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Ajith Fernando

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Herausgeber: Crossway
Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
Serie: Preaching the Word
Sprache: Englisch

Beschreibung

The book of Deuteronomy is a call to obedience—the proper response to God's faithfulness and love. Consisting primarily of speeches that Moses gave to the Israelites shortly before they entered the Promised Land, Moses' words proclaimed God's covenant faithfulness in hopes of motivating the Israelites to obey God despite the coming temptation to conform to the Canaanite culture. The challenges they faced then are remarkably parallel to those facing Christians today as we grapple with the issue of obedience in a world that offers other attractive ways of life. We wonder: How can we be faithful to God? And how do we help our children and the people we lead to be faithful? This book tells us how Moses tackled these challenges and, as Paul confirms in the New Testament, Deuteronomy serves "as an example…written down for our instruction" (1 Cor. 10:11). Ajith Fernando unpacks the relevance of Deuteronomy and captivates us with rich anecdotes from his thirty-five years of ministry to first-generation Christians in Sri Lanka. He offers concrete examples of how the truths contained in Deuteronomy can be applied, and he teaches us that obedience is the necessary response to the God who loves and saves us. Part of the Preaching the Word series.

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Leseprobe

“Out of his broad experience of expounding the Scriptures, Dr. Fernando has given us a commentary that will appeal to all those who preach the Word. The work breathes a love for God, a deep understanding of Biblical theology, and a warmly poignant grasp of human nature—with its failings and its potentials. His applications of Deuteronomy’s teaching are both perceptive and relevant. While showing an awareness of scholarly treatments, the work is very accessible to those who do not have scholarly training. It is highly recommended.”

John Oswalt, Distinguished Professor of Old Testament, Asbury Theological Seminary

“Vintage Fernando. Like all of his preaching, this book is a model of the wonderful gift that God has given to Ajith Fernando for simple, clear, and challenging exposition of the Word of God. Without evading the more difficult questions and problems that scholars have wrestled with in the book of Deuteronomy, he does not allow them to dominate but stays close to the thrust of the text, patiently explaining and applying it step by step. The rich infusion of illustrations that are mostly drawn from the challenges and stresses, joys and sorrows of his own experience in ministry add a wonderful earthy texture to the whole book as we constantly weave between the Biblical world and today’s world in a way that listens to and engages with both. This book is a deep well of Biblical study, ethical challenge, practical advice, pastoral wisdom, and spiritual warmth. It breathes love for God, God’s Word, God’s world, and God’s people.”

Christopher J. H. Wright, International Director, Langham Partnership International; author, Old Testament Ethics for the People of God

PREACHING THE WORD

Edited by R. Kent Hughes

Genesis | R. Kent Hughes

Exodus | Philip Graham Ryken

Leviticus | Kenneth A. Mathews

Numbers | Iain M. Duguid

Deuteronomy | Ajith Fernando

Joshua | David Jackman

Judges and Ruth | Barry G. Webb

1 Samuel | John Woodhouse

2 Samuel | John Woodhouse

1 Kings | John Woodhouse

Job | Christopher Ash

Psalms, vol. 1 | James Johnston

Proverbs | Raymond C. Ortlund

Ecclesiastes | Philip Graham Ryken

Song of Solomon | Douglas Sean O’Donnell

Isaiah | Raymond C. Ortlund

Jeremiah and Lamentations | R. Kent Hughes

Daniel | Rodney D. Stortz

Matthew | Douglas Sean O’Donnell

Mark | R. Kent Hughes

Luke | R. Kent Hughes

John | R. Kent Hughes

Acts | R. Kent Hughes

Romans | R. Kent Hughes

1 Corinthians | Stephen T. Um

2 Corinthians | R. Kent Hughes

Galatians | Todd Wilson

Ephesians | R. Kent Hughes

Philippians, Colossians, and Philemon | R. Kent Hughes

1–2 Thessalonians | James H. Grant Jr.

1–2 Timothy and Titus | R. Kent Hughes and Bryan Chapell

Hebrews | R. Kent Hughes

James | R. Kent Hughes

1–2 Peter and Jude | David R. Helm

1–3 John | David L. Allen

Revelation | James M. Hamilton Jr.

The Sermon on the Mount | R. Kent Hughes

Royalties from the sale of this book have been assigned to staff education and literature projects of Youth for Christ, Sri Lanka.

Deuteronomy

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law. Crossway® is a registered trademark in the United States of America.

Cover design: Jon McGrath, Simplicated Studio

Cover image(s): Adam Greene, Illustrator

First printing 2012

Printed in the United States of America

Italics in biblical quotes indicate emphasis added.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version®). Copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture references marked AMPLIFIED are from TheAmplified Bible. Old Testament copyright © 1965, 1987 by the Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified New Testament. Copyright © 1958, 1987 by the Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

Scripture quotations marked ASV have been taken from the American Standard Version.

Scripture quotations marked KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.

Scripture references marked NRSV are from TheNew Revised Standard Version. Copyright © 1989 by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A. Published by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.

