Choose life (Deut 29-30)

Deut 29:1-30:20

Key Verses 30:19b Now choose life, so that you and your children may live

 29:29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

Introduction: At the Mt Horeb, God and Israel made a covenant. In that covenant are conditional on two things; one is for Israel to keep the Law that God gives, and the other is for the Lord to lead them to the land of God’s promise.

In the last study (ch 26-27), Moses addressed to Israel what they were to do as soon as they enter the land; they were to commit themselves to this Covenant again. The commitment to the Covenant was expressed ceremonially in two acts; the first one was to write the law on stones after applying plaster on the surface of it and this was immediately followed by building an altar to the Lord by offering a burnt offering and then the fellowship offering. These were the same steps to ratify the Covenant that they did at the Mt Horeb (Exo 24:4-7).  The second one was to commit themselves to the obedience of the Law by ceremonial affirmation to the covenant blessings and the covenant curses in between the two mountains; Ebal and Gerizim. 

These rituals may be considered as a reenactment of the ratification at Mt. Horeb but more likely it is a seal of final fulfillment of the Covenant, signaling the completion of the Covenant by giving the land of promise and beginning of the full implementation of the Law of Covenant for Israel.

Then, how would the law of covenant play out in the coming future of Israel? As a sequel to this ceremony, this passage answers this question. It is revealing the full significance of the Covenant between Israel and God in regard to God’s ultimate purpose and plans through the Law of Covenant, not only for themselves but also for the world. Simply speaking, today’s passage addresses the relevance of the Law of Covenant for Israel and for the world. Most often than not, we Christians think that the Law of Moses is irrelevant to us since Christ died to fulfill the Law and the Law has been done away with; the old covenant is not at work today. Such thinking might have a grain of truth in some aspect. But today’s passage seems to say otherwise. I pray that through this passage, we may find the proper place of the Law of Covenant in the life today, not only for us Christians but also for the people of the world. 

A.      The foundation of the Covenant (29:2-9)

V1 reads “These are the terms of the covenant the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in Moab, in addition to the covenant he had made with them at Horeb.” As noted in the introduction, the ceremony done in ch 26-27 is a final seal of the Covenant as Israel entered the Land of God’s promise.

Now Moses addresses the Covenant in its totality; the foundation of the Covenant. The first part of the foundation of the Covenant is what God did to Egyptians in order to free Israel from the slavery, the ten plagues. Israel saw them with their own eyes. They were nothing but the mighty works of God Almighty. When He sent the angel of death on the fourteenth night of the first month, all the firstborn of Egypt died while Israel escaped the death. This was the ultimate expression of God’s mighty power as the owner of human lives and His will to reclaim such authority over people. So these ten plagues stand as God’s demonstrations of who He is; the Lord of Heaven and the Earth. He made this clear not only to Egyptians but also to Israel by making a clear distinction between them, one for blessing in grace and the other for punishing for disobedience and unbelief. In this way, God answers the questions of the people of the world who He is. It was not an empty word but an actual demonstration of His power and authority in the actual lives of two nations; Egyptians and Israel. This is how God introduced himself to the people of the world. As He introduced Himself to Israel as the Lord Almighty, God revealed His proper name is YHWH (‘I am who I am’) that embodies the authority and power of the one and only creator of heaven and earth. He is the Lord of all creation and the creator of the heaven and the earth. So, some called this work ‘Magnalia Dei’ capturing the mighty power of God Almighty.

When Jesus came, in the first stage of Galilean ministry, he demonstrated his power by healing all kinds of sicknesses, driving out demonic forces, and subduing storms. In these ways, in his personhood, Jesus demonstrated that he is God, and has the power of God, the creator as he called God, his Father.

In these two ways, by performing the mighty works first by God the father and then by God the Son, solidly recorded in history, the God of creation introduced and proved himself clearly as the only Lord of the heaven and the earth. There are many gods, so called. Many gods of the world did not demonstrate his power and authority in human history provable by human witnesses and records in such an extensive detail and its scope. In this regard, their faiths are grounded not on the facts demonstrated in history but on human minds or ideas, which are totally unreliable.

