Deuteronomy

The book of Deuteronomy refers to the second giving of the law to the Isralites.  That is precisely what Deuteronomy means.  The book can be decribed as the farewell speech of Moses as he passes the torch to his successor.  Most of Deuteronomy deals with laws that had already been given, although there are some new laws introduced.  The custom of the kinsmans-redeemer was already in place several hundred years before the book was written.  However, this is the first time the custom is discretely mentioned.  There are also laws about how to test false prophets.  There are instructions to the Israelites for how they are to live when they receive the land that the Lord their God is giving to them.  The book of Deuteronomy contains a message about the way the Lord prospers his people in their land.  As long as they would serve him in the land of the physical nation, Israel- God would supply their needs.  But when they turned from him, then God would cut off his supply.   This can be applied to Christians in the sense that they are the spiritual Israel and God promises to prosper them in their spiritual walk if only they seek to do his will.  This prosperity does not necessarily come in a shower of blessings from the big money tree in heaven, but rather comes in the manner of having peace and satisfaction no matter what your circumstances because he that lives in you is far greater than any of the struggles that you face in the world.  The book also sets up differnet vows which people can take of which the Nazarite vow probably stands out the most in this.  This is representative of the fact based on certain restrictions and prohibitions associated with vows that God has a different calling for each one of us and for each one of us there is a vow of personal conviction we must take so that the work we plan to do for God will not be hindered.  Deuteronomy also gives the prescription for the Israelites when they would choose to anoint a king over them.  There are particular laws that are discussed therein.  Moses writes that no king should go after foreign wives nor should he have multiple wives or that would come between him and his godly rule over the people.  Moses also gives the prescriptions for the Israelites in matters of war in Deuteronomy chapter 20.  Another underlying theme of the book is the fact that God reminds the Israelites that it is he who will drive out their enemies before them.  In the same way for the Christian, it is fully God's work that drives out the powers of the dark world so that they will not be able to harm the Christian though if we allow them to have any kind of influence over us, then God will not stop it because he gave us a free will.  The Israelites are contantly reminded that as the children of God as a nation they are going to be disciplined by him when they turn astray from his decrees.  The Israelites are frequently reminded that it is not because of anything that has to do with their own righteousness that is allowing them to enter into the Promised Land.  Rather, it is fully God's faithfulness.  In the same way as the passage applies to the Christian, it is nothing about the righteousness of the believer that gets them into the heavenly Promised Land, but rather it is the grace of God showing himself forth through the presence of Jesus Christ in our lives who helps us and makes us righteous because we have our dwelling and our being in him.  Chapter 6:4-9 contains a passage known to Jews as the Shema which tells them to write the law of the Lord on their foreheads and their forearms.  Thus, they now wear paper leaflets that they attach to their arm in order to demontrate that they ae commemorating the law of the Lord.  Another overbearing theme is continuing from Numbers as Moses reminds the Israelites of where they have come from.  Some argue that it is not good to reflect on the past because the past is history but rather that we should project our future.  While it is good to have a balance of both if God guides us in our projection, a reflection of the past is essential to the believer because it is valuable to learn from the mistakes of the past and to think of where God has brought you from where you started.  Chapter 13 deals with the fact that there may be prophets among the peoplei in Israel who are fully 100 percent accurate in their prophecies but whomk you need to guard against because they follow after other gods and thus they may lead the people astray.  Deuteronomy 18 makes clear the test of a prophet is 100 percent accuracy.  Many argue that this only applies to the physical nation of Israel.  However, this applies in the church today as well because like I said in my write up on Leviticus- any law that required death upon violation still applies today as a practice that the Christian must forsake.  Thus, through tying this in based on the theological rule of exegetical parallelism, we come to the inevitable conclusion that this law applies for the spiritual nation of Israel as well which is the church.  So it is obvious that any person who speaks a prophecy that does not come true is rejected from the office of the prophet. Verse 18 of chapter 18 is a prophecy about Christ that says the Lord will raise up a prophet likes Moses from among the Israelites.  The last 15 chapters of Deuteronomy deal mostly with the passing of the torch.  Moses reads a list of blessings and cursings to the Israelites that they are to adhere to.  In all things, there is a choice set before them between blessing and cursing and it is up to them to choose that which they want.  The book of Deuteronomy also makes clear that the way God is worshiped is different and set apart from all other movements.  It is clear in Deuteronomy that the culture of the Jewish people is one that was called to be set apart from the religious cultures of the rest of the world.  In the same way, Christians as the spiritual nation of Israel are also called to be set apart.  The last several chapters deal with a poetry prose form with hidden prophecies in it.  It is commonly the song of Moses.  In this passage, Moses refer to how Jeshurun which is another name for Jerusalem became fat and rich and forgot who gave her her riches.  Thus God send the city and the nation of Israel into exile.  The very last chapter of Deuteronomy obviously could not have been written by Moses as it records his death on Mount Nebo  Moses does not enter the Promised Land and as I have stated before is in this sense a type of us because he was drawn out from drowning in the water, he was called by God to lead the people out of slavery in Egypt, and he had a big role in leading the Israelites to the Promised Land though he does not get the credit for them crossing the border.  In the same way, we follow along that same pattern that Moses followed along as we were drawn out from drowning in our sin, we are called by God to lead people out of their slavery to sin, yet we do not have the power to get the people into the Promised Land..  In the account of the death of Moses, astonishingly, it says that his eyes were not weak nor was his strength gone.  This seems to hint that Moses is going to serve in some role in the future and is a mystery to all scholars as to why the passage would conclude with such a statement.  It sounds like a foreshadow of something to take place in the future.  But in order to find out what this something us, you will just have to read through all my pages and grasp the concept of the big picture