Ratification of a Divine Covenant

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Decision Time: The Conclusion of Moses' Great Sermon -- Deuteronomy 30:11-20

When I negotiate collective agreements, once a settlement is reached between the negotiating parties, each party has to take the tentative settlement back to their principals to get it ratified. Hopefully, those principals will support the deal the parties came to.  But if not, it's back to the drawing boards. This agreement was no different, except that the parties were their own principals -- God on the one hand and the Israelites on the other. And there was no going back to the drawing boards.

God proposed a great Covenant for the people of Israel. Moses acted as a mediator. Now the people had to accept it formally. And here Moses provides us, like a lawyer presenting a major case, with his 'summary statement' of the whole thing.

But first, in verse 11,  Moses is acting like a very strong 'mediator'. He is saying he 'commands' the Israelites to accept the Covenant. It is not too difficult for them. It's within their ability to attain. It's within reach. In verse 14, he says the 'word' (the Mosaic law) is 'very near you' (you know them; you've heard them; they're within your reach) -- in your mouth and in your heart. You can do this. David Guzik says he is implying to Israel that there's nothing so 'mysterious' about this whole thing. Matthew Henry says Moses is suggesting they have no excuse -- the matter is clear, it is simple.

Then in verse 15 he tells them, in case they missed it, that it's a matter of life and prosperity, and death and adversity. Or put more modernly, a matter of life and death, and also of prosperity and adversity. (Note prosperity here does not mean material riches, but rather a blessed life, generally peaceful, secure.)

And while verse 16 says Moses "commanded" them to love God, I would argue it is Moses' dying request, his last plea if you like, for the people he loves. He wants them to live and multiply. He wants God to bless them in their new land.

In verses 17-18 he takes time to warn them once more of the consequences if they don't obey -- they will perish. And more immediate to them -- they won't be able to keep the land God was giving them at that time.

Then (verse 19) Moses calls for "the question" as they say. With heaven and earth as witnesses, he implores the Isrealites to choose between life over death, that they and their descendants may live. Finally, in verse 20 he recaps exactly how they are to do that. In today's courts of law or impeachment hearings in the American Congress, as an advocate, he would have struck a chord and won the day. 

The Israelites had a choice to make. Moses laid it out well. You and I have that same choice. And so does everyone else. I hope we all have or will make the right choice.

As I watch the events going on around the world these days -- actions taking us globally away from God and righteousness, evil overcoming the best of men, and fear moving it's foot further and further into the doorstep of our lives, I can only pray that each of us has made the right decision when it comes to life or death.

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