DEUTERONOMY
Lesson 42 - Chapter 31
Before we get into Deuteronomy chapter 31 I would like to take a few minutes to discuss
something interesting about the chapter that we just completed, Deuteronomy 30. Turn your
Bibles to the opening verses of Deuteronomy chapter 30.
CJB
Deuteronomy 30:1 "When the time arrives that all these things have come upon you,
both the blessing and the curse which I have presented to you; and you are there
among the nations to which ADONAI your God has driven you; then, at last, you will
start thinking about what has happened to you;
2
and you will return to ADONAI your
God and pay attention to what he has said, which will be exactly what I am ordering you
to do today- you and your children, with all your heart and all your being.
3
At that point,
ADONAI your God will reverse your exile and show you mercy; he will return and gather
you from all the peoples to which ADONAI your God scattered you.
This is the classic “if, then” approach to the Law that is so characteristic of the Torah. God
says when Israel has been exiled to pagan nations due to their disobedience and rebellion, IF
they will return to YHWH their God and pay attention to what He has said, THEN God will
reverse their exile and show them mercy and return them to the Promised Land, their
inheritance.
So the deal is that FIRST Israel must recognize WHY they are in exile, second they must
sincerely repent (meaning to turn from the ways they have been following and thus to re-turn to
Yehoveh), third they must begin to obey YHWH again (NOT just know His Word), and fourth in
response to these 3 things the Lord will bring them back to the land. This is the formula that
His people must follow after they have fallen away if they have any hope of being taken back
by God.
And of course that is how it went when Judah was taken to Babylon in 586 BC. While exiled in
Babylon they admitted that they were wrong; the Jews heeded their prophets like Ezekiel and
Daniel and they repented from their ways and so Yehoveh delivered them, took them back,
reversed their exile, in a mere 70 years.
However this happened because Judah (also known in the Hebrew Bible as the Southern
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Kingdom) reacted altogether differently than their brother kingdom of Ephraim-Israel to the
North did when they suffered their own exile. Some 135 years earlier the 10 tribes of Israel that
formed the Northern Kingdom of Ephraim-Israel were exiled from their land at the hand of the
Assyrians; but they never returned. That is because they never admitted their wrong, repented
from the apostasy that caused their destruction, and then determined to become obedient. In
fact they received exactly what they overtly wanted; to be just like their gentile neighbors. So
God gave them their free-will choice; the tribes of the Northern Kingdom all but disappeared
because they didn’t follow the formula of Deuteronomy 30. On the other hand the Kingdom of
Judah almost one and a half centuries later DID follow the formula of repentance and renewed
obedience and the God of Israel returned them to the land.
Several centuries later in the Roman exile (after Jesus’ death), God said that He would do a
new thing with His set-apart people. The provision of Deuteronomy 30 was that while in exile
the people would have to repent and return to God while they were still in a foreign place; only
then He would return them to the land. That’s not what was to happen, though, with the Jews
of the Roman exile (and it is from the Roman exile that Judah has returned to form modern
Israel in 1948).
Isaac Newton is one of many wonderful theologians who have done their best to pull us back
from our often misguided religious zeal in trying to use the Biblical prophecies as a diving rod
to see the future, by reminding us that that was not the purpose of those unerring words of the
Prophets. Rather the holy prophecies are so that when these prophetic things come about
THEN His people will know that it was God who has changed the course of history, intervened
on their behalf, and that His prophetic Word is nothing less than an order to the Universe to
make it so; a divine order than cannot be resisted, cannot be undone, and any who would fight
against it would be put to shame or be destroyed.
Turn your Bibles to Ezekiel chapter 36. This is an exciting chapter of prophecy that in our era is
more present than future. Actually it is something that we are eyewitnesses to though few
Christians see it; it is something that the saints of old would have given anything to see happen
as we have. But sadly the vast bulk of Messiah’s church is so infatuated with the end times
and looking ahead to a Rapture and Tribulation is blind to this incredible fulfillment of prophecy
that is happening right now.
