STUDY TIP: Readers who have not yet read Bible History and God’s Written Word and God’s Spoken Voice Part 1 would do well to do so before reading this series of pages.

GOD GIVES THE ABILITY TO HEAR HIS VOICE
In Mystery we discuss the many difficult parts of scripture that are impossible to interpret with the natural mind. The message in this series of pages is the truth that those mysteries can be and will be revealed in New Covenant disciples.

Near the end of Deuteronomy there are several very interesting verses that seem quite inconsequential at first but are very important to people who want to enter into a mysterious Promised Land.

Deuteronomy 29:1-15:  These are the words of the covenant which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He had made with them at Horeb. 2 And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “You have seen all that the LORD did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his land ; 3 the great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders.

COMMENTARY: At first this appears to be a simple review of Israel’s history with God since their deliverance from Egypt. When interpreted symbolically, however, it is much more than a reminder of what Israel saw with its physical eyes.  Actually, this is an introduction to an important Biblical theme: The difference between knowing about God by what can be seen with the physical eye (i.e. reading the written Bible) compared to learning about him by obeying his commandment to listen to his voice. 

These scriptures only make sense if they are not interpreted as history. The power of scripture to train us in righteousness is attained only if we interpret them as though they apply to us as individuals today. This happens only to people who know how to hear God’s spoken voice.

Signs and wonders are commonly interpreted as physical miracles that can be observed with the natural eye. Religious people who like to observe such phenomena think that they are exercising their faith when they see a miracle. They could not be more wrong because faith is the substance of things not seen — not of things that can be seen like physical signs and wonders.

See Signs, Wonders and Miracles for more about how God sees them.

4 “Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear.

STUDY TIPS: See Blindness and Deafness for understanding of what it means to not have eyes to see or ears to hear.

Having a heart to know is a reference to New Covenant scriptures that promise the ability to know God intimately. This happens when God writes his laws on hearts of people who have stopped practicing the sin of religion. New Covenant disciples will know God when they know how to listen to his spoken voice.

Hearts to understand, eyes to see and ears to hear are given only to New Covenant disciples who have been delivered from the sin of religion (symbolically represented as deliverance from Egypt).

STUDY TIP: See Egypt and Pharaohs for understanding of deliverance.

People who have no sense of having been delivered from bondage in Egypt are still Old/First Covenant religionists who see only with their natural eyes and ears (i.e. they interpret the Bible literally). They have not yet entered the promised land of the New Covenant where they interpret the Bible symbolically (i.e. they listen to God’s voice with spiritual eyes and hear with spiritual ears).

5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out upon you, and your sandals have not worn off your feet; 6 you have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink; that you may know that I am the LORD your God.

COMMENTARY: The reminder about clothes and sandals is another review of a sign and wonder that God did within Israel’s physical view. The reference to bread, wine and strong drink, however, is about something spiritual — not physical.

Israel had bread while in the wilderness of religion, but the physical manna/bread ceased when Israel entered the Promised Land. The reason the manna ceased is that in the Promised Land, New Covenant disciples eat hidden manna — not common manna that they need to work for. This principle is represented in the Messiah who is the bread of life and the mediator of the New Covenant which symbolizes the Promised Land. The bread eaten in the Promised Land is therefore called hidden (i.e. spiritual) manna.

The place where this bread it is hidden is in the inner man (i.e. heart) where God’s laws are written. Being spiritual, this bread cannot be understood by Old/First Covenant religionists who use their natural eyes or ears to interpret the Bible literally. It can only be understood by New Covenant disciples who listen to God’s voice with their hearts. What they hear is the symbolic (i.e. spiritual) meaning behind the literal words.

In Bible symbolism, when spiritual bread (i.e. God’s spoken voice) is seen and heard, it is said to be eaten or consumed at a spiritual table (i.e. heart). This spiritual bread that comes from God’s voice is the only bread that nurtures spiritual life. 

Verse 6 anticipates entrance into the Promised Land. While in the desert wilderness (i.e. religion), Israel ate the bread of religion and drank the strong drink of religion. In other words, they were intoxicated with Old/First Covenant religion that is based on literal interpretations of the Bible. In the promised land (i.e. New Covenant), however, Israel ate hidden manna and drank new wine and new strong drink. New Covenant wine is a reference to joy which is one of the fruits of the Spirit. This all symbolizes  the New Covenant which is the gift of the Spirit which is poured out on New Covenant disciples.

7 And when you came to this place, Sihon the king of Heshbon and Og the king of Bashan came out against us to battle, but we defeated them; 8 we took their land, and gave it for an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manas’sites.

COMMENTARY: These verses are more of God’s reminders about things he did for Israel by conquering its enemies on the way to the Promised Land.

9 Therefore be careful to do the words of this covenant, that you may prosper in all that you do.

COMMENTARY: It is important to keep in mind that all communication between God and his people at this time was through a human mediator (i.e. Moses). There was a book of the covenant that Moses wrote,  but there were no written words of God for people to study. All they had was God’s verbal word as mediated by Moses. Thus, to “do the words of the covenant,” Israel had to listen to God’s spoken voice.

The presence of a human mediator (i.e. false  prophet) is always a feature of the wilderness experience. Absence of a human mediator is a basic feature of the Promised Land/New Covenant experience in which God himself teaches through his spirit and through true prophets.

10 “You stand this day all of you before the LORD your God; the heads of your tribes, your elders, and your officers, all the men of Israel, 11 your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your camp, both he who hews your wood and he who draws your water, 12 that you may enter into the sworn covenant of the LORD your God, which the LORD your God makes with you this day; 13 that he may establish you this day as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14 Nor is it with you only that I make this sworn covenant, 15 but with him who is not here with us this day as well as with him who stands here with us this day before the LORD our God.

COMMENTARY: The context here is the end of the forty years in the wilderness and the beginning of the entry into the Promised Land. God reminds Israel of all their wanderings and their various tests along the way as he prepares them for entry into the covenant that was promised to Abraham four hundred years earlier.

The main point to take from these verses is that God is speaking to everyone — not just to Israel. The sworn covenant in verse 12 is the New Covenant of which Jesus is the mediator. It is for anyone who wants to be one of God’s people and who consider the God of Abraham to be their God also.