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Listed above is the website where I received the image from.
Category Archives: Book of Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy Chapters 4, 5, and 6
Today has been a great day already…God truly answers prayers (if they are in His will) and I am just so glad that my prayer has been answered! These three chapters do not have as much of a narrative as the other chapters have had so far, but that is because these three chapters focus on some of the most important documents (of stone)! The 10 Commandments will be covered and have their importance emphasized.
Moses tries to get the Israelites to focus on obedience for God is emphasizing these commandments for a reason. If they decide not to follow these commandments then the people might not make it into the promise land (Canaan). What has really been reiterated throughout the book of Deuteronomy, that you don’t read as much about in the other books is that the people are encouraged to continue to share information with their children (the history of their leave of Egypt with God, the promise land, the various covenants, etc.). When we get to Judges we will read about how the people at the time didn’t even know their whole history, or how God had lead them out of Egypt. Moses reminds the people of how they were forbidden to enter the Promised Land when they decided to worship a golden calf when Moses was receiving the first 10 Commandments on the mountain. Moses therefore emphasizes how idolatry needs to be avoided at all cost! God will show them wrath for their idolatry, but He will also show mercy when there is repentance present! God lists 3 cities that are going to be the places that people that accidentally murder someone can go for refuge (think of people given the manslaughter sentence in the USA). These cities are: Bezer in in the wilderness of the Reubenites, Ramoth in Gilead, and Golan in Bashan. This is a way that God shows mercy to His people. Moses then reads off the 10 Commandments. I will post the 10 Commandments on a separate post.
Once the 10 Commandments are laid out in chapter 5 there is continual emphasis on how amazing and glorifying it was when God gave these commandments to Moses and how He spoke through the fire and how God was the one to have the commandments written into the stone. The people are told how these commandments are the way of the LORD and they must be followed in order to stay on the right path (5:33).
Chapter 6 focuses on the greatest commandment of all! The greatest commandment is that they all must love God with all their heart, all their soul, and to teach these commandments and lessons to their children! God wants these commandments ingrained everywhere but most importantly written into their children’s hearts. Children are always emphasized throughout the Bible for they are the key to growing generations of faith, and God wants His people to know this from the beginning.
Deuteronomy Chapters 1, 2, and 3
Now it is time to dive into the book of Deuteronomy! It will definitely have more posts than the book of Joel, and definitely filled with a lot of information. The book is said to be written by Moses and follows the Israelites through the wilderness, getting the commandments, and all of the (I guess you could say) politics into getting into the land of Canaan aka the promise land.
Chapter 1 tells of how God says that the Israelites can now leave Horeb and head to the promise land after their 40 years in the wilderness. Now this book like many other books of the Bible will be jumping around on the timeline, but for now that is where we are. Leaders and judges were chosen by each tribe to help lessen the entire burden that Moses had to face by being the only leader. There is now thousands of them and Moses was the only one listening to their problems and complaints –it was definitely not proactive. The Amorites were in control of the land that the Israelites were deemed to have and they had too much fear to enter the land, in spite of God saying that they could and should. The Israelites did not trust God’s words and because of their rebellion God said that the Israelites who were there, their generations would never enter their promised land. Back to the wilderness they went!
God sends the Israelites around Mount Seir (the land of Esau) and God told the people that they should not try to take away the land or anything for God had given this land to Esau. If they tried to take away land from the people of Esau then they would lose. Following Seir, the Israelites headed to the land of the Moabites, where God said once again that they should not try to take away land or cause battles for God would hand the victory to the Moabites. 38 years had passed (time flew from the beginning of this post to now) and the men of war (the generation that would not be allowed to enter the promised land) were now dead. God then promises that the Israelites will defeat the Amorite king, King Sihon, king of Heshbon. Moses sent word to King Sihon and said that the Israelites were going to enter but not cause any trouble, but the king would not let them pass. Moses writes:
“But Sihon the king of Heshbon would not let us pass by him, for the LORD your God hardened his spirit and made his heart obstinate, that he might give him into your hand, as he is this day.” Deuteronomy 2:30.
I like how all the hatred and meanness of the king is attributed to God, because God will always keep His word, and if He said that the Israelites would defeat this king in battle then there had to be a reason for a battle to exist. At the battle of Jahaz the Israelites faced the king and his troops and the Israelites won (as God had promised).
The Israelites would then defeat another strong king, this time being King Og of Bashan. God promised once again that this king and his people and his land would belong to the Israelites. The Israelites took over all 60 cities that were part of Argob. These new territories were split amongst the various tribes, other than the Levites. All the men of these tribes, in spite of having this new land and territory would still have to enter the promise land and then would be able to return to these territories. God wanted the men to enter the land He had promised in a covenant and was determined to have them all enter! What I find interesting was that God refused to allow Moses to enter the promise land, because of how the Israelites were continuously rebellious and wouldn’t listen to the words of the LORD. God allowed Moses to go on top of Pisgah to look down and around towards the land, but he would never be allowed to enter this land. God still was going to work through Moses by having Moses prepare Joshua for the promise land and get him prepared for his leadership role that he was to take. The Israelites resided in the valley opposite Beth-peor for the time being. There are so many locations and destinations – I hope the map I posted previously was helpful in some way!
Map of Canaan during the time of the book of Deuteronomy!
I don’t believe that I have said which book I was going to write on next….while it is Deuteronomy! We are going way way back in time from the time of Joel! It is so vital to understand the happenings of the Israelites in those years after 40 years in the wilderness and entering Canaan and it is especially important to understand the 10 Commandments which are listed in this book! It is hard for us to imagine the land of Canaan at this time because of how we are just use to it being Israel or Judah – so I will be looking at this map often when reading through the book of Deuteronomy and I hope it is useful to all!
nys time 