READ EZEKIEL 36:1 - 32
This is describing the return of the tribes of Israel from their Roman exile (and in a sense the
10 Northern Tribes from their Assyrian Exile). This is describing the return of ALL the tribes of
Israel to their ancient homeland; a place that the world still insists on calling Palestine. But
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what is so different about this return is especially exhibited when we read Ezekiel 36: 22 where
it says that “what I am about to do for you is NOT for your sake, so don’t feel good about it”.
Rather the Lord says that He is going to do something that is for the purpose of protecting HIS
holy name.
In the most amazing twist of events the Lord says that while it was Israel’s job as His set-apart
people (even in their exile) to take the Word of God to the nations (because He set Israel apart
to be the guardians of the Word of God) instead they profaned God’s name in these foreign
lands of their exile. They profaned it to the point that the people (gentiles) said: “THIS is the
people who are supposedly the people of God?!” And is that not the general attitude of the
world today towards the Jewish people today?
So God says that while His holy name should have been raised high by the Jews while in their
exile, instead the Jews profaned it so God must RESCUE His own holy name. And the way He
chose to do this was by bringing the Jews out of the nations where He scattered them and
back to the Promised Land. In other words since all the Jews were doing was misrepresenting
Him, He would take them out of the nations where He exiled them and bring them back to their
homeland to stop it! He was going to do something so amazing that His name would be set
high again, despite the apostasy of His own people.
The Lord’s solution was NOT to do as He had done in the Babylonian exile and return; nor as
He required in the Assyrian exile from where the 10 tribes did NOT return. Rather as it says in
Ezekiel 36:24, first He will gather the Jews (just as they are) from the far reaches of the world
and bring them back to the Land, THEN He will sprinkle clean water on them and cleanse
them. Even though they would not reach out to Him, He would reach out to them.
Do you see this amazing turn of events as compared to Deuteronomy 30? They will be brought
back to the Promised Land while STILL in a state of rebellion, and it is THERE that the Lord
shall (by an act of His divine will) begin to clean them up. No repentance was required by the
Jews; no returning to the ways of the Lord was needed for their homeland to be re-established.
Once the Israelites were back in the land the Lord would (as it says in Ezekiel 36:26 and 27)
turn their stony hearts to flesh AND put the Spirit of God inside of them. It would be this act of
divine intervention that would put the desire to be obedient to Yehoveh into them. He would put
the Torah IN THEIR HEARTS.
Therefore we see this pattern of Redemption developed that Christians have counted on for
centuries; the Lord woos whom He will, plants in those that He elects the desire to come to
Him and the ability to obey Him, and this is done by putting the Holy Spirit inside of people. I
hope you understand the radical concept that Ezekiel speaks of; it’s no wonder that those
Jewish exiles living in Babylon found what he had to say either laughable or incomprehensible.
The Lord had never put His Spirit inside an inherently sinful man up to that point. And in fact
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such a thing would not be possible until Yeshua came, atoned for man’s sins, and made us
acceptable to God at a level never before attainable.
How can a modern day Church with all the knowledge available to it read these words, see
with our own eyes what the Lord has done, and still think that the Hebrews have been rejected
by Him? Equally how can so many Jews openly say that they are not chosen or set-apart for
God (and really don’t want to be) after knowing what the Lord has done for them? Believers:
we have a lot of work ahead of us don’t we?
Let’s read Deuteronomy 31.
READ DEUTERONOMY 31 all
We have exited that 4-chapter section that held (and still holds) so much mystery and intrigue
and now we enter the last 4 chapters of Deuteronomy that are an epilogue as well as a period
of transition from Moses to Joshua. Really it is an epilogue to the entire Torah, not just
Deuteronomy. At the center is the story of Moses’ last days on earth. Moses announces that
his time is over, that Joshua is the new God-ordained leader of Israel, and then Moses dies on
Mt. Nebo in Moab.
Moses says in verse 2 that he has become an old man of 120 years. Further, despite what the
CJB says as does most versions, Moses declares that he can no longer “go out and come in”.
