The Book of Deuteronomy, Chapter by Chapter

We want to take you through the book of Deuteronomy chapter by chapter. This is the last study in our series on the books of Moses. If you have not read our studies on Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers we suggest you start there. Because Deuteronomy picks up right where Numbers leaves off. Numbers ended with the new generation camped on the plains of Moab. Deuteronomy is what Moses said to them there. We will tell you what each chapter is about and how it fits into the message of the book. And how it points us to the one God that is revealed in Jesus Christ.

Deuteronomy is Moses’ last words. He was 120 years old and about to die. He could not go into the land with them. So he preached to them one more time. He told them what God had done. He gave them the law again. And he begged them to love God and obey him. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy often. When the devil tempted him in the wilderness he answered all three times from Deuteronomy (Matthew 4:4, 7, 10).

There are three things we want you to take away from this study. Deuteronomy is about the one God. “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD” (6:4). Deuteronomy is about loving God. Not just keeping rules but loving him “with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might” (6:5). And Deuteronomy is about a choice. “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life” (30:19). We will explain these points as we go through the book. But we want you to keep them in mind as we begin.

In Hebrew the book is called Devarim. Which means “words.” It comes from the first verse. “These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel” (1:1). The name Deuteronomy comes from the Greek Old Testament. It means “second law.” It comes from 17:18 where the king was told to write “a copy of this law.”¹ It is not a new law. It is the same law given again to a new generation.

Deuteronomy is mostly three sermons from Moses. The first looks back at what God did (1:1–4:43). The second is the longest. It gives the law again (4:44–28:68). The third calls the people to renew the covenant (29–30). Then the book ends with the last days of Moses (31–34). It is also written the same way covenants between a king and his people were written in the ancient world. What the king did for them. What he requires. Blessings and curses. And witnesses.² God is the great King. And Israel is his people.

Critics will say that Deuteronomy was not written by Moses. They say it was written hundreds of years later in the time of King Josiah. Because Josiah found “the book of the law” in the temple (2 Kings 22:8). But notice that the book claims to be the words of Moses over and over (1:1; 31:9, 24). And Jesus said “Moses wrote” it (Mark 10:5; 12:19). The death of Moses in chapter 34 was probably added by Joshua.³ We will not go into this anymore here.

We will break the book down a little further than that. Moses looks back (1–4). The great commandment (5–11). Laws for worship (12:1–16:17). Leaders and justice (16:18–21:23). Laws for daily life (22–26). Blessings and curses (27–30). And the last days of Moses (31–34). We will follow this outline as we go through each chapter. Just like in our other studies we will be using the KJV for our scripture quotations. And we will let you know where you can find the work of the scholars we reference.

Deuteronomy 1: Eleven Days

The first thing Moses tells us is how close they were. “There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb … unto Kadeshbarnea” (v.2). And the very next verse says it was the 40th year (v.3). 11 days became 40 years. Moses reminds them of how he appointed judges because he could not carry them alone (vv.9–18). Then he reminds them of the spies. “Notwithstanding ye would not go up, but rebelled against the commandment of the LORD your God” (v.26). Moses had told them “The LORD your God which goeth before you, he shall fight for you” (v.30). God had carried them “as a man doth bear his son” (v.31). But they did not believe him.

Deuteronomy 2: The Wandering Ends

Moses tells how they went around Edom and Moab and Ammon. God told them not to fight these nations. Because he had given them their land too (vv.5, 9, 19). Edom came from Esau. Moab and Ammon came from Lot. God was keeping his word to Abraham’s family. Then we are told it took 38 years “until all the generation of the men of war were wasted out from among the host” (v.14). Then God gave them Sihon the king of Heshbon. The new generation started winning.

Deuteronomy 3: Moses Asks to Go In

God also gave them Og the king of Bashan. Og was a giant. His bed was 9 cubits long (v.11). The old generation was afraid of giants. The new generation killed one. Moses gave the land east of the Jordan to Reuben, Gad and half of Manasseh. Then Moses tells us that he begged God to let him go over. “Let it suffice thee; speak no more unto me of this matter” (v.26). God let him see the land from the top of Pisgah. But he could not go in. Joshua would lead them (v.28).

Deuteronomy 4: No Manner of Similitude

“Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it” (v.2). Moses tells them to remember the day they stood at Horeb. The mountain burned with fire. And they heard a voice.

