The Covenant and the Kindergarten Text: Deuteronomy 29:10-13
Introduction: The Myth of the Autonomous Man
We live in an age that worships at the altar of the autonomous individual. The modern man, particularly the modern Western man, sees himself as a self-made island, a sovereign entity whose only binding commitments are those he chooses for himself. His creed is simple: "I am my own." His relationships are contractual, his allegiances are temporary, and his identity is fluid. He believes he can stand before God, if he believes in God at all, as a solitary negotiator, striking his own deal.
This entire worldview is a delusion. It is a rebellion against the very fabric of reality as God has woven it. The Bible knows nothing of such a creature. From beginning to end, Scripture presents man as a federal being, a creature-in-covenant. We are born into families, tribes, and nations. We are born into covenants. We are never isolated individuals; we are always in solidarity with others, for good or for ill. You are either in Adam or you are in Christ. You are either in the covenant of works under a curse, or in the covenant of grace under a blessing. There is no third way. There is no neutral ground.
This passage in Deuteronomy is a cannonball shot into the flimsy dinghy of modern individualism. Here, on the plains of Moab, as Israel stands on the precipice of the Promised Land, God calls them to a solemn covenant renewal. And notice who is included. It is not just the movers and shakers, not just the elders and officers who had to sign on the dotted line. It is everyone. It is the entire nation, standing as one corporate man before the living God. This is not a collection of individuals making private decisions. This is a people, a body, entering into a binding oath together.
Our evangelical traditions, particularly in America, have been deeply infected with a revivalistic individualism that would have been utterly foreign to Moses, to the prophets, to Jesus, and to the apostles. We have made salvation into a private, internal transaction between a man and his Maker, and we have forgotten that God saves households, peoples, and nations. This text forces us to confront the corporate, all-encompassing nature of God's covenant dealings. It is a truth we must recover if we are to have any hope of seeing our families, our churches, and our nation discipled to Christ.
The Text
"You stand today, all of you, before Yahweh your God: your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is within your camps, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, that you may enter into the covenant with Yahweh your God and into His oath, which Yahweh your God is cutting with you today, in order that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob."
(Deuteronomy 29:10-13 LSB)
The Corporate Summons (v. 10-11)
Moses begins by gathering the assembly, and the description is intentionally, exhaustively comprehensive.
"You stand today, all of you, before Yahweh your God: your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is within your camps, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water..." (Deuteronomy 29:10-11)
The phrase "all of you" is the keynote. This is a corporate gathering. God is not dealing with a disconnected series of individuals. He is addressing Israel as a singular entity, a corporate person. He lists them from the top down and from the bottom up to leave no room for misunderstanding. He begins with the leadership: the heads, the tribal leaders, the elders, the officers. These are the representatives, the federal heads of the people. Their presence is essential because in a covenantal society, leaders represent their people before God.
But it does not stop there. It includes "all the men of Israel." And then, crucially, it cascades down to include every last person within the camp. "Your little ones." Let that sink in. The infants, the toddlers, the children who could not possibly understand the intricate clauses of the covenant are explicitly included. This is a direct refutation of the Baptist view of the covenant, which insists that only those who can make a credible profession of faith can be members. God says otherwise. He includes the children of believers within the covenant community by virtue of their birth. They are not outsiders who need to "get saved" into the covenant; they are born inside the covenant and are called to live out the terms of that covenant by faith.
The wives are included. In the surrounding pagan cultures, women were often treated as property with no spiritual standing. But here, before Yahweh, they stand as covenant members alongside their husbands. The covenant elevates and dignifies all whom it includes.
And it goes even further. "The sojourner who is within your camps." This includes the resident aliens, the non-Israelites who had thrown their lot in with God's people. And to make the point as sharp as possible, Moses specifies the lowest of the low: "from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water." This likely refers to the Gibeonites (cf. Joshua 9:21-27), who had been absorbed into Israel as servants. Even the lowest-ranking manual laborer, the foreigner doing the menial tasks, stands before God as a member of this covenant assembly. There are no exclusions. From the highest tribal chief to the foreign water-boy, from the wisest elder to the babbling infant, all are present. All are included. All are bound.
