THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY

The book of Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Bible, and the final book of the Torah. After
the exodus from Egypt, Israel was at Mount Sinai for one year entering into a covenant with their
God. And then they had the disastrous road trip through the wilderness and the exodus
generation disqualified themselves from entering into the land promised to Abraham. And so
Deuteronomy begins with Moses standing in front of this new generation explaining the Torah
and it's from here that the design and purpose of the book unfolds.

Deuteronomy is a series of speeches from Moses where he's calling the next generation of Israel
to be faithful to the covenant with their God.
 At the center of the book is a collection of laws, which are the terms of the covenant
between God and Israel. Some of the laws are new, but many are repeated from the laws
given earlier at Mount Sinai, and that's actually where this book gets its name -from the
Greek word “deuteronomion” which means “a second law”. Now surrounding these laws
are two outer sections of Moses’ speech. Each of these are broken up into two parts
themselves.
Let’s just dive in and we'll see how this whole thing works.

So Moses first of all summarizes the story so far, and he highlights how rebellious the previous
generation was in contrast with God's constant grace and provision in the wilderness and God did
bring his justice on them, yes, but he did not abandon his covenant promises. After this comes a
series of very passionate sermons where Moses calls on this new generation to be more faithful
than their parents were to the Covenant. He reminds them of the Ten Commandments and then
the centerpiece of the section is the famous line called the Shema. Moses says “Listen Israel, the
Lord is our God, the Lord alone, and you shall love the Lord your God with all of your heart,
with all of your soul, and with all of your might.” This became a very important daily prayer
in Judaism and it brings all of the themes of the book together. So the word “listen”, or
shema in Hebrew, it means much more than just to hear; its meaning includes responding to what
you hear, or in English we would say obey. And the word “love” in Hebrew also means much
more than just an emotion or feeling; it’s about a decision of wholehearted devotion to God that
involves your will, and your emotions, your mind and your heart. Now, for Israel their obedience

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and devotion to God served a much larger purpose. Obedience to the laws is going to make Israel
a unique people among the nations, just like God said at Mount Sinai. They'll become a kingdom
of priests, and Moses now says how. Israel has the chance by following the laws to show the
whole world the wisdom and the justice of God.

The other key idea in the shema is that Israel was called to obey and be devoted to the Lord
alone, or literally in Hebrew it says “the Lord is one”. In context the point is that the Lord is the
one God Israel is to worship and obey. Israel's about to go into the land of Canaan, where people
worship idols gods that represent all different aspects of creation: the sun, the weather, or sex and
war. And in Moses’ view worshiping these God degrades humans and destroys communities, but
worshipping the God of Israel, who’s the Creator and the Redeemer- that will lead to life and
blessing. And so we come to the large collection of laws at the center of the book and they're
roughly arranged by topic,
So the opening section is about Israel's worship of their God. They were to have one central
temple where one God would be worshipped and also God was to be worshipped in Israel's care
for its poor. So for example, all Israelites were to set aside one tenth of their annual income to be
given to the temple, but another tenth was to be set aside every three years and given to the poor.
And these are the kinds of laws that put Israel on the cutting edge of justice in comparison to
their ancient neighbors - and it was all bound up with their worship of God.

The next section outlines the character qualities of Israel's leaders so the elders, the priests, the
Kings, these were all placed under the authority of the Covenant laws which God said that he
would enforce by sending prophets to keep the leaders accountable. So, in contrast to Israel's
neighbors where kings were thought of as divine and a law in and of themselves Israel's leaders
were subordinate to the law and the prophets. Following this is a large section of laws about
Israel’s civil life, so rules about marriage, and family, and business, and also about social justice
- about their legal system and how it was to protect widows, and orphans, and immigrants. And
then these are concluded by more laws about worship.

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Now, here are some tips for reading all of these laws. Remember,
 First of all, these are the terms of the Sinai covenant given specifically to ancient Israel
living in a culture that's very different from yours. And
 So, two, it's not going to be helpful to compare these laws with modern laws from the
very different culture. Rather, these were given to set Israel apart, and so we need to
compare these laws with those of Israel's neighbors, like in Assyria or Babylon. And
when you do that all of a sudden laws that seemed harsh or bizarre become much more
clear. You see that God is pushing Israel to a higher level of justice than was ever known
before.
 And so finally try to discern what core principles of wisdom or justice underlie any
particular law, and you’ll discover some really profound things.

So here's an extra credit assignment: go see how Paul the Apostle does this very thing in his
first letter to the Corinthians, 5:15chapter 9 vs. nine, and he quotes a law from Deuteronomy,
chapter 25 verse four, 5:21 It’s really interesting.

So back to Moses - after he goes through all of the laws, he issues a final challenge that Israel
should listen to and love their God.
 He first issues a warning and the ultimatum: if Israel listens to and obeys their God
everything's gonna go great- lots of divine blessing,
 But if they don't listen and rebel…famine, plague, devastation, and ultimately exile from
the land. And then Moses forces a decision; he says: “Today I set before you all life or
death, blessing or curse, goodness or evil, so choose life by loving the Lord your God and
listening to him.” But then Moses says this, he says “I know that after I die you're going
to rebel and turn away from God and end up in exile.” Which is kind of a downer, but
then again, he's been with these people for decades and it becomes clear that his hopes
are not very high. But all is not lost, Moses says one day when Israel is sitting in exile, at
any point Moses says they can turn back to their God who will, in his words, “circumcise
your heart so that you may love him with all your heart and soul and live”. Now this is a
vivid metaphor that's saying something is fundamentally wrong with Israel's heart. It’s
stubborn and hard, and it's the same thing wrong with the heart of all of humanity. This is

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 going all the way back to the rebellion in the garden. Humans seized autonomy from
God; they wanted to define good and evil for themselves and they've ruined God's good
world as a result. But one day Moses says God is going to do something to transform the
hearts of his people so that they can truly listen to and love God, from the heart, and be
led back to true life. And this is the promise that gets picked up by the later biblical
prophets, Jeremiah and Ezekiel - the hope for a new heart. So Moses ends his speech
with a poem of warning, and then a blessing, and then he walks up onto a mountain and
he dies. And so the torah draws to a close.

All of the major plot tensions of the biblical story are in place but left totally unresolved.

 So, when is the descendant of the woman going to come in defeat evil?
 Or how is God going to rescue the whole world and bless all nations through this family?
 And how can God's holiness be reconciled with people who are continually rebellious?
 And how is God going to transform the hearts of his people? You just have to keep
reading to find out.
 But for now, that’s what the book of Deuteronomy is all about.