Guest Author
This post is adapted from the transcript to Dr. Daniel Block’s Mobile Ed course on Deuteronomy.
To a lot of people, the only disease worse than Leviticus is Deuteronomy. We don’t like this book, we don’t understand this book, we don’t get the point of this book, and we are glad that it’s not in our New Testament.
Deuteronomy is an unfortunate name. Second law? Who needs that? On the other hand, the book opens with “These are the words of Moses.” What happens in this book is communication, speech, prophetic preaching at its best. At the moment we discover that in this book, above all Moses is trying to communicate gospel. It all starts to make sense. The gospel is written large on every page, as Moses reminds his audience, his congregation, his pastoral charge of God’s grace in salvation. God’s grace in the covenant, God’s grace in the revelation of His will, God’s grace in taking care of the Israelites in the desert, God’s grace in taking the people back after the horrendous golden calf fiasco, and God’s grace in giving to them the land.
It’s all gospel; the question for Israel is the question that is our question, in the face of the gospel that we have embodied in Jesus Christ our Lord. What will we do with the gospel? Will we respond with fear and trust and belief, and will this trust—an odd trust—govern our lives, so we are inspired to live thankfully in obedience to the Lord, anticipating at the end like Moses offered his people, “‘well done, good and faithful servant”?
The Lord has given us a gospel, if we don’t understand the book of Deuteronomy, we will not understand the rest of the first testament, we will not understand Jesus, and we will not understand Paul.
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Explore Deuteronomy with Dr. Daniel Block. Dr. Block’s 20-hour Mobile Ed course will help you gain insight and understanding of Deuteronomy. Book Study: Deuteronomy (OT312) is available on community pricing. Place your bid today.
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