BSF Study Questions The Life of Moses Lesson 26, Day 3: Deuteronomy 4-11

Survival Hint: For those of you with little time: This day tells you where to find the answers in the passages; so if you are in a rush just read the passages for the questions.

End Notes: My end notes will only cover the passages we are asked questions about. It is too much to do all the chapters in one week.

Summary of passages: Deuteronomy 4: Moses tells the people to obey God’s laws and decrees without adding or subtracting from them. God is near the people when they pray. Teach the laws to your children. Don’t worship idols nor make any. Obey the covenant. God will not forget His promise to you. Has any other god done what God has done: revealed Himself and taken a people out of a nation?

Deuteronomy 5: Moses reviews the Ten Commandments with the people and his account of receiving them on Mount Sinai. Moses finishes with the command to follow all of God’s commands so that you may live and prosper.

Deuteronomy 6: God commands the Israelites to love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, and strength. To fear God so that they may prosper and keep His decrees. Moses warns them to not forget God once in the Promised Land and worship only Him. To tell their children of the past and urge them to obey as well.

Deuteronomy 7: Moses tells the Israelites they are to destroy the nations completely that they invade, showing no mercy. They are not to intermarry with them for they will turn the Israelites away from God. They are to smash their altars and burn their idols for it is detestable to the Lord. The Israelites were chosen out of all the peoples on the face of the earth to be His people, His treasured possession out of grace and love alone. God is faithful and will keep His promises and thus demands Israel keep His commands and you will be blessed. The Lord will drive out the Israelites enemies as He did in the Exodus from Egypt.

Deuteronomy 8: Again, Moses emphasizes to follow all of God’s commands so that you may prosper. God tested His people to know their hearts. He tested our hunger so we would know we live on every word of God. God disciplines His children. Praise God for the good land He has given you so you don’t become proud in the good times and forget God and say it was you who did all these things. God gives us the ability to produce wealth. If you disobey, you will be destroyed.

Deuteronomy 9: God will be the one going ahead of the Israelites as they take the Promised Land. God will defeat them not because of anything the Israelites have done but because the nations were wicked and needed to be judged.

Moses reminds the people of God’s anger when He is disobeyed like at Mount Sinai, Taberah, Massah, and at Kibroth Hattaavah. He reminds them of their rebellion at Kadesh and their subsequent punishment of wandering the desert for 40 years. (Numbers 11-14)

Deuteronomy 10: Moses recounts how he made the stone tablets and the Ark of the Covenant to hold them. He recounts Aaron’s death and the setting aside of the tribe of Levi to be the priests and caretakers of the ark. He tells the people to fear God, walk in His ways, love Him, serve Him, and obey His commandments.

Deuteronomy 11: Again, Moses says to love and obey God and keep His laws so that they may be able to take the land and live long. God will provide rain and grass for the animals. Moses warns to be careful not to turn to other gods. The people will be blessed if they obey; cursed if they disobey.

Questions:

5a) We are the people of God’s inheritance. If you seek the Lord with all your heart and all your soul, you will find Him for he is merciful and will not abandon you nor forget His covenant with you. Beside God there is no other–He created the earth and everything on it. His love brought the Israelites out of Egypt and gave them the Promised Land. No other god has spoken to His people nor rescued a chosen people like our God.

b) God rescued the people from Egypt to be His inheritance, meaning we are to do God’s will and not our will. God chose the Israelites as His people out of His great love for them. They heard His voice, saw miraculous signs, and defeated enemies out of His love and mercy and so that they might know Him. He spoke to them to discipline them.

c) Personal Question. My answer: Born in the 21st century where life is considerably easier. Born in the US where I am free and also where life is easier. This privilege allows me to study the Bible and make Him known more as I know Him more. And as at the Bible says, I was chosen to be a believer, to be saved for eternity–that is a privilege. God has chosen me to be with Him all the days He gives–that is the greatest privilege of all.

6a) Obey all His decrees and commands and laws.

b) Part Personal Question. My answer: To talk about them when they are sitting at home and when they are walking along the road, when they lied down and when they got up. To make symbols of God’s commandments and bind them to their foreheads and hearts. To tell them how God brought them out of Egypt and performed miracles and gave the land to them. If they obey God, they will prosper.

I will try to give God all the glory for all of our blessings and our troubles. To speak of Him daily. To pray daily. To read His word. To live out His teachings. Let my children know it is all because of Him.

7) We should follow all of God’s commands so that we may prosper. God tested His people to know their hearts. He tested our hunger so we would know we live on every word of God. God disciplines His children. Praise God for the good land He has given you so you don’t become proud in the good times and forget God and say it was you who did all these things. God gives us the ability to produce wealth. If you disobey, you will be destroyed. God is the ultimate judge as He judged the occupiers of the Promised Land and destroyed them.

8 ) “To fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your should and to observe the Lord’s commands and decrees.”

Conclusions: Grace and love is the theme for all 8 of these chapters. A ton here and a lot of it is review of things we’ve already read. Moses is teaching the new generation, emphasizing how they must obey or face judgement. If they merely obey and love God, they will prosper. It is that simple.

