Deuteronomy 29 – Renewal of the Covenant

A. God’s mighty works for Israel.

1. (1) The covenant in the land of Moab.

These are the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb.

a. These are the words of the covenant: Some 40 years before this, at Horeb (Mount Sinai), Israel made a covenant with God (Exodus 24:7-8). This is a re-stating and re-affirmation of that covenant.

i. In using the vocabulary of covenant, the idea to make a covenant here is literally “to cut” a covenant. Genesis 15:9-11 is an example of an ancient covenant that was made by cutting sacrificial animals in half (normally, at the spine) and the two parties reciting the terms of the covenant as they stood or walked between the animal parts. That idea remained to the time of Moses in the concept of “cutting” a covenant.

ii. “The victim is separated exactly into two equal parts, the separation being in the direction of the spine; and these parts are laid opposite to each other, sufficient room being allowed for the contracting parties to pass between them.” (Clarke)

b. Besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb: For the most part, the people who had the blood of the covenant sprinkled upon them had died in the wilderness. The generation of unbelief had died, and the covenant must be renewed with the generation that would enter and conquer Canaan.

2. (2-4) Israel saw wonders, but they did not see them.

Now Moses called all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land—the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders. Yet the LORD has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day.

a. You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes: Israel saw great wonders from the hand of God since departing Egypt. They saw the plagues, the death of the firstborn, the Red Sea parted, the Egyptian armies destroyed, and victories won by prayer. Israel ate the manna, drank the miraculously provided water, and Israel saw and received miracle after miracle.

b. Yet the LORD has not given you a heart to perceive: The miracles in and of themselves did not accomplish anything in the heart of Israel. If God did not send His Spirit to change their hearts, then the greatest wonder imaginable would not make a difference.

i. Some people today think the greatest help to evangelism would be to see more miraculous events. After all, who could not believe in the face of such displays of spiritual power? But seeing great wonders accomplishes nothing without a supernatural work of God in someone’s heart.

ii. “They needed the enlightenment that Yahweh could give but which, by reason of their disobedience, He had not given to them. Such blindness on the part of those who reject God’s revelation is not uncommon. Men may hear but not understand, because of a hardness of heart.” (Thompson)

iii. “There was not a lamb slaughtered, nor a lamp kindled, nor a handful of incense burned on the altar, nor a curtain folded up, nor a silver socket set in its place without some moral and spiritual significance. Had they desired to learn it, they might have discovered in the tabernacle in the wilderness great store of teachings as to those things which make for the peace and salvation of men: but they had no heart to perceive, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear; and so the whole apparatus of teaching was lost upon them.” (Spurgeon)

iv. Spurgeon suggested three reasons why Israel – and those since them – were blind to God’s truth.

· They never recognized their own blindness, thinking they could see.

· They never asked God for a heart to perceive.

· They resisted the little light that they had.

v. “Paul quoted this very text to speak of the hardness and blindness of his fellow Jews (Rom 11:8).” (Kalland)

3. (5-9) God’s great works for Israel in the wilderness.

And I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet. You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or similar drink, that you may know that I am the LORD your God. And when you came to this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us to battle, and we conquered them. We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh. Therefore keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.

a. And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: During their forty years through the wilderness, their clothes did not wear out, their sandals did not wear out, and though they had no bread to eat or wine to drink, their needs were provided for. Israel conquered over their enemies, and they took their land.

i. “The best situation possible for the people was their commitment to the Lord as God. No higher and more satisfactory state was conceivable than that of obedient Israel under the covenant-treaty with the Lord.” (Merrill)

ii. Plainly, these were remarkable miracles. Clothing and sandals simply do not last 40 years of hard marching in the wilderness apart from a miracle (Deuteronomy 8:4). The wilderness does not provide enough food and water to meet the needs of some two million people apart from a miracle. A nation of slaves for 400 years does not conquer standing kingdoms and take their land apart from a miracle.

iii. These great wonders were proof in themselves of God’s power and love for Israel. Each of them has a spiritual counterpart in the life of the believer.

· God provides clothing for His people in a spiritual sense (Revelation 3:18).

· God gives His people shoes (Ephesians 6:15).

· God gives believers bread to eat and wine to drink (1 Corinthians 11:23-26).

· God enables His people to conquer their enemies by the power of Jesus (Romans 8:37).

