Hi James and Ellen,
Deuteronomy is a 120 year old murderer rearticulating to the Israelite people group guys and gals – who are God’s specially chosen guys and gals, the life and worship mandates that God gave him 40 years earlier – when he met with God on Mount Sinai, to pass on to them for them to obey. Moses – who killed an Egyptian slave master, used written narratives and farewell addresses during the final month of his life to refresh the Israelite people group guys and gals on the suzerainty or lordship covenant that God – as being their Divine authority, made with them through him as God’s planet Earth appointed mediator. The comprehensive expository heart of the covenantal paradigm that God passed on through Moses to the Israelite people group guys and gals includes His side of His contractual commitment of absolute allegiance to them because of their being His specially chosen guys and gals and the life and worship mandates that He expected them to obey as instruments that would bind them to Him. Moses reminded his compatriots at this time that their side of their covenant relationship with their sovereign God was that they were to through proactively living lives of servanthood to God would be acting out as being God’s specially chosen vassals. Because Moses knew that his death was impending – because of an impatient, disobedient reaction that he made to a specific directive that God gave him to do during the 40 year exodus wanderings of the Israelite people group guys and gals that had God telling him that He was disallowing him the opportunity of going into the land of Canaan, that God would not while he was still alive allow the Israelite people group guys and gals cross through the River Jordon into the land of Canaan. Moses would use this final month of his assignment to planet Earth to awaken his fellow people group guys and gals to a renewed consecration of reverence and gratitude to God. Your grandpaa thinks that there had to have been at this time among the two million or so Israelite people group guys, gals and kids – who had set up camp on the east side of the Jordon River, a sense of expectation and excitement – as they knew that they would probably be entering at any moment into the land that God was giving them to always have to live in as their very own land. Your grandpaa thinks that at this same time that these guys and gals were probably not keeping the life and worship stipulations that God expected them to faithfully keep and that fidelity to God’s name YAHWEH – or Jehovah or Father in Heaven, was no longer a life priority. Moses’ final days’ missives and messages – which are contained in the Deuteronomy Book, are renewal urgings and expository explanations that end with Moses’ final blessing for God’s specially chosen guys and gals followed by his death.
Your grandpaa has come to the conclusion that Moses is one of the most undervalued, extraordinary real life characters that has ever lived on planet Earth. Moses begins life as an endangered baby. Because Moses’ ma did not want him killed by an Egyptian Pharaoh who was intimidated by the rapid growth of a people group known as the Israelite people group of guys and gals, Moses’ ma’s radical plan worked when she put Moses in a tiny reed boat in hopes that he would be found by a Pharaoh family member. Even though Moses knew about his heritage, Moses had for 40 years status while growing up and living among privileged Egyptian guys, gals and kids along with having the opportunity to become well educated. It was when Moses’ embedded anger got the best of him when he saw a guy from his own people group being badly maltreated that he ended up having to do a 40 year desert timeout in order to stay alive. Moses went from living for 40 years a life that your grandpaa thinks was constantly filled with guys, gals and kids and with countless entertaining activities to living for 40 years a life that your grandpaa thinks was devoid of activities except for those relatable to an itinerant sheepherder. Your grandmaa and grandpaa have learned that God has a reason for every life experience that He has taken them through. As much as your grandmaa and grandpaa would like to say that they have lived their lives without any very difficult and failed life lessons, they have found out – just as Moses found out, that a failed difficult life test is invariably a God teaching moment. Even though Moses was very reticent about doing what the burning bush voice was telling him that He wanted him to do, Moses ultimately would comply and do his ordained task very well.
The 34 chapters in the Deuteronomy Book are the culmination of a scarred, honed life that became a radical, uncompromising God-centered life. As Moses closed in on the 120 year pinnacle of his life, Moses does forward looking when he could have regretfully looked back on his life. As your grandmaa and grandpaa are getting closer and closer to that moment when their spirits and souls join the heavenly angel choir in worshipping God at the foot of His heavenly throne, your grandmaa and grandpaa are finding themselves more and more wanting to pull a Moses kind of life. During the sixtieth wedding anniversary celebration get-together dinner for your dad’s grandpa and grandma on your grandpaa’s side of your family, your grandpa’s dad used that time to admonish – in a very heartfelt way, his kids and grandkids to never falter in any way in their faith in God. Your grandpaa’s dad came to know just as Moses knew that there is nothing more filled with expectancy and hope than knowing God in an everyday way.
Deuteronomy