"Covenant Renewal (Deuteronomy 29)", Will DuVal | 6/14/26
Deuteronomy 29 | 6/14/26 | Will DuVal
My undergrad alma mater, Furman University, had quite a reputation and track record for bringing couples together for the long-haul, in marriage. There was a common saying and expectation that by senior year, many of those in serious, long-term relationships would have a “ring by spring”, be engaged before graduation. When we were there, the stats were as high as ONE IN FOUR relationships, culminated in marriage; Polly and I of course contributed to that statistic, as did my in-laws Teddy and Allison just a few years after us.
So there were all kinds of traditions on campus surrounding romantic relationships: you weren’t supposed to kiss under the iconic Belltower on campus until you were engaged, so many of the PROPOSALS would happen there. You weren’t supposed to kiss in the famous “Rose Garden” until you were MARRIED, so a lot of WEDDINGS would actually take place there. But long before the rose garden or the belltower, there were the “DTR benches” along the lakefront (and by the way, if it sounds like we went to college in the Garden of Eden… we did). But spread out along the 1.5 mile walking trail that circumscribed Furman’s beautiful lake, were these BENCHES where it was common to see couples having a “DTR” - a “define the relationship” - conversation. Countless relationships were both BIRTHED… and broken OFF, on one of those benches. You KNEW, if you were on what you THOUGHT was just a friendly stroll around the lake, and he/she asked if “we could sit down for just a minute”, that things were about to get SERIOUS: you were EITHER about to get asked OUT - not just on a date, but what our PARENTS used to call “going steady”; being EXCLUSIVE with one another; my generation called it “Facebook Official”, because if she said “Yes” on the DTR bench, then the next thing you did was update your Facebook profile to indicate you were “In a Relationship” (btw, I have NO idea WHAT the kids are calling it or doing these days to indicate relationship exclusivity… I’m not sure THEY do, and that’s probably a part of the PROBLEM with dating these days, but ANYWAYS…) - it was either THAT (“Wanna ‘go steady’?”) OR it was, “Hey, we need to talk…”. And you could usually tell which of the two it was from their body language, as you walked by the bench; is there smiling or sulking? Kissing or crying?
In relationships, it’s important to know where you stand - to “DEFINE” it. That’s where Deuteronomy ch29 for this morning comes in, and God’s invitation to His people Israel, through his messenger Moses, to “RENEW” their covenant with Him.
Now, I say “renew” because God has ALREADY made a covenant - “CUT” a covenant, is how it actually reads in the Hebrew, because the ancient ceremony for establishing such an agreement involved cutting animals in half, as a way of symbolically saying, “so be it done to ME, if I BREAK this covenant”; we saw God cut a covenant this way with ABRAM, back in Genesis 15 - but then God made ANOTHER covenant with Israel some 400 years later after rescuing them out of Egypt. THAT covenant, the one God “made with them at Horeb” (aka Mt. Sinai), which is recorded back in Exodus 24, is referred to again this morning in verse ONE of Deuteronomy 29, in the context of God explaining that THIS covenant - the one He’s making with Israel now 40 years later “in the land of MOAB” - is “in ADDITION” to the one at Horeb. It’s not a NEW covenant; it is a RE-newal of the FORMER one. We don’t hear of any animals being sacrificed, “CUT”, here; rather, God is giving this NEW generation of Israelites - the ones about to cross OVER the Jordan River and ENTER the Promised Land… the children and GRAND-children of the FAITHLESS generation of Israelites, with whom God ORIGINALLY made the covenant 40 years prior, but who FORSOOK his promise and REFUSED to go in and take the land when God commanded them to in Numbers ch14, and as punishment, God forced them to wander around the desert for 40 years until they all died out… but now their KIDS and GRAND-kids are finally about to inherit the Land, but before they DO, God says, “We need to have a DTR”.
That’s what a covenant IS, in very technical, theological terms; it’s a “DTR”, a “defining of the relationship”.
You don’t hear much about covenants anymore; we sign a lot of CONTRACTS: your CELL phone plan… your gym membership… your mortgage… your insurance policy… LOTS of contracts. But a contract is IMPERSONAL; “it’s just business”, as the saying goes. Not so, with a COVENANT, which is INHERENTLY personal, RELATIONAL.