They saw no form. So they could not make any image of God (vv.16–18).⁴ God is a Spirit (John 4:24). He cannot be seen. But Paul tells us that Jesus is “the image of the invisible God” (Colossians 1:15). The God that Israel could not see we see in the face of Jesus Christ. Moses also told them “the LORD thy God is a consuming fire, even a jealous God” (v.24). Hebrews 12:29 says the same thing about God today.

Notice why God did all those signs in Egypt. So they would know there is only one God. “None else beside him.” Moses says it again in verse 39. “The LORD he is God in heaven above, and upon the earth beneath: there is none else.” Not one God among many. Not one God made up of many. The only God. The chapter ends with Moses setting apart three cities of refuge east of the Jordan (vv.41–43). Just like God said in Numbers 35.

Deuteronomy 5: The Ten Commandments Again

Moses starts his second sermon by giving the Ten Commandments again. Notice what he says first. “The LORD made not this covenant with our fathers, but with us, even us, who are all of us here alive this day” (v.3). Most of the people listening were children at Sinai. Or not even born yet. But Moses tells them this covenant is theirs. God speaks to every generation.

The commandments are almost the same as Exodus 20. But the reason for the sabbath is different. In Exodus it was because God rested on the 7th day. Here it is “remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt” (v.15). The sabbath was about creation and about redemption. Then God says “O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always” (v.29). God wanted their hearts. Not just their obedience.

Deuteronomy 6: Hear, O Israel

This is the most important verse in the Old Testament. The Jews call it the Shema. From the first word “hear.” In Hebrew shema means to hear and to obey. They still say it every morning and evening. In Hebrew it reads Shema Yisrael YHWH Eloheinu YHWH echad. The LORD our God. The LORD is one.

Trinitarians will say that the word echad means a compound unity. That it is one made up of more than one. We have dealt with this in our Genesis study. But basically echad just means one. It is the number one. It is used for one man and one day and one place. Notice the verse does not say God is one essence in three persons. It says the LORD is one. One LORD. One name.⁵

When a scribe asked Jesus which commandment was first he quoted this verse. “The first of all the commandments is, Hear, O Israel; The Lord our God is one Lord” (Mark 12:29). The scribe answered “there is one God; and there is none other but he” (Mark 12:32). And Jesus said he answered “discreetly” and was “not far from the kingdom of God” (Mark 12:34). Jesus did not correct him. Jesus did not add anything to it. Paul says the same. “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, One God and Father of all” (Ephesians 4:5–6). And Zechariah tells us “in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one” (Zechariah 14:9). That one LORD came in the flesh. Thomas called Jesus “My Lord and my God” (John 20:28).

Then Moses tells them how to keep it. Put these words in your heart (v.6). Teach them to your children when you sit and when you walk and when you lie down and when you get up (v.7). Write them on your hands and your doors (vv.8–9). And when you get into the land and have houses you did not build and wells you did not dig “beware lest thou forget the LORD” (v.12). Jesus answered the devil from this chapter. “Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God” (v.16; Matthew 4:7). And “Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God, and serve him” (v.13; Matthew 4:10).

Deuteronomy 7: Chosen Because He Loved You

God told Israel to destroy the nations in the land and not to marry them. Because they would turn Israel away to other gods (v.4). Then Moses tells them why God chose them.

God did not choose them because they were big. Or because they were good. He chose them because he loved them. That is grace. And he is “the faithful God, which keepeth covenant and mercy with them that love him and keep his commandments to a thousand generations” (v.9).

Deuteronomy 8: Not by Bread Only

Moses tells them why God led them through the wilderness 40 years. “To humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart” (v.2). He let them be hungry and then fed them with manna. “That he might make thee know that man doth not live by bread only, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the LORD doth man live” (v.3). Jesus quoted this verse when the devil told him to turn stones into bread (Matthew 4:4). Their clothes did not wear out for 40 years (v.4). Then Moses warns them. When they get rich in the land they might say “My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth” (v.17). But “it is he that giveth thee power to get wealth” (v.18).

Deuteronomy 9: Not for Thy Righteousness

Moses wants to make sure they do not get proud. God was going to give them the land. But “not for thy righteousness, or for the uprightness of thine heart” (v.5). He was giving it to them because the nations were wicked. And because of his promise to Abraham. “For thou art a stiffnecked people” (v.6). Then Moses reminds them of the golden calf. How he lay on his face 40 days and 40 nights and prayed for them (v.18). They did not get there because they were good. They got there because God was faithful and because someone prayed for them.