The Covenantal Oath (v. 12)
The purpose of this all-inclusive gathering is made explicit in the next verse.
"...that you may enter into the covenant with Yahweh your God and into His oath, which Yahweh your God is cutting with you today..." (Deuteronomy 29:12)
The word for "enter" here means to pass through. This is likely a reference to the ancient covenant-making ceremony where sacrificial animals were cut in half, and the parties of the covenant would walk between the pieces (cf. Genesis 15:17). It was a self-maledictory oath. The one walking through the pieces was essentially saying, "May it be done to me as it was done to these animals if I break this covenant." This is not a casual agreement. This is a blood oath. It is a matter of life and death.
Notice the language: God is "cutting" this covenant. A covenant is not a contract between two equal parties. It is a bond sovereignly administered by God. He sets the terms. We do not get to negotiate. Our role is to accept the terms by faith and walk in obedience, or to reject them and face the consequences, the curses of the oath.
This is what it means to be a Christian. When you are baptized into the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, you are "entering into" the covenant. You are being formally identified with Christ in His death and resurrection. You are passing through the pieces of His sacrifice. You are being brought under the terms of His oath. This is an objective reality. All who are baptized are in the covenant. The critical question is whether you will be a faithful covenant-keeper or a faithless covenant-breaker.
The Divine Purpose (v. 13)
Finally, Moses states the ultimate goal of this covenant ceremony. What is God's purpose in all this?
"...in order that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." (Deuteronomy 29:13)
The purpose is relational. It is summed up in the great covenant formula that echoes throughout Scripture: "I will be your God, and you will be my people." This is the heart of it all. God is not just giving them a law book; He is giving them Himself. He is establishing them, confirming them, setting them up as His treasured possession in the world.
This is not a new idea. This is not Plan B. Moses is careful to ground this covenant renewal in the ancient promises. This is the fulfillment of the oath God "swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." The covenant with Moses on the plains of Moab is an administration of the one covenant of grace that began with Abraham, and which finds its ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
God's plan of redemption is one unified plan. The promise made to Abraham was that through his seed, all the families of the earth would be blessed (Genesis 12:3). That seed is Christ (Galatians 3:16). And all who are in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile, are Abraham's offspring and heirs according to the promise (Galatians 3:29). This ceremony in Deuteronomy is one chapter in that grand, unfolding story. God is keeping His promises. He is forming a people for Himself.
Conclusion: Standing Before God Today
This passage is not just a historical record of an event on the plains of Moab. It is a statement about how God always deals with His people. We, in the new covenant, also stand before God, all of us. When we gather for worship on the Lord's Day, it is a covenant renewal ceremony.
The elders and officers are there. The men are there. The wives are there. And the little ones are there. The sojourner, the visitor, the newcomer is there. We all stand together before Yahweh our God. And through the preaching of the Word and the administration of the sacraments, God is re-establishing us as His people and confirming that He is our God.
The implications of this are immense. First, it means we must reject the privatized, individualistic gospel of our age. Your faith is not just about you. It implicates your family, your children, and your community. This is why we baptize our infants. We are acknowledging that God's covenant promise extends to our children, just as it did in the Old Testament. We are formally marking them as members of the visible covenant community and raising them in the discipline and instruction of the Lord, calling them to take up the terms of the covenant for themselves through personal faith and repentance.
Second, it means there is no such thing as a partial commitment. From the wood-chopper to the tribal chief, all were bound by the same oath. You cannot be "sort of" in the covenant. You are either in, and therefore obligated to obey, or you are out, and under the curse. This is why apostasy is such a serious matter. To be in the covenant, to receive its signs and seals, and then to turn away is to trample underfoot the Son of God and to profane the blood of the covenant (Hebrews 10:29).
Finally, it is a profound comfort. God's promises are not made to isolated individuals who might fail. They are made to a people, to the body of Christ, which cannot fail. He is establishing us. He is the one making us His people. The covenant rests not on the strength of our grip on Him, but on the strength of His grip on us, a grip He secured through the oath sworn to Abraham and fulfilled in the blood of His Son. Therefore, let us stand together, all of us, before our God, and rejoice that He has made us His people, and He is our God.