On this ground, God demanded of the first witness of the might work to be His people and expected from the rest of the human races to follow suit. But how did the first witness of the mighty works of God understand this? They did not understand and did not follow Him by faith (v4 But to this day the LORD has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.) Yet God gave them something more to demonstrate His Lordship.

5 Yet the LORD says, "During the forty years that I led you through the wilderness, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet. 6a You ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink.

The second part of the foundation of the Covenant is something of more personal, in the sense that God intervened the life of Israel in a very personal level. In the desert, they did not have food, did not have things to sustain lives, even the simple thing like clothes and sandals. Yet God took care of them, even by raining down manna and quail from heaven. In these ways, God demonstrated his power living and proven in each of their lives. If the ten plagues that they saw coming upon Egyptians were of external, on other people, these works on their lives were very personal and real. This went on for 40 years, undeniable evidence of God’s mighty works given in love for them. What was God’s purpose?

6b I did this so that you might know that I am the LORD your God."

The third part of the foundation of the Covenant is the demonstration of His power in destroying the enemies. This is to prove that He has authority, power, and will to lead them to the land of His blessing. In this regard, His blessing is not intangible or temporal but a very concrete one. To substantiate that blessing, God made a promise of the land and brought them to the Land, by leading them to destroy the two mighty kings on the east of the Jordan River. By leading them to defeat these two kings, God confirmed His power residing with them to fulfill the eternal purpose for them. This was to give the sense of direction of life in God: to be his people and to live in the land of God’s blessing. In this land, Israel will be God’s people and God will be the God of Israel, the king, and caretaker of the nation.

In these three steps or three ways, God of Israel not only introduced Himself to Israel but also proved what He will do for those who follow Him. Out of these three foundational demonstrations of Himself and His will, God demanded Israel to follow the Law of Covenant as the condition for His blessing. Did Israel know these?? Whenever we, or anyone, call God’s name, these three foundational revelations must be taken into one’s heart and must uphold His name, YHWH, the one only creator of the heaven and the earth.

B.      Rejection of the law shall face judgment and repentance will bring life (29:10-30:5)

Having given the foundation of the Covenant, now Moses moves on to give insights on what would happen to the people who are bound by the Law of Covenant. Moses gives this in hypothetical terms since the outcomes are still yet in the future. Nevertheless, since this comes from the LORD who understand men so well and have set his mind to save them ow, it is more of prophetic. There would be two different outcomes; the ones who think that there is a better way to be blessed than through the Law for it is too hard and abandon the Law along with the Covenant with the Lord. They would face eternal judgment; the other one who face all covenant curses, yet he turns his heart and come back to the Lord because they believe that in the LORD is the only blessing. 

First one are those who abandon the covenant (29:10-25-29). They attempt to do so in two ways; one is to go after an idol, or other gods and the other is to go on his or her own way, thinking that he or she does not need to suffer the predicament that God set upon their lives.  These are the two roots that bears a bitter poison. Bitter poison is the disaster that will come upon them whether they are on the watered land or the dry land. The sternness of the judgment in this way;

20 The LORD will never be willing to forgive them; his wrath and zeal will burn against them. All the curses written in this book will fall on them, and the LORD will blot out their names from under heaven.

They won’t have any recourse for the life in the Lord for the full force of the curse will come upon them and their names will be blot out from under heaven. This speaks about the finality of God’s judgment. Who will they be like? What kind of suffering would they go through?

22 Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the LORD has afflicted it. 23 The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur-- nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which the LORD overthrew in fierce anger.

Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim are the four city kings of the land within the perimeters of God’s promise. They were all destroyed when God rained down burning sulfur from heaven. All those who are in the covenant with the Lord would go through the sufferings and judgment that came upon the people of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim.

