Continuing our journey through the Scriptures throughout these articles, we now turn to one of my personal favorites: Deuteronomy. This fifth book of the Bible means “second law”, and it contains much of the same content as Exodus through Numbers as it retells the story of God saving Israel and then the giving of His law to the people. Deuteronomy was considered to be so important that some scholars believe a copy of it was to be personally kept and read by each King of Israel to help them rule.

Deuteronomy’s themes have their foundation on the most important verse of the book and this verse is still recited by many Jews daily, “Hear, Oh Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is one” and the following verse, “Love the LORD your God with all heart and with all your soul and with all your strength”. This most important verse was cited by our Lord Jesus Christ as one of the two most important commandments.

Throughout Deuteronomy, we see that God alone is to be worshipped, and although we may take this fact for granted, the book also answers that all important question, why. Idols are just as prevalent today as they were back then, and these idols surround pride, power, and pleasure. These “idols” that compete for our attention seem more real that God because we can see them and touch them in our hands, so that is why Deuteronomy (and this applies to the Bible as a whole) is a story about how God has done for Israel (and for us) something that no idol ever could: Love us enough to save us and set us free from sin. Deuteronomy is a reminder to the people that they are to love God because God first loved them. All throughout the text, we see God’s grace and mercy making the first move to bring His people out of slavery. He gave them the Ten Commandments and the rest of the law so that they would live out that new, free identity, and so that they would always remember they belong to Him not any human being. God’s grace and mercy also makes the first move on our behalf. God saw we the human race in slavery to sin and therefore He himself took on flesh and dwelt among us in the person of Jesus Christ, and when He died on the cross, He gave us our freedom. The whole Bible and especially the New Testament is our law so that we too would live out that new, free identity and so that we would always remember we belong to Him and not those former idols that enslaved us.

Deuteronomy also contains ten sections that takes each of the ten commandments and expounds on them, giving depth to each one of their teachings. We may know the ten commandments by heart, but these sections add breadth to each of them. This was written so that when Israel crossed into the promised land under Joshua (more on that in the next newsletter!) and become wealthy and prosperous, they would not forget about God. These teachings were to be how they lived in holy community with one another. Although I am thankful to God to live in a country so prosperous, we must never forget Who is ultimately responsible for making us that way. We in the church are also a holy community called to live lives that reflect God in all we do.

I leave you with the same last words Moses spoke as Deuteronomy came to a close and he offered the people of Israel a choice whether they would choose God and life or sin and death: “Choose life that you might live!”
Your Brother,

Craig