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C Results: eschatalogical blessings (vv. 4-5)
D Source of the fulfillment of the conditions (v. 6)
C' Results: temporal blessings (vv. 7-9)
B' Conditions for receiving temporal covenant blessings (30:10)
A' Proverbial statement on God's revelation to humans (30:11-14)
In 30:1-10, we are given a glimpse of the "secret matters" spoken of in 29:29, as the
eschatological restoration of the people of God is foretold.
Here, Moses expands upon
the prophecy of restoration in the latter days made earlier in 4:30-31, "When you are in
distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the
Lord your God and obey him. For the Lord your God is a merciful God; he will not
abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with you forefathers, which he confirmed
to them by oath." There are secret matters that belong to God concerning how he will
bring about the covenant blessings for his people. At the center of the description of the
restoration, and so the main point of the description of the "secret things," is God's action
to circumcise the hearts of his people so that they can turn to him in repentance (vv. 1-2)
and receive blessings from his hand (vv. 3-5). The conditional particle
\. in v. 1 is best
translated as "when," due to the presence of the temporal indicator
K\KZ. While this
demonstrates that restoration is sure to come about, there remains a necessary cause-
effect relationship between the people's returning to God and God's regathering of the
people. The point is not that God will regather Israel whether or not they repent; rather,
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"That which is revealed includes the law with its promises and threats; consequently, that which
is hidden can only refer to the mode in which God will carry out in the future his counsel and will, which
he has revealed in the law, and complete his work of salvation notwithstanding the apostasy of the people."
Keil and Delitzsch, The Pentateuch: Commentary on the Old Testament in Ten Volumes, Vol. 1 (Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 1976) 450.