Bible Survey: Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy means second law. It gives no new law but repeats the law for a new generation, since everyone who had crossed the Red Sea had died in the wilderness. The theme is obedience: Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse (Deuteronomy 11:26).
The book opens, These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel (Deuteronomy 1:1). The only part Moses could not have written is the account of his own death, likely added by Joshua. The Lord Himself buried him, but no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day (Deuteronomy 34:6).
There are eleven days' journey from Horeb to Kadesh-barnea (Deuteronomy 1:2), and it took Israel forty years. Yet God had already told them, I have given you the land to possess it (Numbers 33:53). All they had to do was trust and obey. A great many Christians go around in circles the same way, never laying hold of what God has already given them in Christ.
Deuteronomy gives a test for a false prophet: if what he speaks in the Lord's name does not come to pass, the Lord has not spoken it (Deuteronomy 18:22). Harold Camping set a date for the end of the world, and people sold their homes and quit their jobs to follow him, though before he died he admitted he had been wrong.
The same chapter promises a true Prophet: The LORD thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me (Deuteronomy 18:15). Peter and Stephen both tell us that Prophet is Jesus (Acts 3:22; 7:37). And chapter thirty looks ahead to the day God gathers Israel from all the nations again. He is not finished with Israel.
When the devil tempted Him, the Lord Jesus answered three times out of Deuteronomy.
Next in the series: Joshua.
Taught by Brother James Barker in Sunday School at Naples Independent Baptist Church, May 10, 2020. Watch the lesson.
