After the rehearsal of the law and the word of warning with the blessings and the curses, God charged Moses to make a covenant with the new generation. The former generation had received a covenant forty years prior at Horeb, but in chapters twenty-nine and thirty God charged Moses to enact another covenant with the new generation. In this message we will consider the enactment of this covenant.
In 29:1-17 we have the introductory word.
The covenant enacted in chapters twenty-nine and thirty was the covenant which Jehovah commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab. This means that it was a covenant besides the one He made with them at Horeb, that is, at Mount Sinai (29:1). The warning was to remind the people, whereas the enactment of the covenant was to establish the warning.
The enactment of the covenant was based upon the experiences of the past (vv. 2-8, 16-17).
The enactment of the covenant was based upon all that the children of Israel saw which Jehovah did in the land of Egypt with great signs and wonders, for which Jehovah had not given them a heart to understand, eyes to see, and ears to hear until that day (vv. 2-4, 16a). Because the children of Israel were rebellious in the wilderness, they did not understand what God was doing with them. They passed through many things, but they were in darkness and thus did not know what was happening.
The enactment of the covenant was also based upon all that the children of Israel had experienced in the wilderness for forty years (vv. 5a, 16b-17). Their clothing did not wear out, and they did not eat bread nor drink wine or strong drink, that they might know that Jehovah was their God (vv. 5b-6).
The children of Israel slew Sihon, the king of Heshbon, and Og, the king of Bashan, and took their land for the inheritance of the two and a half tribes of Reuben and Gad and Manasseh (vv. 7-8).
All these things were miracles done by the Lord before the eyes of the people in order to strengthen the children of Israel and assure them that He would fulfill whatever He had promised. Hence, these experiences of the past became a base for the enactment of the covenant.