Deuteronomy Overview
Deuteronomy: Jesus the Teacher
Outline:
- Chapters 1-4:43 What God has done (Historical)
- Chp. 1-2:23 From Mount Sinai to Moab
- Chp. 2:24-10:10 From East of Jordan to the promised land
- Chapters 4:44-26:19 What God is doing (4:45) (Legal)
- Chp. 4:45-11 The Testimonies (A restatement and expansion of the ten commandments and a warning not to forget gracious deliverance)
- Chp. 12:1-16:17 The Statues (Ceremonial duties of sacrifices, feasts, and offerings)
- Chp. 16:18-26:19 The Judgments
- Chp. 16:18-20:20 Civil laws that ordered the life of the nation
- Chp. 21-26 Social laws that dealt with personal and family morality
- Chapters 27-34 What God will continue to do (Prophetical)
- Chp. 27-28 I told you what would happen
- Chp. 29-30 I’m not changing my mind
- Chp. 31-34 One last thing
In Numbers, we saw that it took 40 years to take Egypt out of Israel, simply because they refused to trust God even though He proved worthy of their trust. They spent most of their time complaining about every move God made, they were unhappy, ungrateful and defeated followers of God because they were unwilling to slay their biggest foe, themselves. Deuteronomy takes place in the final month of Moses’ life at 120 years of age and is made up of the three final sermons delivered by him to a new generation who were either too young to remember or not born yet when Moses first brought forth the commandments at Mount Sinai 38 years earlier.
Though only one month of it is a message of remembrance spanning God’s faithfulness through those 38 years to encourage a new generation to trust God so that they can enjoy the blessings of all His promises. Folks, it’s a sad fact that most of our anxiety stems from our failure to recall God’s faithfulness toward us in the past. Moses seems to be aware of this and has taken his final three sermons to remind the new generation that if one forgets God’s faithfulness in the past we are doomed to miss His faithfulness in the present and the future as well. Some have called these sermons Moses “Upper Desert Discourse” others coin it “The Book of Remembrance”.
The Hebrew title is simply “The Words” taken again from the opening sentence of chapter one where Moses writes “These are the words”. The Jewish people often referred to is as the “repetition of the law” and it is from this that it got translated into Greek as the “Second Law” or Deuteronomy. But in fact, it is not a 2nd law but rather a repetition of the law to a new generation. This is the final of Moses’ five works and in Matthew 4:4 Jesus attributes it to Moses as well as many verses within the book where Moses tells us that God spoke to him. There is one section that obviously was not written by Moses and was most likely written by Joshua and that chapter 34:5-12 where we are told of Moses’ death and replacement by Joshua.
- Chapters 1-4:43 What God has done (Historical)
The first four chapters review the journey from the giving of the law at Mount Sinai to when they reached the land of Moab at the edge of the Jordan River. In the first chapter Moses reminds them that God’s plan was to bring them right into the land of promise and as we read Moses’ account in 1:26-27 “Nevertheless you would not go up but rebelled against the command of the Lord your God; and you complained in your tents, and said, ‘Because the Lord hates us, He has brought us out of the land of Egypt to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us.”
Oh, dear ones how many times do we fail to trust our loving Father and fail to enter in then blame Him for our condition and time in the wilderness of our own making? In the 2nd chapter, Moses reviewed their journey after they failed to trust God through 38 years of wandering and emphasized God’s continual hand of deliverance from those who dwelt in the land they were wandering through even though they continued to be faithless. There is a continual theme in this chapter of God’s faithfulness contrasted against the nation’s faithlessness. Hey wait a minute that looks a lot like our journey in this life does it not?
In the 3rd chapter, Moses reviews the conquest of the Jordan Valley all the way to Mount Hermon and Ruben Gad and the ½ tribe of Manasseh’s decision to settle on the wrong side of the land of promise as long as they went over with their brethren to take the land of promise. This is contrasted against Moses’ own desire to enter into the land of promise himself but was denied because he missed representing the Lord. In these two stories, we see that some chose to live outside the land because they think what they can provide for themselves is better than what the Lord has promised. And with Moses, we see that some fail to enter because they want to do so in their terms their way.
In the 4th chapter Moses reminds them not to make his mistake and to continue to recall God’s greatness and in the 7th verse Moses asks this new generation “For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as the Lord our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him?” Dear ones how many times have we chosen to do things in our own power and become frustrated with our inability to accomplish what our heart desired when all along we have a God so near to us that for whatever reason we may call upon Him. Countless times we become impatient and all we needed to do is call upon our Father who is so near. Where does such impatience come from? It comes from us not remembering God’s faithfulness and taking upon our own charge to run and do what we have forgotten that He desires to do for us. There are words by Moses in verses 15-40 about idolatry as those who fail to trust God to work on their behalf will soon find another less powerful to work for them.