And which we rarely encounter anymore. I can only think of 2 or 3 modern-day cases: what are they? (help me out…)
1) MARRIAGE. When you get MARRIED, you make PROMISES to one another… and it’s PERSONAL. You are DEFINING the relationship - no longer just “boyfriend and girlfriend”, but now HUSBAND and WIFE. Moreover, you define the TERMS of the relationship by virtue of the VOWS you make: “...for better or for worse/ for richer or for poorer/ in sickness & in health/ to love & to cherish/ till death do us part.”
2) ADOPTION. Similar to marriage, adoption certainly includes a legal contract component, but it’s so much MORE than that; it’s RELATIONAL. When Polly and I adopted Elijah, we took an OATH to love and raise him just the same as our biological children, with all the same rights and privileges, duties and discipline… “for better or for worse”.
And then the LAST example I can think of in today’s world is…
3) the covenant of CHURCH membership. We walk through this in our membership CLASS here, but once again, it is a DEFINING of the relationship. You may attend West Hills frequently, perhaps even for YEARS… you may call this “your church” and call me “your pastor”, but until you make those covenant promises - “
I will protect the Unity of my Church…
I will serve the Ministry of my Church…
I will share the Responsibility of my Church…
I will support the Testimony of my Church…
” - until you “D” the “R”, and make it “official”, it’s sort of like dating the church… but refusing to “settle down” and MARRY her.
Fortunately, JESUS didn’t do that; the Church isn’t Christ’s “BOO”; we are His BRIDE! He has entered into COVENANT relationship with His people. But this morning we’re reminded that 1500 years before JESUS took the CHURCH as His Bride - the NEW covenant - long before that, YAHWEH took the nation of ISRAEL to be His Bride, His people, through the “OLD covenant” that He will re-NEW with them this morning.
The word “covenant” appears SEVEN times in this chapter. Warren Wiersbe points out that (OT Commentary, 363): “This chapter is the book of Deuteronomy in miniature. Moses 1) reviews the past (vv1-8), He 2) calls the people to obey God’s law (vv9-15), and then he 3) warns them what will happen if they disobey (vv16-29).”
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And that roughly sums up our outline of the passage, that you see in your bulletins: Deuteronomy 29 is gonna show us how we 1) ENTER INTO covenant relationship with the Lord… how we 2) STAY in covenant relationship with the Lord… and finally, how we 3) REST in that covenant relationship with HIM.
Marriage is a WONDERFUL GIFT, for those of us blessed to enjoy that covenant relationship.
Parenthood - even if you didn’t adopt, hopefully you’ve been able to participate in one of our “child dedication” ceremonies here at West Hills, where we make VOWS to raise our children to love and serve the Lord. Parenthood is a beautiful, special covenant relationship.
So is church membership.
But friends, more important than ALL of them is GOD’S invitation to us this morning to enjoy covenant relationship with HIM. And Deuteronomy 29 is gonna tell us HOW.
Let’s READ it together now; I invite you to STAND with me, as you’re able… Deuteronomy ch29; hear the word of the Lord:
“These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb.
2 [b] And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 3 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. 4 But to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see or ears to hear. 5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet. 6 You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. 7 And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them. 8 We took their land and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites. 9 Therefore KEEP the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper[c] in all that you do.
10 “You are standing today, all of you, before the Lord your God: the heads of your tribes,[d] your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel, 11 your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, 12 so that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the Lord your God, which the Lord your God is making with you today, 13 that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14 It is not with you alone that I am making this sworn covenant, 15 but with whoever is standing here with us today before the Lord our God, and with whoever is not here with us today.
16 “You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed. 17 And you have seen their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, which were among them. 18 Beware lest there be among you a man or woman or clan or tribe whose heart is turning away today from the Lord our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Beware lest there be among you a root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit, 19 one who, when he hears the words of this sworn covenant, blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ This will lead to the sweeping away of moist and dry alike. 20 The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. 21 And the Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law. 22 And the next generation, your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, will say, when they see the afflictions of that land and the sicknesses with which the Lord has made it sick— 23 the whole land burned out with brimstone and salt, nothing sown and nothing growing, where no plant can sprout, an overthrow like that of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in his anger and wrath— 24 all the nations will say, ‘Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused the heat of this great anger?’ 25 Then people will say, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt, 26 and went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them. 27 Therefore the anger of the Lord was kindled against this land, bringing upon it all the curses written in this book, 28 and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and fury and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as they are this day.’
