Pages

Wednesday 29 March 2023

Deuteronomy 1:3-8 - In the fortieth year

1:3-5

Throughout Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers we find Moses telling the people what the Lord has told him to say. In John’s gospel Jesus says that He only did what He saw the Father do, and only said what He heard the Father say. In that sense Moses is a type of Jesus. So Moses proclaimed “all that the Lord had commanded him”. There is a parallel with the Great Commission where Jesus tells us to “teach them to obey everything I have commanded you” (Matt 28:20). Moses is teaching the same Law, but now there is the bitter experience of the past forty years as an illustration of why it was so important.


1:6-8

God had given the ten commandments at Horeb, but then it was time for them to move on. God had not just set them free from captivity, He was leading them to a better place, a new life. It is the same with us. God does set us free from various things, but His plans are greater than that. God had given the Israelites the land of Canaan, so they were to take possession of the land. Israel was saved purely by the act of God, but this does not mean that they did not have responsibilities. Likewise, we are saved by grace, by the sovereign act of God. But He saves us to make us responsible human beings, able to live Christlike lives. Their taking of Canaan was a fulfilment of the promises to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.


No comments:

Post a Comment