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<h2><a onclick="return mV('Deu',29,'1-');">Deu 29</a> - Renewal of the Covenant</h2>
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<p>A. God’s mighty works for Israel.</p>
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<p class="c1">1. (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',29,1);">1</a>) <span>The</span> covenant <b><span class="c3">in the land of Moab</span></b>.</p>
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<p class="c2">These <i>are </i>the words of the covenant which the <span class="c6">Lord</span> commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb.</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">These are the words of the covenant</span></b>: Some 40 years before this, at <b><span class="c3">Horeb</span></b> (Mount Sinai), Israel made a covenant with God: <i>Then he took the Book of the Covenant and read in the hearing of the people. And they said, “All that the <span class="c6">Lord</span> has said we will do, and be obedient.” And Moses took the blood, sprinkled it on the people, and said, “This is the blood of the covenant which the <span class="c6">Lord</span> has made with you according to all these words.”</i> (<a onclick="return mV('Exd',24,'7-8');">Exd 24:7-8</a>)</p>
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<p class="c4"><span>b</span>. <b><span class="c3">Besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb</span></b>: 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, now it was an opportunity for the generation of faith. So, Moses will reconfirm the covenant with the new generation.</p>
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<p class="c1">2. (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',29,'2-4');">2-4</a>) Israel saw wonders, but did not see them.</p>
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<p class="c2">Now Moses called all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the <span class="c6">Lord</span> 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 <span class="c6">Lord</span> has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this <i>very </i>day.</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">You have seen all that the <span class="c6">Lord</span> before your eyes</span></b>: Israel saw <b><span class="c3">great wonders</span></b> from the hand of God since coming from Egypt. They saw the plagues, they saw the death of the firstborn, they saw the Red Sea parted, they saw the Egyptian armies destroyed, they saw victories won by prayer, they ate the manna, they drank the miraculously provided water, and they saw miracle after miracle.</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">Yet the <span class="c6">Lord</span> has not given you a heart to perceive</span></b>: The miracles in and of themselves could 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.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. Some people today think the greatest help to evangelism would be to see more miraculous events. After all, who could <i>not</i> believe in the face of such displays of spiritual power? But seeing <b><span class="c3">great wonders</span></b> accomplishes nothing apart from a supernatural work of God in someone’s heart.</p>
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<p class="c1">3. (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',29,'5-9');">5-9</a>) God’s great works for Israel in the wilderness.</p>
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<p class="c2">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 <i>similar </i>drink, that you may know that I <i>am </i>the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God. And when you came to this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and <span>Og</span> 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.</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">And I have led you forty years in the wilderness</span></b>: During their forty years <b><span class="c3">in the wilderness</span></b>, their <b><span class="c3">clothes</span></b> did not wear our, their <b><span class="c3">sandals</span></b> did not wear out, and though they had no <b><span class="c3">bread</span></b> to eat or <b><span class="c3">wine</span></b> to drink, their needs were provided for. Israel <b><span class="c3">conquered</span></b> over their enemies, and they <b><span class="c3">took their land</span></b>.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. Plainly, these are remarkable miracles. Clothes and sandals simply do not last 40 years of hard marching in the wilderness apart from a miracle. 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 nations and take their land apart from a miracle.</p>
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<p class="c5">ii. Each of these <i>great wonders</i> (each proof in <span>themselves</span> of God’s power and love for Israel) has a spiritual counterpart in our lives. </p><ul class="c6"><li>In the wilderness of this world, God provides <i>clothes</i> for us (<a onclick="return mV('Rev',3,18);">Rev 3:18</a>)</li><li>He gives us <i>shoes</i> (<a onclick="return mV('Eph',6,15);">Eph 6:15</a>)</li><li>He gives us bread and wine to drink (<a onclick="return mV('1Cr',11,'23-26');">1Cr 11:23-26</a>)</li><li>In Him we <i>conquer</i> our enemies (<a onclick="return mV('Rom',8,37);">Rom 8:37</a>)</li><li>We can take the <i>land</i> of our spiritual enemies (<a onclick="return mV('2Cr',10,'4-5');">2Cr 10:4-5</a>)</li></ul>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">Therefore keep the words of this covenant</span></b>: Seeing these great works of God, there is one logical response. Knowing the greatness of God’s love and power should make Israel more committed than ever to His covenant.</p>