29 “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” This is the word of God…
The first thing we need to know about being in covenant relationship with the Lord is that we
#1- ENTER INTO it through HIS GOODNESS & GRACE. (vv1-8; 10-15)
God is SO holy, and so TRANSCENDENT, that NONE of us can just decide, “You know, I think I’ll start a relationship with the Lord today…” - No, HE must INVITE us, in His grace and loving-kindness. Jesus said, “No one can come to me unless the Father… draws him.” (Jn 6:44)
That’s what God does for Israel here; v1: “These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel”. Moses is like their “covenant-BROKER”, and we see God’s goodness even in THAT. Remember Israel’s response to God’s INITIAL invitation to enter into covenant with him, at the foot of Mt. Sinai back in Exodus 20? It says, “when all the people saw the thunder and lightning and… the mountain smoking, the people were afraid[d] and trembled, and they stood far off 19 and said to Moses, “You speak to us, and we will listen; but do not let God speak to us, lest we die.” So… The people stood far off, while Moses drew near to the [mountain] where God was.” (vv18-21)
So too TODAY, friends - new covenant; same principle: God is so holy, and we are so sinful, that in order to enter into relationship with Him, we need a covenant-BROKER; a MEDIATOR. The Bible says, “there is one God, and there is one mediator BETWEEN God and men, the man[a] Christ Jesus” (1 Tim 2:5); “he is the mediator of a new covenant, so that those who are called may receive the promised eternal inheritance” (Heb 9:15).
And we see His goodness in THIS as well: that He’s a God of SECOND CHANCES. God was gracious enough to invite Israel into relationship with Him the FIRST time, back at Sinai (Horeb). When they REJECTED Him at Kadesh Barnea and said, “Actually, God, we DON’T trust you; we WON’T obey you and enter the land”, God could have just given up on them. But the second half of verse 1 here reminds us that He is a God of second chances, to RE-NEW this covenant “besides” or “in ADDITION to” the covenant at Horeb, that they’d already broken.
Let me ask you: how many chances has He given YOU? How many invitations has God extended to you to “Come enjoy life-giving relationship with me”; how long does it LAST before we decide to REJECT Him and follow OUR will, OUR way instead? But has God given up on YOU? How many “covenant renewals” are YOU up to now?
It is worth pointing out that God didn’t call Israel to renew the covenant every single time they SINNED; otherwise we’d hear about one of these ceremonies on every PAGE of the OT! So there’s a DIFFERENCE between their “grumbling” - they pretty much grumbled for 40 years STRAIGHT out in the wilderness! - but there’s a difference between THAT and outright APOSTASY. Apostasy is “a total departure” from the Lord; not just a straining, but a SEVERING of our relationship with Him. That calls for covenant RENEWAL.
If you needed to renew your wedding vows every time you SINNED against your spouse, you’d never leave the ALTAR! But I know couples where one spouse CHEATED on the other - Jesus said, “Don’t get divorced EXCEPT in cases of infidelity”; in that case, the marriage - your VOWS - have been so violated, that you may not be able to rebuild that sacred TRUST again - and yet, Jesus didn’t ENCOURAGE divorce. And I know of marriages where there WAS infidelity, but then there was genuine REPENTANCE on his part, and FORGIVENESS on her part, and often in such cases, they decide to RENEW their VOWS; perhaps formally, publicly; but those vows MUST be renewed in SOME sense, because the initial covenant was broken.
There may be SOME here this morning who trusted in Christ years ago, and ‘entered into’ relationship with the Lord, but the truth is you’ve been metaphorically “sleeping in separate bedrooms” for YEARS now; maybe even living in totally separate domiciles. Experiencing not just “conflict” in the relationship, but ESTRANGEMENT. And maybe the Lord is calling you BACK to Him this morning, BACK into relationship once again. Won’t you RETURN to Him?
“Who is a God like you,
who pardons sin and forgives transgression…
You do not stay angry forever
but delight to show COVENANT love.
