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NOTES for Deu 29:1-29

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1 These are the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.
2 And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land;
3 The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles:
4 Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.
5 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.
6 Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am the LORD your God.
7 And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them:
8 And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh.
9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do.
10 Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,
11 Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water:
12 That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day:
13 That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;
15 But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:
16 (For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by;
17 And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)
18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;
19 And it come to pass, when he heareth 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:
20 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, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
21 And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law:
22 So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it;
23 And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:
24 Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?
25 Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:
26 For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:
27 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book:
28 And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.
29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
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The Hebrew name of the book of Deuteronomy is “Words,” because many of its sections begin just like today's chapter: “These are the words...” The theme of God's word is central to this book. In the Bible, “word” essentially means any contact between God and a human being, God's revelation, the way our communion with Him takes place. It is no accident that the Lord Jesus is called the Word in the Gospel (John 1:1). As this chapter shows, the Word of God addressed to us entails our responsibility, our personal consent to carry out this Word. Moreover, this means not only particular commandments or laws, but everything we know about God, ourselves, and the world (v. 29)—knowledge that requires an adequate response from us.

Other notes

 
For Deu 29:1-29
1 These are the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.
2 And Moses called unto all Israel, and said unto them, Ye have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt unto Pharaoh, and unto all his servants, and unto all his land;
3 The great temptations which thine eyes have seen, the signs, and those great miracles:
4 Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.
5 And I have led you forty years in the wilderness: your clothes are not waxen old upon you, and thy shoe is not waxen old upon thy foot.
6 Ye have not eaten bread, neither have ye drunk wine or strong drink: that ye might know that I am the LORD your God.
7 And when ye came unto this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, came out against us unto battle, and we smote them:
8 And we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance unto the Reubenites, and to the Gadites, and to the half tribe of Manasseh.
9 Keep therefore the words of this covenant, and do them, that ye may prosper in all that ye do.
10 Ye stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; your captains of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, with all the men of Israel,
11 Your little ones, your wives, and thy stranger that is in thy camp, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water:
12 That thou shouldest enter into covenant with the LORD thy God, and into his oath, which the LORD thy God maketh with thee this day:
13 That he may establish thee to day for a people unto himself, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
14 Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath;
15 But with him that standeth here with us this day before the LORD our God, and also with him that is not here with us this day:
16 (For ye know how we have dwelt in the land of Egypt; and how we came through the nations which ye passed by;
17 And ye have seen their abominations, and their idols, wood and stone, silver and gold, which were among them:)
18 Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations; lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood;
19 And it come to pass, when he heareth 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:
20 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, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.
21 And the LORD shall separate him unto evil out of all the tribes of Israel, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the law:
22 So that the generation to come of your children that shall rise up after you, and the stranger that shall come from a far land, shall say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses which the LORD hath laid upon it;
23 And that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and burning, that it is not sown, nor beareth, nor any grass groweth therein, like the overthrow of Sodom, and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, which the LORD overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath:
24 Even all nations shall say, Wherefore hath the LORD done thus unto this land? what meaneth the heat of this great anger?
25 Then men shall say, Because they have forsaken the covenant of the LORD God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt:
26 For they went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not, and whom he had not given unto them:
27 And the anger of the LORD was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses that are written in this book:
28 And the LORD rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.
29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Hide
When it comes to what we usually call the Old Testament, many readers of the Bible have a completely natural question...  Read more

When it comes to what we usually call the Old Testament, many readers of the Bible have a completely natural question: how can one speak here of an agreement, of conscious relations with God, of some kind of covenant, if a person essentially has no choice?

The covenant with Christ, or the covenant with the God of Noah, is another matter: in both cases the issue is the person's own choice, his decision, the path on which he consciously sets out. People are not born Christians; they become Christians, and a person decides for himself whether to be a Christian or not. The same applies to any relations with God covered by the covenant with Noah: each person has his own, in every case they are unique, and in every case the person decides for himself whether he needs them or not. God is not intrusive. He will not break into the life of a person who is not waiting for Him and does not want Him, so a person is free in his choice here. With the people of God it is not so. Here, according to Moses' word, the covenant is made not only with those who now stand before God, but also with their descendants, who have not even been born yet.

It turns out that those who enter the covenant enter it not only for themselves, but also for all their descendants. And if a person happens to be born as such, if he comes into the world as a Jew, the obligations taken on by those whom Moses now addresses extend to him as well, automatically.

Where, then, is freedom? Considering time and history in the linear perspective familiar to us, we will not find an answer to this question. It can be found only in the eternity of the Kingdom, where time is not stretched out as an endless ribbon but exists in fullness under God's gaze, in a single moment, in the eternal present. Here the spiritual space of the Covenant exists as a single whole, as an unbroken spiritual process into which everyone who has relations with God is included in his own measure. The people of God exists here simultaneously in fullness, as a spiritual reality, and in becoming, which turns out to be the task for the Jewish people living in history. The covenant that Moses enters into with his contemporaries is connected with this fullness. It is neither old nor new; it is eternal. Birth into the world as a Jew is God's call to share in the fullness of the eternal covenant, and therefore in the fullness of the Kingdom.

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For Deu 29:29
29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Hide
Human pride appears funny. It is easy to think: how's that He has something, which is hidden from me?! Is He not obliged, having created me to reveal everything to me? But upon good reading, this verse brings us to thanksgiving. ..  Read more

Human pride appears funny. It is easy to think: how's that He has something, which is hidden from me?! Is He not obliged, having created me to reveal everything to me? But upon good reading, this verse brings us to thanksgiving. Indeed, the One who created us is absolutely above us, and His thoughts are not our thoughts " (Is. 55:8). But He reveals to us what is time to accept, and it remains with us people for ever. The revelation continues, and accepting it more and more, we become capable of receiving even more. But it is important that the purpose of this receiving is not the distension of our "ego", but the fulfillment of God's will, His plan for us, which we increasingly conceive. Thus, it is said here that God shares with us His plan, by bringing us gradually to Him, by leading up from faith to faith, in the plenitude of the Christlike age. Of course, here you should not mutter, but only give thanks.

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