Second one are those who repent and return to seek the Lord’s blessing (30:1-5)

1 When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come on you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations

As Moses anticipated, this, for them to go on exile under God’s punishment for the violation of the Law,  was going to be a due course since they are sinful. These people are different from the previous ones, who abandoned the covenant (29:25), in that these people take the Covenant to their heart while they are under the worst curse of the Covenant. They would remember God’s grace and power that their ancestors enjoyed and decided to come back to the covenant.  What would be the worst condition? It is when they were dispersed to the most distant nations of the earth, and they have very slim chance to come back to the land of God’s blessing. Nevertheless, God promised this:   

2 and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, 3 then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. 4 Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back. 5 He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors.

God offered them only one condition to bring them back to His blessing. That is for them to return to the Covenant with all their heart to obey His commands. Here the key action is ‘returning’ to the Lord of Covenant, i.e. even under such a dire condition, their heart goes back to hold on to the Law of Covenant, believing what God promised through the Covenant. 

If those who returns to the Lord holding the Covenant blessings, then God would do three things: God will bring them back to the land of God’s blessing and He will bless them more than their ancestors. And the LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies who hate and persecute you (v7) How can this be possible?

6 The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.

Circumcision was the sign of the covenant between God and Abraham’s descendants. It was in the flesh. This is the binding covenant between God and Israel: God as their LORD, and Israel as Lord’s possession.  One thing is clear; this is the sign of the Covenant commitment to each other. God’s commitment to them was unshakable one. But Israel’s was not and this was well revealed in their failure to follow through the Law of the Covenant. It becomes obvious that they could not keep up with the commitment sealed by the circumcision. But when Israel failed to give their hearts to the Lord, Moses rebuked Israel for having an uncircumcised heart (Deut 10:6). Apparently such commitment must be not just in the strength of the flesh but must be accompanied by heart especially when things got tough for the physical strength. Yet their heart did not come along and they failed to keep up with the Law as the strength of the flesh wanes. Actually it was impossible for them to keep up with the Law of Covenant because of their sin. Did God not know that they were not able to keep the Law? Surely God did. But why then did he not circumcise their hearts from the beginning? Who would know the depth of God’s wisdom? Here lies the unsearchable wisdom, knowledge and plan of God.

 29 The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law.

In God’s wisdom, He did not do the circumcision of their hearts this time. He would do it when their descendants comes back after being exiled as the consequence of rebellion against the Lord.  

First, unless God circumcise their heart, they will repeat their failures again and again. This feature is prominently seen in what they did during the period of judges. During the kingdom period, God warned her to repent from the prophets (Isaiah BC750) to Jeremiah (BC 587) without much success. Josiah made a great attempt to turn the nation back to the LORD. But this also did not succeed in changing her back to the Lord. Eventually God did subjected the nation under the curse of the Covenant (exile to Babylon) according to the law. The depth of the pain and sorrow exceed far beyond that we can imagine (Lamentation).  This history tells us that such stiff-necked nature continues and they were incorrigible even with the best effort in human flesh in sin.

Second, the repeated failures tell us that the covenant success cannot come from them but from God for unless He circumcises their heart, they would never reach to the holiness that enables them to make meaningful success in fulfilling the Covenant so as to be called the children of LORD God.

Third, when would God circumcise their heart so that the covenant blessing might succeed? This decision belongs to the LORD in His will according to His wisdom and plan to save His people. Most likely, ‘the secrete things’ (29:29a) refers to the time when and the way how God would do circumcision of their heart, the final and ultimate measure to help His people become worthy to inherit the blessing for good.