You will again have compassion on us;
you will tread our sins underfoot
and hurl all our iniquities into the depths of the sea.” (Mic 7:18-19)
And now Moses is going to REMIND Israel of God’s SPECIFIC graces toward them over these last 40 years; THREE of them he highlights:
First of all: God’s PROTECTING goodness; v2: ““You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and his servants and his land, 3 the great trials… the signs, and great wonders.” God protected and DELIVERED His people from their bondage in Egypt by afflicting their afflictors with “trials, signs and wonders”... PLAGUES, TEN of them.
And then Moses points out, in v4, that that SHOULD have been enough to cause Israel to NEVER doubt or deny God EVER again - you’d THINK that after seeing those PLAGUES, culminating in the Angel of DEATH, killing every firstborn son in Egypt, while SPARING the Israelites, cuz God PROTECTED them with the blood of the Passover LAMB… and then when Pharaoh changed his MIND and chased AFTER them, you’d THINK that watching God make the waters of the SEA split in TWO, to provide a way through - PROTECTION from Pharaoh’s charging chariots, who were subsequently swallowed UP by those SAME waters - you’d THINK that would be ENOUGH, to SECURE Israel’s faith in the Lord for GOOD, for-EVER.
“BUT”, v4, “to this day the Lord has not given you a heart to understand or eyes to see”; Moses says, “You SAW the miracles with your own EYES… and yet, you are BLIND, spiritually; you MUST be! Why else would you continue to REBEL against the Lord?!”
But before we judge them, Church; what about US? How much has God protected and delivered YOU from, in YOUR life… and yet how often do you turn YOUR back on Him, in sin?
Nevertheless, even “when we are faithless,” 2 Timothy 2:13 rejoices, “God remains faithful” to US. Showing us, and showing Israel, not just His protective goodness, but secondly, His PRESERVING grace as well.
V5: “I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Yet Your clothes… and your sandals haven’t worn out”. Can you IMAGINE wearing the same clothes and shoes every single DAY for 40 YEARS - they didn’t HAVE multiple PAIRS - and walking (estimates vary, but) somewhere between 500 and 800 miles, through barren, wilderness terrain… over 2 million people, without so much as a single HOLE getting worn through a single sandal, or tunic… this is every bit as miraculous as the PLAGUES and the SEA-parting!
And it serves as a reminder to us of God’s miraculous, PRESERVING grace in our OWN lives. Not just physically, although he does that for us too, but even more important and miraculous, is how He preserves us SPIRITUALLY. Do you realize that if God took His hand off of you for even one MOMENT, you would ABANDON Him in a HEARTBEAT? The ONLY reason you STILL belong to the Lord today is the SAME only reason you ever came to Him in the FIRST place: HIS GRACE!
Third, God gives us His PROVIDING goodness as well. V6: “You have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine… that you may know that I am the Lord your God”; you say, “Wait a minute; how did NOT eating bread, NOT drinking wine, show them God’s goodness?” Because of what He DID provide; you remember? HEAVENLY bread - manna - and water from a rock - TWO rocks! (Ex 17; Num 20); God brought water out of multiple ROCKS, to take care of His people, that they “might KNOW that HE was their providing God”.
And doesn’t He still do the same for us TODAY? He provides for us, once again, not ONLY physically, and not just our basic needs, by the way - we are SO blessed! - but consider the spiritual symbolism with the manna and the water, and God’s provision of His WORD and His SPIRIT. Jesus said, “Man does not live by bread alone,
but by every word that comes from God.’” (Mt 4:4). God’s word, the BIBLE, is our “daily bread”. And His SPIRIT? Jesus said, ““If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. 38 Whoever believes in me…‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’” 39 Now he said this,” John explains, “about the Spirit” (Jn 7:37-39).
Fourth and finally, God blesses us with His Prevailing - PROSPERING goodness. V7: “when we came here to Moab, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them. And 8 We took their land… for an inheritance”, a FORE-taste of the victory and prosperity that God was soon to give them in the Promised Land.
And likewise, God gives US progressive victory over sin - in THIS life - and offers us little GLIMPSES of our better, HEAVENLY inheritance - “heaven on earth”, as it were.
ALL of this, because God is SO good, and so GRACIOUS. “he does not treat us as our sins deserve
or repay us according to our iniquities.
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him” (Ps 103:10-11).
