THE PALESTINIAN COVENANT

THE PALESTINIAN COVENANT

Deut. 30:1  And it shall come to pass, when all these things are come upon thee, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before thee, and thou shalt call them to mind among all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath driven thee,
2  And shalt return unto the LORD thy God, and shalt obey his voice according to all that I command thee this day, thou and thy children, with all thine heart, and with all thy soul;
3  That then the LORD thy God will turn thy captivity, and have compassion upon thee, and will return and gather thee from all the nations, whither the LORD thy God hath scattered thee.
4  If any of thine be driven out unto the outmost parts of heaven, from thence will the LORD thy God gather thee, and from thence will he fetch thee:
5  And the LORD thy God will bring thee into the land which thy fathers possessed, and thou shalt possess it; and he will do thee good, and multiply thee above thy fathers.
6  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.
7  And the LORD thy God will put all these curses upon thine enemies, and on them that hate thee, which persecuted thee.
8  And thou shalt return and obey the voice of the LORD, and do all his commandments which I command thee this day.
9  And the LORD thy God will make thee plenteous in every work of thine hand, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy land, for good: for the LORD will again rejoice over thee for good, as he rejoiced over thy fathers:
The Palestinian Covenant gives the conditions under which Israel entered the land of promise. It is important to see that the nation has never as yet taken the land under the unconditional Abrahamic Covenant (see Gen 12:2), nor has it ever possessed the whole land (cp. Gen 15:18 with Num. 34:1-12). The Palestinian Covenant is in seven parts: (1) dispersion for disobedience, v. 1 (Deut. 28:63-68; see Gen 15:18); (2) the future repentance of Israel while in the dispersion, v. 2; (3) the return of the LORD, v. 3 (Amos 9:9-15; Acts 15:14-17); (4) restoration to the land, v. 5 (Isa 11:1-12; Jer 23:3-8; Ezek 37:21-25); (5) national conversion, v. 6 (Hos 2:14-16; Rom 11:26-27); (6) the judgment of Israel's oppressors, v. 7 (Isa 14:1-22; Joel 3:1- 8; Mat 25:31-46); and (7) national prosperity, v. 9 (Amos 9:11-15).