Today’s passage: Deuteronomy 29
Helpful thoughts:
- The covenant is reviewed with the generation of Israel that would enter the promised land.
- All but Moses, Joshua and Caleb had been born since the exodus from Egypt. However, Moses speaks to them as their national identity. Israel had seen the Lord’s mighty hand free them from Egypt and Israel was about to renew her covenant and enter into the Promised Land.
- Israel would never be defeated because other gods were more powerful. Israel would never be defeated because other armies had more men and greater strength. Israel would only ever be fully defeated because they abandoned their covenant with the Lord.
- Verse 29 carries a significant message. There are things we do not know about God. There were certainly things Israel did not know that have been revealed to us through Christ and the New Covenant (e.g. Ephesians 3:4-6)! But, what God had revealed to Israel was sufficient for what they were called to do. They had everything they needed to know to trust and obey.
Questions to consider:
- How does it make sense for Moses to review the covenant with all these people who were not present at the time the covenant was first implemented? How does it also make sense to include all these people with those who had gone before them? In our modern western mindset, how might we miss the aspect of identifying together with community that is assumed in many places throughout scripture?
- With whom are you identified as a follower of Christ, set apart from the rest of the world? Who are our people? How does the local church provide this identity?
- If the Word of God is sufficient to teach us all we need to know for salvation, sanctification, life and godliness, then how should we approach the Word of God (2 Timothy 3:16-17, 2 Peter 1:3-4)? How should it inform our thinking and living? How should we measure and evaluate other forms of “revelation” people desire or promote?