Usually this is translated with the sense that Moses is simply tired and feeble (pretty
understandable at this advanced age); that he just can’t get around anymore. That’s
incorrect. As I explained in a previous lesson the phrase to “go out and come in” was a purely
military term. It referred to an army gathering together for battle, going out and fighting, and
then returning (hopefully victorious). Moses was not saying that he was too old and infirm to
lead Israel in battle; rather he was saying that because the Lord had decided that Moses would
NOT cross the Jordan River into the Promised Land that his meter had simply run out. His time
was up, and a new leader would lead the coming Holy War upon Canaan.
By the way, you can believe that Moses was 120 years old with no trouble. Even though we
read reports that the average life span in that era was around 30 years (due to disease and
war and high infant mortality), we also have records from Middle Eastern societies that prove
that it was not uncommon for people (gentiles) to live to 110 and even occasionally up to 140
years. But it is also interesting how the 120 years assigned to Moses is so consistent with what
God ordained back in Genesis. Genesis 6:3 says this:
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CJB
Genesis 6:3 ADONAI said, "My Spirit will not live in human beings forever, for they
too are flesh; therefore their life span is to be 120 years."
Moses lived to the maximum ideal life span that God ordained.
Moses says that the Lord will not permit him to cross over the Jordan. Rather the Lord Himself
will cross over ahead of Israel and then Joshua will lead Israel to cross over. Notice the
multiple use of the term “cross over”; I think this is significant. A long time ago when we were
studying Genesis I told you that the word “Hebrew” was thought to be a derivative of the
Akkadian word Ipuru, which means “one who crossed over”. It was, back then, referring to
Abraham who crossed over the Great River (the Euphrates) in order to go to the land that God
said He would show to Abraham. Now in this context it is referring to Moses being held back
from crossing over, but God crossing over ahead of Joshua and Israel into the Promised Land
of Canaan.
This entire theme of “crossing over” is not hard to grasp; crossing over means to leave one
side and go to the other. It is a decisive moment in time when a change in status occurs.
Because the Torah operates more in the earthly realm (bringing Heavenly principles into a
physical form), these great and fundamental God-principles it elucidates are always presented
in a way that man can see with his own eyes. Men literally and physically LIVED the
experience of “crossing over”. They lived the reality of leaving behind an old existence for a
new one. They physically experienced crossing over mountains and territorial boundaries and
rivers in order that a purpose is fulfilled even though they might not know that God was behind
it all.
Today those who would be part of God’s people are still called to “cross over”; to cross over
from unclean to clean. To cross over from common to holy. To cross over from eternal death to
eternal life. To be spiritual Ipuru, Hebrews, ones who chose to cross over. Instead of the need
for us to enter into a new territory, or to change nationality, or to travel a distance it has
become a spiritual issue of trusting the One who created us and provided for our redemption.
Just as Israel had to cross over into the land of their rest, Canaan, so we have to cross over
into the land of our rest, Yeshua. Israel couldn’t just stay in the Wilderness and have the land
brought to them; they would, by their own choice, have to cross over into it. We can’t remain in
the Wilderness of this world and have the land of our rest, our shalom, brought to us; in a
spiritual journey we, too, must actively and purposely cross over in order to possess our
inheritance and leave the wilderness of the world behind.
In verse 4 the Lord promises to do what He did to those nations on the east side of the Jordan
River (in the area of the Transjordan where Reuben, Gad, and ½ of the tribe of Manesseh
settled) to the current inhabitants of Canaan on the west bank of the Jordan: wipe them out.
And Joshua would replace Moses as the supreme military commander of Israel. The theme of
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Holy War is once again thrust forward. Verse 6 paints the picture of God as a Holy Warrior
leading His people to a victory that is a foregone conclusion.
If we’re going to apprehend the context of Deuteronomy (and much of the Torah since
Exodus) we have to keep reminding ourselves that at the center of it all (like it or not) is Holy
War. Phase One of God’s Holy War was the escape from Egypt and the annihilation of the
kings Og and Bashon, who were Amorites. Phase Two of the Holy War is the conquest of
Canaan. I won’t spend much time here but I urge you to write it well into your memories that
so much of the language that we’ll encounter in the book of Joshua (which we’ll begin within a
month from now) will be Holy War language. And this is important because God’s Holy War
has strict rules of engagement and protocol, the violation of which has severe consequences.
