Lessons from Deuteronomy for Today

We have been studying the book of Deuteronomy for almost two years now in my local church fellowship, which is the foundation for my choosing to focus on the word remember this year in my Friday Focus posts. Deuteronomy is like one big Post-it note in my mind, as Moses goes over Israel’s history with God and reminds them of all the Lord has done to get them to this point. They are preparing to enter into the Promised Land, and he does not want them to forget a bunch of things, but most importantly, God.

We are a people prone to wander. I cannot help but think of the line from the well-known hymn by Robert Robinson: “Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love.” We need constant reminders of who God is, what he has done, how he has chosen us, and his plans for us.

Coming from a land filled with little-g gods and now going into a land of the same, Moses calls the people to not forget The God, not just big-g but big in everything and in every way. They must remember the God of Creation.

When you go in—remember.

They’d had forty years of wandering to see the hand of God at work and to learn more about him. I’m sure Moses did a lot of teaching in those years, telling them the story of Creation and the history of man. He would tell them about Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and their ultimate arrival in Egypt. He would remind them of how God then saved them through signs and wonders from the evil enslavement of Pharaoh, and how he brought them out, loaded with the riches of their captors. Now they were heading into a beautiful and fruitful land, where they would live as free men and women under the leadership of their God.

“When the Lord your God brings you into the land he swore to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that he would give you—a land with large and beautiful cities that you did not build, houses full of every good thing that you did not fill them with, cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive groves that you did not plant—and when you eat and are satisfied, be careful not to forget the Lord who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery. (Deuteronomy 6:10-12 CSB)

Following God’s Law will help you remember.

Don’t do it. Don’t forget the Lord. He’s the one who got them out of slavery in the first place. How could they forget? We know how—their eyes wandered—wandered by looking at the gods of the nations they were supposed to defeat and cleanse from the land. They married foreign women. They forgot the Ten Words that would have saved them from heartache and trials. They forgot God. Moses warned them.

“Be careful that you don’t forget the Lord your God by failing to keep his commands, ordinances, and statutes that I am giving you today. When you eat and are full, and build beautiful houses to live in, and your herds and flocks grow large, and your silver and gold multiply, and everything else you have increases, be careful that your heart doesn’t become proud and you forget the Lord your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the place of slavery…If you ever forget the Lord your God and follow other gods to serve them and bow in worship to them, I testify against you today that you will certainly perish. (Deuteronomy 8:11-14, 19)

Even in his final song for Israel, Moses prophesies about the forgetful nature of the people: “You ignored the Rock who gave you birth; you forgot the God who gave birth to you” (Deuteronomy 32:18). Would they hear this sad tale and remember the Lord?

After Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, he said to them, “Take to heart all these words I am giving as a warning to you today, so that you may command your children to follow all the words of this law carefully. For they are not meaningless words to you but they are your life, and by them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” (Deuteronomy 32:45-47)

Will we heed the words of Moses?

I’m so thankful for Moses, the humble man of God. We would not have the first foundational books of the Bible without his faithfulness and obedience to the call of God. Of all the people who could have easily forgotten the God of his ancestors, it would have been Moses—raised in the opulence of the house of Pharaoh, surrounded by the gods of Egypt. But he didn’t. He had his own wilderness experience long before the Israelites had theirs, and it proved a training ground to prepare him for the job ahead.

Whatever your condition or situation today, whether you live in worldly luxury, in a tent in the wilderness, or enslaved to sin, turn to the God who longs to make everything right. He can bring you out of your enslavement to a new life of grace and freedom in Christ. We must be a people who remember our God.

Grace and Peace

If you missed the last Friday Focus post, click HERE, or start from the Beginning.