Deuteronomy 10: What Doth the LORD Require

God gave Moses new tables of stone and they were put in the ark (vv.1–5). Then Moses sums up everything.

Fear him. Walk with him. Love him. Serve him. Keep his commandments. And notice it is “for thy good.” God’s law was never meant to hurt them. Then Moses says “Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiffnecked” (v.16). Circumcision of the flesh was never enough. God wanted their hearts. He is “God of gods, and Lord of lords” (v.17). And he “loveth the stranger” (v.18). So they had to love the stranger too (v.19).

Deuteronomy 11: A Land of Hills and Valleys

Egypt was watered by the Nile. They had to water their fields “with thy foot” (v.10). But the promised land “drinketh water of the rain of heaven” (v.11). In Egypt they depended on the river. In the land they would depend on God. If they obeyed he would send the rain. If they turned to other gods he would shut up heaven (v.17). “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse” (v.26). This sets up the end of the book.

Deuteronomy 12: The Place to Put His Name

Now Moses starts going through the laws. And he starts with worship. They had to destroy every place where the nations worshiped their gods (vv.2–3). And they could not worship God however they wanted. “Unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come” (v.5). They were not to do “every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes” (v.8). The book of Judges ends with almost the same words (Judges 21:25).

Notice how many times this book talks about the place where God would put his name (12:5, 11, 21; 14:23; 16:2). The name of God dwelling in a place.⁶ Later it was the temple in Jerusalem. Solomon said “the house that I build is for the name of the LORD” (1 Kings 8:20). But Jesus told the woman at the well “the hour cometh, when ye shall neither in this mountain, nor yet at Jerusalem, worship the Father” (John 4:21). Because the name was now in a person. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9). And Jesus said “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them” (Matthew 18:20).

Deuteronomy 13: False Prophets

Moses says a prophet might do a sign and the sign might come true. But then he says “Let us go after other gods” (v.2). Moses tells them not to listen. “For the LORD your God proveth you, to know whether ye love the LORD your God with all your heart” (v.3). A miracle does not prove that someone is from God. What he teaches about God does. Even if it was your own brother or wife or friend who tried to lead you to other gods you could not follow them (v.6). John tells the church to “try the spirits whether they are of God” (1 John 4:1).

Deuteronomy 14: The Children of the LORD

“Ye are the children of the LORD your God” (v.1). So they could not cut themselves for the dead like the nations did. Then Moses gives the clean and unclean foods again. We covered these in our Leviticus study. Then he gives the tithe. Every 3rd year the tithe was stored up in their towns for “the Levite … and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow” (v.29). The tithe took care of the ministry and the poor.

Deuteronomy 15: The Year of Release

Every 7th year debts were cancelled for their brothers (vv.1–2). And Hebrew servants went free (v.12). They could not send them away empty. They had to give them “liberally” from their flock and floor and winepress (v.14). Because they were slaves in Egypt too (v.15). Moses says “there shall be no poor among you” if they obey (v.4). But he also says “the poor shall never cease out of the land” (v.11). Jesus quoted this (Mark 14:7). If a servant loved his master and wanted to stay his ear was pierced with an awl and he served him for ever (v.17).

Deuteronomy 16:1–17: Three Times a Year

Every man had to come to the place God chose 3 times a year. For Passover. For the feast of weeks. And for the feast of tabernacles. “And they shall not appear before the LORD empty” (v.16). Notice the word rejoice. “Thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter” and the servant and the Levite and the stranger and the widow (v.14). Worship was supposed to be a joy. And everyone was supposed to be included. We covered the feasts in our Leviticus study.

Deuteronomy 16:18–17:20: Judges, Priests and Kings

Israel needed leaders in the land. First were judges. They could not take bribes. “That which is altogether just shalt thou follow” (16:20). No one could be put to death on one witness. It had to be 2 or 3 (17:6). Hard cases went to the priests and the judge at the place God chose (17:8–9).

Then Moses looks ahead to the day Israel would want a king (17:14). God would allow it. But the king could not multiply horses or wives or silver and gold (17:16–17). And he had to write his own copy of the law and read it all the days of his life. “That his heart be not lifted up above his brethren” (17:20). The king was under God’s law too. Solomon broke all three of these. He had horses from Egypt and 700 wives and silver as common as stones (1 Kings 10:27–28; 11:3). “His wives turned away his heart” (1 Kings 11:4).

