Obedience

Now let me give you an outline for Deuteronomy. You have a preamble in the first five verses of chapter 1. Then you have three addresses by Moses. Now scholars break them up in different ways, but generally we can divide them up like this: Moses’ first address (Deut. 1:6-4:43) gives a review of the people’s past journey from Mount Sinai to the borders of Canaan; Moses’ second address (Deut. 4:44-26:19) summarizes, restates, and applies God’s law and urges it on the people; and Moses’ third address (Deut. 27-30) is an enactment of the covenant between God and the people, according to which they are going to be blessed for their obedience and cursed for their disobedience. Following this is a short historical section, and then what I have called the second song of Moses (Deut. 31-32). And in the final chapters, Moses blesses the tribes, and his death is recorded (Deut. 33-34).

The second address is a much longer one, amounting to twenty-two chapters and making up the substance of Deuteronomy. The first part (Deut. 5-11) reiterates the law of God as it bears on the people’s relationship to God. The second part (Deut. 12-26) reiterates the law of God as it bears on the people’s relationship to the land and to other people. This division concerning God on the one hand, and people on the other, should ring a bell because that’s exactly what you have in the Ten Commandments. The first table of the Ten Commandments has to do with our relationship to God. We are to remember Him, worship Him only, have no other gods before Him, and remember to keep the Sabbath day holy. And then the second table begins with the family and the need to honor your father and mother, and then concludes with the commandment not to covet. Those two parts of the Ten Commandments are reflected in a dynamic way in Moses’ second address.

If you have an opportunity to teach, whether it is in your home or in church, and whether to children or adults, don’t be afraid to repeat, repeat, repeat the teachings of the Word of God. People need to hear the law, they need to hear the Gospel, and they need to hear both of them again and again and again. It is significant that in the middle of this repeated law, we find the greatest of all the commandments: love the Lord your God with all of your heart, mind, soul, and strength. As we learn to love Him, by the grace of the Lord we also learn to obey.

Some scholars regard the book of Deuteronomy as the heart of the Old Testament, and some call chapters 27-30 the heart of Deuteronomy. In these chapters, Moses forcefully urges on the people the kind of life that is based on what God has done. In chapters 4-26, he has given the chief substance of the teaching. As a preacher, Moses is pressing this point home upon the people. He is about to die and will soon leave the people he has led for decades. He urges the people to choose righteousness and obey God, because that’s the way of blessing. The other way is the way of death.

The second point of our outline has to do with the blessings and curses. When the people came into the land and had written the law on the stones and the altar had been set up, the Israelites were supposed to stand on these two mountains, in the area of the country known as Samaria now, about 3,000 feet above sea level. At one point, the two mountains come close together. Half of the tribes were to take their places on Mount Gerizim and the other half on Mount Ebal. The Levites were to recite the blessings and the curses. And after each curse and each blessing, the people would answer by saying, “Amen.”

Moses already went over the people’s history before. Why is he saying it again? Moses explains that even though he said it before, the people didn’t really see it. It didn’t get through to them. The people were blind to the implications of the work of God. We need spiritual sight, too, and such spiritual healing only comes to us from God.

Don’t get into the habit of thinking you can retire in the Christian life. You may retire from your job, but as long as you are living, there is work to be done and there is a testimony to bear. This is true of Moses, and he does his work to the very end.

We are fighting spiritual battles and we are doing it in a hostile environment. There are citadels of unbelief to be overcome. We need courage to do it, and we get that courage from reading the Bible, from praying, and from being encouraged by one another. We need to encourage one another. Moses is encouraging Joshua, God is encouraging Joshua, Joshua is encouraging the people, and the people are encouraging Joshua. Sometimes, life is relatively easy, but then difficulties come into our lives. We need Christian friends to say to us, “Come on, don’t be afraid now. God will be with you and He will bless you.” That’s a great ministry for any Christian to have. Ask the Lord whom you can encourage to press on.

I’ve called it a “second song” of Moses because there is an obvious parallel between this song that comes here at the very end of his life, just before the people are to enter the promised land, and the song they sang after they were delivered from Egypt forty years earlier. The song at the beginning of their desert wandering was filled with joy, while the song at the end is filled with warnings. Yet at both the beginning and the end, the people are singing.

The final section (vv. 39-43) of this song deals with the nature of God and final victory. At the very end, the word atonement suddenly appears. He will “make atonement for his land and people” (v. 43). They would probably think of the Day of Atonement, which is pointing forward to the coming of Jesus Christ. You see, it’s only because of the coming of Jesus Christ that you and I are ever going to escape the judgment which hangs over us. Christ shields us from all wrath; outside of Christ, we are exposed to all wrath. Moses’ great song teaches that judgment is coming, but God provides deliverance from it by making atonement. The people need to find refuge in Him.

Moses, the servant of God, had many dying words. In a sense, they are the entire book of Deuteronomy. It consists of three addresses, and we looked at two of them. The first was urging godliness upon the people, and the second dealt with a challenge to the people. Now, in Deuteronomy 33, Moses gives his third address, which is a blessing upon the tribes. As this book concludes, we see that Moses’ last words are in praise of God, and the last thing God has to say in this book, in the last three verses, is praise of Moses.