Day 505: An agreement with God – Deuteronomy 29 vs 1 -15
1-3 These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb. And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. 4 But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. 5-6 I have led you for forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet. You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. 7-8 And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them. We took their land and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites. 9 Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper (and deal wisely) in all that you do.
10-13 You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God: the heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your camp - from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water - so that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God is making with you today, that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14-15 It is not with you alone that I am making this sworn covenant, but with whoever is standing here with us today before the Lord our God, and with whoever is not here with us today. Deuteronomy 29:1-15 English Standard Version
A covenant is essentially a strong agreement that someone enters into with another person and involves obligations. God made a covenant with Noah to never destroy the earth again by means of a flood and the rainbow became the sign and reminder of that covenant. God also made a covenant with Abram (who became Abraham) in which He promised to bring Abraham's descendants into the land where Moses and the Israelites had now arrived. In our reading today God re-establishes the covenant He made with Israel nearly 40 years earlier in their journey from Egypt. Who was this covenant intended for? (vs 10-15)
It was for all the Israelites He had rescued out of Egypt as well as any people of the land who had joined the Israelites. (Perhaps a hint of how gentiles would be added through the gospel.) It was also for those who would come in later generations. There are promises of God which extend to the end of time. A wonderful example of this are the apostle Peter's words in Acts 2:38-39 where he said: “Repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins, and you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. For the promise is for you and for your children and for all who are far off, everyone whom the Lord our God calls to himself.”
For God's part of the covenant with Israel Moses said: “If you faithfully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all His commands I am giving you today, the Lord your God will put you far above all the nations of the earth.” (Deuteronomy 28:1-2) Their part was to “carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and to revere this glorious and awesome name - the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 28:58) What was the sad part of that day and the vital lesson for them and for us? (vs 4)
Despite having seen God's mighty power through the plagues in Egypt (vs 1-3), and the miraculous way He had led and provided for them for forty years in the wilderness, and given victory over strong enemies (vs 5-9), they were still spiritually blind to His glory. They needed to call upon God to open the eyes of their hearts to see how awesome He is, and how great His salvation is. That's still true today. We mustn't just read the words of the Bible – we must ask the Lord to enable us to see how incapable we are of keeping His laws in our strength, and to see the perfectness of Jesus and the sacrifice He made for sins. That's how men and women come to enter into God's covenant of salvation.