Deuteronomy 29 records Moses renewing God’s covenant with Israel on the plains of Moab, just before they enter the Promised Land. This page gives you ready-made questions and leader’s notes for a small group, a Sunday class, or personal study. Each section is built so you can use it directly, without needing a separate summary of the chapter.
Deuteronomy 29 at a Glance
The chapter opens by reminding the people of what they have already seen: the signs and judgments against Egypt, and the forty years of God’s care in the wilderness. Moses then calls the whole community, from leaders to children to foreigners living among them, to stand before the LORD and enter the covenant oath. The second half of the chapter is a warning. Moses speaks of a person who hears the curses and still assumes peace in a hardened heart, and then describes how future generations will look at a ruined land and ask why it happened.
The chapter closes with a short but important line about two kinds of knowledge: the secret things that belong to God and the revealed things that belong to the people, so that they may do the words of the law. Keep that tension in view as you work through the questions.
Observation Questions
Use these questions to slow the group down and look closely at the text before anyone offers an interpretation. Ask someone to read the passage aloud first, then invite answers from the text itself. Encourage people to point to specific words rather than summarize from memory.
Deuteronomy 29:4
But the LORD has not given you a heart to know, eyes to see, and ears to hear, to this day.
(WEB)
This verse names the gap between witnessing God’s works and truly perceiving them. Reading it aloud sets the tone for the whole study by asking the group to examine their own capacity to see and hear.
Deuteronomy 29:9
Therefore keep the words of this covenant and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.
(WEB)
Moses links keeping the covenant words with prospering in all that you do. Reading it aloud reminds the group that the call to obedience is also an invitation to a flourishing life.
Deuteronomy 29:13
That he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he spoke to you, and as he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.
(WEB)
This verse places the covenant at the center of God’s identity as the people’s God. Hearing it aloud helps the group see the relationship as God’s initiative and promise.
Deuteronomy 29:18-19
18 Lest there should be among you man, woman, family, or tribe whose heart turns away today from the LORD our God, to go to serve the gods of those nations; lest there should be among you a root that produces bitter poison; 19 and it happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he bless himself in his heart, saying, “I shall have peace, though I walk in the stubbornness of my heart, to destroy the moist with the dry.”
(WEB)
These verses contain the sober warning about a heart that turns away and a self-assured speech that invites judgment. Reading them aloud can bring the group to honest reflection before the closing discussion.
Deuteronomy 29:29
The secret things belong to the LORD our God; but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.
(WEB)
The final verse of the chapter pairs God’s hidden purposes with the revealed law given for obedience. Reading it aloud gives the session a clear, settled ending point before prayer.
Memory Verse for Deuteronomy 29
A Closing Prayer for the Group
Father, we come before you as Moses called Israel to stand before you, with our hearts open and our memories full of your faithfulness. Thank you for the things we have seen you do in our lives, and for the steady care that has carried us through long seasons. Forgive us where we have been slow to see and slow to listen, and where we have trusted our own sense of peace instead of your word. Give us ears to hear what you have revealed, and hands ready to do it. Keep our families, our friends and those who stand on the edges of our community within your covenant care. Amen.
