Chapter Twenty-Nine
Covenant Reviewed and Renewed in Moab
29:1 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.
After presenting the law (which began with Deuteronomy 4:44), Moses tells them it is time to respond and acknowledge what they heard. They needed to confirm that they understood the conditions of the covenant given to them there in Moab, as well as reconfirm the covenant presented to their parents many years earlier at Horeb (Mount Sinai).
29:2 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, 3 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 I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet. 6 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 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. 8 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 in all that you do.
Addressing all the people of Israel, Moses tells them that even though they have seen YHWH in action, seeing what He did in Egypt and the many miracles along the way, they still did not possess a heart to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear. This phrase has been interpreted in many ways, from God holding back knowledge to it being a disparaging comment (essentially calling them ignorant). However, Moses is instead referring to the importance of the covenant, which the conditions would soon be required.
Since a covenant is an agreement between two parties[1] and that this covenant is different than some they might be aware of, being conditional, it was vital for them to understand their role in that covenant. God had provided for them during the forty years in the wilderness. Their clothes and sandals did not wear, they did not need to make bread, when they encountered enemies, those enemies were defeated, God took care of them. But all that was about to change when they cross over the Jordan River into the Promised Land. If they wanted to continue receiving favor from God, they were now going to need to faithfully follow all the rules and regulations as stated in the law.
The time had come when the discussion of the law was to become the practice of the law.
29:10 “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, 11 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, 12 so that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the LORD your God, which the LORD your God is making with you today, 13 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 It is not with you alone that I am making this sworn covenant, 15 but with whoever is standing here with us today before the LORD our God, and with whoever is not here with us today.
By calling the attention of everyone, including any foreigner or servant who chops wood or draws water, Moses makes it clear that everyone must fully understand their role in keeping the covenant. The land was initially promised to Abraham (see Genesis 12:1-3) and then reiterated to Isaac (see Genesis 26:1-5) and again to Jacob (see Genesis 28:10-15) and now the promise is extended to those present in Moab and to their descendants (referred to by those who are not with them on that day). Moses is telling them that this covenant that they are about to enter with God will continue to be binding for future generations (without the need of any formal renewing process).
29:16 “You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed. 17 And you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them. 18 Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the LORD our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit,
Moses calls attention to the beliefs, lifestyles, and worship practices of those that lived in Egypt and the places they traveled through since they left Egypt. He points out that those people served inanimate idols made of wood, stone, silver, and gold, not the living and true God, YHWH. They were to be different, serving only Him. Even the remote consideration of embracing any of those detestable false gods would act like a poisonous fruit taking root in a person’s heart, causing them to slowly grow away from God.
29:19 one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. 20 The LORD will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the LORD and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven. 21 And the LORD will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.
Even for one who hears the words of the covenant and thinks they are exempt or otherwise protected from having to comply to the law, which results in disobeying God, they will not be able to keep the truth from God. Thinking like that will lead to complete ruin. The phrase, “the sweeping away of moist and dry alike,” is considered a lost idiom where the Hebrew ‘sepôṯ’[2] (translated here as “sweeping away”) refers to the process of destruction (being either scraped, swept, scooped, etc.) and the references of those that have water and those that do not essentially refers to everybody. Being self-delusional is no excuse, instead of forgiveness, YHWH will release His anger and jealousy against them, and they will be punished as described in the curses in this book. In addition, YHWH will remove their name from history, as if they never existed (see also Deuteronomy 7:24). The disobedient will be singled out from the other Israelites and receive the full punishment as described in the list of curses in the Torah.
29:22 And the next generation, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, will say, when they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the LORD has made it sick— 23 the whole land burned out with brimstone and salt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout, an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger and wrath— 24 all the nations will say, ‘Why has the LORD done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?’ 25 Then people will say, ‘It is 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 whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them. 27 Therefore the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book, 28 and the LORD uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as they are this day.’
Moses then describes life after God’s punishment for their disobedience. Their descendants and those visiting from other nations will see the devastated land, completely burned out, with nothing capable of growing, overthrown by God (Hebrew ‘mǎh·pē·ḵǎṯ’,[3] destruction, a demolishing, this is the first of five appearances in Scripture, each referring to complete destruction, see Isaiah 1:7; 13:19; Jeremiah 49:18; 50:40). In response to seeing the devastation they will ask what caused God to be so angry? The response will be because the people of Israel abandoned their covenant with YHWH, the same God that brought them out of Egypt. Instead of serving Him, they served other gods and worshiped them, bringing upon them all the curses. YHWH also removed them from the land and sent them to other nations where they would be when this question would have been asked (post-punishment, not when this was written).
29:29 “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.
While it is true that God knows all things including everybody’s thoughts, motivations, lusts, and other secrets, this statement is far more than a reference to human secrets. Moses is simply acknowledging that God understands the how and why of everything. Essentially, God has the behind-the-scenes level of understanding, which includes knowledge of the past, present, and future, things that only God can know and will not be disclosed unless He desires. However, for the things that have been revealed to them, such as the Torah, those things belong to them and their children. The object is to not waste time trying to uncover that which has not been revealed, but to observe and do according to what has already been revealed.
Considerations
The complete destruction and devastation of the Promised Land was seen by Samuel L. Clements (the popular author that wrote under the name of Mark Twain) in 1864. He wrote about his tour of the world in his book, “The Innocent Abroad,” where he described the area as being bleak and dismal. Here are a few of excerpts from his book:
We traversed some miles of desolate country whose soil is rich enough, but is given over wholly to weeds—a silent, mournful expanse....A desolation is here that not even imagination can grace with the pomp of life and action....The further we went the hotter the sun got, and the more rocky and bare, repulsive and dreary the landscape became. There could not have been more fragments of stone strewn broadcast over this part of the world, if every ten square feet of the land had been occupied by a separate and distinct stonecutter’s establishment for an age. There was hardly a tree or a shrub any where. Even the olive and the cactus, those fast friends of a worthless soil, had almost deserted the country. No landscape exists that is more tiresome to the eye than that which bounds the approaches to Jerusalem. The only difference between the roads and the surrounding country, perhaps, is that there are rather more rocks in the roads than in the surrounding country....I would not desire to live here.[4]
While the book contains Clements’ classic and very popular wit and humor, he is brutally honest regarding his observations. It is interesting to note the difference between what he saw in 1867 and the current condition of Israel today. The contrast is stunning, the people of Israel are back in the land and the land has been transformed into a thriving nation once again (see next chapter), another testimony to the fact that God always keeps His promises.
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[1] See Considerations under Genesis 9:13-17 regarding Covenants.
[2] Strong’s Hebrew 5595.
[3] Strong’s Hebrew 4114.
[4] The publication "The Innocents Abroad or The New Pilgrims' Progress" is a travel book written by Mark Twain (Samuel Clements), first published in 1869. It chronicles what Twain called his "Great Pleasure Excursion" on board the chartered vessel Quaker City through Europe and the Holy Land with a group of American travelers in 1867.