Dt. 29-30 A New Covenant
Last week we saw the curses of the covenant in gory detail.
Last week we heard the fire and the wrath and the judgment of God.
But here,
God makes a new covenant with Israel.
A New Covenant?
Dt. 29:1
This is a covenant "besides" the covenant made at Horeb--at Sinai.
Why is it called a different Covenant?
How is it a "new" covenant?
v4--to this day God has not yet given them hearts to perceive, eyes to see, or ears to hear.
You see, the New Covenant is needed, because the LAW couldn't bring salvation.
The LAW couldn't bring them into the land.
In order for them to enter the Promised Land,
they needed a New Covenant.
Here, at the end of the Penteteuch,
at the conclusion of Moses' ministry,
he is given the opportunity to proclaim the New Covenant.
Does that sound odd?
Did you think that the New Covenant only began with Christ?
Certainly Christ is the whole point of the New Covenant;
there is no New Covenant without Christ.
But what IS the New Covenant?
Is it not the proclamation of salvation by grace alone?
Is it not the declaration that ONLY GOD can save sinners?
Is it not that sinners cannot trust in their own righteousness,
but need to trust in the Righteousness of Another?
The New Covenant was proclaimed to Israel on the plains of Moab.
Because without the New Covenant,
the Israelites would have never had a heart to perceive,
eyes to see, or ears to hear.
When Isaiah was called,
God told him:
"Go and tell this people:
Keep on hearing, but do not understand;
Keep on seeing, but do not perceive
Make the heart of this people dull,
And their ears heavy,
And shut their eyes,
Lest they see with their eyes,
And hear with their ears,
And understand with their heart,
And return and be healed."
And Isaiah asks: "Lord, how long?"
How long must I proclaim judgment and cursing?
And God replies:
"Until the cities are laid waste and without inhabitant,
The houses are without a man,
The land is utterly desolte,
The Lord has removed men far away..."
Yes, the New Covenant was proclaimed to Israel...
But few believed.
Few received hearts of flesh.
Few had eyes to see or ears to hear.
Why?
Why did so few believe?
Why did so many rebel?
Jeremiah proclaimed the same New Covenant in Jeremiah 31:31
Not like the covenant at Sinai --where the Law was given--
But a covenant where the Law will be written on their minds and on their hearts.
Exactly like the covenant in Dt 29-30.
But if the New Covenant had been proclaimed alongside the Old Covenant,
WHY did so few believe?
Ezekiel 36:24-29 addresses the same problem:
Why did so few believe?
Because the New Covenant requires a New Spirit.
Sure, the New Covenant was proclaimed all through the Old Testament.
And many, many believers were saved by faith, through the work of the Holy Spirit.
But until Jesus Christ poured out the Holy Spirit at the day of Pentecost,
the new Covenant grew VERY slowly!
Well let's take a look at this New Covenant.
The Israelite's are perched on the very brink of the Promised Land.
They are wondering, "what is going to happen to us?"
They have just heard all these terrible curses
that will come upon those who break God's covenant.
And now they are wondering, what will happen to us?
1. Recital of God's past actions: 29:1-8
God has been faithful.
He has provided for you all that you have needed.
Your clothes have not worn out
Your sandals have not worn out.
The Manna has come EVERY day (except the Sabbath) for 40 years.
And Remember what God did to the Egyptians!
Remember what God did to Sihon and Og.
God has been faithful.
Therefore keep the words of this covenant, and do them.
How has God been faithful to you?
He has been faithful in forgiving your sins.
In rescuing YOU from slavery to sin and death.
He has been faithful in providing food and shelter;
He has given you this body--your family--your job.
And HE HAS given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear!
HE HAS given you all that you need for life and godliness
through his Son, Jesus Christ.
Therefore, keep the words of his covenant...
2. Proclamation of the covenant making: 29:9-15
With whom does God make his covenant?
With his people.
Notice that the whole assembly is gathered together.
This is one reason why we are training the children to sit quietly during worship.
Because God makes his covenant with his people
--all ages are included within the covenant community.
Now, we're not addressing the issue of baptism--so set that aside for a moment.
But children do belong in worship.
Jesus himself declared,
"let the little children come to me, and do not forbid them"
Children belong in the presence of Jesus.
Children, as well as adults, need to hear the Word of God.
And those children who trust in Christ and confess him as their only Savior,
should also come to the Lord's Table,
to feed upon him by faith and with thanksgiving.
You see,
every Sunday we gather together in the presence of God,
to worship him and to praise him for what he has done in Jesus Christ.
Every Sunday God proclaims his new covenant to us.
Every Sunday Christ offers us himself to be the only food of our souls.
Every Sunday, the Holy Spirit is promised to us in the blessing:
that the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the love of God our Father,
and the communion of the Holy Spirit might be with us!
In worship, we come into the presence of the Holy Trinity,
and receive the forgiveness of sins,
sing the praises of God,
hear his word,
taste his promises,
and receive his blessing.
And we see a picture of it here in Dt 29-30.
We see that God's promises are for US today!
3. Warnings: 29:16-20
But why do we worship?
Why do we come together to renew the covenant?
Well, as the warnings of vv16-20 state,
because you have to worship something.
You will either worship the true and living God,
or you will worship an idol.
Will you follow the dictates of your own heart?
Or will you follow the commands of God?
This is why we worship.
This is why it is essential to worship every week with the people of God:
because our hearts tend to wander.
Think for a moment:
what did you think about most this week?
Where was your heart centered?
When you had a spare moment,
what were you thinking about?
I know that I was often thinking about Ginger.
Other times I was wrapped up in my studies
--worrying about whether I was going to get everything done this week.
I blew off a friend because I was too selfish to take the time to have lunch with him.