Fourth, how would their minds be different when God decide to circumcise their heart then as it is now? At that time their mindset would be different than it is now in two ways; they would have experienced the full measure of the power and authority of the Law, for they went through the whole length of the curse of the law except death. Out of the depth of ‘misery’, they would seek God as the source of blessing. The world is filled with all kinds of troubles of life. Why would the particular ‘punishment’ from the Lord according to the Covenant be unique or different from the ordinary ones in life that all men go through day by day?  I like to quote two verses that might help us to get some insight on this:

Isa 6: 9 He said, "Go and tell this people: "'Be ever hearing, but never understanding; be ever seeing, but never perceiving.' 10 Make the heart of this people calloused; make their ears dull and close their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts, and turn and be healed." 11 Then I said, "For how long, Lord?" And he answered: "Until the cities lie ruined and without inhabitant, until the houses are left deserted and the fields ruined and ravaged, 12 until the LORD has sent everyone far away and the land is utterly forsaken. 13 And though a tenth remains in the land, it will again be laid waste. But as the terebinth and oak leave stumps when they are cut down, so the holy seed will be the stump in the land." (Isa 6:1 NIV)

What would be the mind or situation of this? God made them His people and gave them the Law to love Him and to follow His holiness. But what God gave them, the entire system of the Law, was used to build their goodness and their righteousness instead of seeking glory and honor to the Lord. Isaiah was called in to be commissioned, he was shown the glory of the LORD filling the entire world (Isa 6:1-4). But under the nose of the LORD, His chosen Israel, the nation that should have known and upheld God’s glory, upheld their honor and glory through the Law. To against this rebellious act, the LORD Isaiah to deliver the message that their heart will be calloused to the word of the Lord and cannot understand or perceive the truth. When Isaiah asked how long God would do this, he said that He would do this until the cities lie ruined without inhabitants and until the last tenth remained in the land be laid waste.  What would go through their heart as they were under such punishment from the Lord?

Isaiah 8:7, therefore, the Lord is about to bring against them the mighty floodwaters of the Euphrates-- the king of Assyria with all his pomp. It will overflow all its channels, run over all its banks 8 and sweep on into Judah, swirling over it, passing through it and reaching up to the neck. Its outspread wings will cover the breadth of your land, Immanuel!" (Isa 8:7 NIV)

God would overwhelm their lives with the flood and their lives would be on brink of total destruction. Only then, in such life-threatening situation, they would or should call for the Lord, Immanuel.  They might make a repeated attempt to stand alone. But God would lender their efforts fail repeatedly.  Such repeated failures bring more frustration and hopelessness in them. But there would come a point whereby one feels that he or she is at the end of the roll for his or her life as far as they could do in salvaging their lives according to the Law of God. Turning back to the Lord from this point of life will be far different from repeated attempts made out of one’s own will and strength. The only hope is not in him or her but in God as well as not in his goodness but in God’s mercy in grace, i.e. calling “Immanuel”.

Their mind would be totally reconditioned through the suffering from the covenant curses.  They would surely know and feel to their bones what it means to reject the Lord or to violate the Covenant. The misery, pains, and sorrows under God’s curse would be real than at any time that they have ever thought of. Their plea with the Lord is genuine and their hearts would be filled with true respect and honor to the Lord. It would be not something of one’s resolve to follow the Lord because he can and is willing but out of desperate need under an utter helplessness, facing life threats.

C.      God imparts a heart to love Him, and that love embodies the holiness of God.

6 The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live.

Here in response to the calling for Immanuel out of total desperation, God would offer a remarkable blessing. God Himself would circumcise their heart so that they might be able to LOVE the LORD. In this way, the ultimate purpose of the Law would be fulfilled (Deu 6:5; 30:16)

When one does not know the depth, width, and heights of suffering under God’s curse, the true value of God’s blessing would not be fully appreciated. But when one comes to the Lord while living under such suffering, then the mind begins to grasp the true authority and the honor belonging to the Lord. When they come back with such a renewed mind, and obey the Lord with all their heart, then God would do the circumcision of the heart that enables one to love the Lord.

