29:1-3
Thankfully we are now past the curses! The Lord had made a covenant with the Israelites at Horeb, and now does so again at Moab, the time of actually entering the Promised Land is now very close. So Moses summoned all of Israel. The covenant applied to all of them, just as the gospel applies to all. Moses begins by reminding them of what they have seen, their “lived experience” if we use a modern idiom. Sadly, they learned little from their experience. “You have seen all ...” Presumably this applies to the women and those who were under twenty at the time of the exodus, for almost all the men who were over twenty died in the desert.
29:4
“But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind that understands or eyes that see or ears that hear.” The Israelites had learnt nothing from their experiences. In Jeremiah and Ezekiel there is the promise of a new heart, of God writing His law in their hearts. Jesus used the phrase “let him who has ears to hear” on a number of occasions in the gospels (e.g. Mark 4:9). A change of heart in the people was what was needed.
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