Read Deuteronomy 29:22–29
Questions from the Scripture text: Who will rise up after them (Deuteronomy 29:22)? Who will come from a far land? What will they see? Who will have done it? What will they say that the land is (Deuteronomy 29:23)? What will they say does not happen to it? Whom will they know and say has done this? Who else will speak (Deuteronomy 29:24)? What will they ask? What would people answer that Israel had forsaken (Deuteronomy 29:25)? What would the essence of this covenant-breaking have been (Deuteronomy 29:26)? How does Deuteronomy 29:27 define this in terms of God’s faithfulness? What three things characterize YHWH’s action in uprooting and exiling them (Deuteronomy 29:28)? What things belong to YHWH (Deuteronomy 29:29)? Who is YHWH to them? What things belong to them? And to whom else? For how long? For what purpose?
Why did Israel fail and suffer curse? Deuteronomy 29:22–29 looks forward to the hearing of God’s Word, publicly read, in the holy assembly on the coming Lord’s Day. In these eight verses of Holy Scripture, the Holy Spirit teaches us that Israel was cursed so that we would learn God’s hatred of sin.
The secret things belong to God (Deuteronomy 29:29a). Including the fact that Israel would, indeed, forsake the covenant which YHWH was making with them on that day (Deuteronomy 29:25). “Known to God, from eternity, are all His works” (Acts 15:18). But the revealed things, belong to His people to do all the words of His law; and then, to their children after them, for the same purpose (Deuteronomy 29:29b). Israel suffered, as it did, so that following generations, and foreigners (Deuteronomy 29:22), and indeed all nations (Deuteronomy 29:24), would learn the same lesson as from Sodom and Gomorrah (Deuteronomy 29:23): that God burns against sin with all that He is… “in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation” (Deuteronomy 29:28). For, all disobedience is, at its essence, a turning from YHWH to other gods (Deuteronomy 29:26). Dear reader, don’t trouble yourself with what God has planned in His providence. Give yourself to knowing what He has revealed, so that you and your children may follow it!
What secrets of God’s providence have you wished to know? What use do you make of the Bible?
Sample prayer: Lord, forgive us for vainly inquiring into Your providence. And, forgive us for how we have not made use of Scripture; there is so much that we have not learned. And forgive us for how much we have failed to do even that which we have known from Your Word. We thank You that Christ submitted Himself, and always obeyed all of Your Word. For His sake, forgive us, and make us to be like Him, we ask in His Name, AMEN!
Suggested songs: ARP131 “My Heart Is Not Exalted, Lord” or TPH256 “God Moves in a Mysterious Way”
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