But as I have lightly touched on before, we must not ever suspect that God’s role as the
warrior leader of His army in Holy War ended with the close of the Old Testament.
The greatest damage ever done to the Church (a damage that is ongoing and woven into the
doctrine of the modern Institutional Church) was when Christian leaders declared (against
Yeshua’s direct statement to the contrary in Matthew 5) that the old god of the Old Testament
was no longer in control and that the new god of the New Testament has taken over. That the
god who never changes, has changed in dramatic fashion; that the attribute of the Lord as a
divine warrior king has been discarded in favor of a pacifist who wouldn’t harm a fly. I realize
that I am perhaps preaching to the choir on this subject, but I equally realize that the concept of
Our Messiah as the Conquering Warrior who will slay millions in Holy War runs contrary to the
image of many more Christians who might be hearing this for the first time. This is such a core
issue for us to deal with; and since Deuteronomy has led us right to it let’s take another detour
today to the book of Revelation.
Open your Bibles to Revelation chapter 14.
READ REVELATION 14 all
Here we have it: God’s fury is poured out and His agents of death are no less than the Lamb
of God and His warrior angels as essentially His army officers. The Lamb, sweeping His sickle
and harvesting both the saved to glory and the unsaved to eternal damnation; blood flowing at
the hand of Christ as high as a horse’s bridle in the valley of Armageddon is all present here.
Where is the pacifist God of the New Testament that knows only personal sacrifice and mercy,
love for all men; the one who always turns the other cheek and wouldn’t punish anyone? Do
not ever think that any of God’s attributes have been set aside; He bears them all at all times.
Of course there are times when one attribute seems to be more prevalent than others.
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If you have been paying attention over the last few years as we have worked our way through
the Torah you watched a subtle principle evolve; agents of God operate in opposite ways
simultaneously. Salt is an agent of God; it can be used to season and preserve and seal a
covenant, or it can be used to poison and end life when a covenant is broken. Blood is an
agent of God; the unjust spilling of it can be the source of death or just and sacrificial spilling of
it can be the source of life. The Torah itself is an agent of God that brings curses on the one
hand and blessings on the other. Angels can rescue and they can destroy. Jesus poured out
His own blood as a meek Lamb, and He will soon spill the blood of countless millions as the
fiercest Warrior the world has ever seen.
Just as conquering the Transjordan was Holy War phase 1, and conquering Canaan was Holy
War phase 2, the looming Battle of Armageddon and all the pouring out of God’s wrath on the
end-times world is Holy War phase 3. And of course by definition it is God who orders it and it
is God (in phase 3 in His attribute as Messiah) who leads His Holy Warriors to certain victory.
Verses 7 and 8 recount the official passing of the torch from Moses to Joshua; in a public
ceremony for all to see Joshua is now the supreme human commander of Israel. I love the
exhortation in verse 8 where Moses tells Joshua not to fear because “the Lord is with you”.
How I love to sing the song, “Emmanuel”, meaning God is with us; a name that the Bible gives
to Messiah.
We get a little piece of information that is useful especially because soon we will begin our
study of the book of Joshua. Moses instructs Joshua that he is to apportion the land among the
people. But wait; I though back in the book of Numbers Moses had already done that, by the
drawing of lots? In fact we get an entire listing of the tribes and the regions they’ll occupy in
Numbers 34.
What happened was this: Moses indeed assigned general regions that were determined by the
drawing of lots (drawing lots was seen as a way to let God decide the matter). However the
exact dimensions of each region was to be determined according to the population of each
tribe; the more people in the tribe, the larger that tribe’s territory. It would be Joshua who
would preside over that event.
Beginning in verse 9 the matter of the Torah itself as a holy document is addressed. Here we
are told that Moses wrote it down and then gave it to the priests of the tribe of Levi. The term
used here “THIS Torah” is referring specifically to Deuteronomy. The earlier Torah had been
handed down orally. Sages tell us that while the finger of God had indeed written the 10
Commandments the bulk of the laws and commands as given to Moses were memorized and
handed down by word of mouth. Only later were these oral transmissions written on scrolls.
