Deuteronomy: At Journey's EndSample

The word of God for the whole of life

Moses is looking back over the last forty years (v. 3) and recalling (vv. 6–8) the exciting, key moment when they left Sinai for the desert journey to Canaan. How memories must have flooded back! But one event stands out in his mind: how he picked out leaders of thousands, hundreds, fifties and tens (v. 15). What a let-down! What a dull thing to remember out of all that thrilling time! (See Ex. 18 for how it happened.) But historians only pick out what they think is important. That’s their job – to focus on the really significant among the loads of facts and figures available to them. So we must ask what was special about this series of appointments. 

Look first at the way this whole section is planned. It begins and ends (vv. 6–8, 21) with the command to ‘go … and take possession’. This is the ‘bracket’ or ‘inclusion’ around the verses. Within the brackets we find the record of appointing the leaders. In other words, the leaders and their work is the link between the setting out and actually entering to possess. In Exodus 18:15, Moses said the people came to him ‘to seek God’s will’, and it was this function he passed on to the chosen leaders when he counselled them that ‘judgment belongs to God’ (Deut. 1:17). 

To ‘judge’ in the Old Testament means to give an authoritative decision settling some issue. It was the judges’ task to keep the people on track with the word of God, and this was the point of having leaders available to local or family groups (tens), area groups (fifties and hundreds) and major tribal divisions (thousands). The word of God had to be readily available in every situation, however widespread and however localised. This was the way Moses did it, and he was insistent about it. According to verse 16, their ‘judgment’ was for all without exception – whether a brother or a stranger. It was to be without fear or favour (v. 17), with no partiality. And it was to be without deviation from ‘everything’ they’d been told (v. 18). When he appointed the leaders, Moses did relieve himself of intense pressures but that was not the point. The point was doing everything possible to make and keep them as the people of the word of the Lord. 

Reflection

Between setting out and arriving, all we need is the word of God.