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Take a breath, find your place, and read deeply. Discover the joy of reading God’s word with the Immerse New Living Translation (NLT) Bible.
This daily Bible podcast will take you through the Bible in a year following the Immerse Bible Reading Experience. So grab your family and small group and go through the Bible in a year together with Immerse. Each of the 6 volumes is available online or at your favorite Christian bookstore.
Nancy: Welcome To Immerse: The
Daily Bible Reading Experience.
Day 100 and 47
immersed in Deuteronomy,
the ancient nation of Israel is
finally poised to enter the land
God promised to their ancestor.
Abraham.
The books of Exodus, Leviticus, and
numbers have told the story of Israel's
journey from Egypt to the edge of Canaan.
God has freed his people from
their slavery in Egypt and promised
them a homeland of their own.
The terms of God's covenant with them
have been delivered in parts from
Mount Sinai, from the Tabernacle,
and along the route to Canaan.
Now, just before he dies,
Moses conveys the terms of the
covenant again, all at once.
Moses uses a literary form well
suited to his purpose, adapting
the kind of treaty that a High King
would use in making an agreement with
other kings who are subject to him.
The covenant was made using
this culturally familiar
and accepted treaty form.
It would govern the relationship
between the Lord and the Israelites,
his kingdom of priests, and Holy nation.
It is also worth noting that the 10
Commandments are actually a miniature
version of this kind of treaty.
The nation has been wandering in the
wilderness for 40 years during which time
the disobedient generation has died out.
Moses knows that the new generation needs
to hear and understand their covenant
with God and embrace it for themselves.
The book of Deuteronomy is the final
message delivered by Moses to this next
generation of God's covenant people.
The book of Deuteronomy has six distinct
parts that reflect the elements in
a treaty between a High King and
those subject to him credentials
of the High Kings representative.
What God has done for
Israel, the expectation of
exclusive allegiance to God.
Israel's duties under God, blessings
or curses, Israel's oath and witnesses.
The treaty begins by listing the High
King's name and titles in Deuteronomy.
The credentials of Moses are given because
he is acting as God's representative.
Next comes a description of what the
High King has done for his subjects.
Deuteronomy emphasizes what the Lord
has done for Israel, concentrating on
God's provision and protection during
the nation's wilderness journey.
The next part of the treaty makes
a demand for exclusive allegiance.
Moses explains how the Israelites
are to live out their exclusive
allegiance by welcoming each new
generation into the covenant.
Also, they are to protect their
relationship with God in their
new land by completely shunning
the worship of foreign gods.
Deuteronomy Next describes the High King's
other expectations, an extensive body of
law regarding offerings and festivals,
community leaders, safeguards of justice
warfare, sexual relations, and much more.
Shows that loyalty to God is to be
expressed in every aspect of life.
This is followed by a list of
blessings for keeping the treaty and
a list of curses for breaking it.
As we will see in the story that follows
Deuteronomy, the consequences flowing from
the treaty will determine Israel's future.
Finally, the treaty is witnessed
and copies are safeguarded.
The entire body of instruction in
Deuteronomy is written in a book and
given for safekeeping to the priests who
carried the arc of the Lord's covenant.
And as Moses names the treaties witnesses,
he also pulls together its main themes.
Today, I have given you the
choice between life and death
between blessings and curses.
Now I call on heaven and earth
to witness the choice you make.
Oh, that you would choose life, so that
you and your descendants might live
the book of Deuteronomy.
These are the words that Moses
spoke to all the people of Israel
while they were in the wilderness
east of the Jordan River.
They were camped in the
Jordan Valley near Suf.
Between Perrin on one side and Tofu,
Laben, HRO, and Isaiah on the other.
Normally, it takes only 11 days to
travel from Mount Sinai to Kadish
Baria going by way of Mount Seer.
But 40 years after the Israelites
left Egypt, on the first day of the
11th month, Moses addressed the people
of Israel telling them everything
the Lord had commanded him to say.
This took place after he had defeated King
Shan of the Amorites who ruled in Heshan.
And at EDRi I had defeated King
OG of BA who ruled in Terro
while the Israelites were in the land
of Moab, east of the Jordan River.
Moses carefully explained the
Lord's instructions as follows.
When we were at Mount Sinai, the
Lord our God said to us, you have
stayed at this mountain long enough.
It is time to break camp and move on.
Go to the hill country of the
Amorites and to all the neighboring
regions, the Jordan Valley, the
Hill Country, the Western foothills,
the Negev, and the coastal plane.
Go to the land of the Canaanites
and to Lebanon and all the way
to the great Euphrates River.