· God makes it possible for His people to take the land of their spiritual enemies (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

b. That you may know that I am the LORD your God: By all the miraculous works God did for Israel, Yahweh gave them every reason to know that He alone was God, and none other.

i. “This could not have been done by Israel alone but only as Yahweh the Warrior led his people to conquest and occupation. From beginning to end, Israel’s covenant history had been a record of miracle.” (Merrill)

c. Therefore keep the words of this covenant: Seeing these great works of God, there is one logical response. Knowing the greatness of God’s love and power should have made Israel more committed than ever to God’s covenant.

B. Renewing the covenant.

1. (10-15) The parties to the covenant.

“All of you stand today before the LORD your God: your leaders and your tribes and your elders and your officers, all the men of Israel, your little ones and your wives—also the stranger who is in your camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water—that you may enter into covenant with the LORD your God, and into His oath, which the LORD your God makes with you today, that He may establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He may be God to you, just as He has spoken to you, and just as He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

“I make this covenant and this oath, not with you alone, but with him who stands here with us today before the LORD our God, as well as with him who is not here with us today.

a. All of you stand today before the LORD your God: This means that the covenant was made with all of Israel. This included the leaders, the men, the women, the children, servants, and the stranger (foreigner) who had joined themselves to Israel.

i. This was a national covenant Israel made with God. The nation of Israel was largely defined by ethnicity, being the genetic descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It was not exclusively defined by ethnicity – foreigners were allowed to forsake all their pagan gods and surrender to the covenant and law of Israel – but it was mainly defined by ethnicity.

ii. “His appeal was to all classes of the community—to the rulers, the people, men, women, children, and also to the servants. There was to be no escape and no excuse.” (Morgan)

iii. This was not a covenant that made individuals righteous before God. That righteousness was and is received by faith (Genesis 15:6). Individuals among Israel who learned of their need and saw God’s provision foreshadowed in the sacrifices, ceremonies, and priesthood of Israel, trusting in God’s provision, these were accounted righteous. The Mosaic Covenant (or, old covenant) was not a covenant that brought salvation, but through which God worked in and through Israel, furthering His great plan of the ages.

iv. The phrase, that you may enter into covenant is another example of the idea that covenant was made, in times before this, by walking through or standing between divided sacrificial animals. Clarke says that enter into here is “to pass through, that is, between the separated parts of the covenant sacrifice.”

v. And into His oath: “The text reads literally ‘for your crossing over into the covenant of Yahweh your God and into his curse’. The noun ‘curse’ refers to the curses of the covenant. When one enters a covenant he places himself in the position where the curses will fall upon him if he violates the covenant obligations.” (Thompson)

b. That He may establish you today as a people for Himself: All of Israel was included in God’s desire to enter into covenant, to be the people for Himself. He wasn’t just looking for a few prominent and talented people, or for just one spiritual tribe like the Levites. God wanted the whole nation to be this people for Himself.

c. As well as with him who is not here with us today: The covenant extended beyond those who stood before the LORD and Moses on that day. It also included the one who was not with Moses and Israel that day (today). The descendants of those assembled before the LORD and Moses were also included in the covenant.

i. “The covenant demand is here extended to those who were yet to be born. Future generations were one with that early Israel who took the oath at Sinai.” (Thompson)

2. (16-20) The promise of judgment against the covenant-breaker.

(For you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the nations which you passed by, and you saw their abominations and their idols which were among them—wood and stone and silver and gold); so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood; and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart’—as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.

“The LORD would not spare him; for then the anger of the LORD and His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the LORD would blot out his name from under heaven.

a. You saw their abominations and their idols which were among them: Israel had seen the abominations and idols of their pagan neighbors. God promised that anyone who turns away from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, should never presume on a sense of peace in his heart.

i. The root of bitterness or wormwood here is connected with compromise, idolatry, and resentment against God’s nature as a jealous God who demands to be exclusively worshipped. This bitterness leads people to reject God yet remain confident that they will have peace.

ii. “Idolatry is here described as a plant which takes root and issues in a harvest of poison weed and wormwood.” (Thompson)

b. He blesses himself in his heart, saying “I shall have peace”: Perhaps one who has turned from the LORD to idols hears the curses against the covenant-breaker, yet thinks he has escaped any penalty. He considers himself blessed and as having peace, God’s shalom. Such a one may have an immediate sense of peace at the moment, but it is the peace of the blind, the peace of the ignorant, who cannot see the peril of coming judgment.

i. A compromiser or idolater may feel confident in his own heart, having a marvelous sense of “peace.” But this peace is an illusion. It is the peace of the blind, of the unknowing. If a bomb is on a plane, almost everyone on the plane is at peace the moment before the bomb explodes – but their peace is based on their ignorance. In the same way, a sinner may be completely untroubled in his heart, but this is only because he is blind.