Scripture quotations marked TNIV are taken from the Holy Bible, Today’s New International Version®. TNIV. Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.

ISBN-13: 978-1-4335-3100-2

ISBN-10: 1-4335-3100-3

PDF ISBN: 978–1-4335–3101–9

Mobipocket ISBN: 978–1–4335–3101–6

ePub ISBN: 978-1-4335-3103-3

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Fernando, Ajith.

Deuteronomy : loving obedience to a loving God / Ajith Fernando.

p. cm. (Preaching the Word)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-4335-3100-2 (hc)

1. Bible. O.T. Deuteronomy—Commentaries. I. Title.

BS1275.53.F47 2011

222'.1507—dc23 2011025566

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

Genga and Lakshi Arulampalam

Loran and Merle Grant

Brian and Lilly Stiller

With gratitude to God for

over three decades of friendship.

Love is . . . kind.

1 Corinthians 13:4

“Hear, O Israel: The LORD our God, the LORD is one. You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

“And when the LORD your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant— and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. It is the LORD your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear.”

DDEUTERONOMY 6 : 4 – 1 3

Frequently Used Reference Materials

Acknowledgments

A Word to Those Who Preach the Word

Preface: Why I Am Excited about Deuteronomy

1 Deuteronomy: Highly Relevant History (1:1–3, 5)

2 Keys to Launching out into Fresh Exploits (1:4–8 )

3 Leadership and Growth (1:9–15)

4 Basic Training for Judges (1:16–18)

5 Faith versus Fear (1:19–33)

6 The Seriousness of God’s Severity (1:34–46)

7 Provision in the Wilderness (2:1–23)

8 Doing Battle with God’s Help (2:24—3:11)

9 Preparing a Community to Live Harmoniously (3:12–29)

10 Nurturing People Who Cling to God and His Word (4:1–14)

11 How to Prevent Idolatry (4:15–28)

12 Returning to God after Disobedience (4:29–31)

13 Believing and Obeying the Bible (4:32–43)

14 How to Think about the Law (4:44—5:6)

15 Exclusive Loyalty to God (5:7–10)

16 Honoring God’s Name (5:11)

17 Sabbath-Keeping (5:12–15)

18 Honoring Parents (5:16)

19 The Sanctity of Life (5:17)

20 The Sanctity of Marriage (5:18)

21 Respect for Property and Truth (5:19, 20)

22 Covetousness versus Contentment (5:21)

23 A Conversation between God, Moses, and the People (5:22–33)

24 How Fear and Love Can Make Us Holy (6:1–5)

25 How the Word Can Make Us Holy (6:6–9)

26 How to Avoid the Pitfalls of Prosperity (6:10–25)

27 Show Them No Mercy (7:1–26)

28 How Not to Forget God (8:1–20)

29 God Wins in Spite of Us (9:1–8)

30 A Rebellious People and a Praying Leader (9:9–24)

31 Powerful Prayer (9:25—10:11)

32 A Vision of God Fosters Heart Religion (10:12–22)

33 Seven Motivations to Obedience (11:1–32)

34 Worshipping God’s Way (12:1–32)

35 Encountering Occult Power (13:1–18)

36 We Will Be Different from Others (14:1–21)

37 Giving to God (14:22–29; 15:19–23)

38 Special Consideration for the Poor (15:1–18)

39 Pilgrimage Festivals (16:1–17)

40 Principles of Leadership and Justice (16:18—17:13)

41 How to Be a Good King (17:14–20)

42 Priests and Prophets: The Good, the Bad, the Best, and the False (18:1–22)

43 Legal Protection for the Vulnerable (19:1–21)

44 Rules for Warfare (20:1–20)

45 Respect for Life and Land (21:1–23)

46 Rules for an Orderly and Healthy Society (22:1–12)

47 Upholding the High Value of Sex (22:13–30)

48 Rules for a Holy Society (23:1–14)

49 Rules for a Considerate Society (23:15–25; 24:19–22)

50 Generous Justice (24:1–22)

51 Concern for Humans and Animals and Honesty (25:1–19)

52 The Heart of a Biblical Giver (26:1–19)

53 Acts That Help Refresh Commitment (27:1–10)

54 Can We Curse People Today? (27:11–26)

55 Kinds of Blessings and Curses (28:1–68)

56 Keys to Renewal (29:1–29)

57 The Path of Repentance (30:1–20)

58 How to Handle Leadership Succession (31:1–29)

59 Moses’ Song I: Scandalous Disobedience (31:30—32:18)

60 Moses’ Song II: Judgment and Restoration (32:19–47)

61 The Art of Blessing People (32:48—33:25)

62 Moses’ Last Outburst of Praise (33:26–29)

63 The Death of a Great Leader (34:1–12)

Notes

Frequently Used Reference Materials

The Christian community is blessed with some wonderful commentaries and expositions of Deuteronomy. Some of these are not only useful for extracting scholarly information but can also be read as edifying devotional material. In my study of Deuteronomy I found the commentaries listed below particularly helpful. In this book I will refer to them only by the names of the authors. The assumption is that the quotation or citation is taken from the comment on the particular passage I am commenting on at the time.