For ALL who fear Him. God’s grace isn’t just for the spiritual ELITE; look at vv10-15 now: “You are standing here today, all of you… [from] the heads of your tribes, and your elders, and officers…. [ALL the way down to ] your little ones, [even] the sojourner [the NON-Israelite]... who chops your wood… and draws your water, [the YOUNG and the OLD, the RICH and the POOR, the POWERFUL and the power-LESS… God’s GRACE is available to EVERYONE! NO ONE is so ‘high & mighty’ that they don’t NEED it; and NO ONE is so low & unworthy that they can’t RECEIVE it. So if you are HEARING God’s invitation this morning - if He’s giving you “ears to hear and a HEART to understand”, then His grace is for YOU!] 12 so that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the Lord your God… that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, [and check out v14] It’s not with you alone that I am making this sworn covenant, 15 but [even] with… those not here with us today.” Your kids, and your KIDS’ kids… and your KIDS’ kids’ kids!
Friends, God’s GRACE is for EVERYONE; everyone, that is, who will RECEIVE it. So, Hebrews 3 invites us, ““Today, if you hear his voice,
8
do not harden your hearts as [Israel did] in the rebellion” (vv7-8). Rather, OPEN your ears, SOFTEN your heart, and turn from your sin, trusting in Jesus, and be SAVED. He offers you PROTECTION, preservation, provision, eternal prosperity… PARADISE! Because He offers us divine PATERNITY - because of JESUS, you can now have GOD as your heavenly FATHER. And all you have to do is say, “YES! Please and THANK you, Jesus!”
But we don’t just need to ENTER INTO relationship with the Lord; we want to STAY in right relationship with Him. And how do we do THAT?
#2- through OBEDIENCE & FIDELITY. (vv9; 16-28)
By faithfully obeying the TERMS of God’s covenant.
If you want to stay in good, healthy relationship with your SPOUSE, you must “love and cherish her ONLY, til death do you part”.
If you want to stay in good relationship with your CHURCH, you must “protect its Unity… serve its Ministry…”, etc.
And if you want to stay in good relationship with your GOD, you must HONOR your covenant COMMITMENT.
Moses reminds Israel of this TWICE here: once positively, in v9, and then again (much more extensively, in vv16-28), by way of a WARNING.
V9 is his positive INVITATION: “keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper[c] in all that you do.” Obey God’s word, and PROSPER. It’s that simple… Oh, if ONLY it were that simple! But there’s a reason Moses spends 13x more verses on the negative WARNING.
But before we go there, I skipped over arguably the most important word of v9: “Therefore”. WHY should we “keep God’s word”? Because of… In LIGHT of… in RESPONSE to ALL that HE has already done for US: HIS goodness and grace. The “therefore” of v9 LINKS OUR “faithful obedience” of point #2 to GOD’s gracious goodness of point #1, which OUGHT to naturally COMPEL it.
It OUGHT to… if only it were that simple. But in vv16-28, Moses warns against Israel’s future apostasy, but in language that seems to prophetically PREDICT it.
He starts by appealing to Israel’s present DISGUST at even the notion of IDOLATRY; v16: “You remember what it was like in Egypt… and in the other nations we passed though” en route to here; you SAW their “DETESTABLE things, their idols of wood and stone, silver and gold”. It may sound ABSURD and REPULSIVE to think that you could EVER be tempted by such idols, but v18: “BEWARE!”, “lest there be among you anyone whose heart is turning away from YHWH our God to go and serve other gods”.
Money, status, comfort, security, pleasure, sex, power, importance, family, friendship, church, country, SELF – we fall prey to the WORSHIP of these OTHER, lesser, imposter gods a lot easier than we’d like to ADMIT, don’t we? Like Israel, our hearts are “PRONE to wander” too, aren’t they? Infected, with this “root bearing poisonous and bitter fruit” - SIN. And we TOO need to be WARNED against “hear[ing] the words of this covenant, [and] blessing [ourselves] in [our] hearts, saying, ‘I shall be safe, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart.’ ” (v19).
Thinking, “It’ll be FINE; I can live however I WANT, and I’m sure God will FORGIVE me, BLESS me anyway…”.