This idea unnerves some people in our modern times but one must understand that such a
thing was the norm for this era, and actually it had its advantages.
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The tribal elders were always responsible to maintain the integrity of the traditions that they
taught to the following generation, and the next generation taught when it was their turn, and
so on; so there were always those elders who knew the truths of the traditions who were alive.
If the next generation tried to change something the older generation was there to refute it. And
remember; it is only in our modern era where respect for the knowledge and wisdom of the
elderly has become lost. This system of checks and balances on oral traditions works very
well. In the modern era of written documents memorization and the telling of the stories is
generally a lost medium of communicating a society’s history and ethics. Books and written
records are now considered our best (and the only valid) sources of reference; but make no
mistake, they can be corrupted and destroyed. When men want to radically change societies
the first thing they do is to denounce and destroy the records and literature from the previous
generation thus breaking the link. And it is many ways much easier to do now, since the
system of oral tradition is no longer operable at least in Western Culture.
Moses gave the writings to the priests, to the Levites who carried the Ark, and to the leaders of
Israel because it was their duty to faithfully transmit God’s Word to the following generations.
Then we get a very interesting instruction: the entire book of Deuteronomy (this Torah) was to
be read to all Israel every 7
th
year during the Feast of Sukkot (also called the Feast of Booths
or Feast of Tabernacles). The 7-year Sabbatical cycle was to be used to ensure that all
generations of Israel knew the words of Torah. The 7
th
year of that cycle was known as the
year of shmittah (the year of release) because in that 7
th
year Hebrew slaves were to be
released, land taken as collateral on loans was to be returned to the original owner, and debts
of all kinds were to be forgiven.
The instruction includes that the whole congregation of Israel is to assemble at the site God will
choose (meaning wherever God decided to put the central sanctuary, the Temple) on the
occasion of Sukkot. Further, while the “whole congregation” usually means the male
representatives of each household, in this case verse 12 makes it clear that women, children,
and even foreigners were to present themselves at the Temple on the 7
th
year at Sukkot.
Recall that Sukkot (the Feast of Tabernacles) is one of 3 God-prescribed pilgrimage festivals
that require the whole congregation of Israel to come to the Temple. However “whole
congregation” usually only meant the adult males. In the 7
th
year however, that would expand
to mean that EVERY Israelite regardless of age or sex was ordered to come to the Temple at
Sukkot. And the reason was so that everyone could hear the reading of the Torah (which was
primarily Deuteronomy). Unfortunately just as we NEVER read of the Hebrews obeying the law
of Jubilee (the 50 year cycle), neither do we read of but two occasions when this law of reading
the Torah on the Sabbatical Year Feast of Tabernacles actually happened. One time was
when King Josiah ordered it (2 Kings 23) and the other was when Ezra ordered the same at
the return of the Jews from the Babylonian exile (Neh.7, 8, and 9).
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Moses’ expounding on the laws given at Sinai, and his emphasis on the spirit of the law as the
key element necessary for the proper carrying out of the written laws, makes Deuteronomy the
important document that it is. It is in this same vein that we should view Yeshua’s Sermon on
the Mount. O the hillside above the Sea of Galilee Messiah is sermonizing; He is attempting to
revive the spirit of the law that Moses had spoken of because the religious leaders had since
turned the Law into a mechanical system of rules and regulations and it had become a heavy
burden. Yeshua’s teachings are the essence of all of the Word of God, just as Moses’
teaching in Deuteronomy is the essence of the entire Torah.
A favorite and appropriate teaching of the modern Church comes from Galatians 3 when Paul
says that there is no more male and female and that all disciples of Yeshua are one new
person. Paul is dealing with the principle that is being established here in Deuteronomy 31:
ALL of God’s people, including women and children, are to be given equal access to His
Word. Further, men and women (laypeople) are perfectly capable of understanding the Torah
and of carrying out their appropriate Torah-defined roles.
