Bible Commentaries
Deuteronomy 29

Verses 1-29

Chapter 29

Chapter twenty-nine, God continues with this covenant.

These are the words of the covenant, which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel. And Moses called all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen what the Lord has done before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and his servants. The great temptations which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles: Yet the LORD hath not given you a heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day. For I have led you for forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not old, and your shoe is not old upon your foot. You have not eaten bread, neither have you drunk wine or strong drink: that you might know that I am the LORD your God ( Deuteronomy 29:1-6 ).

In other words, Moses said you have seen these things of God but they had become commonplace, you don't even see them anymore. Don't you realize that after forty years, look at your shoes they haven't even worn out. Your clothes are still good. You have not really been able to plant, to harvest; yet God has taken care of your food. And you came to these kings, Sihon and Og. God gave them into your hand and you took their land and God gave it to you for an inheritance.

Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all you do ( Deuteronomy 29:9 ).

Their prosperity was tied directly to their keeping and doing the commandments of God. That is the covenant that God established.

Now you stand this day all of you before the LORD your God;... Your little ones, your wives,...that you should enter into the covenant with the LORD your God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God makes with you this day: That he may establish thee today for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and Jacob. Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, (For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by; And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, some of them are wood, some stone, some silver and gold, which were among them:) Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart is turned away this day from Jehovah our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that bears gall and wormwood; And it come to pass, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of mine heart, to add drunkenness to thirst: The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him ( Deuteronomy 29:10-20 ),

Now this is a horrible thing when God's word is given and a person in his own heart contradicts the word of God. When God's Word says, "that thou shall not escape the wrath of God", and you think in your heart "Ha, ha, that's not true", or "I'll escape" or "It doesn't apply to me", or whatever. And it's tragic that people will oftentimes do this. When God pronounces a curse, they smile within themselves and they say it won't happen to me. In Hebrews we read, "How shall we escape when we neglect so great a salvation" ( Hebrews 2:3 ). There is no escape. God's Word shall be fulfilled, don't be deceived. God is not mocked, yet there are people who are mocking God. "Keep therefore the Words of this covenant and do them so that you may prosper in all that you do."

Now, in verse twenty-four,

Even all the nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto the land? what means the heat of this great anger? And they will say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made ( Deuteronomy 29:24-25 ).

So verse twenty-nine,

The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong to us, to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of the law ( Deuteronomy 29:29 ).

Again the doing of it. "