Will you follow the dictates of your own heart?
Or will you sacrifice your own selfish agenda to serve others?
But how can sinful creatures be righteous?
How can we who have been idolaters all our lives,
worship the one true God ONLY.
Here we turn to the fourth, and central section:
4. Curse of exile and blessing of return: 29:21-30:10
The idolater will be cursed.
The idolater will receive
"all the curses of the covenant that are written in this book of the Law"
And when people see the results of the curse (23-24),
they will be astounded and amazed
--and they will see how terrible is the wrath and vengeance of God.
And in v29, Moses says,
"The secret things belong to the Lord our God,
but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever,
that we may do all the words of his law."
In effect, Moses says, I don't know the future.
You can't know for certain what is going to happen;
but if you walk in God's ways,
and love the Lord your God with all your heart,
then you can rest secure in his promises.
And so then Moses addresses the exiles:
Funny.
Moses knows that Israel is going to rebel,
so he doesn't even bother suggesting that they can prevent it;
rather, he tells them what to do after they have been exiled.
Repent.
Turn from your idolatry and wickedness.
And repent.
Because you see,
Israel is going to be just like Adam and Eve in the garden.
Adam and Eve--at the beginning of the Penteteuch--
received God's warning: do not eat of the Tree
Yet they rebelled
So now, Israel will inherit the Promised Land
--the land flowing with milk and honey
--a new Eden
Are they going to succeed where Adam and Eve failed?
Are they going to establish a paradise of peace and righteousness?
NO!
I can almost hear Moses laughing at the thought!
Are you nuts?
These people?
These rebellious, stiff-necked, Israelites?
No.
Israel is going to fail.
So the question is not whether you can avoid sinning.
The question is: what will you do when you sin?
And what Moses says in ch 30
is EXACTLY what WE need to hear:
YOU CAN'T SAVE YOURSELF
ONLY GOD CAN SAVE SINNERS
Only Jesus Christ can change YOUR heart.
Back in Dt 10:16 Moses had told the Israelites to "circumcize your hearts"
There's a problem here. (take knife out of pocket)
I got my knife.
But the only way I can circumcize my heart is if I kill myself.
Only God can change your heart.
Only God can remove your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
HE is the one who will give you a heart that loves him.
But that doesn't remove your responsibility!
because the whole section started with YOU returning to the Lord your God.
IF you continue to rebel,
and say in your heart "there's nothing I can do about it..."
then you will continue to receive God's curse.
Because as Moses suggests--God himself is the one who will give you a repentant heart.
But have you noticed how powerfully this passage points us to what GOD does?
(skim from v3)
IF (v10)--because the covenant has conditions: God won't bless those who rebel--so IF ...
This is the great mystery of predestination:
God is the one who works salvation in us;
yet we cannot escape our responsibility to obey him!
But the beauty of it all is that even what God commands is what God promises to give:
recall v6
As Augustine said,
"command what you will, O Lord, and give what you command!"
If you command us to love you,
then give us that love--because we are unable to love you by our own strength.
5. Encouragement: 30:11-14
So then Moses turns to encourage the people: (v11-4)
this is New Covenant language
--that God has placed his promises and his commandments in the hearts of his people.
Turn over to Romans 10:5
(READ)
Dt 30 is called the righteousness of faith.
Paul says that this passage is talking about the New Covenant
--about the righteousness of faith.
I don't know how to make it any clearer:
the NT says that Dt 29-30 is about the New Covenant.
New Covenant and Old Covenant are NOT equal to New Testament and Old Testament.
The NT is 27 books that were written after the time of Christ.
The OT is 39 books that were written before the time of Christ.
But the Old Covenant and the New Covenant are discussed all the way through.
The Law and the Promise exist side by side.
They have two different functions--and must never be confused.
The Law shows us our sin,
points us to Christ,
and tells us how God desires for us to live.
The Promise saves us.
And so, just as Moses did,
so I say to you:
the promise is not far from you!
It is here today.
Jesus Christ declares to you today,
that TODAY is the day of salvation.
that this is the place where He may be worshiped in Spirit and in truth.
6. Final exhortation: 30:15-20
Today, the gospel of the New Covenant has been set before you:
Life and death
Blessing and curse.
Jesus Christ died to save sinners.
His blood was shed for the forgiveness of sins.
He was raised from the dead to give you life.
What will you do?
Will you walk in his ways?
Will you obey his commands?
The New Covenant is before you:
It is for YOU
It is for TODAY
It is for THIS PLACE
The New Covenant has been proclaimed,
now let us partake of the New Covenant as we gather at the Table of our Lord.
For in the night in which he was betrayed,
Matthew 26:26-29
The cup that we share IS the blood of the new covenant.
Because, as Paul says in I Cor. 10,
is not the cup of blessing which we bless a participation in the blood of Christ?
Christ shed his blood and offered his body as a sacrifice for our sins.
All the way through the OT we see the sacrifices that the Israelites offered for sin.
After the sacrifice was made,
the people would gather and eat the sacrifice.
Because the wages of sin is death--and only through the death of the victim,
could the sins of the people be atoned for.
But the death of the victim was only considered the people's death
if THEY partook of the sacrifice.
And so when Jesus died on the cross as our sacrifice,
we can only partake of that death,
if we partake of Christ.
That is why God has given us the Lord's Supper.
It is not an empty ritual.
It is a means of grace.
It is the picture through which God gives us Christ.
It's real easy to get rationalistic and think that only the mental world matters.
But throughout Scripture we are given pictures constantly.
It is good to hear the New Covenant proclaimed verbally.
But it is JUST as good to see the New Cov in the pictures of bread and wine.
to touch the New Cov and to taste it.