Deuteronomy 29:7

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 29:7-9, “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.” This message to the Israelites was a reminder to them of why and how they prospered and defeated their enemies: God blessed them and helped them. But it was also a warning to them. If God uprooted the other nations, He would also uproot them if they did not keep “the words of this covenant.” As Christians we are under a different covenant than the Israelites were under. They were under the old covenant, and we are under the new covenant. The key word for the Israelites to remain under the old covenant was the word “obedience.” The key word for Christians to live under the new covenant is the word “faith.” Be careful that you do not get the two mixed up. We are not under law but under grace. We get attached to the grace of Christ by means of faith in Him, and so faith is the all-important ingredient that keeps us walking with Jesus and serving Him. It is all about faith: putting our faith and trust in Jesus for everything that comes our way.

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 29:10-13, “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.” In verses 10 and 11 God is listing off all the people that He wanted to be in His covenant: everyone. Small and great, women and men, children and adults, leaders and workers: God wanted everyone to be under His covenant. That has not changed. Jesus wants everyone to be under the new covenant too. Everyone can be saved through faith in Christ. Everyone is invited and everyone is welcome. That is why Jesus told His disciples to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. That is why John 3:16 says, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son.”

Deuteronomy 29:13 tells us what God wants so badly. If you know what someone really wants, then you know a lot about that individual. What does God really, really want? He wants “a people unto himself.” God wants a people so badly that He sent His own Son to die a horrible death on the cross. One of the reasons that God wants each believer to live a holy life is so that we will be a good testimony before the lost people around us. We are the light of the world. Jesus wants to use us to attract others to the gospel of Christ. Once we are saved, that is wonderful for us, but what about all the other poor lost souls in the world? God wants to save them too.

Why did the Lord try so greatly to make a people out of the children of Israel? And God still is not done with them. Here is another important truth about God: He keeps His promises. He always keeps His promises. If you want to live by faith, learn the promises that Jesus has made, and rely on those promises. He always keeps His promises. God made a promise to Abraham about establishing a nation and a people; and God repeated that promise to Isaac and Jacob. When God makes a promise, it is going to happen no matter what anyone in the world says or does. God is all-powerful and He has His ways, and He has forever to get it done. It will happen in His time and in His way. It says at the end of Deuteronomy 29:13, “as he hath said unto thee, and as he hath sworn unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.” One of the great benefits to being a Christian is that we are the beneficiaries of all the promises that God has made. Also, the promises that God has made are a key to understanding the future and knowing what is going to happen. We do not know when certain things are going to happen, but we know that they are definitely going to happen. For example, Jesus will return to the earth. And when He returns, He will set up the nation of Israel as the greatest nation on earth. And another little detail: before Jesus returns to the earth, He will rapture all believers in Him to heaven so that they will be saved from the great tribulation that will come upon the earth.

In Deuteronomy 29:14-15 God makes something very clear about the promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, The Lord said, “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:” This was not a promise meant only for Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. And this was not a promise meant only for the children of Israel who were present with Moses. This was a promise for the whole earth and for the destiny of every person who lives on this earth. This promise is to the nation of Israel as far as its future is concerned, and the promise is also to all people on the earth because it involves the gospel of Christ. That truth is explained in Galatians 3:16, “Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ.”

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 29:16-18, “(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;” God makes two statements whose purpose is to keep the people from having their heart turned away from the Lord. Not many people become rightly related to God through Christ and learn to be focused on Him. But for those who do, there is always the danger that they will be turned away from the Lord. How can we keep from being turned away? One way is to make sure that we remember where we came from. The Israelites were told to remember how they lived in Egypt. They were slaves. Now they were free with their own country. If only they would appreciate how much better off they now are because of God’s help and God’s blessings. That is the key: remember what God has done for you. How can you turn away from Him if you really recognize and appreciate all that He has done for you? Problems are ahead if you become unthankful. There might not be anything worse than an unthankful person.

A believer’s heart can be turned away because of the bad influence of the unbelievers around them. God simply said, “ye have seen their abominations.” Open your eyes and understand the truth of what happens to the worldly people when they turn from God: they suffer and they lose. Do not be fooled and do not be blinded. There are a lot of lies being told. Hollywood often lies because it tells a story and can make any consequences that it wants: even if the consequences are the opposite of what would really happens in life. Adultery ends in shame, ruined marriage, unwanted pregnancy, or disease: not a pretty picture. But Hollywood can make it look pretty with lies. Look at the abominations of the world, and you will see clearly that you need to keep you heart right with the Lord to avoid falling into the traps of sin.

Notice the end of Deuteronomy 29:18. It says not to turn away from God “lest there should be among you a root that beareth gall and wormwood.” Turning away from God and doing sin always have negative consequences. The word that is translated “gall” means literally “poison.” The word that is translated “wormwood” means symbolically “bitterness.” Turning away from God will be the same as poison. It will destroy what you could have been. Sin will make you a bitter person instead of a joyful one. The lies of the world say that sin brings joy, but it does not. Sin brings misery. Avoid sin and run away from it as fast as you can. Flee youthful lusts, just as Paul told Timothy.

Illustrating the false assumptions made by those who choose to turn away from the Lord, the Bible says in Deuteronomy 29:19, “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:” There is a lot in this verse about the error of the ungodly. We say “ungodly” because these are people who do not see the need for God in their lives. How do they get to such a point in life? Notice that they say, “I walk in the imagination of mine heart.” That is not good because there is a problem with the heart of man when left to itself. That is one of the reasons that Jesus said that we must be born again: we need a spiritual birth that comes from the Holy Spirit revealing our need of Jesus to us. But for those who do not have the Spirit, but only have their own heart, it will not go well. It says in Genesis 6:5, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” It also says in Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way which seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.”

Notice that in Deuteronomy 29:19 that it says about a person who does not let Jesus into their life, “when he heareth the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, I shall have peace.” Not only do they come to the wrong conclusion, but they do so because they reject the Word of God. This verse is not about people who have not heard, but this is about people who have heard the truth and have heard the Word of God, and then rejected it.

We must also point out that we are talking about specifically “the words of this curse.” If you are talking about the commandments, you can say, “the words of this curse.” If you are talking about the law, you can say, “the words of this curse.” If you are talking about the Old Testament, you can say, “the words of this curse.” You would never make such a statement if you were talking about the New Testament. You would say something like, “the New Testament, the words of blessing and forgiveness.” If you are talking about the gospel of Christ, you would say, “the words of blessing and forgiveness.” If you were talking about the words of Christ and His teachings, you would say, “the words of blessing and forgiveness.” What a difference between the Old Testament and the New Testament. It is the difference between a curse and a blessing. It is the difference between law and grace.

The Bible says in Deuteronomy 29:20, “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.” Verse 20 tells what happens to anyone that is under the law. There are many commandments, and we are all weak with a sinful nature. As sparks fly upward, we tend to sin. God is a holy God. He is the Judge of the whole earth and He will judge sin. That is why Jesus came and died on the cross: to satisfy God’s righteous demands for justice. You are in a very safe place if you have trusted in Jesus the Savior.

Look at the last phrase of Deuteronomy 29:20. It says, “the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.” A similar statement is made in the New Testament about people who will not be allowed in heaven. It says in Revelation 3:5, “He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white raiment, and I will not blot his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and before his angels.” In other words God wants people to go to heaven so much that when anyone is born, God initially reserves them a place in heaven. But at the end of that person’s life, if they did not meet the requirement for getting into heaven, their reservation is cancelled. The requirement is to believe in Jesus the savior. If you do not know Jesus as your personal Savior, today you can bow at His feet, call upon His name, and receive His forgiveness.

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