Contents of the Book of Deuteronomy
Survey of the past and preparation for the future.
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Book of Deuteronomy Challenge – Day 5 Deuteronomy 1, 2 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)
5 East of the Jordan in the territory of Moab, Moses began to expound this law, saying:
6 The Lord our God said to us at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. 7 Break camp and advance into the hill country of the Amorites; go to all the neighboring peoples in the Arabah, in the mountains, in the western foothills, in the Negev and along the coast, to the land of the Canaanites and to Lebanon, as far as the great river, the Euphrates. 8 See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land the Lord swore he would give to your fathers—to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—and to their descendants after them.” (Deuteronomy 1:5-8)
God promised to do three things for Abraham (Genesis 12-17) 1.) Multiply his seed exceedingly. 2.) Give him the land of Canaan, and 3.) Bless the nations through him. Moses recounted the past to the Israelite to show them that God is a promise keeper. The first chapters of Deuteronomy talk about the first two of these promises which had already been fulfilled at the time of Moses. The last promise, “to bless all the nations through Abraham,” was later on fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
May the Lord richly bless you!
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Book of Deuteronomy Challenge – Day 6 Deuteronomy 4, 5 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)
Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you. 2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you. (Deuteronomy 4:1-2)
One of the classic verse of the Old Testament is 1 Samuel 15:2, “But Samuel replied: "Does the LORD delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as in obeying the LORD? To obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed is better than the fat of rams.” Obedience is the key to a right relationship to God. Every human being must “acknowledge and take to heart this day that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other” (Deut. 4:39).
May the Lord richly bless you!
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Book of Deuteronomy Challenge – Day 6 Deuteronomy 5, 6 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. 5 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. 6 These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates. (Deuteronomy 6:4-9)
If for Christianity the summary of the Bible is found in John 3:16, for the Judaism the key message of the Old Testament is the Shema, Deuteronomy 6:4-9. Our motivation to serve God must come from love, not from fear. Fear makes us self-conscious, love makes us God conscious. When we love God with all our heart and with all our soul and with all our means, we are then free to love our neighbor as ourselves.
May the Lord richly bless you!
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Book of Deuteronomy Challenge – Day 13 Deuteronomy 15, 16 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)
4 However, there need be no poor people among you, for in the land the Lord your God is giving you to possess as your inheritance, he will richly bless you, 5 if only you fully obey the Lord your God and are careful to follow all these commands I am giving you today. 6 For the Lord your God will bless you as he has promised, and you will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. You will rule over many nations but none will rule over you. (Deuteronomy 15:4-6)
“There need be no poor among you (15:4)”. You and I don’t need to be poor. No Christian needs to be poor. No nation needs to be poor. God wants to richly bless his people, if they fully obey him and carefully his commands. God wants to fully bless us (v. 6). As shown in the story of the Garden of Eden in the book of Genesis, God is a God of abundance. Mankind’s poverty and lack are the result of sin. But the good news is that Jesus died on the cross to pay the consequences of our sins.
For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sake he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. (2 Corinthians 8:9)
May the Lord richly bless you!
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Book of Deuteronomy Challenge – Day 14 Deuteronomy 17, 18 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)
18 When he takes the throne of his kingdom, he is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. 19 It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the Lord his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees 20 and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left. Then he and his descendants will reign a long time over his kingdom in Israel. (Deuteronomy 17:18-20)
Bible reading is one of the most useful habits that someone can develop. It is so important, that to read the Torah was the main duties of a king in Israel, “It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life (v.19).” The same diligence in Bible reading should be stressed for all Christians. The Bible is mankind’s “User Manual for life”. The more we know that manual and apply it to our lives, the more fulfilled our lives will be.
May the Lord richly bless you!