End Notes: Deuteronomy 4: Moses just reviewed the past sins of the people. Now he will review the laws and the importance of obedience so the people do not repeat the mistakes of the past. Obedience would be key as the Israelites engaged in battles with the occupants of the Promised Land. God had to be with them to defeat their enemies; and that required obedience.

God wanted them to be an example to others nations, which would spread the Gospel to come.

Moses especially pointed out their time at Mount Sinai. This he wanted the children to be taught. Here, the people heard God speak but saw no form–a powerful testament against idols. Here the laws were given. Moses warned them not to worship the creation but the Creator.

If God punished Moses, the closest person to God possibly ever besides Jesus, then He will punish them as well. Still, the people would cross over without him. Their lives didn’t depend on a man (Moses); it depended on God. Hebrews 12:29 quotes verse 24.

God often gives us what we want–the good and the bad. If the people wanted idols, He’d give them idols–by sending them to a land full of idols.

Upon examination of your life, believers and unbelievers are confronted with the fact only God could do the miracles in their lives–providing the strength and courage to overcome every obstacle in our path. Following God’s way is the only way in the face of all the other choices. And all God asks is obedience.

As his final act Moses is giving the law to the new generation. One can only hope they heed his/His words.

Deuteronomy 6: Known as the Shema, verses 4-9 are recited every morning and evening by orthodox Jews and have been for hundreds of years. They may very well be the most quoted verses in the entire Bible.

The Hebrew word used here for “one” encompasses a compound unity. First used in Genesis, we see the word again used in Exodus 26:6 to describe the tents as one–meaning two parts joined together. The word encompasses the Trinity. The Hebrew for “Lord” here as well is a plural noun. Moses was indicating the Trinity.

God wants obedience first and then He wants our love as he states. Everything else (our time, money, etc ) follows.

Here we see where phylacteries (little boxes worn on the forehead) came from as well as mezuzah (small boxes of scripture nailed on doorways).

Moses is warning about forgetting God, especially in good times. God knows in the future the people will obey, prosper, and then fall into sin and do this again and again and again (book of Judges).

Like I said before, Jesus used these passages to rebuke Satan in the desert (Matthew 4).

Massah (Exodus 17:1-17) is where the Israelites doubted God’s love for them, which tested God–another no-no that Jesus used to rebuke Satan in Matthew 4.

Here we see stark examples of why the Old Covenant didn’t work and why we needed Jesus and the New Covenant he brought. The Old Covenant demanded obedience or be punished. As we’ve seen in this study, the Israelites failed miserably in this. The New Covenant demands faith in Jesus. Period. We receive forgiveness instead of punishment. The New Covenant brought us the Holy Spirit, written on our hearts, and giving us the ability to obey. (Romans 8:1-4). This is the power of Jesus, the infinite wisdom of God, and the ultimate show of grace and love in all of the world.

In verse 25, we see you had to obey all the laws to be righteous before God (impossible). Here, we have Jesus. Faith in him and we are righteous. How awesome!

It it imperative to teach your kids about God or they will become placid amid all the comforts of this world. We see today in the entitlement generation. Key is God and His word. Recounting Him and reading His word and walking in His word. That’s the best way to ensure your kids don’t take Him and His blessings for granted.

Deuteronomy 7: This chapter is all about God’s grace to the Israelites. How He chose them and how He will provide for them defeat their enemies. Everything God does is for our good if we’d only listen. He says to destroy the peoples and their idols to protect themselves from their influence. Great stuff!

Deuteronomy 8: God wants us to rely on Him and be content in the humility. He tests us so that we would know our hearts; God already knows our hearts. Be humble. Depend on God. Read His word.

God wants you to prosper; but not to worship prosperity.

Great reminders here about forgetting God in the good times and only needing Him in the poor times. He blesses us to do His work and not ours.

Pride is dangerous as this is the sin that took Satan himself down. We must be wary always.

Deuteronomy 9: To defeat their enemies, the people would need God. Complete faith in Him alone to do the impossible.

By reminding the Israelites of their past sins, God desires them to turn to Him in the face of sin.

Deuteronomy 10: Circumcise your hearts refers to the circumcision of all Jewish (and now Christian) boys when there were 8 days old. This not only sets the Israelites apart from their uncircumcised neighbors, but it’s a metaphor of how the Israelites are to live their life–out of the Spirit, not the flesh. This command is repeated in Jeremiah 4:4, but uncircumcised hearts are recorded in Leviticus 26:41, Jeremiah 9:26, and Ezekiel 44:7 and 9.

God requires justice, compassion, and reverence from us. “He is your praise” as you praise Him and all that you do is praise to Him.

Map Showing the Camp of Israel and the Tribes God commands them to conquer in Deuteronomy 7 (Hittites, Girgashites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites):

http://www.kidsbiblemaps.com/joshua-promised-land.jpg

Fun Fact: Deuteronomy promises the new land to the Israelites 69 times.

Fun Fact: Deuteronomy commands us to love God 13 times. Love is a decision, not a feeling.

Time Fact to Complete this Lesson: 3 days and 6 hrs.