bNotes – Book of Deuteronomy
Author: Moses and Joshua (final summary), written 1407-1406 B.C.
The Israelites spent 40 years on a trip through the desert that would normally take 11 days. This was due to the older generations failure to trust God and go into the Promised Land. For their failure to have faith, they were not permitted to go into the new land and instead died off of Israel, much like us having to cut off our past sins and sinful nature to be renewed today. Only the younger, faithful generation of Israel was permitted to go into Canaan, the Promised Land.
The Bible is many things. One of those things being the best way to get to know God and how He operates. What He likes. What He doesn’t like. And since He is God, His ways are final. We can choose to obey Him and live and prosper, or disobey Him and suffer the multitude of potential consequences. But He doesn’t institute His ways to keep a thumb on His believers, rather He does this because He loves us. To help raise us. To keep us from being spoiled children who presume to know everything and expect everything. A healthy relationship, be it with God, your spouse or your friend, takes work. Don’t just expect your wants on a silver platter. Do you like it when your kids disobey and generally run amok? Without order, there is chaos. Get your ducklings in a row!
Two races of giants: Emites and Anakites. Both were known as Rephaites Two schools of thought here: 1) they were the offspring of fallen angels and mortal women; or 2) rebellious sons of Seth had children with unrighteous daughters of Cain, both of which were children of Adam and Eve.
King Og of Bashan, a giant from the group of Rephaites and an enemy who’s army attacked the Israelites in the Promised Land, had an iron bed that was 13 feet long and 6 feet wide. Moses said it could still be seen in the Ammonite city of Rabbah,
Deuteronomy 4:26-31. This appears to be a prophetic message to Israel from Moses about the modern times and the Tribulation. The people are now scattered. The Promised Land is in a tug-of-war match, with much of it occupied by non-Israelites. They do not worship Jesus since the Jewish fail to recognize Him as the Son of God. Other religions are practiced like Islam in the Promised Land. Moses goes on to say, “In the distant future, when you are suffering all these things, you will finally return to the Lord your God and listen to what he tells you.” This seem directly related to the Jewish people who survived the Tribulation and who will be taken to heaven after they bow down to Jesus at His second coming.
“The land he [God] swore to give you when he made a vow to your ancestors…is a land with large, prosperous cities that you did not build. The houses will be richly stocked with goods you did not provided. You will draw water from cisterns you did not dig, and you will eat from vineyards and olive trees you did not plant.” – Deuteronomy 7: 10-11. These words concerning the Promised Land in the land of Canaan also seems to symbolize our promise of eternal life in Heaven. Another prophecy by Moses?
Deuteronomy 9:6. (To the Israelites) “You must recognize that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land because you are good, for you are not – you are a stubborn people.”
Moses fasted for 40 days and 40 nights on Mt. Sinai as he talked with God and received the Ten Commandments. He had no water or food that long, much like Jesus when He fasted in the desert.
In Deuteronomy 10:10, Moses says, “The Lord gave me the two tablets on which God has written in his own finger all the words he had spoken to you from the heart of the fire when you were assembled at the mountain.” Moses appears to be saying that God literally wrote on the stone tablets. Since that seems to imply a hand to either hold the writing tool, or at least a finger to engrave them into the rock, and Jesus is God in the flesh, could this have been Jesus whom Moses was talking with on the mountaintop? He did claim to be the only person to have seen His face. This would mark another time pre-NT that Jesus possibly walked the earth. The other time being the possible true identity of the priest Melchizedek. (Genesis 14:17-20) And another being in Eden walking “about in the garden“ (Genesis 3:8).
Moses recalls that when the Lord saw that the people of Israel were making a golden calf to worship while he and the Lord were getting the Ten Commandments wrapped up, he had to rush down the mountain and intercede for the people so that God wouldn’t wipe them off the face of the earth. Moses fasted for 40 days and 40 nights and begged God not to kill the Israelites, though they were sinful and showed no faith.
God’s requirements for us to live for Him: respect, follow, love, serve, and obey.
Egypt is our lives before Christ. Sinful, lustful, of the flesh. The Exodus is our escape from the bonds of Satan and this world. The wilderness is our journey of obedience, cleansing and purification as we focus on a new life path: following Jesus. The Promised Land is a renewed Christian discipleship we live out, full of God’s promises and blessings. Here on earth, as well as it will be in Heaven – for we received that gift when we gave our lives to Christ! However, focusing on the earth realm, if we get to the Promised Land, a place where we bask in the mercy and glory of God, but then rebel, forget to praise, take for granted, mix it up with pagans, worship idols…then that blessing we have received will be taken away. We will not reap the bounty here on earth as long as we turn back towards Egypt and sigh. We will not reap the treasures He has bestowed upon us on earth if we look to the world to for our needs and rely on ourselves and others for the answers. As long as we take our eyes off of God, His blessings will be off of us. “But be careful. Don’t let your heart be deceived so that you turn away from the Lord your God and serve and worship other gods. If you do, the Lord’s anger will burn against you. He will shut up the sky and hold back the rain, and the ground will fail to produce its harvests. Then you will quickly die in that good land the Lord is giving you.” (Deuteronomy 11:16-17)
Once they were established in the Promised Land, making an offering of worship or thanks must done in designated Holy sites, not anywhere they wanted to offer them up.
