|
|
Deuteronomy 29 Commentary
by Brad Boyles
When I was younger, I used to think it was enough to “keep my oath” with God. If I tried to live as a good person, prayed once in a while, and asked for forgiveness before falling asleep at night, then I thought I was following Jesus. When we follow God this way, we eventually find out that adhering to the law is not enough. In fact, we can’t do it. We fail to live up to our obligations.
Moses detailed these obligations for the people starting in verse 10.
“You stand today, all of you, before the LORD your God: your chiefs, your tribes, your elders and your officers, even all the men of Israel, 11 your little ones, your wives, and the alien who is within your camps, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, 12 that you may enter into the covenant with the LORD your God, and into His oath which the LORD your God is making with you today, 13 in order that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Deuteronomy 29:10-13 NASB
Notice that both the people and God had obligations. The people were to keep God’s commands, and God would establish them as His people. However, God is the initiator of the entire event. Without God revealing His will and interceding for His people, they would have had no idea how to live. Of course, even though the Israelites failed to keep their oath, God was still faithful to keeping His. This is significant.
We have documentation here in Deuteronomy of the grace and mercy of God. He set His expectations, yet, the people refused to follow. Israel entered into a covenant with God and failed to keep it. So, what did God do? He was still faithful to keeping His obligations. In fact, He opened up His New Covenant to all who would confess and believe. Jesus showed us true love by laying His life down for our sin, and in doing so, He paved the way for us to love God. By loving God, we will fulfill the OT commandments because we will naturally produce a fruitful life.
We must be careful within our NT relationship that we do not fall into a religious attitude with our behavior. We only need to look back to the OT to see how a moral checklist will not produce what God desires. Loving God and loving people can only be made possible through repentance and gratitude for His victorious sacrifice!