Deuteronomy 18: A Prophet Like Moses

The priests and Levites would have no land. “The LORD is their inheritance” (v.2). Then God warns them against everything the nations did to know the future. Divination. Witchcraft. Charmers. Necromancers (vv.10–11). “For all that do these things are an abomination unto the LORD” (v.12). Israel did not need any of that. God would speak to them.

Peter tells us this is talking about Jesus (Acts 3:22–23). So does Stephen (Acts 7:37). When the people saw Jesus feed the 5000 they said “This is of a truth that prophet that should come into the world” (John 6:14).⁷ Notice two things. The prophet would be raised up “from among their brethren.” A man. Jesus was fully a man. And he would speak in God’s name. Jesus said “the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father’s which sent me” (John 14:24). Jesus spoke as a man sent from God. And he spoke as God himself. “Before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). He is the prophet like Moses. But he is greater than Moses. Moses was a servant. Jesus is the Son (Hebrews 3:5–6).

Then Moses tells them how to know a false prophet. “If the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken” (v.22).

Deuteronomy 19: Refuge and Witnesses

Three more cities of refuge would be set apart in the land (vv.1–10). Then come two laws that are used in the New Testament. Do not move your neighbor’s landmark (v.14). And “at the mouth of two witnesses, or at the mouth of three witnesses, shall the matter be established” (v.15). Jesus used this for church discipline (Matthew 18:16). And Paul used it too (2 Corinthians 13:1). A false witness got the punishment he wanted for the other man (vv.18–19).

Deuteronomy 20: Rules for War

“For the LORD your God is he that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you” (v.4). Before a battle the officers would send home any man who just built a house or planted a vineyard or got engaged. And they would send home anyone who was afraid. “Lest his brethren’s heart faint as well as his heart” (v.8). God did the same thing with Gideon’s army (Judges 7:3). Cities far away were to be offered peace first (v.10). They could not cut down fruit trees when they besieged a city (v.19).

Deuteronomy 21: Hanged on a Tree

Chapter 21 gives several laws. What to do when a man was found dead and no one knew who killed him (vv.1–9). How to treat a woman taken captive in war (vv.10–14). A man could not take away the birthright from his firstborn just because he loved the other wife more (vv.15–17). And what to do with a son who was stubborn and rebellious (vv.18–21). Then the last law in the chapter.

This is why the Jews asked Pilate to take the bodies down from the cross before the sabbath (John 19:31). And Paul tells us what it means. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree” (Galatians 3:13).⁸ Jesus took the curse that was ours.

Deuteronomy 22: Caring for What Is Not Yours

If you see your brother’s ox or sheep wander off you cannot hide yourself. Bring it back (vv.1–4). A woman could not wear what pertains to a man and a man could not wear a woman’s garment (v.5). If you find a bird’s nest you could take the young but let the mother go (vv.6–7). When you build a house put a battlement around the roof so no one falls off (v.8). Do not mix seeds or yoke an ox and an ass together or wear wool and linen mixed (vv.9–11). Put fringes on your garment (v.12). Then the chapter gives laws about marriage and sexual sin. We will not go into the details here. But notice that holiness reached into every part of life. Even the roof of your house.

Deuteronomy 23: Who Could Enter the Congregation

Some people could not enter the congregation of the LORD. An Ammonite or a Moabite could not enter “even to their tenth generation” (v.3). Because they would not help Israel and they hired Balaam (v.4). But notice that God turned Balaam’s curse into a blessing “because the LORD thy God loved thee” (v.5). We will see later that a Moabite woman named Ruth came to the God of Israel and became the great grandmother of David. We will look at that when we get to Ruth.

A slave who escaped to Israel could not be sent back to his master (vv.15–16). When you make a vow do not be slow to pay it (v.21). And when you walk through your neighbor’s field you could pick grapes or grain with your hand. But you could not bring a basket or a sickle (vv.24–25). That is why the disciples could pluck corn on the sabbath (Matthew 12:1). The Pharisees did not complain that they were stealing. Only that it was the sabbath.

Deuteronomy 24: Divorce and the Poor

Chapter 24 starts with divorce. A man who put away his wife had to give her “a bill of divorcement” (v.1). The Pharisees asked Jesus about this. He said “Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so” (Matthew 19:8). Then a man who just got married did not have to go to war for one year (v.5).

