Deuteronomy: At Journey's EndSample

The book and its message

These verses are a preface to the whole book of Deuteronomy and, in principle, tell us all we need to know. Three times Moses is named as its author (vv. 1, 3, 5). It was Moses who ‘spoke to all Israel’ (v. 1); what Moses said the Lord had already said to him (v. 3): the voice was human, the words divine. Moses was a prophet (cf. 34:10), and, like all the prophets, he could say, ‘Thus says the Lord’, meaning, ‘If the Lord had chosen to come in person to speak to you instead of sending me, this is, word for word, what he would have said.’ This is the miracle of Bible inspiration: human speech and divine word. Moses’ task was also to ‘make plain’ God’s law (v. 5; for the verb see 27:8; Hab. 2:2). 

Notice how the preface insists on telling us where Moses spoke (v. 1), when he spoke (vv. 2–3a), as well as how he spoke (with clarification, v. 5). The rest of Deuteronomy will demonstrate the accuracy of that verb ‘make clear’. The man who started out ‘slow of speech and tongue’ (Ex. 4:10) found God to be as good as his word to be ‘with’ Moses’ mouth (Ex. 4:12), and he became the scintillating orator we find in this book. But the ‘where’ and ‘when’ are important too. They were in the wilderness. Deuteronomy is a book for the Lord’s people still in this world, surrounded by named locations with all their peoples, potential opposition, possible temptations and trials. 

This, indeed, is the point of the exact dating (Deut. 1:2–3a) of Moses’ words. A journey that could have been accomplished in eleven days (v. 2) took nigh on forty years (v. 3a)! Moses will himself tell us more about this at the end of chapter 1: they had come, forty years earlier, to the border of Canaan and refused to obey the voice of the Lord. Disobedience costs! That is part of the message of Deuteronomy – to us as to our ancestors of old. 

But there is a date attached also to ‘how’ Moses spoke (v. 4) – it was after the defeat of Sihon and Og. They were the awesome kings ruling in Transjordan (Num. 21:21–35) who fell before an Israel that believed the Lord’s promise, ‘I have delivered him into your hand’. In other words, disobedience costs but obedience rewards. Deuteronomy develops these truths in many ways, but, at heart, the position is that the Lord’s people possess the Lord’s commands (Deut. 1:3), their hallmark is to obey them, and this is the way of blessing. 

Reflection 

Remember what benefits the Lord’s word bestows (Ps. 19:7–11).