Moses not only repeated the Law given at Horeb, that is, Sinai, Exodus 24:7-8, but he also delivered additional divine laws here in Moab, Deuteronomy 29:1.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘This verse seems properly to belong to the preceding chapter, as a widely different subject is taken up at Deuteronomy 29:2 of this, and it is distinguished as the sixty-ninth verse in some of the most correct copies of the Hebrew Bible.’
After speaking these words, that is, the three sermons, Moses calls upon the people to remember all that their eyes had seen in relation to God’s works, Deuteronomy 29:2.
They saw the signs and great wonders of God as Egypt were brought to their knees through the plagues and crushing blow of the Red Sea, Deuteronomy 29:3. Despite Israel seeing all these signs and wonders, ‘the LORD has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear,’ Deuteronomy 29:4 / Deuteronomy 5:29. Though Israel saw the signs and wonders, they didn’t really see them, Matthew 13:10-17.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Ability to understand the things of God is the gift of God, 1 Corinthians 2:13-14, yet man is not guiltless if he lacks that ability. The people had it not because they had not felt their want of it, nor asked for it, 2 Corinthians 3:14-15.’
God’s people would only become His possession when they obeyed His commandments, Deuteronomy 27:9-10. God had specifically chosen Israel to be a people for His own possession, Deuteronomy 7:6-8.
God didn’t choose them because of any righteousness in them, Deuteronomy 9:6 / Deuteronomy 9:24, and neither did He choose them because they were great in number, Deuteronomy 7:7.
God’s sovereign choice of the people of Israel was due to His love for them, Deuteronomy 7:8 / Romans 9:13-24. God had made a promise to Abraham, and He intended to keep it, Genesis 12:1-3.
Due to these great promises, the signs, and wonders that the people saw in Egypt and during their forty years of wandering, and the warnings of the Law before them, the people should have, with a spirit of fear, sought out the Lord’s will.
With open eyes of understanding, they should have been terrified to break God’s laws and, at the same time, anxious to receive His promises by faithful living. Moses not only reminds the people of the signs and wonders performed in Egypt but also of God’s miraculous care for them through the wilderness wanderings, Deuteronomy 29:5.
Their clothes didn’t wear out, nor did the sandals on their feet, Deuteronomy 29:5 / Deuteronomy 8:4. The Lord miraculously provided them with bread to eat, that is, manna and wine, that is, grape and pomegranate juice, Deuteronomy 29:6 / 2 Corinthians 6:1.
Furthermore, the Lord defeated their enemies for them, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan and gave Reuben, Gad, and half the tribe of Manasseh lands that did not previously belong to them Deuteronomy 29:7-8.
Seeing that God had blessed Israel with so much, they were expected to follow His commandments, Deuteronomy 29:9. As they followed the commandments of God, their blessings would continue, Deuteronomy 28:1-14.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘They were about to enter into a covenant with God, and as a covenant implies two parties contracting, God is represented as being present, and they and all their families, old and young, come before him.’
Moses is addressing all of Israel, including the children and the foreigner, Deuteronomy 29:10-11 / Acts 2:39. The purpose of the assembly was that all would ‘enter into the covenant of the Lord your God’, Deuteronomy 29:12. To enter into a covenant or oath with God was to be ‘established as a people belonging to God’, Deuteronomy 29:12.
Clarke, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Thus, we find that in a covenant there are these seven particulars.
1. The parties about to contract were considered as being hitherto separated.
2. They now agree to enter into a state of close and permanent amity.
3. They meet together in a solemn manner for this purpose.
4. A sacrifice is offered to God on the occasion, for the whole is a religious act.
5. The victim is separated exactly into two equal parts, the separation being in the direction of the spine and those parts are laid opposite to each other, sufficient room being allowed for the contracting parties to pass between them.
6. The contracting parties meet in the victim, and the conditions of the covenant by which they are to be mutually bound are recited.
7. An oath is taken by these parties that they shall punctually and faithfully perform their respective conditions, and thus the covenant is made and ratified, Jeremiah 34:18-19 / Genesis 6:18 / Genesis 15:18 / Exodus 29:45 / Leviticus 26:44-45.’
The Lord’s purpose of driving out Canaan and giving the people great blessings was that His promise made to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob may be established, that is, fulfilled, Deuteronomy 29:13 / Genesis 15:18 / Deuteronomy 8:17-19 / Deuteronomy 9:4-5 / Deuteronomy 28:9.
