Deuteronomy never lets us settle for an outward conformity. In relationship with God the core issue must be the heart.
Photo: [link]Chris Bair[/link], Unsplash CC0.
Christians tend to view the books of Moses as a flat collection of laws.
Many tend not to distinguish the progression within the books, both in terms of the progression of revelation of law (in response to progressive sin and failure), as well as the progression in generations.
Deuteronomy is anything but flat. Here we have a new generation and the aged Moses giving his parting-shot sermon to the people he has seen grow up in the wilderness.
There is a passion in Moses and a unique opportunity set before the people.
Don’t miss the following applicational emphases in the book:
It would be a gross misrepresentation to turn Deuteronomy into a flat book of laws and codes. Through Moses God is communicating a loving desire for the people to thrive as His people, to be blessed, to prosper in the land, etc.
It is easy to communicate threat without love, or warning without motive.
Surely a people who had watched their parents die in the wilderness, who had heard stories and perhaps remembered their miraculous deliverance from Pharoah and his armies, who had seen the miraculous as children and as adults, surely such a people would be well situated to thrive in the land before them?
Deuteronomy repeatedly warns of the dangers of forgetting. We humans can struggle to remember. Especially when things are going well and we are comfortable.
Perhaps Deuteronomy should be preached in our culture once a year? It wouldn’t be wasted!
God certainly lays out for the people the expected obedience. What would it look like for them to be faithful to the marital arrangement that is set before them? Obedience, of course.
But Deuteronomy never lets us settle for an outward conformity. Just as in a human marriage there is no satisfaction in ritual and plastic obedience, so in relationship with God the core issue must be the heart. That is what needs to be circumcised.
How easily we turn loving instruction into self-concerned ritualistic obedience. Even in these days God knew that ultimately it would take a prophet greater than Moses to capture the hearts of a straying humanity.
Peter Mead is mentor at Cor Deo and author of several books. This article first appeared on his blog Biblical Preaching.
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