Fn – All of You Are Standing 29: 10-15

All of You Are Standing
29: 10-15

All of you are standing DIG: Why was the renewal of the covenant necessary? What people attended this covenant ceremony? Who were the foreigners who chopped their word and carried their water? Who else was it their duty to inform? Upon whom did the covenant depend? Why? What does this show about the covenant? Why wasn’t this covenant limited with the passage of time? What was their enjoyment of the covenant dependent on?

REFLECT: “Today” echos down through the ages every time these words are read. For every new generation, the challenge of the covenant would always be “today” (see Psalm 95:7b-11), just as for every generation of believers, the Lord’s coming is always “soon.” The Church today has much to learn from this social and trans-generational inclusiveness of Isra’el in the days of Moshe and Deuteronomy.

Parashah 50: Nitzavim (Standing) 29:10-30:20
(In regular years read with Parashah 52, in leap years read separately)
(To see link click Af – Parashah)

The Key People: Moshe, speaking to all Isra’el.

The Scene: In the wilderness east of the Promised Land, standing across the Jordan River opposite Jericho. Moshe formally gathered the people to deliver a final solemn message to uphold God’s covenant with them. The people stood before Moshe, from the greatest to the least, in order to enter into a sworn covenant with ADONAI in fulfillment of the promise He made with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This covenant ceremony marked the climax of Moshe’s earlier appeals in Deuteronomy.

The Main Events: include all Isra’el standing before ADONAI to enter His covenant; Moshe warning that idolatry will defile the Land and scatter the people; the choice between blessing and cursing, life and death; God’s promise to regather the Jewish people; the reminder that Torah is in their mouths and hearts, not too hard to obey; the command to choose life and listen to the voice of YHVH; so that b’nai-Israel will live long in the Land that God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.⁶³⁰

These verses remind us of the final stages of the covenant ceremony before the oath was taken. The covenant community was assembled and the nature of the event is explained.

The day before Moses died.

A. You are taking your stand with those today (29:10-11): An entirely new generation gathered to take an “oath-of-loyalty” to ADONAI. The fact that they were all standing implies some sort of formal ceremony. It was an incredibly leveling experience for everyone assembled. All of you are standing today in the presence of ADONAI your God without reference to social, economic, gender, or age differences: Your leaders and chief men, your elders and officials, and all the other men of Isra’el, together with your children and your wives, and the foreigners living in your camps who chop your wood and carry your water (29:10-11). The wood chopper was no less a member of the covenant community than the king. The foreigners were from the mixed multitude which joined the Israelites on their departure from Egypt (Exodus 12:38).

Dear Heavenly Father, Praise Your awesome love which offers salvation to all, including Gentiles, who covenant with You as their Lord and Savior. Praise You for Your Messiah who gives light to all. I, Adonai, called You in righteousness, I will take hold of Your hand, I will keep You and give You as a covenant to the people, as a light to the nations (Isaiah 42:6). Praise your great power over death. Because I live, you also will live (John 14:19c). How wonderful is Your encouraging fellowship as You live in believers.  The Spirit of truth . . . you know Him, because He abides with you and will be in you (John 14:17a, c). How wonderful to focus my eyes on the future eternal glory and joy in heaven, instead of on life’s problems, which will soon be over. For I consider the sufferings of this present time not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed to us. (Romans 8:18). I love You and look forward to praising You forever! In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen

B. I am making a covenant (29:12): Each individual of the community made an oath of personal allegiance. You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with ADONAI your God, a covenant ADONAI is making with you this day and sealing it with an oath (29:12). The loyalty to the covenant was guarded by curses (to see link click Ff – Curses for Disobedience). This verse reads literally, your crossing over into the covenant of YHVH your God . . . and into His curse. The noun curse refers to the curses of the covenant.⁶³¹

C. Renew the covenant made at Mount Sinai (29:13): The purpose of the assembly is now declared. The primary function of this assembly was to renew the covenant that the LORD originally made with Isra’el at Mount Sinai (see the commentary on Exodus De – You Will be For Me a Kingdom of Priests). The covenant was made with the nation that very day as His people, that He would be their God as He promised them and as He swore to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (29:13). The core of this section is the core of the covenant itself, the mutual commitment of the people to God and God to the people.

B. I am making a covenant (29:14): I am cutting (Hebrew koret, meaning to cut off or to cut down) this Covenant with an oath. The cutting of a covenant involved the shedding of blood. It was a blood covenant. The implication was that the party who failed to keep the covenant would become like the slain animals that were sacrificed as substitutes for the two parties making the covenant. Once the covenant was made and the two parties walked between the dead animals, the terms of the covenant could not be changed (see the commentary on Genesis Eg – I am the LORD, Who Brought You Out of Ur of the Chaldeans to Give You This Land). So, this ceremony was not reenacted here, but renewed the original covenant the Israelites cut with YHVH at Mount Sinai. It was important to understand that the covenant He made with their fathers and mothers would stand forever, but their enjoyment of its promises depended on their obedience to the mitzvot (29:14).⁶³²

A. You are taking your stand for future generations (29:15): In this passage Moshe looks forward instead of backward. He stresses the continuity of this covenant from the present audience to all future generations, not because YHVH’s covenant mercies are an inherited family right, but because God is faithful to His promise to extend His blessing to all who love Him and obey His mitzvot.⁶³³ I am not only cutting this covenant with those who are standing here with us today in the presence of ADONAI our God, but also with those who are not here today. The community was not limited by the passage of time or race. This text is very important because it states clearly that the covenant of God with Isra’el is not exclusively for Isra’el, but for everyone who is standing with Isra’el. Not only those of the first generation of Isra’el standing there with Moses, but with those Gentiles who were not there at that historical moment. Each new generation, Jew or Gentile must renew the covenant for itself and take its stand before YHVH as did the Isra’el of old. And in the following verses, Moshe warns them of the alternative. If they forsake the Word of Truth and worship false gods, they will end up like the other idolatrous nations around them (see Fo – Do Not Worship Other Gods).