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,
When all these things are come upon thee, and thou ... return ... then the Lord ... will turn thy captivity. The hopes of the Hebrew people are ardently directed to this promise, and they confidently expect that God, commiserating their forlorn and fallen condition, will yet rescue them from all the evils of their long dispersion.
They do not consider the promise as fulfilled by their restoration from the captivity in Babylon, for Israel was not then scattered in the manner here described - "among all the nations," "unto the outmost parts of heaven" (Deuteronomy 30:4); and when God recalled them from that bondage, all the Israelites were not brought back, they were not multiplied above their fathers (Deuteronomy 30:5), nor were their hearts and those of their children circumcised to love the Lord (Deuteronomy 30:6).
It is not, therefore, of the Babylonian captivity that Moses was speaking in this passage: it must be of the dispersed state which they have been doomed for 1800 years. It will be admitted by all who believe the Old Testament Scriptures that the Jewish nation are now suffering under a penal sentence of long-continued exile from their own land, which is to cease, according to this prophecy and many others (cf. Leviticus 26:40-42), when, repenting of their sins, they return to God in the appointed way.
They were expelled from (Canaan for rejecting Jesus Christ as the Prophet whom God was to raise up like unto Moses; and therefore, in returning to God, they must in the first instance acknowledge the prophetic character and office of Christ. This prediction may have been partially accomplished on the return of the Israelites from Babylon; for, according to the structure and design of Scripture prophecy, it may have pointed to several similar eras in their national history; and this view is sanctioned by the prayer of Nehemiah (Nehemiah 1:8-9).
But undoubtedly it will receive its full and complete accomplishment in the conversion of the Jews to the Gospel of Christ. At the restoration from the Babylonian captivity, that people were changed in many respects for the better. They were completely weaned from sensible idolatry; and this outward reformation was a prelude of the higher attainments they are destined to reach in the age of Messiah, 'when the Lord God will circumcise their hearts, and the hearts of their seed, to love the Lord.'
This promise, which, as the context clearly shows, belongs to the period of their recovery from their present dispersion, will, if compared with the language of Isaiah 52:1, render it evident that it is not the external badge of circumcision which is thought of, but the state of the heart symbolized by it, to which alone any value is to be attached, and which the inspired writers of the Old Testament represent as the criterion by which the true people of God are to be discerned.
So far, then, from becoming less of a true Israelite by becoming a true Christian, every converted Jew will then, for the first time, really deserve the name of Israelite, even though he should (if that were possible) divest himself of the national mark of distinction put upon him in infancy (cf. Romans 2:28-29: see 'Jewish Repository,' 3:, 1818. pp. 256).
The course pointed out seems clearly to be this: that the hearts of the Hebrew people shall be circumcised (Colossians 2:2); in other words, by the combined influences of the Word and Spirit of God, their hearts will be touched and purified from all their superstition and unbelief; they will be converted to the faith of Jesus Christ as their Messiah-a spiritual deliverer; and the effect of their conversion will be that they will return and obey the voice (the Gospel, the Evangelical law) of the Lord.
The words may be interpreted either wholly in a spiritual sense (John 11:51-52) or, as many think, in a literal sense also, (Romans 11:1-36.) They will be recalled from all places of the dispersion to their own land, and enjoy the higher prosperity. The mercies and favours of a bountiful Providence, not then being abused as formerly (Deuteronomy 31:20; Deuteronomy 32:15), will be received in a better spirit, and employed to nobler purposes. The people will be happy, "for the Lord will again rejoice over them for good, as He rejoiced over their fathers."