Today we'll look at the second half of Chapter 29. The congregation of Israel is standing before Moses as he restates the terms of the Lord's covenant with them. They are renewing their vows with the Lord before going into the promised land.
"Carefully follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in everything you do. All of you are standing today in the presence of the Lord your God---your leaders and chief men, you elders and officials, and all the other men of Israel, together with your children and your wives, and the foreigners living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water." (Deuteronomy 29:9-11) Everyone is assembled together: men, women, children, and foreign servants. You'll recall that when the Israelites came out of Egypt we were told that a "mixed multitude" came out with them; this is likely where the foreigners came from. Others who had been enslaved by the Egyptians may have made their escape with the Israelites. Or perhaps these were foreigners living freely in Egypt who were no longer happy with the way things were going in the nation or who decided to follow the one true God after witnessing His power in Egypt. It appears these foreigners may have offered to be the servants of the Israelites if they would take them with them out of Egypt, since we are told they are chopping wood and carrying water for the Israelites. But one and all---young and old, male and female, Israelite and foreigner---have come together to renew their covenant with the Lord.
"You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God, a covenant the Lord is making with you this day and sealing with an oath, to confirm you this day as His people, that He may be your God as He promised you and as He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I am making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you who are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord our God but also with those who are not here today." (Deuteronomy 29:12-15) "Those who are not here today" are those generations which had not yet been born when Moses spoke these words. The Lord's covenant was not only with the Israelites who lived in Moses' time but was with all the Israelites of every generation to come.
Next Moses reminds the people of the abominations of idolatry they witnessed in Egypt and in the heathen lands they've passed through on their way to the promised land. They will see all sorts of idolatrous altars and images in the promised land too, when they enter it to take possession of it. None of these so-called "gods" rescued them from slavery, provided for them in the wilderness, and gave them a land flowing with milk and honey. They are never to have anything to do with any rites or rituals involving false gods. There is only one God and He is the God of Israel: the God who performed awesome signs and wonders for them in Egypt and in the wilderness, the God who will enable them to overtake any enemy in the promised land. So they must never turn away from the Lord and turn to useless idolatry. "You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries on the way here. You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold. Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the Lord our God to go and worship the gods of these nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison." (Deuteronomy 29:16-18)
A few days ago we talked about how what matters is not simply hearing the words of the covenant. Hearing this message wasn't what made the hearts of the Israelites right with God; it was obeying the Lord's commands that made them right with Him. The Lord Jesus said this is how a person shows His love to the Lord---that he obeys the Lord's commands. (John 14:15) Jesus' brother James said a person is deceiving himself if he thinks he's okay simply because he has heard the word of the Lord. (James 1:22) Moses says the same thing to the congregation of Israel that James said to the Christian church. They must be doers of the word and not just hearers of the word. "When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing on themselves, thinking, 'I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way,' they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as on the dry." (Deuteronomy 29:19) When Moses says "such a person" he is referring to the one whose heart is filled with the "bitter poison" of verse 18. This bitter poison is a heart that rejects the Lord. This heart belongs to a person who has made himself the lord of his own life and who has decided to follow his own sinful inclinations instead of serving the holy God who loves him.
If a person persists in rejecting the Lord and has no desire to repent, he is capable of influencing others into wickedness. The Lord will judge the one who "brings disaster" as Moses referred to such wicked influence in verse 19. "The Lord will never be willing to forgive them; His wrath and zeal will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the Lord will blot out their names from under heaven. The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law." (Deuteronomy 29:20-21)
The individual who rejects the Lord his whole life long has nothing but a woeful judgment to look forward to. If the nation has a widescale turning away from the Lord, the people as a whole and the very land itself will be afflicted. "Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the Lord has afflicted it. The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur---nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger. All the nations will ask, 'Why has the Lord done this to the land? Why this fierce, burning anger?'" (Deuteronomy 29:22-24) The enormous prosperity the Lord has promised Israel in the land of Canaan is conditional upon their obedience to Him. The prosperity will be such that all the other nations will take notice, perhaps leading some to convert to the Lord. But if the people are not obedient to the Lord, there will be disaster instead of success. The nations will take note of this too and ask, "Why has the Lord done this to His people and to their land?"
"And the answer will be: 'It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, the covenant He made with them when He brought them out of Egypt. They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods He had not given them. Therefore the Lord's anger burned against this land, so that He brought on it all the curses written in this book. In furious anger and in great wrath the Lord uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.'" (Deuteronomy 29:25-28) Even if the Lord pours out His wrath on Israel, this is a sign to the other nations that He is real and that He is holy. Everything the Lord does is a testimony to His righteousness and power. The fear of Him may come upon the citizens of some of the other nations when they witness how He judges sin and some of these people may find their way to Him.
The Lord doesn't tell human beings everything we want to know but He tells us everything we need to know. We wouldn't understand everything about Him or everything about His plans even if He tried to explain these things to us. But He has told us enough for us to see that He is holy and righteous and good. He has told us enough to know that He expects holy living from us. He has told us enough to know that, if we falter and fail from time to time, we can repent and be restored by His mercy. Moses concludes our chapter by reminding the Israelites that the Lord gave them the law so they and the generations to come could follow it. "The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law." (Deuteronomy 29:29)
Tomorrow Moses will speak of the willingness of the Lord to forgive anyone who fails to fully keep the law (and no one can perfectly keep it because no one is perfect) when the person repents of his mistake.
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