Sat.’s Devo - The New Covenant

Read: Deuteronomy 29:1-30:20; Luke 11:37:12:7; Psalm 78:1-31; Proverbs 12:19-20 Moses came to his final words before they committed to the terms of the new covenant with the Lord. He reminded them of their wilderness journey and how they didn’t have a mind to understand, eyes to see or ears to hear the Lord. God had provided for them all through the dessert and even their clothes and shoes were blessed and didn’t wear out. God had helped them conquer the lands of King Simon and Og and their lands became the inheritance of Reuben and Gad and half the tribe of Manasseh. They had made slaves of the ones they let live and they chopped their wood and carried their water. *** God was making this new covenant with the children of the people he brought out of Egypt, since all of their parents had died in the wilderness because of their rebellion. They had been children when they left Egypt but they had the memory of Egypt’s evil idol worship. God was making his covenant with them so that none of them would turn away from the Lord and worship the gods of other nations and so that there would be no bitter roots among them. *** All who still live by the desires of their own stubborn heart would end in ruin. If they were to turn away to other gods, then the land would be cursed and devastated by sulfur and salt just like Sodom and Gomorrah. All the other nations would look on it and ask why the Lord was so angry with them. The answer would be because they turned away from him. *** In the future, if they did find themselves experiencing the curses of the Lord, and repented, the Lord would restore their fortunes and have mercy on them and gather them back from all the nations where he scattered them. Then the Lord would make the even more prosperous than their ancestors. *** God would change their hearts so that they would love him with all their heart and soul. The curses would be turned to their enemies. They would themselves be blessed with children, success, abundant harvests and God would delight in being good to them. *** The law he was giving them was not too difficult that they couldn’t follow it. He had put it in their heart and on their lips so they could obey it. *** God was giving them a choice between life and death, prosperity and disaster. All they had to do was to keep his commands, and they would live in God’s blessings. *** In Luke, the Pharisees and teacher of the law were always offended that Jesus didn’t follow their man-made laws and customs like ceremonially washing his hands like they had said must be done. Jesus had been invited to one of the Pharisee’s house for a meal. When he didn’t go through the hand-washing ritual the Pharisees had required everyone to do his host was offended. When they marveled that he didn’t go through the ritual he let loose on them. He rebuked them for being all clean and pious looking on the outside when their hearts were full of extortion and wickedness. They gave herbs, but judged unfairly. They were in the highest positions of importance but are really like graves that people walked on. *** The lawyers asked if he was going to rebuke them also. (They should have kept their mouths shut) Jesus rebuked them for doling out extremely harsh sentences that no-one was able to bear. They gave their money to build sepulchers for the priests that their fathers killed. God would in the future send them prophets and apostles and they would slay them and persecute them. (We see that came true in the book of Acts.) Then the blood of all the prophets would be on their heads from the blood of Abel to the blood of Zacharias. He finished with, the lawyers had taken away the key of knowledge and didn’t even use it themselves to enter in to God’s kingdom. *** Needless to say, this didn’t go over well with the scribes and Pharisees. They began to provoke Jesus to get him to say something they could catch him with that they could accuse him. *** Lord, may we keep the words of your covenant and love you with our whole heart and soul.