#DailyDevotion The Lord God Has Made A Covenant With You To Be Your God
October 27
Deut 29:1–29
Deu 29:10 “You are standing today all of you before the LORD your God: the heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel,…12 so that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the LORD your God, which the LORD your God is making with you today, (13) that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
With mighty and serious words the Lord is making a covenant with the people of Israel and all who are with Israel before they cross the Jordon into the Promised Land, And not just any old covenant but a sworn covenant in which the Lord swears by himself, so serious is this covenant. In this covenant the Lord makes himself God and the people of Israel his people. He does this because he is a God of promises. He promised this to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Yet in this covenant the people must perform. They must only worship the Lord alone as God. They must look to him for every good. You might think the Israelites having seen the Lord’s salvation at the Red Sea, heard his voice at Horeb, having followed him in a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night, having been fed the manna, having the water come from the rock, having been punish and delivered by the Lord for their offenses in the deserts and having defeated might kings, they would understand the Lord is God, mighty and powerful, merciful and just. But as it is says in verse 4 the Lord had not given them a heart to understand, eyes to see or ears to hear. It was because of the stubbornness of their hearts this was so.
Yet the Lord calls them to faithfulness. He strictly warns the to be faithful and loyal to him. Not only outwardly, but in their hearts they were to trust in him alone. If they would not be faithful, he would destroy them, cast them out of the land and all the nations would down upon them. Well we know they did not heed the Lord. They did trust him during the time of the judges or the kings. They did not even trust him when he took on their flesh to save them from their sins and he sent the Romans to destroy the temple, Jerusalem and disperse them to the nations even as they are to this very day.
Because they would not keep this covenant, the Lord made a new covenant with them. Jer 31:33-34 “For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be my people. (34) And no longer shall each one teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, declares the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” This covenant was made in the Lord’s own flesh and blood, the flesh and blood of Jesus the Lord. Not only did he make this covenant with Israel but with the whole world but with all who would hear of this covenant and put their trust in Jesus. You are called to be part of this covenant. All of the Lord’s blessings he seeks to give to you in Christ Jesus. Peace and Joy are yours there. But if you reject the Lord’s offering, then what the Israelites suffered temporally you and all who reject him will suffer eternally.
Gracious Lord, give us hearts that understand, ears that hear, and eyes that see that we may put our faith in Christ alone for our salvation and enter into the eternal Promised Land of your kingdom. In, Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.