The rest of the chapter protects the poor. Do not take a millstone as a pledge. Because that is taking his life (v.6). Do not go into his house to take the pledge (v.10). Pay the hired servant before the sun goes down (v.15). “The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers” (v.16). And when you harvest leave what you forgot for “the stranger, for the fatherless, and for the widow” (v.19). This is how Ruth was able to glean in the field of Boaz (Ruth 2:2–3). God wrote the poor into the harvest.

Deuteronomy 25: Do Not Muzzle the Ox

A man could not be beaten with more than 40 stripes (v.3). The Jews gave 39 so they would not go over. Paul said “Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one” (2 Corinthians 11:24). “Thou shalt not muzzle the ox when he treadeth out the corn” (v.4). Paul uses this to teach that those who preach the gospel should be paid (1 Corinthians 9:9; 1 Timothy 5:18).

Then comes the law of the brother in law. If a man died with no son his brother was to marry his widow. The first son would carry on the dead man’s name (vv.5–6).⁹ This is the law the Sadducees used to try to trap Jesus about the resurrection (Matthew 22:24). And it is the background for Ruth and Boaz. The chapter ends with honest weights (vv.13–16) and remembering what Amalek did (vv.17–19).

Deuteronomy 26: A Syrian Ready to Perish

When they came into the land they would bring a basket of the firstfruits to the priest. And they would say something to remember where they came from.

The Syrian was Jacob. Who lived with Laban in Syria.¹⁰ Every Israelite was to remember that they came from nothing. A wandering man. A family of slaves. Everything they had God gave them. Then they would rejoice “in every good thing which the LORD thy God hath given unto thee” (v.11). The chapter ends with the covenant. Israel said the LORD was their God. And the LORD said Israel was “his peculiar people” (vv.17–18). This ends Moses’ second sermon.

Deuteronomy 27: Ebal and Gerizim

When they crossed the Jordan they were to set up great stones and plaster them and write the law on them (vv.2–3). And build an altar on Mount Ebal. Then 6 tribes would stand on Mount Gerizim to bless. And 6 would stand on Mount Ebal to curse (vv.12–13). The Levites would read 12 curses and all the people would say “Amen.” The last one was “Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this law to do them” (v.26). Paul quotes this in Galatians 3:10. Nobody kept all of it. So everyone was under the curse. That is why we needed Christ to be made a curse for us (Galatians 3:13). Joshua did all of this in Joshua 8:30–35.

Deuteronomy 28: Blessings and Curses

The first 14 verses are blessings. Blessed in the city and in the field. Blessed coming in and going out. “And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not the tail” (v.13). Then the curses start in verse 15. And they go on for 54 verses. Disease. Drought. Defeat. Enemies besieging their cities. And worst of all exile. “And the LORD shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth even unto the other” (v.64). He would even bring them back to Egypt in ships (v.68).

Notice that the curses are much longer than the blessings. Moses knew what was going to happen. And it did. Israel was taken by Assyria. Judah was taken by Babylon. And in AD 70 the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and the Jews were scattered to the ends of the earth. Everything in this chapter came true.

Deuteronomy 29: The Covenant in Moab

Now Moses starts his third sermon. “These are the words of the covenant, which the LORD commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, beside the covenant which he made with them in Horeb” (v.1). The covenant was renewed with the new generation. And not only with them. “Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath; But with him that standeth here with us this day … and also with him that is not here with us this day” (vv.14–15). Moses was talking to future generations. Then he says “The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law” (v.29). We do not have to know everything. But we have to obey what God has shown us.

Deuteronomy 30: Choose Life

Moses looks ahead past the curses. When they are scattered and they come back to God he will bring them back (vv.1–5). “And the LORD thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live” (v.6). In chapter 10 Moses told them to circumcise their hearts. Here God says he will do it. Jeremiah and Ezekiel call this the new covenant (Jeremiah 31:33; Ezekiel 36:26). Paul tells us “circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter” (Romans 2:29).

Then Moses says the word is not too hard and not too far. Not in heaven. Not across the sea. “But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it” (v.14). Paul quotes this in Romans 10:6–8 and says it is “the word of faith, which we preach.”¹¹ Then comes the choice.

Notice the last line. “For he is thy life.” The choice was not between rules and no rules. It was between God and death. Jesus said “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

Deuteronomy 31: Be Strong and of a Good Courage

“I am an hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in” (v.2). Moses told the people that God would go before them. “Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee” (v.6). Then he said the same thing to Joshua in front of everyone (vv.7–8). Hebrews 13:5 gives this promise to the church. “I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee.”