“Suppose there are prophets among you or those who dream dreams about the future, and they promise you signs or miracles, and the predicted signs or miracles occur. If they then say, ‘Come, let us worship other gods’ – gods you have not known before – do not listen to them. The Lord your God is testing you to see if you truly love Him will all your heart and soul.” – Deuteronomy 13:1-3.
It appears that the OT way that God wanted the Promised Land to be purified by way of killing all the pagan idol worshipers – for the Israelites to completely wipe their existence from the land – is being confused with modern-day Islamic principles that say a true Muslim should hate infidels (Christians, Jews, etc) and seek out to kill them. They believe that if their purported coming 12th imam isn’t worshiped by someone, that person deserves to die. This is, of course, my understanding of the Quran and what it teaches. However, Jesus wiped away the need for our full-on onslaught of people and their lands. Words – in fact, the Word – were to be the new weapons. Compassion and patience are to now accompany the Bible when teaching to and dealing with people outside the Christian faith. However, we are not to be pushovers either. Jesus flipped over the money changer’s table when they defiled God’s house. In kind, if someone is so stubborn that they need their table flipped over, it shouldn’t be out of the question for us to oblige them.
“Give generously to the poor, not grudgingly, for the Lord your God will bless you in everything you do.” Deuteronomy 15:10
Regarding appointing kings to areas in the Promised Land…”The king must not take many wives for himself, because they will turn his heart away from the Lord. And he must not accumulate large amounts of wealth in silver and gold for himself.” Deuteronomy 17:17. I’m fast forwarding a bit, but didn’t David and Solomon have “large amounts of wealth in silver and gold?” They didn’t heed His warning.
Outside of the Promised Land, there was an entire world of cities and people. Should the Israelites go to war with one of those cities, they must first attempt a peaceful resolution to avoid unnecessary deaths to those in the opposing city – because the favor of God was upon the Israelites and the city would be handed over to them for sure. So, as to save lives of the opposing people, God told the Israelites to attempt peace first. If the people refused, then all the men of that opposing city were to be killed, but the women, children, livestock, harvests and possessions could be taken as spoils of war. There was to be no absolute destruction of the city like inside the Promised Land.
Deuteronomy 20:19-20 is for the environmentalists.
Deuteronomy 21:10-14 is interesting concerning non-married co-ed living situations, marriage and the ability to simply “let her go free” if she “does not please” the man.
This chapter takes a weird (no disrespect intended!) curve at the beginning of Deuteronomy 23. Crushed testicles prohibiting a man from entering the Lord’s assembly and sisters-in-laws pulling off sandals and spitting in faces because her husband’s brother won’t give her a baby. I get that it was tradition for a man to help carry on his deceased brother’s lineage by marrying his sister-in-law and having a baby for her, but pulling off shoes and spitting seems weird to me. Obviously, the times we live in are different. If the man refuses to do this for his brother’s family, his own family would forever be known as “the family of the man whose sandal was pulled off.” Interesting. And then there’s wives grabbing the testicles of a dude who’s fighting her husband. If a woman did that, her hand was to be cut off. These are part of the miscellaneous regulations for life and worship that Moses said to the Israelites before the entered the Promised Land.
This chapter takes a weird (no disrespect intended!) curve at the beginning of Deuteronomy 23. Crushed testicles prohibiting a man from entering the Lord’s assembly and sisters-in-laws pulling off sandals and spitting in faces because her husband’s brother won’t give her a baby. I get that it was tradition for a man to help carry on his deceased brother’s lineage by marrying his sister-in-law and having a baby for her, but pulling off shoes and spitting seems weird to me. Obviously, the times we live in are different. If the man refuses to do this for his brother’s family, his own family would forever be known as “the family of the man whose sandal was pulled off.” Interesting. And then there’s wives grabbing the testicles of a dude who’s fighting her husband. If a woman did that, her hand was to be cut off. These are part of the miscellaneous regulations for life and worship that Moses said to the Israelites before the entered the Promised Land.
Did “foreigners living among you” mean their slaves? See Deuteronomy 29:11 where it says “the foreigners living among you who chop your word and carry your water.” In other parts of the Bible, it mentions slaves and it mentions foreigners (whom I assumed were just people from outside the Israelite culture who decided to join them) but the “chop your wood” and “carry your water” part was weird, unless it’s just an illustration of two of the professions of the typical foreigner among them.
Where were the cities of Admah and Zeboiim that Moses says God “destroyed in his intense anger” when grouping them with Sodom and Gomorrah in Deuteronomy 29:23?
Deuteronomy 29:29 says, “The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions.” What could those secrets be? The Bible was written for man’s benefit to forge a path from a sinful temporary life on earth to a holy everlasting life in Heaven. That’s the meat of it. Those with the “what else” speculations and theories of stuff beyond this planet could use this Scripture passage to hang a hat on.
Deuteronomy 32:39 in the Song of Moses, it states that God said, “I am the one who kills and gives life; I am the one who wounds and heals…” This was the case in the OT, what with the plagues and punishments inflicted by God, but when Jesus died on the cross, endless mercy and unending grace entered into the picture, and we were no longer meant to suffer if we accepted that Jesus was who He says He was, is and always will be. It’s a sticky subject to get into, with some believing the Old Testament is for people under the new covenant given to us by Jesus. Either way, people clearly suffer today – with a lot of those people being Christians. The question is: Who is trying to punish us now? It looks a lot more like the real culprits are one of the following: society, other people, or the devil himself. Sin hurts us, not God.
Moses died at the age of 120.