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.