A generic “Calvinist” reading of Deuteronomy is straightforward: At the time that Moses preached the text to Israel either many were unfaithful or following generations soon would be. This unfaithfulness can be best be understood as involving a large number of unregenerate Israelites. But Deuteronomy promises that God will one day cause Israel to be faithful, which probably means He will regenerate many of the Israelites at that time and in some number of subsequent generations.
“And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, 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, 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. 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. 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. 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.” (Deuteronomy 30:1–6 ESV).
This promise was remembered and reiterated by the prophets later (Jeremiah 31:33; 32:39; Ezekiel 11:19; 36:26, 27).
While this view fits (to a certain extent) convictions that predestinarians hold, it may be an interpretation that owes more to confirmation bias than what Moses is trying to say. One problem is that, even though the “new heart” of the “circumcised heart” comes after the exile, the actual doctrine of regeneration that Calvinists hold doesn’t allow any role for the historical circumstances. Aside from some necessary hearing of the Gospel, God regenerates anyone he chooses at any time he chooses. Was that what Moses was telling his audience? That God would do a deed in the future after a process that was, except as an occasion, not related to his deed? That doesn’t seem plausible.
Add to this that Moses included an exhortation to his hearers to circumcise their own hearts in order to remain loyal to God:
“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good? Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. Yet the LORD set his heart in love on your fathers and chose their offspring after them, you above all peoples, as you are this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. For the LORD your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, and the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. You shall fear the LORD your God. You shall serve him and hold fast to him, and by his name you shall swear” (Deuteronomy 10:12–20 ESV).
It may be possible that “circumcise your hearts” refers to something entirely different (though analogous) when God does it. But we should at least consider the possibility that Moses is promising God will bring about faithful people in a way that is similar to how people make themselves faithful. In many passages the “heart” does not refer to a determining factor in a person that only God can control but rather an aspect of one’s person that is responsible for controlling. For example, consider the wise father’s appeal to his son in Proverbs:
- “My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding…” (2:1–2 ESV).
- “My son, do not forget my teaching, but let your heart keep my commandments…” (3:1 ESV).
- “Let not steadfast love and faithfulness forsake you; bind them around your neck; write them on the tablet of your heart” (3:3 ESV).
- “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding” (3:5 ESV).
- “Let your heart hold fast my words; keep my commandments, and live” (4:4b ESV).
- “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life” (4:23 ESV).
- “My son, keep your father’s commandment, and forsake not your mother’s teaching. Bind them on your heart always; tie them around your neck” (6:20–21 ESV).
- “Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes…” (6:25 ESV).
- “My son, keep my words and treasure up my commandments with you; keep my commandments and live; keep my teaching as the apple of your eye; bind them on your fingers; write them on the tablet of your heart” (7:1–3 ESV).
- “Let not your heart turn aside to her ways; do not stray into her paths…” (7:25).
Solomon not only exhorts us to direct our hearts to God and His Word, but he speaks as Lady Wisdom promising the Spirit to those who respond rightly to rebuke: “If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you” (Proverbs 1:23a ESV).
The prophets, when recalling Moses prophecy of the return from exile in Deuteronomy 30, use language similar to Proverbs 1:23, 3:3, and 7:3.
“For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people” (Jeremiah 31:33 ESV).
“Son of man, your brothers, even your brothers, your kinsmen, the whole house of Israel, all of them, are those of whom the inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Go far from the LORD; to us this land is given for a possession.’ Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: Though I removed them far off among the nations, and though I scattered them among the countries, yet I have been a sanctuary to them for a while in the countries where they have gone.’ Therefore say, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD: I will gather you from the peoples and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel.’ And when they come there, they will remove from it all its detestable things and all its abominations. And I will give them one heart, and a new spirit I will put within them. I will remove the heart of stone from their flesh and give them a heart of flesh, that they may walk in my statutes and keep my rules and obey them. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. But as for those whose heart goes after their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their deeds upon their own heads, declares the Lord GOD” (Ezekiel 11:15–21 ESV).
