Set Back by Sin for 38 Years (Dt 1:1-46)

Deuteronomy 1:1-46; Key Verses: Dt 1:8, 21, 26, 30-32

"See, I have given you this land. Go in and take possession of the land..." "See, the Lord your God has given you the land. Go up and take possession of it..." "But ... you rebelled against the command of the Lord your God." "The Lord your God, who is going before you, will fight for you..." "In spite of this, you did not trust in the Lord your God."

Introduction: Deuteronomy consists of three speeches (sermons) Moses gave to his people before handing leadership to Joshua and before their entrance to the promised land. Key Verses may be:

• Love. "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" (Dt 6:5).

Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest

Take this 22 Question Quiz on Deuteronomy 1-13

Deuteronomy Quiz on Chapter 1 - 13. On my first take, I had 15 correct and 7 incorrect in 6 min + and received a score of 70% (without cheating by looking up the references).

Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest

An Overview of the Pentateuch in Preparation for Studying Deuteronomy

Genesis, the first book of the Pentateuch, presents the stories of Creation (Gen 1:1-2:25), the Fall (Gen 3:1-24), and the beginning of God's plan of redemption through Abraham (Gen 12:1ff), his son Isaac (Gen 24:1ff), and Isaac's son Jacob (Gen 27:1ff), who is also called Israel. In the later chapters of Genesis, Jacob's son Joseph is taken down to Egypt (Gen 37:1ff), eventually to be followed by his brothers and father.

Exodus, which is next, records the greatest redemption event in the Bible prior to Christ's incarnation. The first chapter summarizes four hundred years in the life and slavery of the children of Israel in Egypt (Ex 1:1-22). The first eighty years of Moses' life follow in the second chapter (Ex 2:1-25). Then, the story line from Exodus 3 on through Leviticus and up to the middle of Numbers covers the span of only one year. It is a great year, for the Lord calls Moses as an eighty-year-old man to return to Egypt and lead the children of Israel out of slavery. Having redeemed his people, God guides them through the wilderness to Mount Sinai, where God gives the peo­ple his law (Ex 20:1-17), and instructs them in his ways, even though they sin repeatedly. This is always the order of the Bible: redemption first, then response; grace then law.

Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest

Deuteronomy: Outline/Overview

Analysis (Edward Woods, 2011):

1. First Address of Moses: Retrospect - What God Has Done (1:1-4:43).
2. Second Address of Moses: What God Commands for the Future (4:44-28:68).
3. Third Address of Moses: Recapitulation of the Covenant Demand and the Call to Choose God and Obey (29:1-30:20).
4. The Transition from Moses to Joshua (31:1-34:12).

Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest

The Gospel in 1-2 Samuel

The message of 1-2 Samuel is NOT "be like David" and "don't be like Saul."

God is David's ultimate concern. 1-2 Samuel are about Israel's first kings, Saul and David. Ultimately, they look to the great King, God himself. These are gospel-filled stories, unflinchingly honest about sin and society, but saturated with hope of salvation. The two key characters (apart from Samuel) are both royal sinners. But Saul and David are as different from one another as darkness is from light. For Saul, God does not appear to be a major concern, perhaps not a reality at all. For David, God is his ultimate concern, the ultimate reality, and carries ultimate weight. This is what it means to "honor" God. Therefore, "those who honor me I will honor, and those who despise me shall be lightly esteemed" (1 Sam 2:30). Saul is destined to fall and David to rise.

Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest

The Gospel in Ruth

God cares for his own with great loving kindness. Ruth is the story of a young Moabite widow who comes to know the covenant love the one true God and the joy of belonging to his people through her Jewish mother-in-law, Naomi. Through these two women God's sovereign hand is at work to redeem a people for himself. God, the hero of the story, is the faithful God who cares for his own and provides what they need with great loving kindness (hesed). Like Ruth, we too "were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world" (Eph 2:12). Like Ruth, we too need a Kinsman-Redeemer who will do all that is necessary to remedy our helpless condition.

Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest

The Gospel in Judges

Judges portrays the people of God languishing without good leadership. Judges and 1-2 Samuel bridge the gap from the entrance of the people of God into the Promised Land under Joshua to their expulsion from the land due to unfaithful kings in 1-2 Kings. Since the conquest of the land is not complete, Judges begins with the question of who will lead in battle (Judg 1:1) and ends with "In those days Israel had no king; everyone did as they saw fit" (Judg 21:25). The need for a king to lead God's people into their full inheritance is an important theme.

Email ThisBlogThis!Share to XShare to FacebookShare to Pinterest