Deuteronomy: At Journey's EndSample

Giving and withholding

Moses was understandably sensitive when faced with the possibility of two and a half tribes peeling off from the total company to settle outside the Promised Land (see Num. 32:6–15). He laid down two safeguarding conditions: no fracturing of the unity of the people, and nothing less than total mobilization for the war of possession (v. 18). 

Both of these truths are important, and their lessons carry over into the New Testament. We have inevitably become accustomed to the denominational divisions we have inherited – and can even rejoice in them as if disunity did not matter – but John 17:21 urges unity. Even more sadly we acquiesce in divisions within the local fellowship – and proceed to take sides. (Someone in our village shop chortled publicly, ‘I hear they are at each other’s throats again down at the church!’) But Moses insisted that nothing less than the total, united mobilization of the people of the Lord will bring about possession of their God-intended possessions. The battle to enter into what God has given – the battle for sanctification – demands everything we can give (Heb. 12:4). 

The highly personal verses 21–27 are equally important. Moses failed to be sensitive to the minutiae of obedience (cf. Num. 20:8, 11). He did not lose his salvation (cf. 1 Cor. 3:15; Luke 9:30–31), but he did lose the joy and privilege of leading the people into their inheritance. He felt the divine anger ‘on your account’ (Deut. 3:26, NKJV); because of what the Lord purposed for you, that you should know the fearful consequences of disobedience, and also how detailed our obedience should be. But, in all this, the Lord still pursues his purposes undaunted, and the word is to ‘encourage and strengthen’ Joshua for the unchanged task ahead (v. 28). ‘I the Lord do not change. So you, O descendants of Jacob, are not destroyed’ (Mal. 3:6). And Joshua’s ‘encouragement’ is ours too; what the Lord has been in the past is a revelation of what he is, and an assurance of what he will do in the future (Deut. 3:21). The God of our salvation is the God we need for tomorrow.

Reflection

Unity (Phil. 1:27; 4:2), mobilization (Eph. 6:13) and wholeheartedness (Col. 3:23) are the continuing ‘marks’ of the Lord’s people.