The Book of Deuteronomy: Moses’ Sermons to the People of Israel

The Book of Deuteronomy: Moses’ Sermons to the People of Israel

God’s people are finally ready to enter the Promised Land!  The land God had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob with a covenant. The people have traveled forty years after Moses led them out of the land of Egypt, where they had been slaves.  It took them forty years of wandering in the wilderness instead of just a short journey because of their failure to trust God.  Now the generation that left Egypt have all died, except Moses, Joshua and Caleb.  The new generation that was born and raised up while in the wilderness is ready now to conquer and inhabit the land.

Israel is camped east of the Jordon River at the plains of Moab.  Like the book of Leviticus, Deuteronomy takes place in one location and appears to cover the last month or two of Moses’ life.  Leviticus basically is concentrated on the Levites;  the sons of Levi were to be the priests and they were given God’s regulations for their positions. The book of Deuteronomy on the other hand is for the people.  Moses tells them again how much God loves Israel, “His chosen people”!  He reminds them of how God has provided for them; and how they were blessed when they walked with God and the consequences whenever they didn’t.

“Now it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spoke to the children of Israel according to all that the Lord had given him as commandments to them,” (Deuteronomy 1:3)

“On this side of the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses began to explain this law” (Deuteronomy 1:5)

“So Moses the servant of the Lord died there in the land of Moab, according to the word of the Lord” “And the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days”. (Deuteronomy 34: 5 & 8)

“If the Israelites were going to be established as Yahweh’s faithful people, their relationship with Him had to be more than religious formality reserved for special days on the calendar.  God’s Word needed to become an integral part of everyday life.”  (The Jeremiah Study Bible page 226)

Moses told them:  “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.   And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart.  You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.   You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.  You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.” Deuteronomy 6:5-9

This happens to be my life’s verse!  Ever since the first time I studied this passage, it has been on my heart to spread God’s Word to everyone that I know and meet!  David Jeremiah says it so well:  “Pondering God’s Word is not just for Sundays, a weekly Bible study, or morning devotions.  It needs to be part of our thinking and reasoning, part of our conversation, part of our household activities, and part of a thousand decisions large and small that we make every day.  God wants to be involved in our daily lives–and the more we include Him, the more we will find those lives worth living.” (Jeremiah Study Bible, page 226)

May your find your life “worth living” because of your relationship with  “HIM”!

 

 

 

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