Deuteronomy 29 Devotional
by Pastor Mark Hudson
This is not a new covenant, but a renewal of the covenant God made to form this people. As they begin the conquest, they are on the cusp of what God had promised. This is the land God is giving them. So, this book is a review of God’s gracious and mighty acts on their behalf. For all those 20 years and older, they had died as punishment for not believing that God could bring them into His land. So, some could have been alive during the exodus. Therefore, some did see “the signs, and those great wonders.”
Yet, Moses acknowledges that there is still a blindness in their hearts, eyes, and ears in v. 4. This is intriguing. They are right there, seeing and experiencing the entire process but they still don’t get it. This sounds like John’s gospel in the New Testament: the understanding and misunderstanding theme he teases out in his gospel. The disciples were often misunderstanding Christ. We need to plead with the Holy Spirit to open our minds to understand, our eyes to see what God had done in the gospel and to hear what the Spirit is saying through the Word. Only God can do that as Moses says in v. 4, “But to this day the Lord has not given you . . . .”
For forty years their clothes “have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet.” There had to be a growing awareness that this was happening. Can you imagine clothes lasting that long? (Did I just mention someone’s favorite T-shirt or coat?) Then God calls to mind the provisions along the way in v. 6. God has provided, but not in the normal fashion. In verses 7-8, Moses reminds them how they dispatched Sihon and Og, took their land and gave the Transjordan to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manassites.
In verse 10, Moses continues addressing them in covenantal terms. They are standing in a formal way as the verb implies. Moses address the leaders down to those servants who chop wood and carry water, encompassing the entire group. Moses calls to mind the patriarchs and includes those who are not here (presumably future generations). This renewal is significant since they have been forming into a people and now, they will be separated for the first time in the land God had promised them.
In v. 16ff, God warns and reminds them. They saw a lot of nasty things. We see a lot of nasty things in magazines, on the web, on t.v., movies, videos, etc. Some things you cannot unsee. This goes for those of you looking at pornography. If you haven’t started, you will never regret not starting. If you are involved, beg God to help you quit. Talk to someone to keep you accountable. This is a plague on our country. Like gambling and other vices, popular media promotes these sins. But they will tear your heart out of you.
In these verses, the idolatry is the paradigmatic sin holding down Israel. My short excursive on pornography in not unrelated though. Pagan worship often involved immorality. Often involving in intercourse with cult prostitutes, “worshippers” were hoping the fields would produce crops like they were trying to “produce” offspring. Often the gods were grotesque and the behavior associated with these “gods” debased the people. In v. 18, this turning away has an internal beginning. Sin starts in the heart, in our desires. It is hard to know what the phrase quoted in v. 19 means: “This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike.’ Does this mean that one person’s sin affected the entire group? Does it mean that God can judge sinners one by one even as they are nestled in a large group?
Lest we think God is all love and no wrath, observe the reaction God has to sin in vs. 20ff. “The anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book settle upon him . . . .” This should unsettle us. God’s anger at sin must give us pause when, or if, we laugh at sin. When a person sins, God “will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity” according to verse 27. God always reacts to sin. “What caused the heat of this great anger?” asked the nations. The anger is “kindled” against sin. There is a heat and burning when it comes to God’s wrath. His anger at sin is not a tepid, mild-mannered, somewhat detached response. He is angry.
It is sin that makes God so angry, and it is this sin and therefore punitive anger that causes them to be cast out of the land. But think of is this way. If you want your spouse to live a long time and your spouse smokes heavily, uses drugs, and drives recklessly, you are not detached or unconcerned. You are emotionally invested in that person because you love them. God desires a blessed life for us. He knows that sin is a harsh and unforgiving master. Sin robs, takes away, turns us inward, and makes us smaller, more unhappy, less satisfied, empty, and drives us away from God.
Just think if God did not care if sin robs our joy, kills our souls, ruins our future, fractures our most intimate and important relationships, and creates a widening chasm between us and His holy presence. We should be glad God is angry at sin. We should rejoice eternally (and all believers will) that Jesus Christ bore the full measure of God’s wrath on the cross. He took the eternal anger, the unrelenting wrath, the damned-up vengeance of a holy God. That will be the reason our Lord will be the center of worship and our eternal delight and reward. Just Him and Him alone will be our delight.
Lord, we admit that we are blind. We fail to recognize that You provide for us in countless ways. Yes, we have to buy shoes and clothes, but we have the funds to do just that. Cleanse our minds from the things we see and that are thrust before us. Help us to resist those harmful images, songs, movies, shows, and videos. We rightly deserve Your anger. But we know that it was Your eternal plan to send the Perfect Lamb to suffer in our place. We will join Chinese, Ukrainian, Peruvian, and Russian believers bowing before You in endless joy and gratitude for Your perfect sacrifice. What glory awaits us. In Christ’s victorious name. Amen.