*Deuteronomy 29:1-29
Moses reminds the Israelites on the plains of Moab of God’s faithfulness and calls for them to uphold the covenant.
- Renewal of the Covenant:
- Moses addresses the Israelites, reminding them of the covenant they made with the Lord at Mount Horeb (Sinai) forty years earlier.
- He recounts how they witnessed God’s mighty deeds, including His deliverance from slavery in Egypt and His provision in the wilderness.
- God’s Faithfulness and Israel’s Response:
- Moses emphasizes that despite their rebellion and disobedience, God has remained faithful to His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
- He warns the Israelites against turning away from the Lord to worship idols or foreign gods, which will result in His anger and judgment.
- Consequences of Disobedience:
- Moses warns the people that if they forsake the covenant and worship other gods, the Lord will bring upon them curses, including disease, famine, and exile.
- He describes how the land will become desolate, and neighboring nations will wonder about the cause of Israel’s calamity.
- Call to Choose Life:
- Moses urges the Israelites to choose life by obeying the commandments of the Lord and loving Him with all their heart and soul.
- He emphasizes that the covenant is not too difficult to follow and that it leads to blessings, prosperity, and a flourishing life for them and their descendants.
- Reiteration of God’s Sovereignty:
- Moses reminds the people that the Lord is the one who brought them out of Egypt with signs and wonders, and He alone is worthy of their worship and obedience.
- He underscores the seriousness of the covenant they are entering into, as it binds them to the Lord as His chosen people.
- Unknown Future and God’s Knowledge:
- Moses acknowledges that the Israelites do not know what lies ahead in the future, but assures them that the Lord knows all things.
- He encourages them to trust in God’s wisdom and guidance as they journey into the Promised Land.
Deuteronomy 29:1-29 teaches us the importance of staying faithful to God and following His ways. Moses reminded the Israelites of all that God had done for them and warned them not to turn away. This reminds us that our choices have consequences, and staying close to God leads to blessing. It encourages us to trust in God, obey His guidance, and remember that He wants the best for us when we follow Him with our whole hearts.
Deuteronomy 29:1-29 (WEB)
29:1 These are the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant which he made with them in Horeb. 2 Moses called to all Israel, and said to them:Your eyes have seen all that the LORD did in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants, and to all his land; 3 the great trials which your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. 4 But the LORD has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day. 5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not grown old on you, and your sandals have not grown old on your feet. 6 You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the LORD your God. 7 When you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, and we struck them. 8 We took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half-tribe of the Manassites. 9 Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do. 10 All of you stand today in the presence of the LORD your God: your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel, 11 your little ones, your wives, and the foreigners who are in the middle of your camps, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water, 12 that you may enter into the covenant of the LORD your God, and into his oath, which the LORD your God makes with you today, 13 that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he spoke to you and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14 Neither do I make this covenant and this oath with you only, 15 but with those who stand here with us today before the LORD our God, and also with those who are not here with us today 16 (for you know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the middle of the nations through which you passed; 17 and you have seen their abominations and their idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold, which were among them); 18 lest there should be among you man, woman, family, or tribe whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that produces bitter poison; 19 and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, “I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart,” to destroy the moist with the dry. 20 The LORD will not pardon him, but then the LORD’s anger and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and all the curse that is written in this book will fall on him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under the sky. 21 The LORD will set him apart for evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law.22 The generation to come—your children who will rise up after you, and the foreigner who will come from a far land—will say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which the LORD has made it sick, 23 that all of its land is sulfur, salt, and burning, that it is not sown, doesn’t produce, nor does any grass grow in it, like the overthrow of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath. 24 Even all the nations will say, “Why has the LORD done this to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?”25 Then men will say, “Because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, 26 and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they didn’t know and that he had not given to them. 27 Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against this land, to bring on it all the curses that are written in this book. 28 The LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and thrust them into another land, as it is today.”29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.