Look, I am giving all this land to you.
Go in and occupy it for it is the
land the Lord swore to give to
your ancestors, Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, and to all their descendants.
Moses continued at that time.
I told you, you are too great a
burden for me to carry all by myself.
The Lord your God has increased
your population, making you
as numerous as the stars.
And may the Lord, the God of your
ancestors multiply you a thousand times
more and bless you as he promised, but
you are such a heavy load to carry.
How can I deal with all
your problems and bickering?
Choose some well-respected men from
each tribe who are known for their
wisdom and understanding, and I
will appoint them as your leaders.
Then you responded your
plan is a good one.
So I took the wise and respected
men you had selected from your
tribes and appointed them to serve
as judges and officials over you.
Some were responsible for a
thousand people, some for a hundred,
some for 50, and some for 10.
At that time, I instructed the judges.
You must hear the cases of
your fellow Israelites and the
foreigners living among you.
Be perfectly fair in your decisions
and impartial in your judgments.
Here are the cases of those who are
poor as well as those who are rich.
Don't be afraid of anyone's anger for
the decision you make is God's decision.
Bring me any cases that are too
difficult for you and I will handle them.
At that time, I gave you instructions
about everything you were to do.
Then just as the Lord
our God commanded us.
We left Mount Sinai and traveled through
the great and terrifying wilderness
as you yourselves remember, and headed
toward the hill country of the Amorites.
When we arrived at Kadish Baria, I
said to you, you have now reached
the hill country of the Amorites
that the Lord our God is giving us.
Look, he has placed the
land in front of you.
Go and occupy it as the Lord.
The God of your ancestors
has promised you.
Don't be afraid, don't be discouraged.
But you all came to me and said,
first, let's send out scouts
to explore the land for us.
They will advise us on the best route
to take and which towns we should enter.
This seemed like a good idea
to me, so I chose 12 scouts,
one from each of your tribes.
They headed for the hill country and came
to the Valley of Escal and explored it.
They picked some of its fruit and
brought it back to us, and they
reported the land of the Lord our God
has given us is indeed a good land.
But you rebelled against the command of
the Lord your God, and refused to go in.
You complained in your tense
and said, The Lord must hate us.
That's why he has brought us here
from Egypt to hand us over to
the Amorites to be slaughtered.
Where can we go?
Our brothers have demoralized
us with their report.
They tell us the people of the land
are taller and more powerful than
we are, and their towns are large
with walls rising high into the sky.
We even saw giants there,
the descendants of Anac.
I said to you, don't be
shocked or afraid of them.
The Lord your God is going ahead of you.
He will fight for you just
as you saw him do in Egypt.
And you saw how the Lord your God,
cared for you all along the way as
you traveled through the wilderness,
just as a father caress for his child.
Now he has brought you to this place.
But even after all he did, you refuse
to trust the Lord your God, who goes
before you, looking for the best places
to camp, guiding you with a pillar of
fire by night and a pillar of cloud.
By day, when the Lord heard your
complaining, he became very angry, so he
solemnly swore not one of you from this
wicked generation will live to see the
good land I swore to give your ancestors.
Except Caleb, son of Giana.
He will see this land because he
has followed the Lord completely.
I will give to him and his descendants,
some of the very land he explored during
his scouting mission, and the Lord
was also angry with me because of you.
He said to me, Moses, not even,
you will enter the promised land.
Instead, your assistant, Joshua, son of
none will lead the people into the land.
Encourage him for he will lead
Israel as they take possession of it.
I will give the land to your little ones.
Your innocent children.
You are afraid they would be captured,
but they will be the ones who occupy it.
As for you, turn around now and go on back
through the wilderness toward the Red Sea.
Then you confessed.
We have sinned against the Lord.
We will go into the land and
fight for it as the Lord.
Our God has commanded us.
So are your men strapped on their
weapons thinking it would be
easy to attack the hill country?
But the Lord told me to tell you,
do not attack for I am not with you.
If you go ahead on your own, you
will be crushed by your enemies.
This is what I told you,
but you would not listen.
Instead, you again rebelled against
the Lord's command and arrogantly
went into the hill country to fight,
but the Amorites who lived there came
out against you like a swarm of bees.
They chased and battered you
all the way from SR to hor.
Then you returned and wept before
the Lord, but he refused to listen.
So you stayed there at
Kadish for a long time.
Then we turned around and headed back
across the wilderness toward the Red
Sea, just as the Lord had instructed
me and we wandered around in the
region of Mount SSR for a long time.
This concludes today's
immerse reading experience.
Thank you for joining us.