PSA Bible Reading Challenge 2023-2024

The blessing that Moses gives on the day of his death, or at least before he died, corresponds to the twelve tribes of Jacob, or the twelve tribes of Israel.  This number 12 is so important in Scripture.  It is also the number that we have of the disciples whom Jesus called.  Again, it represents the completeness of God’s people.  Notice, and this always gets me, one of those 12 betrays Jesus, but he is still considered one of the twelve.  

In this chapter each of the twelve tribes are covered and they are each given a legitimate blessing.   There is no sense of if you do not obey then you will receive nothing.  The assumption is that they will obey the commandments, it simply is not stated.  This is the approach that we ought to take with those with whom we come into contact.  We must give the benefit of the doubt to each person and then operate in a way that is expecting the best from them as we give the best to them.

What a beautiful song all about the faithfulness of the Lord and the grace which is shown abundantly to the people of God.  Actually, as you read the words it is hard to think of a tune that would come out of this. I think it is better suited for Metallica than it is for Abba.  Once again we get a scene of vengeance and fear infused into the hearts of those who would disobey or those nations that are enemies of Israel.  I guess if you started in vs.36 you get a bit more of a sense of the protection and the provision of God.  

Also in this chapter right  after Moses shares his song with us, we are reminded of the punishment of Moses.  His punishment is that he is not able to enter into the promised land.  Joshua is going to lead the people of Israel into the promised land.  That begins in vs.44ff.  Moses also receives insight into how and where he is going to die.  He can see the land, he can taste the land, but he is not allowed to enter into the land.  

A bit of a morbid end to this chapter, I’m not sure I would want to know how I die.  I’m going to leave you with a clip of one of my favorite movies and one of the favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies: Big Fish.  I edited it to clean it up.

https://youtu.be/wQK0vUFT4LU

Mortality has reared its ugly head for Moses  and it is time for him to plan for the future of the nation of Israel.  So many of these verses reflect what we will read in Joshua 1, this encouragement from God to Joshua that he is able to do all which God has placed before him.  Understandably there is a lot of trepidation in being the person who takes over for Moses.  Moses is a bigger than life person who has the ability to control the people of Israel.  He tells them, I know what is going to happen when I die, you are going to disobey the commandments of the Lord.  You can protest all that you want, but when I die you will fall back into your bad habits just like you have in the past.

That doesn’t give Joshua a whole lot of hope, but he is encouraging otherwise.  I’m looking forward to reading the next chapter which contains a song that Moses wrote.  Did you know that Moses was a songwriter?  It is obvious that Moses comes from a musical family.   Remember what his sister Miriam did after they sea crashed upon the Egyptians?  Look at Exodus 15:21 and you see the song and the dancing which took place.  But before that, and I had forgotten this, Moses had written another song.  Look at Exodus 15 and you see the song that Moses sang with the Israelites.   Isn’t it great the details we find in Scripture when we read it?

Maybe it is here from where the phrase “choose life” has come.  It is really simply laid out for us.  If you promise to have no other idols in your life, for that is really the singular concern of the Lord, that you only serve Him, then God will give you life.  It is interesting that as we read this chapter it is very simply laid out before us.  Start at vs.15 and I think it becomes very clear what is being said in this chapter.  It seems like we read that you have to follow all of these commandments and decrees, but in reality what is of primary importance is vs. 17.  Do not bow down to other gods.  Vs. 20 gives us the insight into what that looks like: loving God and obeying him.

So whenever I preach an anti-legalistic sermon, you know  one of those where I encourage us to hang out with sinners and all that really matters is loving God, inevitably I will have some folks who are concerned because it seems like it doesn’t matter if we follow God’s commandments or not.  I believe very strongly that we are called to follow God’s commandments.  But what are God’s commandments?  Look at Matthew 22 starting at vs.36 where we see the two commandments are love God and love your neighbor.  There are no greater commandments, and those are all the commandments that we need.  Let’s not complicate things.

Moses ratifies the covenant that God has made with the people of Israel.  It is a bit unclear what covenant we are addressing, but it seems that it is a general term that he is using which can cover all the laws which have been put into place up to now.  Again, Moses gives a historical view from the past and underscores how important it is to notice that even after 40 years of wandering your clothes still aren’t worn out, your shoes are still functional, and your food and drink has been supplied. God provides and so this covenant is supposed to underscore this provision and remind us of God’s faithfulness.

This covenant is understood to be created between God and all the people of Israel, and all the people who happen to be in the company of the Israelites, and in their land.  It was also a covenant that was made with those who will come in the future, their children, and their children’s children.  But be aware that it is not just a covenant that is signed once and then you don’t have to worry about it.  Look at vs.19, you can’t enter into this covenant thinking: “We are safe even though we go our own stubborn ways.”  Stubbornness does not contribute to grace, at least in the Old Testament.  When we get to the New Testament it is a bit of a different story.  

So, this was the chapter that we were supposed to get the blessing.  We do for a short period of time.  If you look at this very, very long chapter you will find the blessings from vs.1-14.  But then it quickly transfers to more, and more, and even more cursing.  As you read through the cursing you find it parallel the blessings from the beginning verses.  It mirrors that which we were given as a result of our obeying the commandments of the Lord.  But if we do not obey, oh boy, then things really go south.  After  mirroring the blessings then it goes off in a very different direction and takes on a reality of its own.

