Deuteronomy: At Journey's End

44 Undated Devotions Through the Book of Deuteronomy

Alec Motyer

• Publisher: 10Publishing
• Year: 2016
• Print ISBN: 9781911272137
• eBook ISBN: 9781911272137

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"See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it".

The book of Deuteronomy follows the Israelites as they journey closer to the promised land. As they await their inheritance, Moses urges the Israelites to look always to the truth, to keep their minds fixed on the Lord, and to obey His law.

In these daily undated devotions, Alec Motyer explores the timeless truths of Deuteronomy and applies them to our lives today. Just as the Israelites did, we can appreciate the wonder of God's grace to us through repentance, experience His committed love for us, and learn more about walking in His ways.

	DAY 1	READ Deuteronomy 1:1–5

The book and its message

These verses are a preface to the whole book 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).

	DAY 2	READ Deuteronomy 1:6–21

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.

	DAY 3	READ Deuteronomy 1:22–46

Getting stuck

According to verse 19, the Israelites started out for the Promised Land from Kadesh Barnea; verse 46 tells us that was where they ended. It’s the story of a people who got stuck! What was meant to be a springboard to blessing (v. 22) became the location and punishment of failure (v. 46).

Now how did that happen? Well, look at an interesting contrast. In verses 6–21 the people begin (vv. 6–8) and end (vv. 19–21) following God, and in between (vv. 9–18) they obey God under the guidance of their appointed ‘judges’. But in verses 22–46 they begin (vv. 22–25) and end (vv. 41–46) following man, and in between (vv. 26–40) they rebel (v. 26), grumble (v. 27), do not trust (v. 32) and, consequently, are sent back into the wilderness (v. 40).

It is so often like this in the Bible: when we see the pattern, we see the message. A people under the word of God are in the way of blessing; a people turning from the word of God are the architects of their own loss and deprivation. By refusing to enter the land (vv. 25–26) the Israelites were in effect choosing the wilderness – and they got what they chose.

The heart of the matter was disobedience to God’s word – this is why the significant reference to Moses, Caleb and Joshua lies at the centre of today’s reading (vv. 36–38). They are a case in point. Moses had committed his own disobedience (Num. 20:7–12) and paid the penalty, on ‘your account’ (Deut. 3:26, NKJV) – so that people would see what a serious offence it is to disobey; Caleb and Joshua had stood up against the rebels (Num. 14:6–9) and were rewarded for their obedience (Deut. 1:35–36, 38).

Disobedience has various facets. It began with the Israelites’ logical plan to send spies (v. 22). They requested ‘men’ to go ahead of them – as if the Lord had not led them safely thus far! Was the pillar of cloud and fire not enough (Ex. 40:38)? Human reliance replaced spiritual trust. Reliance on human wisdom soon became stubborn resistance (Deut. 1:26), digging in one’s heels against God’s command, discontent (v. 27) and – the sin of sins – abandonment of the way of faith (v. 32).

REFLECTION

The Lord is unchanging in power (v. 30), in love (v. 31) and in care (vv. 32–33).

	DAY 4	READ Deuteronomy 2:1–25

Lessons to be learned

In the course of the forty years that began at 2:1, crowds of people were caught up in the consequences of the sin of disobedience for which they could not be blamed – they had to wait for every one of that ‘evil generation’ to die (1:35) before they could enter the land (1:39). They would have been very different from us if they had never thought, ‘What have we done to deserve this – the inhospitable desert year after year!’ People often say that the Bible does not explain suffering, but that is not so; it offers many explanations – only they are not the sort of ‘explanation’ we think we need! Would Israel have learned in any other way the lesson of steady obedience?

The command (2:4) was obeyed (v. 8); command and obedience went together (v. 13). When the Lord said, ‘Do not provoke’ (v. 5; cf. v. 9), they did not provoke. When he said, ‘cross’ (v. 13), they crossed over. Was there any other way they could have learned so vividly and effectively the loving, daily care of their God (v. 7; cf. 8:2–4)? They learned to live within the sovereign plan of God – indeed, if they did not know it already, they learned that he is sovereign over all the nations of the world.

Notice the repeated ‘not give … have given …’ (vv. 5, 9, 19) and finally, the decisive ‘have ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Introduction
• Day 1 READ Deuteronomy 1:1–5
• Day 2 READ Deuteronomy 1:6–21
• Day 3 READ Deuteronomy 1:22–46
• Day 4 READ Deuteronomy 2:1–25
• Day 5 READ Deuteronomy 2:26 – 3:11
• Day 6 READ Deuteronomy 3:12–29
• Day 7 READ Deuteronomy 4:1–20
• Day 8 READ Deuteronomy 4:21–43
• Day 9 READ Deuteronomy 4:44 – 5:33
• Day 10 READ Deuteronomy 6:1–9
• Day 11 READ Deuteronomy 6:10–25
• Day 12 READ Deuteronomy 7:1–11
• Day 13 READ Deuteronomy 7:12–26
• Day 14 READ Deuteronomy 8:1–20
• Day 15 READ Deuteronomy 9:1–29
• Day 16 READ Deuteronomy 10:1–22
• Day 17 READ Deuteronomy 11:1–32
• Day 18 READ Deuteronomy 12:1–32
• Day 19 READ Deuteronomy 13:1–18
• Day 20 READ Deuteronomy 14:1–29
• Day 21 READ Deuteronomy 15:1–23
• Day 22 READ Deuteronomy 16:1–17
• Day 23 READ Deuteronomy 16:18 – 17:20
• Day 24 READ Deuteronomy 18:1–22
• Day 25 READ Deuteronomy 19:1–21
• Day 26 READ Deuteronomy 20:1–20
• Day 27 READ Deuteronomy 21:1–23
• Day 28 READ Deuteronomy 22:1–30
• Day 29 READ Deuteronomy 23:1–25
• Day 30 READ Deuteronomy 24:1–22
• Day 31 READ Deuteronomy 25:1–19
• Day 32 READ Deuteronomy 26:1–19
• Day 33 READ Deuteronomy 27:1–26
• Day 34 READ Deuteronomy 28:1–14
• Day 35 READ Deuteronomy 28:15–44
• Day 36 READ Deuteronomy 28:45 – 29:1
• Day 37 READ Deuteronomy 29:2–15
• Day 38 READ Deuteronomy 29:16–29
• Day 39 READ Deuteronomy 30:1–20
• Day 40 READ Deuteronomy 31:1–29
• Day 41 READ Deuteronomy 31:30 – 32:27
• Day 42 READ Deuteronomy 32:28–52
• Day 43 READ Deuteronomy 33:1–29
• Day 44 READ Deuteronomy 34:1–12
• References