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<p>B. Renewing the covenant.</p>
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<p class="c1">1. (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',29,'10-15');">10-15</a>) <span>The</span> parties to the covenant.</p>
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<p class="c2">All of you stand today before the <span class="c6">Lord</span> 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 <i>is </i>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 <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God, and into His oath, which the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God makes with you today, that He may establish you today as a people for Himself, and <i>that </i>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 <i>him </i>who stands here with us today before the <span class="c6">Lord</span> our God, as well as with <i>him </i>who <i>is </i>not here with us today</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">All of you stand today before the <span class="c6">Lord</span> your God</span></b>: This meas that the covenant was made with the entire nation. This included the leaders, the men, the women, the children, and even the servants.</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">That He may establish you today as a people for Himself</span></b>: All of Israel was included in God’s desire to <b><span class="c3">enter into covenant</span></b>, to be the <b><span class="c3">people for <span>Himself</span></span></b>. 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 <b><span class="c3">people for <span>Himself</span></span></b>.</p>
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<p class="c4"><span>c</span>. <b><span class="c3">As well as with him who is not here with us today</span></b>: But the covenant extended beyond those who stood before the <span class="c6">Lord</span> and Moses on that day. It also included <b><span class="c3">him who is not with us here today</span></b>. The descendants of this nation assembled before the <span class="c6">Lord</span> and Moses were also included in the covenant.</p>
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<p class="c5">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)</p>
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<p class="c1">2. (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',29,'16-20');">16-20</a>) <span>The</span> promise of judgment against the covenant-breaker.</p>
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<p class="c2">(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 <i>were </i>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 <span class="c6">Lord</span> our God, to go <i>and </i>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 <span class="c6">Lord</span> would not spare him; for then the anger of the <span class="c6">Lord</span> and His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the <span class="c6">Lord</span> would blot out his name from under heaven.</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">You saw their abominations and their idols which were among them</span></b>: Israel had seen the <b><span class="c3">abominations and . . . idols</span></b> of their pagan neighbors. God promised that anyone who <b><span class="c3">turns away from the <span class="c6">Lord</span> our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations</span></b>, should never presume on a sense of peace in his heart.</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">He blesses himself in his heart, saying “I have peace”</span></b>: Perhaps <span>one</span> who has turned from the <span class="c6">Lord</span> and to idols hears the curses against the covenant-breaker, yet thinks he has escaped any penalty. So, <b><span class="c3">he blesses himself in his heart, saying “I have peace.”</span></b> He may have an immediate sense of peace at the moment, but it is the peace of the blind, the peace of the ignorant, <span>who</span> cannot see the peril of coming judgment.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. A rank sinner 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, most 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.</p>
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<p class="c5"><span>ii</span>. <b><span class="c3">As though the drunkard could be included with the sober</span></b>: The <b><span class="c3">drunkard</span></b> may be happy when he is drunk, but his happiness is based on a illusion. God warns against including the peace of the righteous with the peace the wicked might seem to have.</p>
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<p class="c4">c. <b><span class="c3">The <span class="c6">Lord</span> would not spare him</span></b>: This truth is plain<i> “There is no peace,” says the <span class="c6">Lord</span>, “for the wicked.”</i> (<a onclick="return mV('Isa',48,22);">Isa 48:22</a>) The score may be settled on either side of eternity, but it will be settled. No one can forsake the <span class="c6">Lord</span> and escape the consequences.</p>
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<p class="c1">3. (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',29,'21-28');">21-28</a>) <span>The</span> purpose for judgment against the covenant-breaker.</p>
