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This generation is learning about the laws that God gave Moses. Remember, this generation was not at Mt. Sinai, this is the next generation. (Have you taught these to your children?)   Here is the version we tend to know:

BUT read them carefully, don’t skip the fine print.  For example:

 ⁹ You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the parents to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, ¹⁰ but showing love to a thousand generations of those who love me and keep my commandments.

After the 10 commandments, Moses was then given the Book of the Law which is an additional 613 examples of laws that fall into these 10 categories.  However, if we look at all the laws including the 10 commandments we see it really says 2 things.  LOVE God, LOVE People.  Look at them again:

Jesus says it best (always):

³⁷ Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ ³⁸ This is the first and greatest commandment. ³⁹ And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 

⁴⁰ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

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Deuteronomy 6 is one of the most important parts of the Old Testament (Torah) for Jewish people.  This passage is called The Shema or The Great Commandment. 

Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts.  Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.  Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads.  Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.

This is what it looks like in Hebrew writing. (It’s beautiful)

וְאָ֣הַבְתָּ֔ אֵ֖ת יְהוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֑יךָ בְּכָל־לְבָבְךָ֥ וּבְכָל־נַפְשְׁךָ֖ וּבְכָל־מְאֹדֶֽך
וְהָי֞וּ הַדְּבָרִ֣ים הָאֵ֗לֶּה אֲשֶׁ֨ר אָנֹכִ֧י מְצַוְּךָ֛ הַיּ֖וֹם עַל־לְבָבֶֽךָ
וְשִׁנַּנְתָּ֣ם לְבָנֶ֔יךָ וְדִבַּרְתָּ֖ בָּ֑ם בְּשִׁבְתְּךָ֤ בְּבֵיתֶ֙ךָ֙ וּבְלֶכְתְּךָ֣ בַדֶּ֔רֶךְ וּֽבְשָׁכְבְּךָ֖ וּבְקוּמֶֽךָ
וּקְשַׁרְתָּ֥ם לְא֖וֹת עַל־יָדֶ֑ךָ וְהָי֥וּ לְטֹטָפֹ֖ת בֵּ֥ין עֵינֶֽיךָ
וּכְתַבְתָּ֛ם עַל־מְזוּזֹ֥ת בֵּיתֶ֖ךָ וּבִשְׁעָרֶֽיךָ

Read chapter 6 carefully.  Circle the words “so that”.  Also, notice that Moses is given an example of how we should give our testimony to others.  It is not about what WE did, but what God did FOR us.

(if you need Extra-credit homework: research how Jews today take the Shema “literally”: what is a phylactery and a mezuzah?) 😁

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Chapter 7: Instructions.   Noitce how the Lord works first, then us.   HE does the hard part:  HE will drive out the nations.  HE will deliver them to you.  HE will bring them into the land.  Now what are they supposed to do.  The easy part:

• destroy them totally
• do not make any treaties
• do not intermarry with them
• destroy their worship centers for false gods (Asherah poles)

 

For you are a people holy to the Lord your God. The Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

I wonder if Moses is thinking “why are they not taking notes?  They are not going to remember all this”

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He continues with the promises:

¹² If you pay attention to these laws and are careful to follow them, then the Lord your God will…

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Chapter 3 continues with the retelling of the battle fought in Numbers 23.  The Israelites defeated the well-trained army of Og, King of Bashan taking all 60 cities east of the Jordan.  The Lord defeated the well-trained army of Og, King of Bashan taking all 60 cities east of the Jordan. 😉

Verse 12 describes the land that was taken over from this battle.   Find the Jordan River on either map and you can locate the land they took.  Recall that in Numbers 32 the Reubenites and the Gadites. Two of the 12 tribes of Israel, asked Moses to inhabit the land when they do conquer the Promise Land. If you did not read it, go back and read it.  Moses freaked out because he assumed they weren’t going to participate in the quest to conquer.  The leaders of the tribe clarified that they would still be a part of the army, that they wanted the land AFTER they took the Promise Land.  These tribes will get this land.  Take a look: Reuben, Gad, and 1/2 of Manasseh.  They will be called the Transjordan Tribes. 

Chapter 3 ends with the Lord telling Moses to commission Joshua to replace him.  He tells him to encourage him and strengthen him, for Joshua will lead the people into the inheritance of the Promise Land.

