Having journeyed through the Old Testament Book of Joshua, chapter by chapter … we shall now endeavor to do the same thing with the mammoth Book of Deuteronomy!

I am excited at the very thought!

Yes, the fifth of the “Books of Moses.”

The last Book in the Pentateuch.

Deuteronomy, with its 34 chapters, its 959 verses!

This means that this Holy Spirit inspired Document averages 28 verses per chapter, with chapter 28 being the longest (68 verses) and chapter 34 being the shortest (12 verses).

Someone acutely observed, of Deuteronomy, that the Book has three “perspectives,” better yet, three “views.”

Looking back (chapters 1-4), looking up (chapters 5-26) and looking ahead (chapters 27-34).

Everything in the Book, unlike in Genesis or Exodus or Numbers, occurs on the edge of the Promised Land, the land of Canaan.

This too … at the beginning of Deuteronomy Moses is clearly the leader of Israel. But by the end of the Book, the younger man Joshua is the leader. A smooth transition occurred, I might add.

And the key word in the Book well may be “remember.” I just counted it 14 times, in different places throughout the Composition.

Do not forget!

Deuteronomy would have us be students of history, apparently! Here’s an example, the first occurrence of “remember” in the Book. “And REMEMBER that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt, and that the LORD thy God brought thee out thence through a mighty hand and by a stretched out arm ….” Deuteronomy 5:15, part of the verse anyway. Remember where God found you!

And Jesus in Deuteronomy, is He seen there at all?

Of course.

Chapter 18, verse 15 for sure: “The Lord thy God will raise up unto thee a PROPHET from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me (Moses); unto him ye shall hearken.” Wow, Moses is then a “Type of Christ” in some ways.

Yes, the foregoing verse is then “Messianic!”

Many years later the crowds (especially the priests and Levites) wanted to know if maybe John the Baptist was “that prophet?”

“And they asked him, What then? Art thou Elias? And he saith, I am not. Art thou THAT PROPHET? And he answered, No. Then said they unto him, Who art thou?” John 1:21-22

But John the Baptist was the forerunner of … That Prophet, Jesus Christ the Virgin-born Son of God!

Yes, Deuteronomy has tentacles leading all the way to Jesus!

Let’s study together these next few days, weeks?

Learning from Deuteronomy.

— Dr. Mike Bagwell