Day 15 - Deuteronomy 23:12 - 34:12

In today's section, we read about:

More instructions for justice and care for the poor and foreigner
Instructions on offerings and tithes
Command to build an altar on Mount Ebal and to record the law there
Curses for disobedience and blessings for obedience
Moses' final reminder to keep the covenant - a choice between life and death
Joshua replaces Moses and is commanded to obey the Lord and to be strong and courageous
Moses' final song and blessings on the people
Moses dies

Some things that stuck me:

I like the way that a whole chapter (ch24) is devoted to looking after the poor, widows, orphans and foreigners. This is a helpful reminder of our true status before God - cf 26:5

Deut 25:13-16 - We may deceive others (and even ourselves), but we can never deceive God. (cf Matt 7:2, Luke 6:38)

Is the tithe in Deut 26:12 additional to the tithe in Deut 14:22, or merely the same tithe put explicitly to that use?

God's promises to his people are mind-blowing - Deut 26:18 "you are his people, his own treasure." 26:19 - "he will set you high above all the other nations he has made. Then you will receive praise, honour, and renown. You will be a nation that is holy to the Lord your God, just as he promised." 28:12 - "You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them." 28:13 - "Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom." (Being a Watford fan, I can identify with that one especially!!)

Deut 27 - an altar is a very visible, and presumably large, structure. God's Law is there out in the open for all to see. This is underlined by 30:11-14 "no the message is very close at hand; it is on your lips and in your heart so you can obey it".

There are some great verbs - God "guarantees" a blessing (28:8), you are a people "claimed" by God (28:10)

The section on the curses from 28:15ff makes clear that this disobedience is a conscious choice (28:15, 45, 47, 58). It is a scary thought that "just as the Lord has found great pleasure in causing you to prosper and multiply, the Lord will find pleasure in destroying you." (Deut 28:63)

Reading from 28:15 through to 29:28, I was struck by how the history of the Jews played out in accordance with that, and wondered what it must have been like before the state of Israel was founded in 1947 to believe that God will bring a remnant back. God has said His covenant is an everlasting covenant which He will not break - why then do we find it so hard to believe that God will keep all his promises?

Deut 29:19 is a salutary reminder not to forget how and why we have arrived where we have (1 Cor 10:12, Eph 2:8-9)

Deut 29:29 has been something of a guiding verse for me over the past few months, and reading the whole of the Torah again, brings home the truth of it. We read Moses setting out again and again the basic teaching of the Law - remember, remember, obey the Lord wholeheartedly, do not worship other gods, live holy lives and act justly towards everyone, taking care to ensure the weak and disadvantaged aren't neglected. God has even gone further and given incredibly detailed instructions on various issues. And yet we still want to know more. God seems to be saying -"Enough. You know everything you need to know, and live in obedience with what you do know. There are some things that you can never know or understand. Be content and live according to all these amazing things that God has revealed". (Job 38:2, Is 55:8)

Deut 30:1-10 is such a reassuring passage. After all our rebellion, there is still a way back to God. v6 is wonderful "The LORD your God will give you a new heart".

God confirms his command not to be afraid to Joshua, and repeats his assurances to him just to make the point (31:6, 8). I was struck by the phrase "the LORD will *PERSONALLY* go ahead of you"

Interesting that the instruction is only to read the Law every seventh year, when there is the reminder to the kind to read it daily and for people to keep them before them the whole time. A fresh reminder is necessary

God knew long in advance that the Israelites would turn away and yet He blessed them anyway. But He left lots of reminders - the Law, the altar on Mount Ebal and even Moses' song (31:19). He also promises that He will arouse their jealously through the Gentiles, presumably by showering them with the blessings that the Israelites forfeited (32:21)

What an accurate description 32:15 is "But Israel soon became fat and unruly; the people grew heavy, plump and stuffed! Then they abandoned the God who had made them, they made light of the Rock of their salvation."'

Nothing is unknown to God, but His perfect character will be revealed in the end

“The Lord says, ‘Am I not storing up these things,
sealing them away in my treasury?
I will take revenge; I will pay them back.
In due time their feet will slip.
Their day of disaster will arrive,
and their destiny will overtake them.’
“Indeed, the Lord will give justice to his people,
and he will change his mind about his servants,
when he sees their strength is gone
and no one is left, slave or free.
Then he will ask, ‘Where are their gods,
the rocks they fled to for refuge?
Where now are those gods,
who ate the fat of their sacrifices
and drank the wine of their offerings?
Let those gods arise and help you!
Let them provide you with shelter!
Look now; I myself am he!
There is no other god but me!
I am the one who kills and gives life;
I am the one who wounds and heals;
no one can be rescued from my powerful hand! (Deut 32:34-39)

Deut 32:47 is a final restatement - "these instructions are not empty words - they are your life!"

Why is Simeon excluded from the tribes being blessed in ch 33? Reuben, even though the firstborn tribe, was down to 22,200 at the second census (Nu 26:14). 33:9 about the Levites - cf Lk 14:26

Deut 34:10 isn't a bad epitaph - "There has never been another prophet in Israel like Moses, *WHOM THE LORD KNEW FACE TO FACE*" - cf 1 Cor 13:12