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In Deuteronomy 5:6-7, Moses begins to repeat to this 2nd generation of liberated Israelites the same covenantal demands that Yahweh had given to their parents at Mount Horeb 40 years earlier. The initial covenant bearers (their parents) had perished in the wilderness, but God’s covenant has ongoing relevance and continuity with the 2nd generation, the ones that Moses is addressing and reminding of the binding nature of God’s covenant with them. This covenant is just as binding on them (both covenant obligations and blessings), so much so that they are considered to have been there at Horeb when God initially…

In Deuteronomy 4:25-31, Moses prophetically warns the people of Israel that future generations may do evil in the sight of the LORD by making carved images, provoking Him to anger. If, when they have “grown old in the land,” and do such dreadful sin, Moses warns them that the faithful, stable witnesses of heaven and earth who “observed” their covenant oath with God would testify against them, even if the original covenanters were long dead. And Moses declared that if they fall into idolatry, they will not remain in the land. They will be destroyed, scattered, reduced in number; and…

In Deuteronomy 4:15-24, Moses counsels this generation of Israelites to watch themselves very carefully, remembering that they had seen no physical form of God, and thus, to vigilantly keep from making carved images in the form or likeness of anything as something to worship in place of God. This is what their parents had grievously done while Moses was receiving the law from God at Horeb. Moses also urged them to also beware lifting their eyes up for the purpose of worshiping the celestial elements (sun, moon, and stars) as something deserving their worship. After all, God had given such…

In Deuteronomy 4:9-14, Moses exhorts this generation of Israelites about to enter the Promised Land to guard their souls with the greatest of diligence, that they must not forget all that they have seen, and that they must instill in their children who God is and what He has done. Moses especially wanted them to recall that day when they, as young children, gathered with their parents at Mount Horeb, where God summoned them into His presence and spoke to them His covenantal demands, encapsulated in the Ten Commandments. God’s purpose was for them to hear His words and then…

Beginning with Deuteronomy 4, Moses is no longer speaking of the past Israelite experiences. He now addresses the congregation in the present with exhortations and reminders. He instructs the Israelites (this 2nd generation) to listen to both the statutes and rules that he is continuing to teach them, for the express purpose of them obeying them, for in such devotion to God, they will find life. Because God’s Word is perfect, they must not add or remove anything from His commandments. They saw the immediate judgment of God upon the rebellious apostates at Baal-peor, with 23,000 people being destroyed by…

Moses continues recounting before this new generation what had happened. This time, he reflects on a personal story. Moses pleaded with the LORD, first attributing how the LORD had only just begun to reveal His power and might and magnificence before Moses (an incredible statement by Moses who was now 120!). “For what god is there in heaven or on earth who can do such mighty works and acts as yours?” Second, Moses asked God to let him cross over the Jordan to see the good land and good hill country that the Israelites were to inherit from the good…

Following the Israelites’ foolish decision to again defy God’s command and receiving a sound defeat at the hands of the Amorites, Moses relays that the Israelites turned from Kadesh to journey back into the wilderness towards the Red Sea, traveling around the hill country of Mt. Seir. But finally, the day came when God told them their wandering had gone on long enough. They were now to turn north back toward the Land of Promise. Their travels would lead them to encounter 3 people groups: the Edomites (of Esau), the Moabites (of Lot), and the Ammonites (also of Lot). God…

After the people of Israel rebelled against the LORD their God, the God who went before them, who carried them as a father carries his son, and who fought for them, the LORD swore an oath through Moses that not 1 man from this evil generation (the generation that refused to enter the Promised Land) would see/inherit the good land that God had promised to the patriarchs. The exceptions that God made were for 2 men: Caleb the son of Jephunneh … because he wholly followed the LORD; and Joshua the son of Nun … who would actually lead Israel…

In this passage, Moses speaks of a previous generation, one that wasted in the wilderness, but he speaks to this next generation as if they were complicit actors in the previous drama of 38 years prior. Moses recounts how at that time, the Israelites departed from Horeb, traveling through the great and terrifying wilderness of Paran, intent on reaching the hill country of the Amorites, according to God’s command to pick up and leave. At Kadesh-barnea, Moses addressed the people, encouraging them with God’s Word. He gave them a series of divine commands that they were to obey with urgency:…

Moses continued his address to the “2nd” generation, reminding them how he painfully realized early on in the wilderness that the size of the people was more than he could bear and properly lead. He recognized that God had indeed blessed them by multiplying the people of Israel numerically, and he prayed that God would continue to do so. But knowing that the weight of governing millions of people was far beyond his human capability, he had requested the tribes to put forward their own men who were recognized as experienced men with understanding and wisdom that Moses would appoint…