Commitment to the Covenant

Deuteronomy Chapter 29

Moses calls for commitment to the covenant that the Israelite's ancestors made with God. He tells them they have seen everything the Lord did in Egypt, to the Pharaoh, his family and the whole country including miraculous signs and wonders. But the Lord, he said, has not given you minds that understand, nor eyes that see, nor ears that hear. Forty years, I led you through the wilderness, your clothes and sandals did not wear out. You had no bread or wine but God gave you food. When we came to this place, two kings and their men came to fight us, but we defeated them. We took their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh as their inheritance.

Therefore, Moses said, obey the terms of this covenant so you will prosper in everything you do.You are all standing before me with your leaders,judges, officers, little ones, wives, foreigners living among you. You are all standing here to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God. He makes this covenant with you and has sealed it with an oath. He wants to confirm you today as his people and to confirm that he is your God, just as he promised you and swore to your ancestors. But you are not the only ones the Lord is making this covenant with, the Lord also makes it with you who stand in his presence today and also with all future generations of Israel.

Surely you remember, said Moses, how we lived in the land of Egypt and traveled through the lands of enemy nations as we left. You have seen their detestable idols. The Lord made this covenant with you so that no man,woman,family or tribe would turn away from the Lord to worship these gods of other nations, and so no root among you would bear bitter and poisonous fruit. Don't think yourselves immune because you are walking in your own stubborn way and think you are safe. The Lord will not pardon such people, his anger and jealousy will burn against them. All curses in this book will come down and the Lord will erase their names from under heaven. He will separate them from all the tribes of Israel and pour out the curses recorded in the Book of Law.

Then in generations to come, you and your descendants and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the devastation of the land and diseases the Lord will send. They will see the soil turned to sulfur and salt with nothing growing. It will be like Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which were destroyed by God's anger. And when the foreigners ask why the Lord did this, they will be told because the people broke the covenant they made with the Lord,the God of their ancestors. They turned to serve and worship other gods, gods that the Lord had not designated for them. So in his anger, God burned against this land and rained down curses and uprooted his people and exiled them to another land. There are secret things that belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and our descendants forever, so that we may obey these words of the law.

BIBLE NOTES SHOW: We can summarize the first few books of the Bible by saying: God promised to bless the Israelites by making them a great nation. In return they promised to love and obey God. God was still holding up his end of the covenant, but the Israelites were neglecting their part.
In verse 18, the bitter root that would bear bitter and poisonous fruit is found again in Hebrews 12:15. You can prevent seeds of sin from taking root by confessing to God and others immediately.
What are the secret things God has chosen not to reveal and why? Perhaps our minds cannot understand some infinite aspects of God's nature. Perhaps some things are unnecessary for us to know right now.

How does this chapter relate to us today? The covenant with God stands with us as well. He asks us to obey his commandments and we can do that with a full and joyous heart. Why was it so hard for the Israelites to grasp the idea behind the covenant and easy for us. (Though not everyone these days honors the covenant), perhaps in a way we have had many more hundreds of years to see the results of breaking the bond. Experienced at seeing the results of curses and having God turn against the people. We see the lesson and we see the result- simple as that. We are a learned people, grasping at every scrap of information about the past and those that keep in daily contact with the Lord have prayers as a reminder and prayers that are answered.
Yours in Christ,
Mary

Prayer requests are needed for:
Health: Gabe, Wanda, Janice Long's parents, Teli's family, Logan and her newly born daughter Stella (who weighed less than 2 lbs and has a long way to go)
Spiritual uplifting: Gail, Mary
Restoration of faith: Al, John
Support, Haiti, Chile, those aiding the gulf coast and those who lost their livelihood in the oil spills. Pray for our country's leaders and our military people who die each day for our freedom.