Journal Through the Bible: Week 26 Wednesday

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(I appreciate your patience as I get the journal up to date. Many things are happening, all good, but it means difficulty keeping up.  NOT with my Bible reading, but with posting the journal. Thanks for your understanding.)

Deuteronomy chapter 1

Moses wrote this book to a new generation, the generation that would inherit the land promised to the Jews by God but rejected by their parents, the old generation that came out of Egypt. Most of the people who would receive the writings of this book were born in the desert.

This book is called Deuteronomy because it is the second giving of the law. It is not a new law. It is the same law but told the second time. It was written at the end of Moses' life, perhaps in the very last month, while the people were encamped along the plains of Moab on the eastern side of the Jordan River. Moses details in the first few verses that they had journeyed for 11 days from the mount where he had sinned by striking the rock. His discourse to the Children of Israel began on the 1st day of the 11th month of the 40th year which was soon after the victories against the Amorites  and Bashan (found in Numbers 21:21-35). He had been the leader of this family/nation for 40 years, almost all of which had been spent in the wilderness waiting for the older generation to die.

Does God issue any commands?

• Moses recounts God's command to leave Mount Horeb and travel to Kadesh-barnea. This is a review of the time when judges were appointed to help Moses settle judicial matters between the people. It also reviews the failure of the spies sent out by the first generation.

Does God make any promises?

• Moses reviews the promises of God to the first generation to give them the land by fighting for them just as He did by fighting for them when bringing them out of Egypt and by going before them in the cloud and in the fire.
• Moses recounts the curse upon that first generation to kill them in the wilderness (except Caleb) and the promise to the second generation to inherit the land.
• Moses tells of the curse upon himself but the promise upon Joshua as leader of the people.

Does this chapter teach anything about Jesus?

• When teaching the history lesson to the younger generation, Moses tells of the longsuffering of God with His people. They had a covenant agreement with God. They broke it. Christians have a covenant agreement with God also through the blood of Jesus Christ our Lord. We break it. But I John 1:9 says that if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Since the person/subject of I John chapter 1 is the first two persons of the trinity (God the Father and God the Son: both identified by "Light" here and in John chapter 1) the "he" who is faithful and just to forgive and cleanse is Jesus as well as the Father. This means that the Son, Jesus, is also longsuffering with us. We have a history and a second chance (and many other chances beyond that)!

Does this chapter teach anything about yet-future events?

• The encouraging news that I find in this passage is the lesson of second chances. The first generation failed with the promised inheritance (in the passage it was the Hebrews that came out of Egypt to take the Promised Land; for all mankind it was Adam giving up the blessing of a perfectly created earth) but the generation following was to receive the promised inheritance (in the passage it was the children of those that came out of Egypt who were to receive the Promised Land; for all mankind it is those who trust the Second Adam as savior who will receive a perfectly created earth).