Moses wrote the law and gave it to the priests. Every 7 years at the feast of tabernacles it was to be read to all Israel. Men and women and children and strangers (vv.10–12). Then God told Moses that after he died the people would turn to other gods (v.16). So God gave Moses a song to teach them. It would be a witness against them (v.19). The book of the law was put beside the ark (v.26).

Deuteronomy 32: The Song of Moses

“Give ear, O ye heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth” (v.1). The song starts with who God is. “He is the Rock, his work is perfect: for all his ways are judgment: a God of truth and without iniquity, just and right is he” (v.4). Then it tells what Israel did. God found Israel in the wilderness and kept him “as the apple of his eye” (v.10). Like an eagle that carries her young on her wings (v.11). But Jeshurun “waxed fat, and kicked” (v.15). Jeshurun is a name for Israel. It means upright one. They sacrificed “unto devils, not to God” (v.17).

So God would provoke them to jealousy “with those which are not a people” (v.21). Paul quotes this when he talks about the Gentiles coming into the church (Romans 10:19). “To me belongeth vengeance, and recompence” (v.35). Paul quotes this too (Romans 12:19). Then God speaks.

“I, even I, am he.” “There is no god with me.” No other god beside him or with him. One God speaking as “I.” Isaiah says the same thing many times. “I, even I, am the LORD; and beside me there is no saviour” (Isaiah 43:11). And Jesus took this same language. “For if ye believe not that I am he, ye shall die in your sins” (John 8:24). The one who kills and makes alive is the one who said “I am the resurrection, and the life” (John 11:25). The song ends with God telling Moses to go up Mount Nebo and see the land and die there (vv.49–52).

Deuteronomy 33: Moses Blesses the Tribes

Just like Jacob blessed his sons in Genesis 49 Moses blessed the tribes before he died. Levi would teach Jacob God’s judgments (v.10). Joseph would be blessed with the precious things of heaven and earth (vv.13–16). Then Moses ends with who God is to them.

“Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O people saved by the LORD” (v.29). Moses’ last words to Israel were not a warning. They were a blessing.

Deuteronomy 34: The Death of Moses

Moses went up Mount Nebo to the top of Pisgah. And God showed him all the land. From Dan to the sea to the south (vv.1–3). “This is the land which I sware unto Abraham, unto Isaac, and unto Jacob” (v.4). Then Moses died. And God buried him. “But no man knoweth of his sepulchre unto this day” (v.6). He was 120 years old. “His eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated” (v.7). Israel mourned 30 days. And Joshua “was full of the spirit of wisdom; for Moses had laid his hands upon him” (v.9).

This is probably written by Joshua or someone later. Because it says “unto this day.”¹² Moses promised in chapter 18 that God would raise up a prophet like him. And when the book ends that prophet still had not come. Israel was still waiting. But Moses did finally stand in the promised land. On the mount of transfiguration Moses and Elijah appeared and talked with Jesus (Matthew 17:3). Luke tells us they talked about “his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem” (Luke 9:31). The prophet like Moses had come.

We have gone through Deuteronomy chapter by chapter. Here is what we can conclude. First Deuteronomy is about the one God. “The LORD he is God; there is none else beside him” (4:35). “Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God is one LORD” (6:4). “I, even I, am he, and there is no god with me” (32:39). Moses could not have said it any clearer. Jesus called the Shema the first of all the commandments (Mark 12:29). And he never added anything to it. The one LORD of Deuteronomy is the one God who came in the flesh in Jesus Christ.

Second Deuteronomy is about loving God. The law was not just a list of rules. It was a covenant with a God who loved them first (7:7–8). He wanted their hearts (5:29; 10:16). And he promised that one day he would circumcise their hearts himself (30:6). That is what he does in the new birth. “The love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us” (Romans 5:5).

Third Deuteronomy is about a choice. Life or death. Blessing or cursing. Israel chose wrong over and over. And the curses came. But Christ took the curse for us when he hung on a tree (21:23; Galatians 3:13). And the word is still nigh us. In our mouth and in our heart (30:14). The choice is still the same. “Choose life” (30:19).

The five books of Moses end with Israel on the edge of the promised land. Moses is dead. Joshua is ready. Genesis started with God creating everything by his word. Deuteronomy ends with a people being given that word to live by. And the promise of a prophet who would speak God’s words. “God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spake in time past unto the fathers by the prophets, Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son” (Hebrews 1:1–2). Next Israel crosses the Jordan. That is where Joshua begins.