By Jesus’ day the religious authorities had abolished this principle. They set up barriers in the
Temple between men and women (we’ve all heard of the women’s court in the Temple
courtyard). Today there are usually separate men and women’s sections in Synagogues. If
you go to Israel there is even a men’s side and a women’s side with a barrier in between at
the Wailing Wall, the Kotel. Young girls are given different material to learn about Torah than
young boys are. The concept of women as “lesser” and males as “greater” was firmly
entrenched in Judaism and it was something that Yeshua, Paul, and others had to deal with
delicately. This idea of women as lower was not Biblical but it certainly suited the male-
dominated Middle Eastern society that had move far away from the Lord. Equally as certain the
Bible carefully defines different roles for each sex but the roles are viewed Scripturally as of
equal importance and the sexes as of equal value. Since Paul found himself as an emissary to
the gentiles of the Roman Empire, but at times also dealt with Messianic Jews, he had to not
only deal with Jewish customs in this regard but also with the various customs of other nations
as well. Some cultures didn’t mind women taking roles as teachers or priests, while others
were vehemently against it; some wanted women to play a central role in their religious ritual,
others wanted them to simply comply with whatever their husbands decided for them. In
general unless the customs were outlandishly bigoted Paul advised disciples of Yeshua to not
make it an issue (where possible) and to simply operate within it so as not to offend those to
whom the Good News was to be presented.
But now comes that moment (in verse 14) where Yehoveh tells Moses that indeed the meter
has expired; Moses is going to die very soon. Therefore Moses is to gather up Joshua and
come to the tent of meeting (the Tabernacle) where the Lord will be present. The Lord
appeared as a cloud in FRONT of the tent of meeting, above the entrance, and there gave
Moses and Joshua their marching orders.
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Notice that while Moses would go inside the tent and meet with the Lord, Joshua could not
enter and so this meeting took place OUTSIDE the tent. This was because as a Levite and
God’s Mediator, Moses was entitled to go inside the sanctuary but Joshua was of the tribe of
Ephraim and therefore was not permitted.
Yehoveh is recorded as having used the typical vocabulary of that era, in that He tells Moses
he is going to soon be with his ancestors (he is going to die). This reflects ancestor worship
concepts that while part of their language and to a degree their thinking, was of course not
being validated by Yehoveh. We have things that we say that we know what we MEAN, but
they don’t mean what they say. And usually we don’t even know where such an expression
came from. What does it mean, “that’s how the cookie crumbles?” How does a cookie
crumbling help us to understand a situation? How about “letting the cat out of the bag?”
Anybody have any idea where that American idiom meaning to divulge a secret came about?
We say it, and it certainly has nothing to do with cats or bags but we do understand what we
mean so we retain it. It’s kind of like that with some of these sayings in the Bible; we have to
ascertain more what that phrase communicated to the people of that era and less what the
words technically and literally mean.
Then Yehoveh delivers some bad news: He tells Moses and Joshua that after both of them are
dead and gone the Israelites WILL do all these things that God has warned against, which
amounts to breaking the terms of the covenant. As a consequence the Lord’s anger will flare
up against Israel and the Lord will “hide His face” from them. In Hebrew the Lord will hide
His panim from them. Panim used in this way means His Presence. God will pull away from
the Hebrews. To be in someone’s panim, face, presence means more than merely being
there, just as shema means more than merely hearing something. It implies that person’s
favor and blessing. So God says that because of this coming apostasy of Israel after Joshua’s
death, He will remove Himself (and therefore His protection and blessing) from over the people
of Israel.
The people will feign ignorance. They’ll ask the question that is asked in verse 17: “Haven’t
these calamities come upon us because our God isn’t here with us?” In other words they
realize that for some reason or another, the Lord has removed Himself from their midst and
therefore all these terrible things are happening to them. But, gee, we really don’t understand
why. The Lord confirms it by saying indeed it is so; He has removed Himself from them
because of their evil of turning to other gods.
But the Lord wants not to destroy but to discipline His people. He wants them to learn and
understand just what it is that they have done, and what the remedy for their situation is.
Therefore He instructs Moses to write a song and to teach it to Israel right away. To teach it to
them, so they can memorize, and have it well before the rebellion they will commit actually
comes about. This song, this Song of Moses, will be the subject of our next lesson.
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