The Covenant Renewed in Moab

Continuing a chronological Bible study:

(Deuteronomy 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, besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb.

In the last chapter, Moses had recited a list of blessings that would be bestowed upon the people if they adhered to their covenant with the Lord and obeyed His commandments and statutes, as well as an extensive list of all the curses that would come upon them if they disobeyed and did not follow His commandments.  Now Moses began the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded he make to the Israelites there in the land of Moab, which were in addition to the covenant God had made with them forty years earlier.

(2) And Moses called to all Israel and said to them, "You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharoah and to all his servants and to all his land, (3) The great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles."

Moses called out to all the people of Israel and reminded them of all the things the Lord had done in Egypt to Pharoah, his servants, and all his land.  He reminded them of all the trials, or plagues which tried the Egyptians, and all the signs and great miracles they had observed in Egypt.

(4) "Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear to this day."

As it had been forty years since the exodus from Egypt, most of the people had been young and not yet able to fully understand the significance of all that God had done in Egypt.

(5) "And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out upon you and your shoe has not worn out on your foot."

Moses reminded them of how he had led them in the wilderness for forty years, yet their clothes and shoes had not worn out during that time.

(6) "You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink, that you might know that I am the Lord your God."

Moses, under inspiration of the Lord, reminded them they had had no food or wine in the wilderness, yet the Lord had sustained them with manna and water, that they would know that their provisions came from the Lord alone, and He was willing to supply all their needs.

(7) "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."

Moses also reminded them about how when they had come to that place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan had come out against them, yet the Lord had led them to victory over them.

(8) "And we took their land and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites and to the Gadites and to the half tribe of Manasseh."

The people had taken the land of the conquered kings and had given it to the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and half tribe of Manasseh.  Thus the Lord had begun giving their inheritance to them.

(9) "Keep therefore the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do."

Because God had done so many good things for them, Moses told the people they must keep up their end of their covenant with God and do all He commanded them so that they might prosper in all things.

(10) "You stand this day all of you before the Lord your God, your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel, (11) Your little ones, your wives, and your stranger that is in your camp, from the cutter of your wood to the drawer of your water, (12) That you should enter into covenant with the Lord your God, and into His oath, which the Lord your God makes with you this day."

Moses stated that as they all stood before the Lord that day, all of them from captains and elders to all men, and to their wives and children and to the strangers among them to the lowest servant among them, should all enter into covenant with their Lord God, confirmed with a solemn oath.

(13) "That He may establish you today for a people to Himself, and He may be to you a God, as He has said to you, and as He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."

By entering into that covenant with their Lord God, they would be His special people, and He would be their only true God, as He had previously said to them, and as he had sworn to their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

(14) "Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath, (15) But with him who stands here with us this day before the Lord our God and also with him who is not here with us this day, (16) (For you know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt and how we came through the nations which you passed by, (17) And you have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among you)."

Through Moses, the Lord told His people that He had not made this covenant to them alone, those who had come out of Egypt and witnessed the abominations and idols of the various nations they had come through and had entered into covenant with Him forty years prior, but to all the new generation of people who had come since then, and to all who would come after them.  Dare I say, even to us this day?  If we would only agree to that covenant with God and with Jesus, that He is our only God, and follow His commandments, we could expect all the blessings that He gave His children as we have been grafted into that special vine of people (Romans 11:17).

(18) "Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turns away this day from the Lord our God to go serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood; (19) And it come to pass, 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 imagination of my heart to add drunkenness to thirst;' (20) The Lord will not spare him, but then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy shall burn against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the Lord shall blot out his name from under heaven."

This is a continuation from verses 12 to 15 before his parenthetical statement in verses 16 and 17, about the covenant that all the people should enter into, lest any among them, whether it be man or woman or entire family or even entire tribe, might turn away from their Lord God to serve the gods of those pagan nations they had seen; lest there be one among the people with a bitter heart that bore bitter fruit, and it should come to pass that when he heard of the curses that should come upon him should he not obey the Lord, he would inwardly pronounce himself blessed and secure from the curses of the law.  He would believe that he would have peace and prosperity even though he walked according to his own lusts and desires, adding drunkenness to thirst, meaning as a drunk cannot be satisfied with just one drink, so this man will continually thirst after and partake of more and more wickedness.  The Lord will not spare this man or woman, regardless of what they think of themselves, for as stated before, the Lord will not be mocked, and His anger and jealousy will burn against that person.  Jealousy, in the sense of the Lord, does not refer to envy, but rather passionate zeal to care for His people and have them be His people and not fall under the fatal spell of another.  All the curses written in this book would lie upon that person and his name would be blotted out from under heaven, from the Book of Life, unable to have everlasting life in heaven.  Once again, dare I suggest that this applies to us today?  To those churches and people who think God would understand that times are different now?

(21) "And the Lord shall separate him to evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law."

The Lord will separate such a person (v. 18-20) to his evil punishment out of all the tribes of Israel.  He will be separated and made an example of by all the curses that will come upon him.

(22) "So that the generation to come of your children who shall rise up after you and the stranger who shall come from a far land shall say, when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the Lord has laid upon it, (23) The whole land brimstone, and salt, burning, it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor any grass grows there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and in His wrath;"

The curses that came upon such a person or tribe would be so devastating that for generations to come, their descendants and strangers who might come from a faraway land, would still see the evidence of the plagues and sicknesses the Lord laid upon that land, that it was barren, brimstone and salt, burning, like Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboim which the Lord had overthrown in His righteous anger.  Upon seeing such a sight, those people would say what follows.

(24) "Even all nations shall say, 'Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why the heat of this great anger?'"

Not only future generations and the strangers who came into the land, but all nations would ask why the Lord had done so to the land and why He was so angry.

(25) "Then men shall 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, (26) For they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they did not know and He had not given to them, (27) And the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book, (28) And the Lord rooted them out of their land in anger and in wrath and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as this day.'"

The people who knew the history of what happened to that land would answer that it was because the people there had forsaken the covenant their Lord God had made with them when He brought them out of Egypt.  They had forsaken Him and served other false gods, and the Lord's righteous anger and indignation brought all the curses that had been forewarned in His book of laws.  The Lord removed them out of that land and had cast them into another land as it remained that day.  It was the consequence of forsaking their covenant with the Lord that had been forewarned by Him, but they had not believed Him and had turned away from Him.

(29) "The secret things belong to the Lord, but those things revealed belong to us and to our children forever that we may do all the words of this law."

Moses concluded with an admonition that there were many things that the people did not and would not know concerning the sovereign Lord and His actions.  However, the things He had revealed to them and to their posterity forever in His book, the things He had commanded them to do, completely outlined for them, those things they should do.  They had all they needed, as we do in His Bible, to follow Him and live according to His commandments.  Though we may not have all the answers, we have enough so that we are without excuse.