I had a sense of complete dread as I was reading through the curses and the results of what would happen if I did not obey the Lord the more I read through these verses.  Really, really bad things are depicted like parents eating their children as a result of our unfaithfulness.  This disobedience will cause a siege to take place where the people of God will hold out but as a result will find themselves in a situation where the only way they can survive is by doing things which are simply not humane.  The list of what will happen is not only long but dramatic and horrific. 

I’m not a huge fan of scaring people to faith.  I’m not a huge fan of incentivizing fear.  But you cannot escape this approach in this chapter.  The author is creating a scenario which he beseeches obedience otherwise the worst imaginable fate will befall us.  Chapter 29 couldn’t come soon enough.

As you read this chapter keep in mind that there are two mountains: one for a blessing and one for a cursing.  In this chapter we get the cursings, in the next chapter we get the blessings.  We begin as we should with the certainty that the people of God only worship the people of God.  No other gods are to be worshiped.   That makes sense because that is also what we have in the Ten Commandments.  Or simplistically, as I say to the preschool class: “No idols!”

We have another one of the 10 in making sure you honor your mom and dad, but then we go on a bit of a…shall  we say tangent?  Don’t move a boundary marker, don’t mislead a blind person.  Listen to this next one carefully: Cursed is anyone who deprives the alien…of justice.  There was such a high respect for the alien, for those seeking refuge, for those who came from foreign lands into the land of Israel, because who knows, just like Abraham, we could be found to be hosting angels.  Look at Hebrews 13:2 and catch your breath when you do.  It says very clearly…”do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers…”  I’m not sure we are the most hospitable people.  

And then we have a list of those we are not to lie down with: father’s wife, animal, sister, mother-in-law etc.  Pretty specific directives on a topic we would rather avoid.  The last one, vs.26, is so general that it seems as if the people are condemning themselves without knowing it.  “Cursed be anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by observing them.”  Everyone agrees, but I am not sure if we are talking just about the laws in these last few verses, but the law as handed down from Moses.  You know, the law that they broke the moment he stepped down from the mountain and saw the golden calf that they were worshiping.  We worship a God of grace.  Thanks be to God!!

This chapter contains the offering of thanksgiving which was supposed to take place once everyone was settled in and had claimed the land that the Lord had promised to them in the land flowing with milk and honey.  They were to present it to the Lord with the statements that they were continuing to follow the commandments of the Lord and doing that which the Lord would want them to do. 

Part of the purpose of this offering of thanksgiving was a reminder for them of the way things used to be.  Things in Egypt were pretty rough, very rough.  As a result it is a good idea to remember the times when things were rough so that when they are not so rough, you can be thankful. Vs.7 carries with it an important lesson: “We cried to the Lord…the Lord heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, our oppression.”  This chapter reminds us that there is a promise from God which finds its fulfillment in eternal life.  That must be our land flowing with milk and honey.

It is interesting how these judgments are given out with some attempt to allow the person who is in the wrong to save face.  Verse 3 gives a limit on the lashes the person is allowed to accept, and the reasoning for that is so that this will  not  happen: “your neighbor will be degraded in your sight.”  Don’t pile insult to injury is what the beginning part of this chapter tells us.

We also find the laws surrounding widows and their right to marry the brother of their spouse in order to carry on the family name.  Again, this assumes that polygamy was not only accepted but expected.  If a brother whose brother passed away is not willing to accept those duties  then they are to be shamed in public.  It is not an option to marry your brother’s widow, it was a law that it be done, and if you have a child with her then he shall inherit all of your brother’s stuff.  That sounds about right.

In the midst of  all of this starting in vs.11 we read an unfortunate occurrence which ends up with the wife getting the worse end of the deal.  I’ll leave you to read that on your own.  There is an overriding sense of fairness which ought to govern your dealings with your people.  You don’t want to be seen as that guy who can’t be trusted or who doesn’t follow the laws as laid out by God in anyone’s eyes.  So, we have this chapter to rely upon if by chance we enter into dispute and ought to be lashed for it.

There is a theme in these verses and it comes from the Hebrew verb, or command really: zayin.  This means remember.  Moses commands the Israelites after every rule that they are to remember that they were slaves in the land of Egypt and so they must not mistreat others nor must they keep an abomination within the nation of Israel, such as…, well, pretty much a lot.  It seems like we have quite a few strung together commandments, not all of which may make sense. 

We can’t really take this set of rules and apply them to marriage and divorce, especially since in this time if was the male who was able to write a certificate of divorce pretty much just because he may find “something objectionable about her.”   Boy am I glad that my wife isn’t given that green light because pretty much every encounter that I may have with her it would be easy to find “something objectionable about him.”  

But we digress.  There is a ban against taking another Israelite as a slave.  There is a real distinction between what happens to a person who is poor and one who is not poor.  The poor person gets a lot more latitude than one who might be better off.  What an incredible system of grace when we look at it from this perspective.  It must be where Jesus gets his prerogative for the poor.  When we read the parable about the laborers who line up and get their wages (Matthew 20:16), we see that the employer is fulfilling the law according to Deuteronomy.  

The last set of verses address how we are able to help the poor and that is by leaving our gleanings in the fields so that they are able to come up behind us after the harvest is completed and take the rest.  Modern day food banks do something very similar as people leave what is left over for them, what they do not need in order to survive in the form of canned goods, so that others are able to partake.  I love the way in which God does not forget the forgotten, those whom others wish weren’t around, those whom others wish would just pull themselves up by the bootstraps.  God says you reach out to them, that is your responsibility.