Israel would only belong to God as they obeyed His commandments, and they would only receive blessings as they obeyed the voice of God. To enter into the covenant oath of God was thereby a conscientious decision, on the part of Israel, to obey God’s will so that they may receive His protection and blessings, Exodus 24:3 / Deuteronomy 5:27-29.
Up until this point, Israel had only failed to be established as God’s own possession because they hadn’t obeyed His command to take Canaan, Deuteronomy 1:21 / Deuteronomy 1:26. All of those who were standing were willing to obey the voice of God, and would be recipients of God’s blessings.
Israel had passed through many lands and not only gained people that followed them, that is, foreigners, but also they have had exposure to other religious cultures in the process of travelling great distances.
Those twenty years old and older who had rebelled thirty-eight years before by not taking the land immediately were not present at the time these words were spoken; they had died in the wilderness, Deuteronomy 29:14-15.
But the new generation of all the Israelite families, the servants, and foreigners, were present for the taking of the oath to renew the covenant at this time. Those yet unborn in the future were also taking the oath by their living families.
Israel had seen with their eyes not only God’s great and miraculous works in Egypt and the desert but they had also seen the detestable acts of the nations they passed through, Deuteronomy 29:16-17. They saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, Deuteronomy 29:17 / Leviticus 26:30.
Israel was now at a crossroads in its decisions that would affect it for all eternity. Israel was to either enter into a covenant with God by accepting and doing His will or follow the detestable acts of the nations, Leviticus 26:30.
Moses has already delivered the danger of personal contamination through an individual’s wickedness, Deuteronomy 13. These people are described as a ‘root that produces such bitter poison’, Deuteronomy 29:18 / Hebrews 12:15. The KJV uses the words ‘gall and wormwood’, Jeremiah 9:15 / Lamentations 3:19 / Amos 6:12 / Hosea 10:4 / Matthew 27:34 / Acts 8:23 / Revelation 8:11.
When such a person hears the words of this oath and they invoke a blessing on themselves, thinking, they will be safe, even though they persist in going their way, they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry, Deuteronomy 29:19 / Jeremiah 23:17 / Job 15:16. The bitter results of practising idolatry are seen in those who forsake the covenant agreement of the oath of God.
The Lord will not forgive them, Deuteronomy 29:20, and they are subject to the anger of the Lord, Deuteronomy 29:20. That person will be cursed with all the curses written in this book, Deuteronomy 29:20. In other words, they will receive the curses of Deuteronomy 28:15-68.
God will blot out their names from under heaven, Deuteronomy 29:20. God will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law, Deuteronomy 29:21 / Deuteronomy 28:15-68.
The land where the idolater lives will be destroyed, to the point of causing astonishment by the nations, Deuteronomy 29:22. The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulphur, nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it, Deuteronomy 29:23. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which God overthrew in fierce anger, Deuteronomy 29:23.
Barnes, in his commentary, says the following.
‘Those towns of the vale of Siddim, of which were Admah and Zeboim, were fertile and well-watered, Genesis 13:10, until devastated by the wrath of God, Genesis 19:24-25, and the ruin of Israel would follow that pattern. The desolate state of Palestine today, and the traces of former fertility and prosperity are attested by every traveller.’
All the nations will ask why the LORD has done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger? Deuteronomy 29:24. And the answer will be, it is because these people abandoned the covenant of God, the God of their ancestors, the covenant He made with them when He brought them out of Egypt, Deuteronomy 29:25.
If God’s people forget about God and His will, they will end up getting involved in idol worship, Deuteronomy 29:26. This was the main threat to Israel.
The nation would eventually become ignorant of the Word of God, for the priests would fail to be diligent in keeping the word of God before the people. As a result, the people would easily adopt the concepts and practices of the gods of the nations around them. They would eventually come to fulfil the words of Hosea, Hosea 4:6.
Because of their idolatry, God’s anger burned against this land, so that He brought on it all the curses written in this book, Deuteronomy 29:27 / Deuteronomy 28:15-68. In furious anger and in great wrath, God uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now, Deuteronomy 29:28.
There are things that man can’t know; they are secret things, which belong to God, Deuteronomy 29:29 / Isaiah 55:8-9. We can’t predict or calculate the providential work of God in anyone’s life, Ecclesiastes 8:17.
Neither can we know things that God hasn’t revealed. Moses’ point is that we’re not at liberty to do things that we haven’t seen or heard from God, Deuteronomy 4:12-16.