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Book of Deuteronomy Challenge – Day 15 Deuteronomy 19, 20 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)
16 However, in the cities of the nations the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. 17 Completely destroy[a] them—the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites—as the Lord your God has commanded you. 18 Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against the Lord your God. (Deuteronomy 20:16-18)
No one can really appreciate the great salvation found in Jesus Christ without an understanding of the gravity of sin. The Lord is compassionate, but to keep his people pure, he commanded them to take radical measures against the nations who could entice them to idol worship. Completely destroy them (v. 17).
Are we careful regarding our associations? Do we resist sins at all cost? Hebrews 10:33 exhorts us to be vigilant, “In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood (Hebrews 10:33).”
May the Lord richly bless you!
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Book of Deuteronomy Challenge – Day 16 Deuteronomy 21, 22 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)
18 If someone has a stubborn and rebellious son who does not obey his father and mother and will not listen to them when they discipline him, 19 his father and mother shall take hold of him and bring him to the elders at the gate of his town. 20 They shall say to the elders, “This son of ours is stubborn and rebellious. He will not obey us. He is a glutton and a drunkard.” 21 Then all the men of his town are to stone him to death. You must purge the evil from among you. All Israel will hear of it and be afraid. (Deuteronomy 21:16-18)
In Luke 7:33-35, the Jews accused Jesus of being “a glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax-collectors and sinners,” implying that he was a rebellious son who deserved to die. Was Jesus a rebellious son? Not at all. He was the perfect son who could say, "My food is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work” (John 4:34). But for our sake he was treated as a rebellious son, “He himself bore our sins” in his body on the cross, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; “by his wounds you have been healed” (1 Peter 2:24).
May the Lord richly bless you!
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Book of Deuteronomy Challenge – Day 19 Deuteronomy 23, 24 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)
19 When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. 20 When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. 21 When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. 22 Remember that you were slaves in Egypt. That is why I command you to do this. (Deuteronomy 24:19-22)
The passage above shows clearly that in God’s economy the well-being of everyone in society is provided for. The gleaning law guaranteed that the poor will not go hungry and destitute. We are indeed our brother’s keeper. When the rich facilitates the well-being of the poor of the land, God steps in to bless the benevolent rich person.
However how good the gleaning law was, the church in the New Testament improved on it. The writer of the books of Acts was able to write, “All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had” and later on he commented, “There were no needy persons among them. (Acts 4:32, 34)” The gleaning law was the law of the left-over, while the law of grace and love put rich and poor at the same table.
May the Lord richly bless you!
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Book of Deuteronomy Challenge – Day 20 Deuteronomy 25, 26 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)
4 Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain. (Deuteronomy 25:4)
Our churches would be more blessed if the brothers and sisters understood this simple concept of reciprocity: “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the grain (25:4).” In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel (1 Corinthians 9:14). In our Haitian churches, many members have no notion of the necessity of supporting financially their pastors. Even some of the pastors pride themselves of not receiving any financial support from their congregation. However, the painful truth is: “Churches cannot be blessed when they function in opposition to the word of God.” When we read, “The Lord has commanded ....,” this is not a suggestion.
The Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “If we have sown spiritual seed among you, is it too much if we reap a material harvest from you? 12 If others have this right of support from you, shouldn’t we have it all the more? But we did not use this right. On the contrary, we put up with anything rather than hinder the gospel of Christ.13 Don’t you know that those who serve in the temple get their food from the temple, and that those who serve at the altar share in what is offered on the altar? 14 In the same way, the Lord has commanded that those who preach the gospel should receive their living from the gospel.” (1 Corinthians 9:11-14)
May the Lord richly bless you!
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Book of Deuteronomy Challenge – Day 21 Deuteronomy 27, 28 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)
“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God. 3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. (Deuteronomy 28:1-6)
In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, God’s promise of blessings is conditional on our obedience. The big difference is that the New Covenant is a covenant of grace in which Jesus became a curse for us (Galatians 3:13). We don’t have to pay for our sins because Jesus suffered the penalty for us by dying on the cross. We have been made right with God through Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). That good news.
May the Lord richly bless you!