In Hebrew, there are two words translated ‘love’ in English. One is אהב (hb), and the other is חֶ֫סֶד(hesed). Hb is used when Jacob loved Rachel or Joseph. This love is like the love between husband and wife, deeply emotionally loaded with because of simple affection. The other one is more of loyalty or faithfulness in a relationship. This is in Exo 20:6, God would maintain his love to a thousand generations

Exo 20: 6 but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

Here God’s love to a thousand generations is His faithfulness and commitment or loyalty to the person’s descendants. This is not about emotional affection as with the love between husband and wife. But the second one, those who love me is hb is love used to express the love between husband and wife. God commanded man to love(hb) God, but nowhere in the five books of Moses, man is the subject of this verb (hb) except in God’s command as shown in this verse. Simply nowhere in the first five books of Moses, we can find that man loved (hb) the Lord, not even Moses.  What do all these tell us about? Israel made efforts to listen and to obey the Lord but they did not have the heart to love the Lord. 1 John 4:8 reads, “Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”

Then we may say that Israel did not and would not have the love of God until she goes off to exiles and comes back in repentance. This love in their heart is not of their own making. Their heart was from the beginning, ‘stiff-necked’ heart, having no ability to hear and to obey. Yet God, in His grace, circumcises their hearts so that they may LOVE the Lord as God expected when he gave them the Ten Commandments.

What is the commanding message of the LORD through the Law of Covenant? All unholy shall be destroyed and in order to receive a blessing from the Lord, he or she has to be holy. Unless God imparts that holiness, no man can be holy. Simply there won’t be any life without God. Rejecting the Lord is not simply becoming nothing but having a life under a fiery lake of burning sulfur. In other words, God is giving them a preview of eternal judgment so as to save them from going through that way. I visited the Holocaust museum in DC. The suffering that the Jews experienced was an existential hell. Once one sees those sufferings with their eyes, he or she would do anything to get away from such suffering.

God is holy and in order to live with Him, we have to be holy.  This holiness does not or cannot come from one’s resolve in his will and strenuous efforts of human will in flesh not to do anything evil. It is born in the oneness of one’s heart with the Lord. In essence, it is the love, the love of God, which he demonstrated through His son Jesus. How can a man in the flesh have such heart toward the Lord? Paul, who once was the most stringent observer of the Law of Moses, exclaimed, ‘what a wretched man I am!’ No matter how much he tried to keep up with the Law, he found himself guilty and ungodly at heart. Martin Luther, the reformer, made a similar effort to be pure in heart. But there was no avail. Out of this total helplessness in his own being or efforts comes a heart that gives true respect and honor to the holiness and glory of God.

Finally, by putting Israel under the full force of the Law, which a man in the flesh could not keep up with, God is teaching that they needed a new life, the life beyond the death, that is eternal life. This is the ultimate purpose of the Law.  

D.      What to do: choose life by holding fast to the Law of Covenant (30:11-20)

The creator of the universe, and the author of life, God offered life only through the Law of Covenant. There is no other way. Is this in conflict with the word in Acts 4:12? No!  There are many conflicting opinions on the relationship between the Law of Covenant and the grace that came through Jesus. This passage says that all men must be saved through the Law of Covenant.

First, the creator God revealed the Law only to Israel and it is available at hand.

 11 Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. 12 It is not up in heaven so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” 13 Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?”

The most common question on how to live a righteous life is on what the righteous life is. God, the creator of heaven and earth, came down and spoke the law to Israel and offered life through the law.  That Law is available at hand to Israel. That God did not reveal to anyone else other than Israel and did not reveal any other way to have the life but the Law of Covenant. In other words, the law of the Covenant is the sole avenue to life as far as what God offered.  If one is not willing to abide by the law, then he or she would be cut off completely from the Lord and they will not have any chance for salvation (29:20). This was not just for Israel but also for the whole people of the world since God spoke or is speaking this message clearly to the world through what Israel went through and is going through in history. 

Second, the ending point of that offer, the life lived through the Law, is for the Lord to circumcise their heart so that they may love the Lord and be blessed and then be included in the eternal kingdom of God. This goal is never reached by some other ways but through the way of the Law of Covenant offered at the Mt Sinai. In this way, God subjected all men under the Law (Rom 2:12). This becomes clear when we notice that all the beginnings of all the four Gospels call for repentance. This call is based on nothing else but the Law of Covenant. 