ii. “So man’s foolish heart reasons. He hears the curse pronounced against sin; he knows that the man who turns from God is threatened with gall and wormwood, and yet he persists in his evil ways, secretly blessing himself, and laying the flattering unction to his heart that he at least will come off scot-free.” (Meyer)

iii. As though the drunkard could be included with the sober: The drunkard may be happy when he is drunk, but his happiness is based on an illusion. God warns against equating the peace of the righteous with the peace the wicked might seem to have.

c. The LORD would not spare him: God says simply that there is no peace for the wicked (Isaiah 48:22). Justice may come on either side of eternity, but it will come. No one can forsake the LORD and escape the consequences.

i. “If sin were in the long run pleasurable, and really produced advantage to man, it would be a very strange arrangement in the divine economy. The Judge of all the earth must do right, but would it be right that sinning should be rewarded with blessedness?” (Spurgeon)

ii. For those in Christ and under the new covenant, Jesus Christ is in their place as the one whom the LORD would not spare. He was a substitute, dying in the place of guilty sinners (2 Corinthians 5:21).

3. (21-28) The purpose for judgment against the covenant-breaker.

And the LORD would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of the Law, so that the coming generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the LORD has laid on it:

‘The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in His anger and His wrath.’ All nations would say, ‘Why has the LORD done so to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?’ Then people would say: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt; for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they did not know and that He had not given to them. Then the anger of the LORD was aroused against this land, to bring on it every curse that is written in this book. And the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.’

a. The LORD would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity: There is an evident reason to punish the covenant-breaker for his own sake. But God has a purpose beyond the individual; God wants His dealing with the covenant-breaker to be a lesson to all Israel.

b. So that the coming generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land: God’s purpose in bringing judgment against a covenant-breaking Israel was also for the sake of the coming generation of your children and the foreigner. When they saw the devastation that came from breaking God’s covenant, when they saw what happened to the land which the LORD overthrew in His anger and His wrath, they would be warned and directed to obedience.

i. An example of God’s judgment that should be learned from is what He did against Sodom and Gomorrah. As God devastated the land of those wicked cities in His judgment, so the land of a disobedient, covenant-breaking Israel would also be devastated.

ii. People today may also learn from the calamity that comes on the lives of others when they break God’s covenant. The price of disobedience is not worth it. The commands of God are good and protect us.

c. All nations would say: God’s purpose in bringing judgment against a covenant-breaking Israel was also for the sake of all nations. When they saw what happens to a people who had received so much blessing from God, and yet who forsook the LORD, they would be warned and directed to obedience.

i. “Nothing could be more ironic than for the land of Canaan, a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’…to become one divested of any sign of fertility and productivity. In the face of such incredible reversal of blessing to curse, the nations in the day of wrath would ask in amazement why the Lord had done such things.” (Merrill)

4. (29) God’s revelation to Israel.

“The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

a. The secret things belong to the LORD our God: Amid this encouragement to obedience, Moses paused to declare a principle of how God speaks. First, God never declares everything to man. There are things God keeps secret to Himself.

i. God is greater and wiser than man and always will be, and this must be accepted. “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” (Isaiah 55:8-9)

ii. “To the mind of man, in all life there are secret things, things veiled, things which cannot be explained. These things are not veiled to God. He knows them.” (Morgan)

b. Those things which are revealed: Second, God does reveal some things to humanity. Because God exists and He has spoken, we must do all we can to pay close attention to Him.

c. Those things which are revealed belong to us: Third, God’s revelation is meant to say something to us. God did not speak just to amaze or amuse mankind. There is a message which belongs to man. While we cannot perfectly understand God’s revelation, in the main it can be comprehended and understood.

d. To us and to our children: Fourth, God’s revelation is trans-generational. God had a specific message for Moses’ generation, but the message went beyond its original audience to speak to all generations which follow.

i. To us and to our children: According to Clarke, the Jews considered these words to be of such importance that they were specially marked in many Jewish scrolls or manuscripts.

e. To us and our children forever: Fifth, God’s revelation is eternal. His word not only lasts forever, but it is also forever relevant. God’s word is more relevant than any new fad or interest which might sweep through the world or the church.

f. That we may do all the words of this law: Finally, God’s revelation should matter to humanity. He has not spoken merely to satisfy man’s curiosity about spiritual things. God has spoken to impact the way men and women live. Those who are hearers only of God’s word, without also being doers, have not really received God’s word.

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