The Gift of Seeing Text: Deuteronomy 29:2-9
Introduction: The Covenant on the Plains
We come now to the plains of Moab. An entire generation has died in the wilderness. The generation that saw the plagues of Egypt, that walked through the Red Sea on dry ground, that heard the voice of God from Sinai and trembled, that generation is gone. They saw, but they did not see. They heard, but they did not hear. Their carcasses are scattered across the desert because of their unbelief. Now, on the very cusp of the Promised Land, Moses gathers their children, the new generation, to renew the covenant. This is not a new covenant, but a solemn reaffirmation of the covenant made at Horeb, tailored for a people about to go to war and possess their inheritance.
Moses begins this great charge by reminding them of what their eyes have seen. He wants them to learn the lesson their fathers refused to learn. The central problem of the human condition is not a lack of evidence. It is not that God has hidden Himself or failed to make His power known. The problem is a spiritual blindness, a deafness of the heart, a profound inability to process the data correctly. Israel saw the same signs, the same wonders, the same provision as we do, yet they fell into idolatry and rebellion. And Moses, in a staggering statement of divine sovereignty, tells them exactly why. The ability to see, to truly perceive and understand the works of God, is not a native human faculty. It is a gift. And without this gift, all the evidence in the world is just so much noise and light.
This passage confronts us with the absolute necessity of God's grace, not just for our initial salvation, but for every moment of our lives. It teaches us that memory, rightly understood, is a theological exercise. We are to remember God's works not as brute facts, but as covenantal actions that reveal who He is and what He requires of us. And it sets before us the fundamental choice: will we receive God's testimony and prosper, or will we rely on our own blind eyes and perish in a wilderness of our own making?
The Text
And Moses summoned all Israel and said to them, “You have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his land; the great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders. Yet to this day Yahweh has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear. And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandal has not worn out on your foot. You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, in order that you might know that I am Yahweh your God. Then you came to this place, and Sihon the king of Horebon and Og the king of Bashan came out to meet us for battle, but we struck them down; and we took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites. So you shall keep the words of this covenant to do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.
(Deuteronomy 29:2-9 LSB)
Empirical Evidence is Not Enough (vv. 2-3)
Moses begins by grounding his charge in their shared experience. He appeals to what they have seen with their own eyes.
"You have seen all that Yahweh did before your eyes in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh and all his servants and all his land; the great trials which your eyes have seen, those great signs and wonders." (Deuteronomy 29:2-3)
He is speaking to the generation that was under twenty when the exodus occurred. They saw it. They were there. They witnessed the de-creation of Egypt, the systematic dismantling of its pantheon. The plagues were not random acts of nature; they were "great trials," "signs," and "wonders." A sign points to something beyond itself. A wonder causes astonishment. These were theological statements executed with raw power. The Nile, a god, turned to blood. The sun, a god, was blotted out. Pharaoh, a god, was humbled and his firstborn slain. Yahweh was declaring war on the gods of Egypt and winning decisively.
This is the foundation of their national identity. They are a redeemed people, rescued from the house of bondage by the mighty hand and outstretched arm of God. Moses is saying, "You are not here by accident. Your history is not a series of fortunate events. It is a divine drama, and you had front-row seats. You saw it." The evidence was overwhelming, public, and undeniable. There was no room for empirical doubt. And yet, for all their seeing, they were blind.
The Sovereign Gift of Perception (v. 4)
This next verse is one of the most doctrinally potent statements in the Old Testament. It is the hinge upon which the entire passage turns.
"Yet to this day Yahweh has not given you a heart to know, nor eyes to see, nor ears to hear." (Deuteronomy 29:4)
After establishing the mountain of evidence, Moses provides the divine diagnosis for their fathers' unbelief and their own spiritual dullness. The problem was not with the evidence. The problem was with their hearts, their eyes, and their ears. And the reason for this deficiency is stated plainly: Yahweh had not given them the capacity to perceive. This is a radical statement of divine sovereignty in the matter of spiritual understanding. True knowledge of God is not the result of human investigation, intellectual acumen, or even eyewitness experience. It is a direct, gracious gift from God.
This demolishes all forms of man-centered religion. It tells us that the natural man, left to himself, is spiritually dead. He can see the "signs and wonders" but he cannot grasp their significance. He sees the creation but worships the creature. He hears the law but his heart is stone. The Apostle Paul quotes this very concept in Romans 11 when explaining Israel's hardness of heart. Jesus says the same thing: "To you it has been given to know the secrets of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it has not been given... For this people's heart has grown dull, and with their ears they can barely hear, and their eyes they have closed" (Matthew 13:11, 15).
Does this absolve them of responsibility? Not at all. Scripture holds divine sovereignty and human responsibility in perfect, unresolved tension. Men are responsible for their blindness because they love the darkness (John 3:19). They are accountable for their deafness because they stop their ears. But the solution, the cure, is entirely a work of God. Only God can perform the heart surgery that turns stone to flesh. Only God can open blind eyes and unstop deaf ears. This verse is a call to profound humility. If you see, if you understand, if you believe, it is not because you are smarter or more righteous than your neighbor. It is because God, in His inscrutable mercy, has given you a heart to know.