In this way, God stream-lined the way of salvation; the law, then to returning to the Lord in repentance, and then to the circumcision of the heart, which God offered through the blood of Jesus.

What is its implication? 

14 No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it.

Obey? How much or what extent? If the understanding of righteousness is not within us, then we have to refer the manual of righteousness day by day. This is the premise of God’s command to Israel when He said this:

Exodus 13:9 This observance will be for you like a sign on your hand and a reminder on your forehead that this law of the LORD is to be on your lips. For the LORD brought you out of Egypt with his mighty hand. (Exo 13:9 NIV)

Numbers 15:38 "Speak to the Israelites and say to them: 'Throughout the generations to come you are to make tassels on the corners of your garments, with a blue cord on each tassel. 39 You will have these tassels to look at and so you will remember all the commands of the LORD, that you may obey them and not prostitute yourselves by chasing after the lusts of your own hearts and eyes. (Num 15:38 NIV)

In other words, every thought, and acts must be measured against the Law. We are gracious to ourselves or we are very lenient to our sins and weaknesses. Unless we see ourselves according to the Law, we do not know the true picture of ourselves. But according to the Law, we see clearly that there is nothing good in us (Rom 7:20). Also, we come to realize that by nature, we do not have anything good or righteous as Ephesians 2:3 reads. “All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our flesh and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving of wrath.”  In this utter emptiness of anything good in us, we will be compelled to seek righteousness from the Lord.

The good thing is that Israel was given that manual and it is available at hand. In this regard, they are far ahead of others in having a concrete evidence on what is good and right while the world is still arguing to discern which one is right. At this point, it’s good to look at the word spoken by Paul;

Romans 2:12 All who sin apart from the law will also perish apart from the law, and all who sin under the law will be judged by the law. 13 For it is not those who hear the law who are righteous in God's sight, but it is those who obey the law who will be declared righteous. 14 (Indeed, when Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature things required by the law, they are a law for themselves, even though they do not have the law. 15 They show that the requirements of the law are written on their hearts, their consciences also bearing witness, and their thoughts sometimes accusing them and at other times even defending them.)

God created man in the image of Himself, the most unique and unchanging character of whom is holiness. Though man fell into sin, in the hearts of men, the code of holiness is still retained.  When God gave the Law to Israel, God only made this law explicitly clear and available at hand so that not only Israel but also all nations of the world may know God’s requirement for His blessing.  How the Law that God gave Israel stands is revealed high in what God did to Israel in history, the first recipient of the Law of Covenant.

If God has given to Israel all the laws explicitly and they are available at hand, then, Israel has no excuse at all when God implement full force of the law of covenant upon them. On ch 26-27, Israel came to the land of God’s blessing and had a ceremony at Shechem, in between the two mountain, Ebal, and Gerizim. The ceremony included engraving the Law on the plastered stones and offering sacrifices of burnt offering, fellowship offering, and reciting of the Law of curses. The entirety of this ceremony marks the completion of the Covenant between God and Israel. Also, this marks the time of the beginning of the full implementation of that Covenant. All these points to one thing, the Law is available at hand and from this point on, they are to abide by the law fully. If not they would face the covenant curse.

God did not stop here. He gave the world another witness of the law of blessing or curse, the cross of Jesus. This is the stark and explicit message for the world; The Lord of the heaven and earth shall not overlook sins of men, that must be judged and pay their life for their sins. At the same time, by the crucifixion of His own son, God decidedly offered to do a circumcision of heart for those who comes back to Him.  In Christ, we see the full effect of the Law, His blessing as well as His curse. God’s truth is living through the Law of Covenant and His blessing given abundantly for those who return to Him in repentance.

Praise the LORD in His amazing and unsearchable grace in and through the Law! Amen