. Chapters 4:44-26:19 What God is doing (4:45) (Legal)
The 2nd sermon of Moses begins with a fresh recital of the Ten Commandments and we are given the breakdown of the sections in verse 4:45 “These are the testimonies, the statutes, and the judgments which Moses spoke to the children of Israel after they came out of Egypt” Deuteronomy is not a recital of the journey’s of Israel it is a divine commentary on the importance of those journeys.
- Chp. 4:45-11 The Testimonies (A restatement and expansion of the ten commandments and a warning not to forget gracious deliverance)
In Chapter 5 Moses reminded the people that they had promised to hear and obey all that God had said and in Verse 29 God responds to their failure to do so by saying, “Oh, that they had such a heart in them that they would fear Me and always keep all My commandments, that it might be well with them and with their children forever!” This is followed by the famous Shema (Hear, O Israel) which Jews to this day still recite to summarize the central feature of their faith the uniqueness of their God in chapter 6:4-5
“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one! You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” Moses spoke of the blessings that awaited them in the land of promise if they avoided three things that would cause them to lose out on what God had for them:
- 6:10-12 The peril of prosperity
- 6:13-19 The peril of compromise
- 6:20-25 The peril of reaching the next generation
In the 7th chapter in verses 7-8, Moses reminds the new generation of the reason for their being chosen when he tells them “The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you, and because He would keep the oath which He swore to your fathers, the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of bondage, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.”
Oh, how we fail to understand that we do not deserve any of His blessings all are given by grace and all of those perils can be avoided if we but remember this. This is what verse 9 states when we read, “Therefore know that the Lord your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments”.
The 8th chapter recalls the lessons that God taught them in the wilderness how they had been humbled and fed with manna so that might know 8:3-5 that “He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you.” Friends know this, that the lessons learned in the wilderness are priceless and absolutely necessary if we are to live victoriously in the land of promise.
The 9th and 10th chapters recount the nation’s rebellion and God’s mercy as James would later say in 2:13 “Mercy triumphs over judgment”. What a great tool for correction God’s mercy has been in my life where He in His greatness does not give me what I deserve but instead blessing me with what I don’t deserve. God didn’t ask anything from the nation but that they would respond in love towards Him for the Love that He had lavished upon them.
Chp. 12:1-16:17 The Statues (Ceremonial duties of sacrifices, feasts, and offerings)
These chapters deal with a series of statutes given to the people to govern them while in the land specifically dealing with who they were to worship and how they were to worship. The 13th chapter governs what constitutes true prophets and prophecy where we read in verses1-3 “If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’–which you have not known–‘ and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.”
Chp. 16:18-26:19 The Judgments
Chp. 16:18-20:20 Civil laws that ordered the life of the nation
The 18:15 holds a great promise that “The Lord your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me from your midst, from your brethren. Him you shall hear”. Cites of refuge are given in the 19th chapter and the laws contained in this section are civil in nature.
Chp. 21-26 Social laws that dealt with personal and family morality
These chapters hold various regulations for the moral conduct of the people within the land. Such as marriage, lost items, things stolen, gender identity, divorce, and sexual purity.
- Chapters 27-34 What God will continue to do (Prophetical)
The final message of Moses is largely prophetical in nature as Moses spoke of the potential blessings as well as the potential curses depending on obedience. The 28th chapter is one of the most amazing prophecies in the entire bible as Moses speaks of what will happen to the people if they fail to trust God and choose rather to follow after false gods. In verse 28 we are told that “The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart.” All of this because of what we are told in verse 47 “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything”.
Thus verse 49 predicts “The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand”. This will lead to what we are told in verses 64-67 “Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known–wood and stone. And among those nations, you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul.
Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. In the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and because of the sight which your eyes see.” The sad truth is that fulfilled the very words of this warning by Moses. Ah but in the 30th chapter Moses predicts a future restoration of Israel.
We are told in chapter 30:1-6 “Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God drives you, and you return to the Lord your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, that the Lord your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the Lord your God has scattered you. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the Lord your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you. Then the Lord your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. And the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.”
The final chapters are filled with a new commitment to the covenant prior to entering the Promised Land a new leader is appointed in Joshua. Moses reminds them why they failed in chapter 32:18 saying, “Of the Rock who begot you, you are unmindful, and have forgotten the God who fathered you.” Moses gives a final benediction reminding them in 33:27 that “The eternal God is your refuge, and underneath are the everlasting arms; He will thrust out the enemy from before you”. The final chapter concludes with Moses viewing the land dying, the people placing Joshua as the leader of the nation and final words about how God mightily used Moses as we are told in 34:10 that “there has not arisen in Israel a prophet like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face”.
Saints, Deuteronomy speaks to our hearts as the Lord continues to speak to us ill regardless of our wanderings and failures. In the final analysis, we will look with wonder at how great our God is and nothing displays His greatness more than His loving kindness lavished upon us during our wanderings.