Return to Deuteronomy 30

We completed our examination of Deuteronomy 4 and now we return to Deuteronomy 30, which is the first place we found the word "gather" used within the context of the gathering of Israel. In our last attempt to study Deuteronomy 30 we made it to verse 2. We will now start where we left off:

Verse 3 begins with the Lord's assurance He will end Israel's captivity and have compassion upon the Lord's chosen people. Israel will return to the Lord and gather from among the nations where the Lord scattered them. The Lord intends to gather His people from the furthest reaches of the earth and the "outmost parts of heaven." (vs. 4)

Once Israel is assembled they return to the inheritances God gave to their fathers anciently. The Lord promises He will do good to Israel and "multiply them" which means to grant them more posterity and prosperity. (vs.5)

Verse 6 of Deuteronomy 30 is the Lord's promise to Israel that is essentially repeated in Jeremiah 31. In 30:6 of Deuteronomy the Lord says:"And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live. Contrast these words in Deuteronomy 30:6 with the Lord's promise in Jeremiah that was quoted by Moroni when he first appeared to Joseph Smith: "Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the Lord: But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, saith the Lord: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more."

In case we may think this promise has drifted off the Lord's radar, recall what the Savior revealed to Joseph in the preface of the Doctrine & Covenants, section 1: "The weak things of the world shall come forth and break down the mighty and strong ones, that man should not counsel his fellow man, neither trust in the arm of flesh- But that every man might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world."
(D&C1:19-20)

In the latter-days Israel will know the Lord and experience a change of heart. After their change of heart, every man, woman and child will know the Lord and will no longer look to others for guidance in their return journey to Him. That is what the restoration of the Gospel was intended to accomplish and we are far from that objective now. Our contemplation should constantly reflect on the question of what must come to pass to see these promises fulfilled? How do we get there from where we are now? It will be a strange work that brings this spiritual revolution to pass.