People are willing to do a lot of things to guarantee their own prosperity and success. Some people work 12 hours or more a day to become prosperous. Some people attend schools for many years to get the kind of training that will lead to prosperity. Some people read self-help books to help them gain success in life.

Imagine if someone claimed, “If you simply follow these steps, I can guarantee success.”

In the book of Deut, God as much as guarantees success for Israel if they will do one thing—obey God’s commands. God’s plan is to establish Israel in the PL in fulfillment of his promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He wants to see Israel prosper in the PL. And God himself promises success and prosperity; they’ll be healthy, wealthy, prosperous, and powerful, but on one condition – obedience/loyalty to God. If they fulfill the terms of the covenant, God will guarantee success and prosperity.

Disobedience, on the other hand, and especially idolatry, will guarantee both failure and utter disaster. Cf., the 53 verses of cursings in chapter 28.

So Moses is appealing once again to the people that they remain faithful and obedient to the covenant when they enter the PL. In this chapter, Moses is leading the people to reaffirm their covenant with God.

God does not promise us earthly success and prosperity like he did for Israel, but the principle is the same: Obedience to God leads to blessing; disobedience leads to disaster.

Let’s see how this principle works out for Israel in Deut 29.