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Book of Deuteronomy Challenge – Day 22 Deuteronomy 29, 30 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)
15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess. (Deuteronomy 30:15-16)
Does God want to prosper his children? I have read a lot of books and articles by American pastors and theologians who are totally opposed to the so-called Prosperity Theology. Are they right to express so much opposition, not to say outright hostility, to the preaching that God wants to bless his people? A lot of those theologians, I suppose, never experience the desperation that pushes people all over the world to leave their countries for perilous journeys to better destinations. L'espoir fait vivre!
See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction (30:15). God still gives us the same choice today. The Lord Jesus said in John 10:10, “I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
May the Lord richly bless you!
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Book of Deuteronomy Challenge – Day 23 Deuteronomy 31, 32 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)
48 On that same day the Lord told Moses, 49 “Go up into the Abarim Range to Mount Nebo in Moab, across from Jericho, and view Canaan, the land I am giving the Israelites as their own possession. 50 There on the mountain that you have climbed you will die and be gathered to your people, just as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his people. 51 This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites. 52 Therefore, you will see the land only from a distance; you will not enter the land I am giving to the people of Israel. (Deuteronomy 32:48-52)
God punished Moses by keeping him from entering Canaan because he had failed two crucial tests during the event at the waters of Meriba Kades, the test of faith and the test of sanctification. The Lord’s reprimand of Moses is found in the verse 51: This is because both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah Kadesh in the Desert of Zin and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites.
Hebrews 11:6, “And without faith it is impossible to please God...” Hebrews 12:14, “... Without holiness no one will see the Lord.”
May the Lord richly bless you!
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Book of Deuteronomy Challenge – Day 24 Deuteronomy 33, 34 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)
We have reached the end of the Book of Deuteronomy Challenge, tomorrow we start the Book of Job Challenge.
5 And Moses the servant of the Lord died there in Moab, as the Lord had said. 6 He buried him in Moab, in the valley opposite Beth Peor, but to this day no one knows where his grave is. 7 Moses was a hundred and twenty years old when he died, yet his eyes were not weak nor his strength gone. 8 The Israelites grieved for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days, until the time of weeping and mourning was over.
9 Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him. So the Israelites listened to him and did what the Lord had commanded Moses. (Deuteronomy 34:5-9)
“Now Joshua son of Nun was filled with the spirit of wisdom because Moses had laid his hands on him (34:9).” The chapter simultaneously announces the death of Moses and his succession by Joshua assuring the continuity of leadership for the people of God.
Moses was a selfless leader. His sole concern was for the well-being of people. His prayer, when he realized that he would soon die, was: “May the Lord, the God who gives breath to all living things, appoint someone over this community 17 to go out and come in before them, one who will lead them out and bring them in, so the Lord’s people will not be like sheep without a shepherd” (Numbers 27:16-17).
May the Lord richly bless you!
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Book of Job Challenge – Day 17 Job 41, 42 (Please click on the blue links to be directed to the Readings)
We have reached the end of the Book of Job Challenge, tomorrow we start the Book of Jeremiah Challenge.
12 The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part.
16 After this, Job lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the fourth generation. 17 And so Job died, an old man and full of years. (Job 42:12-17)
We wish that every trial has the same kind of happy endings as we find in the story of Job, “The Lord blessed the latter part of Job’s life more than the former part (v. 12).” Unfortunately it doesn’t work like this always. Christians do die without seeing the healing that they have prayed for during many years. The marriage ends in divorce instead of reconciliation. The prodigal child never returns home. The list of seemingly bad endings could go on and on.
Fortunately we have a better understanding of God’s revelation than Job had. Our endings do not really end at our death. We have the hope of eternal life in the presence of our Father in Heaven. The story of the Christian always ends with a happy ending, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant! You have been faithful with a few things; I will put you in charge of many things. Come and share your master’s happiness! (Matthew 25:21)’
May the Lord richly bless you!