Deuteronomy 29
All that Moses spoke to this point in Deuteronomy are the words of the covenant that the Lord made with the sons of Israel. The Lord God took care of them for forty years in the wilderness. The God who swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob desired to establish the sons of Israel as his own people. The covenant goes beyond those who were standing before Moses. When they break the covenant, the Lord God promises to send plagues, disease and afflict the land; that men may know that the Lord has done this, because they broke his covenant. When they break the covenant, the Lord will uproot them from the land and cast them into another land. We cannot know all the things of the Lord our God but the things revealed belong to us.
This covenant was given to the sons of Israel, their children and their grandchildren for as many generations as they keep the covenant. Like the sons of Israel were given a covenant, the Lord has given a new covenant for all people, nations and tribes in Jesus Christ. The first covenant was faulty, not because the word of the Lord is faulty. It was faulty because it was dependent on man’s obedience. However, the new covenant in Christ Jesus is not like the old covenant. The new covenant is not dependent on our obedience but that of the Son of God. Jesus lived a righteous life, pleasing to God. God said of him, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well-pleased.” (Mt 3:17) Jesus accomplished both the positive a negative demands of the law. He lived a life pleasing to God and he died for our sins. Having accomplished the righteous demands of God, he rose from the dead defeating death. He did this on our behalf, so that God would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus. The new covenant in Christ Jesus is not dependent on our ability to keep the law but on Christ Jesus who meet the righteous demands of the law, died in our place and rose again defeating death.
There are two things that we must do: Have repentance towards God and trust in Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of our sins. In Deuteronomy 29:18-21, there is a warning about a root bearing poisonous fruit and wormwood. He hears the words of the curse but boasts, believing that he has peace though he walks in stubbornness of heart. The Lord God shall never be willing to forgive such a man and will blot out his name from under heaven. This warning is not for the sons of Israel only but for any who refuse to repent and follow the word of the Lord.
