and to her daughter, 57 her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears, because lacking everything she will eat them secretly, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns. 58 “If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, 59 then the Lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting.

64 “And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. 

68 And the Lord will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that you should never make again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer. 1 These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb. 

Notice how the wording of the curses is very similar to the wording of the blessings, except that here we see that every blessing would be turned on its head.  Their locations would be cursed, in their cities and their fields. Their fruitfulness of their wombs  and their produce  of the harvest and the bread basket would be cursed. Their everyday activities, their coming in and going out, and the work  of their hands would be frustrated because of God’s curse. Instead of rain falling from dark clouds and softening the ground, God will cause the sky to turn to bronze with dust and harden the ground like iron. Instead of having victory over they enemies and scattering them seven ways, they would be scattered by their enemies seven ways. 

Because they served the gods of Egypt and Canaan, they would be struck with plagues like God struck the people of Egypt. Their houses and their vineyards will be taken by someone else who did not build them - they would be treated like the Canaanites whom they were to conquer and possess. Instead of being the head of all the nations and lending to them, they would become the tail and they will be the ones borrowing from foreigners. Instead of being carried on Eagle’s wings, another nation will descend on them like an eagle and besiege them. This seige will be so terrible that they would run out of food in the city and turn to eat the fruit of their wobs. Your neighbor who was once loving and kind to you would not share the flesh of his child to you. The wife of your neighbor who was so dainty and refined would turn to eating the child she births as well as that which comes out of her in the afterbirth before sharing with her husband and other children. The curse then culminates with the curse of exile. Israel would be scattered amongst the nations and be brought back to Egypt to be sold in slavery. Such a siege would eventually happen to disobedient Israel (, , ). moreover, Israel would experience exile during the Assyrian, Babylonian and Roman conquests. During the Roman conquest of 70 AD, TItus destroyed Jerusalem and then sent every Israelite under the age of 17 to Egypt to be sold as slaves. However, this caused the slave market to be flooded and many Jews were made slaves for little or no cost. Witness here the just wrath of God against the rebellion and spiritual adultery of His people. As we move into the history books of the Bible we will see how each of these curses were brought about. 

VI. Witnesses Set and Covenant Sealed ()

A. Main point

The main point of this section is to resolve the tension of Israel’s sin and unfaithfulness and God’s love and covenant faithfulness. As we have seen earlier in Deuteronomy, in order to obey the law, God’s people needed a circumcised heart (), a heart that had sin cut away; a heart that cleansed and made completely faithful and obedient to God. If Israel was to have such a heart they would obey all of the law and experience God’s blessing. However, if their hearts remained uncircumcised they would experience all of the terrible curses that they deserved for their obedience. 

The tension here is that God has made unconditional promises to Abraham about the nation that would come from him. He has promised to bring them into the Land, to make them a numerous people and to cause them to be an international blessing. As we saw in Genesis, these covenant promises included in them the fulfillment of the Noahic covenant promise of rest and the Adamic promise of ultimate victory over Satan. So then, even though the promises of blessing found in the Mosaic covenant are conditional and connected to israel’s complete obedience to the Law, God is bound by His covenant faithfulness to bless His people and bring them into the rest and blessing that He promised their forefathers. 

B. Overview 

Moses’ Calling to Israel ()

Parties in Accountability (deut 29:14-29)

Parties in Restoration ()

Encouragement: Scriptures Perspicuity ()

Plea to Choose Life ()

C. Exposition

1. Moses’ Calling to Israel ()

2 And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 3 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. 4 But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. 5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet. 6 You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. 7 And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them. 8 We took their land and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites. 9 Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.

Chapter 29 begins by detailing the reason for why Israel is responsible to worship God: they have witnessed His power to judge the Egyptians with great trials and the great wonders He worked to bring them out of Egypt. These were signs to Israel of God’s sovereign supremacy as Creator. Upon seeing God demonstrate His power as well as hear Him speak to them on the Mountain the only proper response was to worship Him with all of their heart, their soul, their mind and their energy. However, as we see in verse 4, God did not give them a heart to understand the sign of the wonders and judgement. They had eyes that could not see and ears that could not hear making them totally unreceptive to God’s demands to worship and obey. 

The question then arises: how can God make Israel responsible if they are naturally unable to see or hear Him?  In verses 5-8 Moses answers this by detailing how God loved and cared for Israel in the wilderness, despite their rejection of Him. He did not deliver them from Egypt to die but instead worked wonders to bring them to the brink of the Promised Land. God went above and beyond to keep His covenant promises. He has every right to demand that Israel keep their end of the covenant which is what Moses calls them to do in verse 9. 

2. Parties in Accountability (deut 29:14-29)

14 It is not with you alone that I am making this sworn covenant, 15 but with whoever is standing here with us today before the Lord our God, and with whoever is not here with us today.

