Deuteronomy 26:16

"This day Jehovah thy God commandeth thee to do these statutes and ordinances: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thy heart, and with all thy soul. Thou hast avouched Jehovah this day to be thy God, and that thou wouldest walk in his ways, and keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his ordinances, and hearken unto his voice: and Jehovah hath avouched thee this day to be a people for his own possession, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments; and to make thee high above all nations that he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honor; and that thou mayest be a holy people unto Jehovah thy God, as he hath spoken."

This surpassingly beautiful passage affirms that Israel indeed had "avouched," that is, affirmed, or sworn, unto God that they would keep his commandments and that they acknowledged him unequivocally as their true God; it also affirms that God Himself acknowledged Israel as a people for his own possession and that he would, in the future, make of them a nation, high above all other nations in praise, and in honor, and in name, and that Israel would indeed be a holy people unto Jehovah!

Several things here are exceedingly interesting.

Here is the ratification, on the part of both parties, God and Israel, of the covenant, a ratification equivalent in every way with the solemn acceptance of God's covenant in Exodus 24:7. This additional ratification was necessary for several reasons:

(1) a new generation was at hand;

(2) Moses would die within a few days of this speech, and a new leader in the person of Joshua would be in charge of Israel's affairs; and

(3) the investiture of the Chosen People with the land of promise would thus be tied to the promises made to the patriarchs.

Long before the full resemblance of these stipulations to the suzerainty treaties of that era had been discovered, Adam Clarke noted that in these four verses we have, "The covenant is thus made and ratified between God and his followers."[19] The format in Deuteronomy is of the 1400 B.C. vintage!

But there is infinite tragedy here also. When one considers the high and marvelous things that God promised this nation of Israel, on condition, of course, that they would indeed do what they had so solemnly sworn to do, and then when one considers the shame that ultimately overwhelmed this once glorious people, it brings a catch in the throat and tears to the eyes.

What really happened, afterward? Israel refused to exterminate the Canaanites, and to destroy their idols, their pillars, their groves, and all the false paraphernalia of their evil gods. They rejected God's role over them, demanding a king like the surrounding nations. Their kings quickly led them into paganism. The nation was divided, and Ephraim usurped the place of God as the lawgiver for God's people. The whole northern Israel became "joined to his idols." Israel became merely another Canaanite (Hosea 12:7), just as crooked and evil as were the people God drove out in order to people Canaan with the Israelites. God judged Israel and delivered them to the Assyrians, and northern Israel became the "Ten Lost Tribes." The same fate overtook the southern Israel within less than two centuries, and they went into Babylonian captivity. All of this happened because of the unbelievable wickedness of Israel. They became "worse than Sodom and Gomorrah" (Ezekiel 16). One must believe that if it had not been for the promise that a Messiah, in time, would be born unto the Jews, that God Almighty would long ago have wiped the Jews off the face of the earth, as He had done with Sodom, but in a sense, God was stuck with Israel until Christ would appear. And then, when the Christ finally came, the leaders of the people demanded his crucifixion, rejected God forever as their ruler, shouting in open court, that "We have no king but Caesar!" All of this preceded and led to the tragedy of Israel. And yet the mind, keeps returning to "what might have been," only if Israel had proved faithful to her trust.

Yet, despite the sorrows that overwhelmed the secular nation, the righteous remnant within, of whom came the apostles and prophets of the N.T., indeed received the glorious promises, achieved the honors, won the praise, and attained unto the name that God promised so long ago. The Christian portion of the human race is still its pinnacle and crown.

These verses in the ratification ceremony refer "all the way back to Deuteronomy 5:1, where the extensive list of stipulations begins with a repetition of the terms of the Decalogue.[20]