But GOD declares definitively in v20: “The Lord will not be willing to forgive him, but rather the anger of the Lord and his jealousy will smoke against that man, and the curses written in this book will settle upon him, and the Lord will blot out his name from under heaven. And the Lord will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity… And the next generation… who rise up after you, and foreigners… will see the afflictions of your land… the whole land burned out with brimstone and salt, [so that] nothing can be sown or grow… like Sodom and Gomorrah…” – Interestingly, the ROMANS were NOTORIOUS for doing this, to punish uprisings. And less than a century after Jesus’ death, similar to how God sent the Romans to destroy the Jewish TEMPLE, as His judgment against their REJECTION of JESUS as MESSIAH, so too, just a few decades later, the Roman armies came back and “burned out” Palestine with SALT]
And Moses says, “On that day, there oughta be NO QUESTION why God has DONE this; “What caused the heat of His great anger?”
V25: “Then EVERYONE will know: ‘‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord’”.
“Faithfully OBEY me,” God says, “and the terms of my covenant, and I will BLESS you.”
“But DISOBEY me, and you will PERISH.”
Is that really “GOOD NEWS”, for sinful, DIS-obedient people like Israel… like US?
Well, it depends on the COVENANT. The OLD covenant - the LAW given through MOSES - the Bible says, “It was GOOD - after all, it’s GOD’S Law! - however it was NOT good NEWS… for US… because of our SIN.” (Rom 7:7-13) We failed to KEEP that covenant.
But praise God, friends: He has established a NEW, and BETTER covenant with us today, through His Son JESUS CHRIST. And what are HIS “terms”?
BELIEVE! – That’s IT! “Whosoever BELIEVES in ME shall NOT perish, but have EVERLASTING LIFE” (Jn 3:16). Believe and be BLESSED; REJECT Jesus, and be CURSED: “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life… but whoever does not believe is condemned, because he has [REFUSED] the only Son of God.” (Jn 3:36,18).
Church: we can only stay in relationship with the Lord today, we remain “faithfully OBEDIENT” to Him, by following His most important commandment of all: BELIEVE. CLING to Jesus, as your Savior from sin, your Lord for all of life, and your MEDIATOR - your ONLY Mediator, between a holy God, and a repeat-offender SINNER like you.
And that is how, lastly, we can now REST in covenant relationship with the Lord: through HUMBLE FAITH. (v29)
V29 reads, at first, like a bit of a non-sequitor; it feels a little out of context, out of PLACE. Moses has just delivered this STERN WARNING about God’s “anger and fury and great wrath”, and then he suddenly shifts gears, and ends with: “The secret things belong to the Lord… but the things that are revealed belong to us… that we may do them”. Here’s what I think he’s anticipating, what GOD is anticipating, to put these concluding words in Moses’ mouth: that Israel, and FUTURE generations of Israelites, would read and RE-read God’s Law over the centuries, these 613 Old covenant commandments, and naturally be FILLED with QUESTIONS, cuz God could NEVER give enough commandments - He could have given 613 THOUSANDS commands - but it still wouldn’t cover every possible situation, decision, technological advancement - “What constitutes “WORK” on the Sabbath? Can I light a candle? Can I flip a light SWITCH? LORD - I don’t want to break covenant relationship with you, by disobeying!”
But I read this as an invitation from God… to REST in humble faith, trusting once again in the same thing that brought us INTO relationship with God in the FIRST place: HIS goodness and grace. Shortly before I baptized Ellery a few weeks ago, we were riding in the car and she asked me, “Daddy, Is it okay to become a Christian if I still have questions?”
I said, “Sweety: Join the CLUB! I’m not sure you can truly be a believer if you DON’T have questions.” But the BIGGEST question is: where do we GO with them? Do we allow the questions drive us to doubt and distrust, or do they drive us straight to the Lord Himself, to His word and prayer; do they drive us back into HIS arms, in HUMBLE FAITH, trusting Him even when we DON’T understand fully.
CONCLUSION: Friends: If you wait until you have ALL your questions answered, and EVERYTHING “figured out”, you will NEVER come to Christ, never enjoy relationship with the LORD. But if you “trust in the Lord with ALL your heart, and lean not on your OWN understanding,” but on HIM - HIS goodness and mercy - even when you DONT understand, even when you DISOBEY, and fall short, you can REST in CHRIST’s covenant faithfulness toward you.
Let’s pray…