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- What attributes of God’s character does this passage reveal?
- How does the passage point to Jesus?
- How should the truth of this passage change me?
- How do the events of today’s reading help you better understand the grand narrative of Scripture?
Deut. 28-29
God reaffirmed His covenant with Israel before bringing them into the Promised Land. He clearly laid out the obligations for each party. If the people did their part, God would bless them richly. If not, however, they had it coming. God went one step further, though, and individualized this covenant. He said, “When someone hears the words of this oath, he may consider himself exempt, thinking, ‘I will have peace even though I follow my own stubborn heart.’” (Deut. 29:19a). God promised to single out such a man and bring down all the curses of the covenant on him.
I find that interesting because the New Testament indicates that people still have that same attitude with God’s new covenant in Christ Jesus. True, the work and blessings of the new covenant are all on God; not reliant on our efforts at all. But we still must bind ourselves to it. We do that through repentance. Which means we turn from the path we are on to follow a new path; we strip off our old nature to put on the character of Christ. So if anyone hears of God’s mercy and thinks himself exempt from God’s judgment because of it, thinking he will have peace even though he continues on the path of his own desires, that person is sadly mistaken.
Deut. 30-31
I wonder if it was disheartening for Moses when God told him that the people would soon prostitute themselves to the foreign gods of the land. After all he had been through with and for them, their destruction was a foregone conclusion. It must have felt like his struggle had been for naught. I don’t see any evidence of that in Moses’ response to God, though. In fact, he responded as he always did – in obedience. Like Moses, we need to trust that God has a plan and that His plan will not be thwarted. So we focus simply on being obedient to God and leaving the rest to Him, no matter how bleak the situation looks from where we stand.