The point of retelling the details of these battles is to remind the next generation that The Lord will fight their battles for them.  I keep going back to Deut. 2:25 “He put terror and fear of all the nations under Heaven”.

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Chapter 4 Moses turns from contemplating the past to speaking about the future. (It’s a strong speech that in my head started with “Listen Linda…Listen). 😂

Moses used the illustration of the recent seduction of the Israelites by the Midianites at Baal Peor.  Numbers 32. The word baal is simply the word for “lord,” “master,” or “ruler.” Baal became the name for the gods of the Canaanites. There was not just one god named Baal, but there were many Baals (many Canaanite “gods”). Peor might refer to the mountain top from which Balaam and Balaak observed Israel.

Moses then reminds them about the laws and decrees God gave them at Mt. Sinai.  Reminded them to follow them closely!  Circle words like “be careful”, “if” “so that”.

Verses  1-14 Moses warns against idolatry.  Spoiler Alert: It will be the downfall of the Israelites. (and the Americans)

Next Moses talks about the possibility of being exiled OUT of the Promise Land.  If you don’t know what this means, know that God is saying in verse 25:  After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the Lord your God and arousing his anger, ²⁶ I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed. ²⁷ The Lord will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the Lord will drive you.

In other words: If you become corrupt I will take you OUT of this Promised Land, scatter you, and only a few of you will return to it because I will always honor my Covenant.   The term we will use for the few that will survive and return will be the “remnant” of people.

Will this happen?? Will they inhabit the land and then God will remove them from the land??  (to be continued…)

²⁹ But if from there you seek the Lord your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul. ❤️

He ends this part of the speech (I picture him looking right at Joshua’s face) reminding Joshua of the presence of the Lord that he personally saw with his own eyes!

Chapter 4 is amazing!  I read it twice.   Wake up early tomorrow.  It might be your favorite read. (feel free to read ahead)

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“These are the words Moses spoke”  but the words he is now speaking were all commanded from the Lord in the past 4 books.  Verse 3 gives us our timeline….

 ² It takes eleven days to go from Horeb to Kadesh Barnea by the Mount Seir road.

³ In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses proclaimed… 

What should have been an 11-day journey took 40 years!

Chapter 1: Moses begins with the command from the Lord but turns quickly to the sins the Israelites committed that cost them greatly.  Forty years ago, just before they were to enter the Promised Land, the Lord puts them in a battle with the powerful Amorites (a prelude of what God can do for them when they walk into this Land!).  The Lord fought the battle for them. This should have given them all the confidence in Him they needed:

20:“You have reached the hill country of the Amorites, which the Lord our God is giving us.  See, the Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, told you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged.”

Instead, the spies that “checked out” the land first came back to the Israelites and said “we can’t go in there!  They are big people!!”  They said, “we”.  Oh the humanity!!  They had the Lord!!  (I act like this sometimes.  I know I am one of the 12 spies when I am faced with a big decision.  Can “I”?)

Verse 37: Moses humbles himself and tells this generation that even he, “The Moses”, did not trust the Lord years later and it cost him. (If you are jumping in, go back and read Numbers 20) Or ask in comments.

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Chapter 2-Moses recounts a number of times Israel obeyed.  For those who have read from the beginning, I hope you see familiar names like Lot, Moab, Esau… and have a recollection of who they might be.  If it rings a bell, but you cannot remember, look back on your genealogies.

This chapter retells and lengthens the battle against the Amorite king found in Numbers 21.  The purpose of chapter 2 is to reiterate how this next generation will need to obey and have faith in the Lord that is about to GIVE them this Land.

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If you read the Bible and occasionally think that the Bible is made up of stories to “teach” us and is not real history, then I guess you can ignore archeological finds like this:

  

This is the Moabite Stone named the Mesha Stele.  These battles were recoded by Mesha, the Moabite King on this stone.  There is a word in the Bible ‘herem’ meaning total destruction.  The word ‘herem’ is only found on this stone and in the Bible.

Fun Fact: In 1997 I was at the Louvre Museum in Paris and this was there.  As an atheist (then, not now of course),  I didn’t give it a second look…went straight for the Mona Lisa.  Kicking myself now!!