Deuteronomy 29

CHAPTER 29THEME: Palestinian covenant (introduction)Chapters 29 and 30 are considered the Palestinian covenant. Dr. Lewis Sperry Chafer considers chapters 28-30 to be the covenant. The Scofield Reference Bible considers it to be Deu_29-30:10 with chapter 29 as the introduction. In my notes I take chapter 29 through the first ten verses of chapter 30 as being the covenant, although the covenant proper is in the first ten verses of chapter 30. This chapter 29 is a preliminary.

Deuteronomy 29:1

RESUMÉOF GOD’S CAREThis is now the fourth oration of Moses. The covenant made in Horeb was the Ten Commandments or what we know as the Mosaic Law. The covenant which God is going to make with them here relates to the land, and it is called the Palestinian covenant. God makes this covenant with them just before they enter the land.

Deuteronomy 29:2

These people would have been children and teenagers when they witnessed these things. The oldest people in the nation would have been about sixty years old after wandering through the wilderness since the failure at Kadesh-barnea. Only Joshua and Caleb remained of the old generation.

Deuteronomy 29:3

In spite of seeing all the signs, they still did not perceive. Isaiah has a great deal to say about that. Paul in Romans deals with the blindness of Israel. “(According as it is written, God hath given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear;) unto this day” (Rom_11:8). Does this mean that God will not permit them to comprehend, that God turns them off? No, it means they are already off. God has to turn us on! That is something which we need to recognize today. Until God opens the eyes and the ears of men and women, they cannot hear the gospel. Now do not misunderstand methey can hear the words, but they cannot hear the gospel with understanding. A writer of a magazine article classified our program of going through the Bible in five years with religious racketeers. He seems to think that if you attempt to teach the Bible you are running a religious racket! I wish the man would listen to the program to see what we are trying to do. And yet I still feel frustrated because if he did listen, he wouldn’t understand. He wouldn’t be able to comprehend. He would still feel that we are teaching the Bible on the radio for some ulterior motive. He would feel that the Bible is just being used as propaganda. Why? Because it would take the Spirit of God to work through the Word of God to open his eyes and his heart. Then he would see that the Word of God is effective in the lives of many people. Now God says that he just left these people as they were. They had no intention of turning to Him. They had broken communication with the living and true God. Therefore, God would just leave them in their state of unbelief.

Deuteronomy 29:5

Imagine walking for forty years in the same pair of shoes, and their not getting old! Now Moses goes on to describe their journey through the wilderness and how this should have opened their eyes. A great many people today say that if God would only perform a miracle before their eyes, they would believe. Well, these children of Israel saw miracles for forty years, and yet they did not believe. It is not for want of evidence that men are unbelievers. They are unbelievers not because of what they read in the Bible nor because of what they see around them. The problem is on the inside. They are unbelievers because they are innately enemies of God.

They have no capacity for the things of God. What a picture God presents of the human heart! He says that it is desperately wicked and that none of us can actually conceive how terrible it really is. “Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God” (Rom_8:7-8). Paul wrote this after God had tested Israel for about 1500 years under the Law. What a picture of humanity this is!

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Moses gives them a resuméof their history, reminding them of God’s wonderful provision and care for them. This is the preliminary to the covenant. Remember that the Palestinian covenant is unconditional, but that their tenure in the land will depend on their obedience.

Deuteronomy 29:10

As we read Moses’ warning that disobedience to the covenant will affect both the people and the land, it sounds to us like a prediction, because Israel did forsake the covenant.

Deuteronomy 29:22

Years ago I heard the late Dr. George Gill tell about a trip he made by train, going down through Asia Minor and into Palestine. Late in the afternoon they were leaving Jerusalem and dropping down into the Dead Sea area. As they did, he was standing out on the back vestibule of the train with a very wealthy American. The American said, “I always heard this was the land of milk and honey. Why, I’ve never seen a land that is as bad as this.

I’ve never seen anything like it.” Dr. Gill said, “It is interesting that you said that.” Then he opened his Bible and showed the American in verse Deu_29:24 that strangers shall come from a far land and ask that very question, “Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?” and Dr. Gill told him the exact reason which Moses had given 3500 years ago. “Because they have forsaken the covenant the LORD God of their fathers.” The land and the people go together. Actually, the whole Mosaic system is geared for that land. It is not only for the people but also for that land. That is important to see. In our Lord’s day, the Mount of Olives was covered with trees. It was a real wooded area. The enemies who came to conquer cut out all the timber and left the land desolate. God’s judgment does not fall only on the people. It also has fallen on the land.

Deuteronomy 29:28

But even before the covenant is given, they are told what will ultimately happen. Now friend, God hasn’t told us a lot of things, but there are certain things He has told us, and He surely has told us about that land. It lies over there right now, desolate, and they are trying to get water on it. Agricultural authorities have said that if the land could be revived by getting water to it, it should be able to support fifteen to twenty-five million people. I have traveled in that land from Jericho to Jerusalem, back and forth several times. Anyone who travels there is bound to ask, “What meaneth all the judgment on the land of milk and honey?” Israel was put out of the land because God said, “You go into it and live in it on condition.” They did not meet His condition; they did not obey Him. Does this mean that since Israel failed to keep the covenant, they will not go back to the land? No, God made the Palestinian covenant with these people unconditionally. We shall see that in the next chapter.