CONTEXT
Part
5: Ch.26-30 Preparing to Enter Commitment Issues
Ch.
26 – First-Fruits, Tithes
& Covenant
Ch.
27 – Ceremonies of Blessing
& Cursing
Ch.28
– The Blessings & Curses
Ch.29
– Renewal of the Covenant
Ch.30
– Choices
for Now & the Future
FRAMEWORKS:
Deuteronomy 29: Renewal
of the Covenant
v.1-9
Moses Reminds the People what has happened so far
v.10-15
Moses then declares their purpose for being there at this moment
v.16-21
Moses warns about complacent idolatry
v.22,23
Judgments (these curses) will be seen by future generations
v.24-29
The World will see and understand
v.1-9
Moses Reminds the People what has happened so far
v.1
These
are the terms of the covenant the Lord
commanded
Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab, in addition to the
covenant he had made with them at Horeb.
v.2
Moses
summoned all the Israelites and said to them:
Your
eyes have seen all that the Lord
did in Egypt
to Pharaoh, to all his officials and to all his land.
v.3
With
your own eyes you saw those great trials, those signs and great
wonders.
v.4
But
to this day the Lord
has not given
you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.
v.5
Yet
the Lord says, “During the forty years that I led you through
the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals
on your feet.
v.6
You
ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink. I did
this so that you might know that I am the Lord
your God.”
v.7
When
you reached this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan
came out to fight against us, but we defeated them.
v.8 We
took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites,
the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh.
v.9
Carefully
follow the terms of this covenant, so that you may prosper in
everything you do.
[Notes:
This covenant is with a different people than the covenant
made at Sinai. All these people were under twenty back then. Their
parents all died in the desert.]
v.10-15
Moses then declares their purpose for being there at this moment
v.10
All
of you are standing today in the presence of the Lord
your God—your
leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the
other men of Israel,
v.11
together
with your children and your wives, and the foreigners living in
your camps who chop your wood and carry your water.
v.12
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,
v.13
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.
v.14
I
am making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you
v.15
who
are standing here with us today in the presence of the Lord
our God but
also with those who are not here today.
[Notes:
Moses calls all the gathered assembly to understand
what they are doing.]
v.16-21
Moses warns about complacent idolatry
v.16
You
yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through
the countries on the way here.
v.17
You
saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone,
of silver and gold.
v.18
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 those nations; make sure there is no
root among you that produces such bitter poison.
v.19
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 the dry.
v.20
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.
v.21 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.
[Notes:
Moses reminds them of the past and warns that if any
of them think they can get away with a little idolatry, they are
mistaken. God's curses will fall on them.]
v.22,23
Judgments (these curses) will be seen by future generations
v.22 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.
v.23
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.
[Notes:
Moses warns that the effects of those curses brought
on the idolaters will be seen by future generations and they will
know this present generation failed.]
v.24-29
The World will see and understand
v.24
All
the nations will ask: “Why has the Lord
done this
to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?”
v.25
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.
v.26 They
went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods
they did not know, gods he had not given them.
v.27
Therefore
the Lord's
anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the
curses written in this book.
v.28 In
furious anger and in great wrath the Lord
uprooted them
from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”
v.29
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.
[Notes:
Moses warns that not only will it be future generations
who will see their failures but the whole onlooking world will
also see and understand it was because they abandoned their covenant
with the Lord.]