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<p class="c2">And the <span class="c6">Lord</span> 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 <span class="c6">Lord</span> has laid on it: “The whole land <i>is </i>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 <span class="c6">Lord</span> overthrew in His anger and His wrath.” All nations would say, “Why has the <span class="c6">Lord</span> done so to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?” Then <i>people </i>would say: “Because they have forsaken the covenant of the <span class="c6">Lord</span> 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 <span class="c6">Lord</span> was aroused against this land, to bring on it every curse that is written in this book. And the <span class="c6">Lord</span> uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as <i>it is </i>this day.”</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">And the <span class="c6">Lord</span> would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity</span></b>: There is an obvious reason to punish the covenant-breaker for his own sake. But God has a purpose beyond the reason of individual covenant.</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">So that the coming generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land</span></b>: God’s purpose in bringing judgment against a covenant-breaking Israel was also for the sake of <b><span class="c3">the coming generation of your children . . . and the foreigner</span></b>. When they see the devastation that comes from breaking God’s covenant, when they see what happens to the land <b><span class="c3">which the <span class="c6">Lord</span> overthrew in His anger and wrath</span></b>, they will be warned to obedience.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. We can also learn from the calamity that comes on the lives of others when they break God’s covenant. We can learn that the price of disobedience is not worth it. We can learn that the commands of God are good, and protective in our lives.</p>
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<p class="c4">c. <b><span class="c3">All nations would say</span></b>: God’s purpose in bringing judgment against a covenant-breaking Israel was also for the sake of <b><span class="c3">all nations</span></b>. When they see what happens to a nation who forsakes the <span class="c6">Lord</span>, they will be warned to obedience.</p>
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<p class="c1">4. (<a onclick="return mV('Deu',29,29);">29</a>) God’s revelation to Israel.</p>
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<p class="c2">The secret <i>things belong </i>to the <span class="c6">Lord</span> our God, but those <i>things which are </i>revealed <i>belong </i>to us and to our children forever, that <i>we </i>may do all the words of this law.</p>
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<p class="c4">a. <b><span class="c3">The secret things belong to the <span class="c6">Lord</span> our God</span></b>: In the midst of this encouragement to obedience, Moses pauses to give a principle of how God speaks to us. First, God never declares <i>everything</i> to man<span>:.</span> There are secrets God has, and will always have. He has the right to have secrets, because He is God.</p>
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<p class="c5">i. God is bigger and smarter than us and always will be. We must simply accept this. <i>“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways <span>My</span> ways,” says the <span class="c6">Lord</span>. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are <span>My</span> ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” </i>(<a onclick="return mV('Isa',55,'8-9');">Isa 55:8-9</a>)</p>
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<p class="c4">b. <b><span class="c3">Those things which are revealed</span></b>: Second, God does reveal <i>some</i> things to man. Since God is there, and <i>He is not silent</i>, we must do all we can to pay close attention to Him.</p>
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<p class="c4">c. <b><span class="c3">Those things which are revealed belong to us</span></b>: Third, God’s revelation is meant to <i>say</i> something to us. God did not speak just to blow our minds or to amuse us; there is a message which <i>belongs</i> to us. While we cannot perfectly understand God’s revelation, it is perfectly understandable.</p>
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<p class="c4"><span>d</span>. <b><span class="c3">To us and to our children</span></b>: Fourth, God’s revelation is <i>trans-generational</i>. Yes, God had a specific message for Moses’ generation, but the message goes beyond its original audience to speak to all generations which follow.</p>
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<p class="c4"><span>e</span>. <b><span class="c3">To us and our children forever</span></b>: Fifth, God’s revelation is <i>eternal</i>. His word not only lasts <b><span class="c3">forever</span></b>, it is <b><span class="c3">forever</span></b> relevant. God’s word is more relevant than any new fad or interest which might sweep through the world or the church.</p>
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<p class="c4">g. <b><span class="c3">That we may do all the words of this law</span></b>: Finally, God’s revelation must <i>matter</i> to us. He has not spoken to us merely to satisfy our curiosity about spiritual things. He has spoken to us to affect the way we <i>live</i>. If we are only hearers of the word, and not doers also, then we have not really received His word.</p>
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