Deuteronomy 29:16-29 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Deuteronomy 29:16-29. Let’s go!
Deuteronomy 29:16-28 (NIV)
16 You yourselves know how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the countries on the way here.
17 You saw among them their detestable images and idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold.
18 Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations; make sure there is no root among you that produces such bitter poison.
19 When such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself and therefore thinks, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way.” This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry.
20 The LORD will never be willing to forgive him; his wrath and zeal will burn against that man. All the curses written in this book will fall upon him, and the LORD will blot out his name from under heaven.
21 The LORD will single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.
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 Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in fierce anger.
24 All the nations will ask: “Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?”
25 And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt.
26 They went off and worshiped other gods and bowed down to them, gods they did not know, gods he had not given them.
27 Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book.
28 In furious anger and in great wrath the LORD uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.”
On verses 16 to 28: Deuteronomy 29:16-28 talks about the consequences of living presumptuously and having a hard heart toward God. In verse 19, Moses describes a hardhearted person who hears God’s Word and presumptuously says, “I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way.” Moses warns that when people live with such presumption, what they can expect are disastrous consequences to come upon them: their sins will not be forgiven (v20), God’s wrath will remain on them (v20), and they will be cut off from heaven (v20). The same warning applies to people today who live whatever way they want, don’t bother to seriously consider what God’s Word says and still think, “Yeah, I think I’m going to heaven.” How dangerous it is to live with that kind of presumption,
In addition, when a person is hardhearted, Moses says “they will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry” (v19). In other words, when I am hardhearted toward God, it doesn’t matter how good (“watered”) or bad (“dry”) I have it right now; my hardheartedness toward God is ultimately going to ruin me. That’s why it’s so important to watch the condition of your heart toward God.
Finally, praise God that though all of us have gone our own way and worshiped things other than God in our past, God had mercy on us. All the consequences we deserved for our hardened heart and which these verses describe – the wrath of God, the banishment from God’s presence, the curses, the punishment – God placed on His Son Jesus Christ instead, so that we could be spared.
Deuteronomy 29:29 (NIV)
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.
On verse 29: What does this verse have to do with the rest of Deuteronomy 29? It’s not clear. Different scholars speculate differently on what this verse has to do with the rest of Deuteronomy 29. In any event, a running theme in the Bible is that God knows secrets that we don’t, and that God will occasionally reveal some of these secrets to us. That’s why Jesus says to his disciples, “The knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you” (Matthew 13:11). That’s why Paul says that he speaks of “God’s secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began” (1 Corinthians 2:7) and says that he and his co-workers in the Gospel have been “entrusted with the secret things of God” (1 Corinthians 4:1).
What can we learn from this? What God does not reveal to us, we don’t need to worry about. But the moment God does reveal certain secrets to us, those secrets “belong to us and to our children forever” in that we are now responsible for living in light of those secrets. Instead of worrying about things that are beyond your control or understanding, focus on the things that God has placed within your control and understanding. Do your best with what God has revealed to you, and God will take care of the rest.
Heavenly Father, may I not have a hard heart toward You. May I not ruin myself and hurt the people around me by being hardhearted toward Your Word. May I not worry about things that You haven’t revealed to me or things that are beyond my control. May I instead be faithful with what You have given to me, and trust that You will take care of what’s out of my control. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