Forty Years of Supernatural Schooling (vv. 5-6)
God's instruction did not end in Egypt. The wilderness was a forty-year classroom designed to teach one central lesson.
"And I have led you forty years in the wilderness; your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandal has not worn out on your foot. You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, in order that you might know that I am Yahweh your God." (Deuteronomy 29:5-6)
The wilderness was a place of total dependence. There were no farms, no vineyards, no shopping malls. Left to themselves, they would have perished in a week. But God provided. He led them, and His provision was overtly supernatural. Their clothes and sandals did not wear out. This is a quiet, constant, forty-year miracle. It is a testimony against all anxiety. The God who can keep a sandal from wearing out for four decades can surely handle your mortgage.
Furthermore, their diet was supernatural. They did not eat bread or drink wine, the normal staples of life. They ate manna, the bread from heaven, and drank water from the rock. What was the purpose of this strange, monotonous, miraculous existence? The text is explicit: "in order that you might know that I am Yahweh your God." God stripped away all their ordinary means of sustenance to teach them that He is the ultimate source of all sustenance. He is not one god among many who helps with the harvest. He is Yahweh, the self-existent one, upon whom all existence depends. Man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. The wilderness was a long, hard lesson in the first principle of reality.
The Firstfruits of Conquest (vv. 7-8)
As they approached the land, God gave them a tangible taste of the victory to come. The lesson moved from supernatural provision to supernatural conquest.
"Then you came to this place, and Sihon the king of Horebon and Og the king of Bashan came out to meet us for battle, but we struck them down; and we took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of the Manassites." (Deuteronomy 29:7-8)
Sihon and Og were not insignificant local chieftains. They were formidable Amorite kings. Og, in particular, was a giant, a remnant of the Rephaim, the very people the faithless spies had trembled before forty years earlier. By coming out to meet Israel for battle, they were instruments of God's providence. God hardened their hearts, just as He had Pharaoh's, in order to display His power. He was demonstrating to this new generation that the enemies in the land, no matter how tall or well-fortified, were no match for Him.
And notice the result. They did not just win a battle; they took their land and gave it as an inheritance. This was the down payment on the promise. Before they ever crossed the Jordan, they were already landowners. God was showing them that His promises are not abstract spiritual sentiments; they have real-world, dirt-under-your-fingernails consequences. The conquest was not their achievement; it was God's gift. He struck the kings down; He gave the land. Israel's part was to believe and to fight.
The Covenantal Conclusion (v. 9)
Moses now brings all this evidence, all this history, to its practical and binding conclusion.
"So you shall keep the words of this covenant to do them, that you may prosper in all that you do." (Deuteronomy 29:9)
The "so" or "therefore" connects everything that has come before to this final command. Because God has revealed His power in Egypt, because He has given you the gift of perception, because He has sustained you in the wilderness, because He has given you victory over your enemies, therefore, keep the covenant. Obedience is the only sane and rational response to such a God. It is not a grim duty performed to earn His favor; it is the grateful, loyal response of a people who have been redeemed, sustained, and given a glorious inheritance.
And this obedience is not without benefit. The result is prosperity: "that you may prosper in all that you do." This is the covenantal logic that our antinomian age despises. God has structured the world in such a way that obedience leads to blessing and disobedience leads to cursing. This is not the health-and-wealth gospel, which turns God into a cosmic vending machine. This is the biblical reality that righteousness exalts a nation. When a people walks in God's ways, keeping His statutes, their families, their cities, their farms, and their culture will flourish. When they abandon His law, they embrace decay and death. The choice is stark, and it is the choice that stands before every generation.
Seeing Jesus
This entire passage is a shadow, and the substance is Christ. We too have seen great signs and wonders. We have seen the Son of God turn water into wine, heal the sick, cast out demons, and command the storms. We have seen the ultimate sign: His resurrection from the dead, the decisive defeat of the ultimate Pharaoh, Satan. We have seen the power of God displayed not in the plagues of Egypt, but at the cross of Calvary.
And yet, seeing this is not enough. The natural man looks at the cross and sees foolishness. He hears the gospel and it is a stumbling block. Why? Because to this day, Yahweh has not given him a heart to know. The ability to see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ is a gift of sovereign grace. The Holy Spirit must perform the miracle of regeneration, opening our blind eyes to see that this crucified man is the King of glory, this shed blood is our redemption.
And once our eyes are opened, we realize we are in a wilderness. This world is not our home. We do not live by the bread and wine of this age, but by the true manna from heaven, Jesus Christ, who is the bread of life. We are sustained not by our own resources, but by His constant, supernatural provision. And He has already given us the firstfruits of our inheritance. He has defeated our Sihon and Og, sin and death. He has seated us in the heavenly places and given us the Holy Spirit as a down payment of the full inheritance to come.
Therefore, what is our response? "So you shall keep the words of this covenant." We are called to grateful obedience. We are to walk in His ways, not to earn our salvation, but because we have been saved. And as we do, we will prosper. Not necessarily in the way the world defines prosperity, but in a far deeper sense. We will bear fruit, we will have peace, we will build things for His kingdom that will last for eternity. He has given us eyes to see, so let us look to Him. He has given us ears to hear, so let us listen to His Word. He has given us a heart to know, so let us love Him and keep His commandments.