Moses gathers the covenant into one last appeal. He admits that even now the people do not truly see — the heart to understand is something God has not yet given them. He draws a line around what God has kept secret. He promises that God Himself will one day do the heart-surgery the law could only ask for. And he sets the whole choice in front of them in six words: therefore choose life.
A study in Deuteronomy 29-30 · Arthur Baldwin · StandUp4Jesus.Org · 8 min read
An Heart To Perceive, Eyes To See
“Yet the LORD hath not given you an heart to perceive, and eyes to see, and ears to hear, unto this day.”
Deuteronomy 29:4
Forty years of miracles — the sea, the manna, the cloud — and Moses says the people still do not really see. The faculty needed to perceive God rightly is itself a gift, and one they have not yet been given. It is an honest, humbling admission before the great appeal that follows: the will alone is not enough; the heart has to be changed.
The Secret Things Belong Unto The LORD
“The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
Deuteronomy 29:29
A boundary line for curiosity. God keeps some things to Himself, and no amount of speculation will pry them loose. What He has revealed is given for a purpose that is not intellectual but practical — “that we may do all the words of this law.” Revelation is for obedience. When the Bible falls silent on a question, the reverent response is to get on with what it has said clearly.
“‘The secret things belong unto the Lord our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever.’ Deuteronomy 29:29. The revelation of Himself that God has given in His word is for our study.”
Ellen G. White · The Ministry of Healing, p. 429
The LORD Will Circumcise Thine Heart
“And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.”
Deuteronomy 30:6
In chapter 10 the people were told to circumcise their own hearts (Deuteronomy 10:16). Here God promises to do it Himself. This is the answer to His wish at Sinai — “O that there were such an heart in them” (5:29) — and to the blunt diagnosis of 29:4. It is the new covenant in seed form, the same promise the prophets would enlarge: “a new heart also will I give you” (Ezekiel 36:26).
The Word Is Very Nigh Unto Thee
“For this commandment which I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off… But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it… I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live.”
Deuteronomy 30:11, 14, 19
The word is not off in heaven or across the sea, needing some hero to fetch it — it is already close, in the mouth and in the heart. Paul quotes this passage word for word and says it describes the gospel of faith: “the word is nigh thee… that is, the word of faith, which we preach” (Romans 10:6-8). And the appeal Moses ends on is the appeal of the whole Bible: two ways are set before you, one leads to life; choose. The last study watches Moses take his own last steps — up the mountain.