The father wants the son to write his word on the tablet of his heart and God promises to write his law on the hearts of the exiles. Wisdom will pour out her spirit on those who heed her and God will put a new spirit on the exiles. The exhortations to a son to learn wisdom become the promises to a transformed people.
The father-son dynamic prevalent in Proverbs is also in Deuteronomy between God and Israel. The Israelites are individually God’s sons (Deuteronomy 14:1) and collectively as a nation they are God’s son in the singular.
“The LORD your God who goes before you will himself fight for you, just as he did for you in Egypt before your eyes, and in the wilderness, where you have seen how the LORD your God carried you, as a man carries his son, all the way that you went until you came to this place” (Deuteronomy 1:30–31 ESV).
In saying these words, Moses recalls what God told him to say to Pharaoh that was fulfilled in the Passover night (Exodus 4:22, 23).
It is noteworthy in Proverbs, though sometimes it may seem that wisdom is simply remembering and following instruction, it is actually something more that a son receives AFTER learning from his parents:
“My son, if you receive my words and treasure up my commandments with you, making your ear attentive to wisdom and inclining your heart to understanding; yes, if you call out for insight and raise your voice for understanding, if you seek it like silver and search for it as for hidden treasures, then you will understand the fear of the LORD and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; he stores up sound wisdom for the upright; he is a shield to those who walk in integrity, guarding the paths of justice and watching over the way of his saints” (Proverbs 2:8 ESV).
While the son should value the commandments that is just the start. He needs to seek, pray for more—for wisdom. Because such wisdom is only given by God (compare James 1:5).
Since Solomon presents Wisdom as female and a protector against the temptations of an adulteress, it is difficult not to see this dynamic of receiving commandments from one’s parents and then wisdom from God as analogous to what is said about marriage: “House and wealth are inherited from fathers, but a prudent wife is from the LORD” (19:14 ESV). Parents teach a son commandments, but the son reaches wisdom after being trained by a life of obedience (as well as learning from his own or others’ disobedience).
In Deuteronomy, Moses exhorts the people to obey God’s law diligently and train their children follow in the way. But he also points to a future, better, obedience. He does this not only near the end of his sermon (chapter 30). But also near the beginning:
“When you father children and children’s children, and have grown old in the land, if you act corruptly by making a carved image in the form of anything, and by doing what is evil in the sight of the LORD your God, so as to provoke him to anger, I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will soon utterly perish from the land that you are going over the Jordan to possess. You will not live long in it, but will be utterly destroyed. And the LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and you will be left few in number among the nations where the LORD will drive you. And there you will serve gods of wood and stone, the work of human hands, that neither see, nor hear, nor eat, nor smell. But from there 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. 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. For the LORD your God is a merciful God. He will not leave you or destroy you or forget the covenant with your fathers that he swore to them” (Deuteronomy 4:25–31 ESV).
In the next section of Deuteronomy, Moses recalls God’s expressed wish for a faithful people: “Oh that they had such a heart as this always, to fear me and to keep all my commandments, that it might go well with them and with their descendants forever!” (5:29 ESV). Again it is easy to hear an echo in Proverbs in a Father’s heartfelt wish: “My son, if your heart is wise, my heart too will be glad. My inmost being will exult when your lips speak what is right (Proverbs 23:15–16 ESV).
As a convinced Calvinist, I am sure the factor of God’s regeneration of sinners lies behind that human responses that are desired in both Deuteronomy and Proverbs. But just as Proverbs is how a youth is supposed to become wise through a life of obedience and experience, so I think Deuteronomy is about how God going to transform the people of Israel into a more wise and righteous people.
They are obedient, at the present moment, more obedient than the previous generation that died in the wilderness. But at the same time, they need to become more obedient and more wise. This will happen as they pursue obedience and also as they are chastised for disobedience. God will discipline them through a process that will transform them into a more faithful people. They will remember God’s word and also gain wisdom through God’s discipline.