18 Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, 19 one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. 20 The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. 21 And the Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law. 22 And the next generation, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, will say, when they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the Lord has made it sick— 23 the whole land burned out with brimstone and salt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout, an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath— 24 all the nations will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?’ 25 Then people will say, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, 26 and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them. 27 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book, 28 and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as they are this day.’ 29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

See how in verse 16, the generation Moses is speaking to and the future generations who were not there that day would be held accountable. Each of the individual Hebrews were to beware of an individual, clan, or tribe among them who would rebel from God by turning away from Him with their hearts and turning to false gods. Their rebellion was like a root of bitterness bearing pousiness fruit, implying that their rebellion and idolatry would affect those around them, spreading poison throughout the nation. The existence of such an individual or group would cause the anger of the Lord and His righteous  jealousy to be kindled and the curses of the book to be brought upon him (or them). 

The future tense language of vs 22-28 implies that such a thing is inevitable. A foreigner will come into the cursed land of Israel and see that God has turned it into brimstone, salt and constant burning. Just as He did with Sodom and Gomorrah, God will turn the Promised Land, once flowing with milk and honey, into a toxic waste dump. This will cause the nations to question the reason for God’s judgment. Israel was supposed to be the covenant people and be a blessing to all nations. Israel will then respond by confessing that their current state of curse was because they abandoned their covenant with God and then turned to serving other gods. See here how even in exile and judgment, God’s people will teach the nations of who He is: a righteous and just God who executes wrath against sin, idol worship and disobedience.

This is how the chapter ends - with the inevitability of Israel’s failure. The objection arises - what about the Abrahamic covenant? What about the blessings? What about the nations learning of God’s wisdom and coming to Israel to worship Him at the place that He choses? Remember that in that Moses already foretold that Israel would not be able to keep the covenant and that would result in their exile. However, it was in verse 4:29-30 that Moses prophesied that, “29 But from there (exile) you will seek the Lord your God and you will find him, if you search after him with all your heart and with all your soul. 30 When you are in tribulation, and all these things come upon you in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and obey his voice.” Here we see that when they are under the curse of the law because of their disobedience, they will seek the Lord their God and search after him with all their heart. But what we just saw is that Israel does not have the right heart. They needed to circumcise their hearts but they can’t. How are they supposed to obey God’s commands or return to Him and seek Him without the right heart, eyes to see or ears to hear? Moses answer: “the secret things belong to the Lord”. See that in this answer there is hope, there are secret things that God will do to resolve these tensions that were not revealed to the Israelites at that time. 

3. Parties in Restoration ()

1 “And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to heart among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, 2 and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, 3 then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the Lord your God has scattered you. 4 If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there he will take you. 5 And the Lord your God will bring you into the land that your fathers possessed, that you may possess it. And he will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. 6 And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. 7 And the Lord your God will put all these curses on your foes and enemies who persecuted you. 8 And you shall again obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments that I command you today. 9 The Lord your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground. For the Lord will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, 10 when you obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.

So then, up until this point we have a theological/spiritual trajectory. Israel will receive the Law  and enter the Mosaic covenant in the Land, they will fail and sin and rebel, they will be cursed until they are exiled, and here in this chapter we see the end of this trajectory. 

Here Moses looks forward into Israel’s future where they are in exile and tells of a moment when all the words of the blessings and curses will weigh heavy on their hearts. It is at that moment that they will repent and return to the Lord and God will then gather them and bring them back into the Land in a New Exodus where they will possess it once more and be fruitful and multiply there. Moreover, God will then place the curses that they were experiencing on their captures, their foes and their persecutors. They will receive all the blessings from in their entirety for it will be at that time when Israel will love the Lord their God with all their heart and with all their soul. It is then that Israel will obey God and keep His commandments. 

The question then is how is their repentance made possible? How are they all of a sudden going to have a circumcised heart? Answer: “the Lord your God will circumcise your heart” (vs 6). As God promises through the Prophet Ezekiel in Ez 36:26, “26 And I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.” Why will He do this? Because God will have mercy on them. It will not be because their own willpower or their own righteousness that God will do this. It will be  because of God’s great mercy and compassion that they will receive a circumcised heart.

4. Encouragement: Scriptures Perspicuity ()

11 “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. 12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 13 Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ 14 But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.

Now that Moses has given the complete package of the Mosaic Covenant he declares to them that this book is understandable. They did not need heavenly knowledge to know and understand these things. They did not need to go on a far journey to find its meaning. It’s there for them to do it and it is in their heart. The problem is that they need a circumcised heart to actually accomplish this. 

5. Plea to Choose Life ()

15 “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. 16 If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God that I command you today, by loving the Lord your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 17 But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, 18 I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. 19 I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20 loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them.”

In a final summary of the Law Moses instructs Israel to love God and obey His commandments and in return they will have life and blessing in the land. But if they will not obey, they will perish. The paths are clear and Moses finishes with the command to choose the path of life. However, as we have discussed and will see, Israel will do the opposite. Until, on that day in the future, God will circumcise their hearts as He has done to the saints of the New Covenant who have chosen life by repenting and believing in Jesus the Messiah. 

Questions for Application

How does establish the nature of conversion (regeneration)? 

Why is it dangerous to think that the Old Testament saints were saved by keeping the Law?

How is type repentance different from the modern understanding of just saying “God I’m sorry for sinning”