Deuteronomy is written by Moses and is the last of the five book he wrote .(Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy). Deuteronomy is the conclusion of the Torah. It is the final message God gives through Moses to the children of Israel.

Jesus considers this an important book. Matthew 4 tells the story of Jesus' temptation and He uses the words of Deuteronomy three times to battle and answer the enemy. Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:13, 6:16 and 6:13.

The Book of Deuteronomy was written in the 11th month of the 40th year of the Israelite wanderings - they are getting close to the Promised Land, they have almost arrived - they are only a few weeks for the end of their journey..

This book can be outlined as three sermons of Moses:
1st sermon - 1:1 - 4:43
2nd sermon - 4:44 - 28:68
3rd sermon - 29-33

Deuteronomy is a legal document. Covenant. Treaty. So a second way to outline Deuteronomy is according to the Treaty Structure that was used at that time in history:

Treaty Structure
Preamble 1:1-5
Historical Prologue 1:6-4:44
Law/Stipulations 4:45-26:19
General laws 4:45-11:32
Specific laws 12:1 - 26:19
Blessings & Curses 27:1 - 30:20
Succession & Witnesses 31:1 - 34:12

God establishes a treaty with His people - in Deuteronomy He is setting up a covenant with Himself as the High King over all - over the universe - and setting up His agreement - His treaty - with the Israelites. It is a legal agreement.

Pastor shares that our motivation for following God's commands is not to earn His favor but because He first loved us and our obedience is a response to that love. We are called to be obedient not for forgiveness but because we are forgiven.

Pastor shares a personal story showing the difference between:
A performance-based life vs grace-based life. It's law vs love.

The greatest commandment is found in Deuteronomy 6:4 - the Shema. "Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one!"
God is asking us to not just know this intellectually - but to show it - do it. As we read on we read in verse 5: "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength." We are to love Him with all we have, with every part of our being, with everything that we are.

Verses 6-9 continue: "And these words which I command you today shall be in your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates."

We are to remember what God has done, to hold them close in our hearts, to impress them onto our children, write them on our door frames of our homes. When we know the mercy of God it changes the way we behave.

We close the class looking at the prophetic words in Deuteronomy 28:68. Pastor shares the story of the fullfilment of these words in the summer 70 AD along with Jesus' words from the New Testament. In 70AD Josephus tells us that between 600,000 - 1.1 million died in that siege of Jerusalem and those that remained were sold off as slaves in Egypt.

Pastor ends with two passages:
Deuteronomy 18:15-19
And
Deuteronomy 34:10-12

These are prophetic words of a Savior to come. One like Moses only greater. The Gospel of John tells us, "The law came through Moses. Grace and truth came through Jesus Christ." Jesus fulfills what the Torah was pointing to.

Join us next time for our study of Joshua.

Join us next week for a study of the book of Joshua.

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