Deuteronomy 31:27, commentary and pictures

Moses declared that Israel was already rebellious against the Lord and stiff-necked while he was still alive among them that day, and he asked how much more they would rebel after his death. Their rebellion was already evident and their resistance already shown, and he warned it would be still greater and more serious once he was gone. His departure was expected to leave the people especially prone to turn away.

The declaration stands within the solemn instruction of Deuteronomy that presses the serious responsibility involved in transgression and the fearful curses that follow it. It proves that Israel did not obey God's voice nor keep His covenant, so that in their own persons they were not entitled to the conditional promised blessings of the Sinaitic covenant. It proves that they continually broke the conditional covenant made at Horeb to obey God's voice and keep His covenant, a covenant they had already broken within forty days by worshiping the golden calf.

Moses placed the book of the law beside the ark to stand as a witness against that rebellion and stubbornness. The book of the law found in Josiah's time was not new but had been preserved since Moses' day, and it was probably this same book placed beside the ark. The declaration belongs to the account of the law that Moses wrote in a book, which is separate from the law written on tables of stone, so that even if the law on the tables was copied into the book, the law written in the book was certainly not copied onto the tables. The Ten Commandments were not binding by virtue of being written in the book and did not derive their authority from the book, while the ceremonial law did derive its authority from the book.

The conduct named here is rebellion against God, set alongside false witness and murderous intent. Israel's later offer to go up into Canaan did not erase that rebellion or make the offer acceptable to God, for they acted to escape the threatened penalty and not out of love for God.