GLEANINGS — June 23, A.D. 2013                                                                                                              "Deuteronomy Nuts and Bolts"

Let us condense a chunk of the sacred history, beginning at the Exodus and ending with the dawn of the conquest of Canaan by Joshua and ancient Israel:

1. God leads His people out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm (Deuteronomy 4:34, 5:15 et. al.)

2. God establishes His covenant with them as a nation at Mount Sinai. The Law is given (Ten Commandments, first appearing in Scripture at Exodus 20).

3. The people travel (11 days) to Kadesh Barnea...and BALK! (Deut. 1:26ff)

4. God chastistes them, sentencing them to a 40 year delay, but provides the manna, thus remembering mercy in the midst of judgment (Cf. Exodus 16:35, Habakkuk 3:2)

5. 38 years later (Deut. 2:14): Let the conquest begin anew! Israelite kin, the descendants of Esau (Jacob's brother) and of Abraham's kinsman Lot (Moab, Ammon) are spared.

6. Kings Og and Sihon defeated east of the Jordan; two and a half tribes inherit their lands. (Balaam, Numbers 22ff, "fits" here). It is now almost 41 years since the Exodus, (Deut. 1:3)

Book of Deuteronomy HERE (Ten Commandments repeated, chapter 5)

7. Moses is forbidden to cross over into Canaan proper, and dies. Joshua is commissioned to take Moses' mantle of leadership and conquer.

As we read through Deuteronomy, we find Moses the inspired author continually referring BACK to the things God did at the time of Exodus and the forty years following. He speaks to the people "on the plains of Moab," a place just east of the Jordan river.

In chapters 1 - 4, Moses painstakingly sums up that forty years of history, as a prelude to his proclamation (with didactic commentary), of the Law that God first gave them on Sinai (a.k.a. Horeb), in the midst of "...blackness and darkness and tempest, and the sound of a trumpet and the voice of words, so that those who heard it begged that the word should not be spoken to them anymore." (cf. Hebrews 12:18,19)

An example of Moses' (fully inspired) commentary on the Law is seen in comparing the two Biblical pronouncements of the Fourth Commandment. In Exodus 20, the sabbath is to be remembered because God ordained it after the six days of creation. In Deuteronomy 5, the Holy Spirit directs Moses to write that the sabbath is to be remembered also because of Israel's deliverance from bondage. Hence the Lord's day marks those two great works of God, creation and redemption.

At the end of his exposition of the Law, including all the statutes, ordinances, and judgments which follow the Decalog (chs. 6ff), Moses writes a song and teaches it to the people (ch. 32). Then he charges and encourages Joshua. Then Moses blesses the people, speaking of them tribe by tribe in a way reminiscent of how dying Jacob blessed his sons (ch. 33, cf. Genesis 49). 

In. ch. 34, Moses the man of God dies on Mt. Pisgah and is buried by God Himself! The book concludes with God's glowing commendation of Moses. Well done, good and faithful servant! Let us labor to hear those wonderful words from our Creator and Redeemer Himself.