Brown, Raymond. The Message of Deuteronomy: Not by Bread Alone. The Bible Speaks Today. Leicester, UK and Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993.

Chianeque, Luciano C., and Samuel Ngewa. “Deuteronomy.” In Africa Bible Commentary: A One-Volume Commentary Written by 70 African Scholars, edited by Tokumbo Adeyemo. Nairobi, Kenya: WordAlive Publishers and Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2006.

Clarke, Adam. A Commentary and Critical Notes on the Holy Bible: Old and New Testaments. WORDsearch 7.0 Software.

Craigie, Peter C. The Book of Deuteronomy. The New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1976.

Hall, Gary H. The College Press NIV Commentary: Deuteronomy. Joplin, MO: The College Press Publishing Co., Inc., 2000. Logos Bible Software.

Henry, Matthew. Matthew Henry’s Commentary on the Whole Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1999. Zondervan Interactive, 2007. Pradis 6.0 Software.

Kalland, Earl S. “Deuteronomy.” In The Expositor’s Bible Commentary, edited by Frank E. Gaebelein. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1992. Zondervan Interactive, 2007. Pradis 6.0 Software.

Keil, C. F., and F. Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: Numbers-Ruth. Albany, OR: Ages Software, 1999. Ages Digital Library 1.0 Software.

McConville, J. G. Deuteronomy. Apollos Old Testament Commentary. Leicester, UK and Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2002.

. “Deuteronomy.” In New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition. Edited by G. J. Wenham, J. A. Motyer, D. A. Carson and R. T. France. Leicester, UK and Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1994. Logos Library System: The Essential IVP Reference Collection. Software. (Referred to as McConville, NBC.)

McIntosh, Doug. Deuteronomy. Holman Old Testament Commentary 3. Nashville, TN: B&H, 2002.

Merrill, Eugene H. Deuteronomy. The New American Commentary, vol. 4. Nashville, TN: B&H, 1994. WORDsearch 7.0, 2005. Software.

Payne, David F. Deuteronomy. The Daily Study Bible. Edinburgh, UK: The Saint Andrew Press and Philadelphia, PA: Westminster, 1985.

Thompson, J. A. Deuteronomy: An Introduction and Commentary. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. Leicester, UK and Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1974. Logos Bible Software.

Biblical Illustrator: Old Testament, Deuteronomy. Edited by Joseph Exell. Rio, WI: Ages Software, 2002. Ages Digital Library: Christian Library Series Software.

Deuteronomy. Pulpit Commentary: Old Testament. Edited by H. D. M. Spence and Joseph Exell. Rio, WI: Ages Software, 2002. Ages Digital Library: Christian Library Series Software.

Wesley, John. Notes on the Old Testament, 1765. WORDsearch 7.0, 2005. Software.

Wiersbe, Warren W. Be Equipped: Acquiring the Tools for Spiritual Success (Deuteronomy). Colorado Springs, CO: Chariot Victor, 1999. Logos Bible Software.

Work, Telford. Deuteronomy. Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible. Grand Rapids, MI: Brazos Press, 2009.

Wright, Christopher J. H. Deuteronomy. The New International Biblical Commentary. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1996.

Abbreviations and bibliographical details for other reference works that I used frequently are given below. I used the electronic version of these resources.

BBC-OT—John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, and Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary Old Testament. Leicester, UK and Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2000. Logos Library System: The Essential IVP Reference Collection Software.

ESVSB—The ESV Study Bible. Wheaton: Crossway, 2008. WORDsearch, 2008. Software.

Heb-Eng Lexicon—Hebrew-English Lexicon of the Old Testament. Zondervan Interactive, 2007. Pradis 6.0 Software.

Merriam-Webster—Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Version 2.5, 2000. Software.

NBC—New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition. Edited by G. J. Wenham, J. A. Motyer, D. A. Carson, and R. T. France. Leicester, UK and Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 1994. Logos Library System: Essential IVP Reference Collection Software.

NIDCH—New International Dictionary of the Christian Church. Edited by J. D. Douglas. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2002. Zondervan Interactive, 2007. Pradis 6.0 Software. (Most of my historical notes and dates are from this resource.)

NIDOTTE—The New International Dictionary of Old Testament Theology and Exegesis. Edited by Willem A. VanGemeren. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1997, 2002. Zondervan Interactive, 2007. Pradis 6.0 Software.

NIVSB—The New International Version Study Bible. Edited by Kenneth Barker. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1995. Zondervan Interactive, 2007. Pradis 6.0 Software.

TWOT—Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament. Edited by R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke. Chicago: Moody Publishers, 1980. WORDsearch 7.0, 2004. Software.

ZIBBC-OT—Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament. Edited by John H. Walton. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2009. Logos Library System Software. (Comments on Deuteronomy are by Eugene E. Carpenter.)

ZPEB—The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible. Edited by Merrill C. Tenney. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan. Zondervan Interactive 2007. Pradis 6.0 Software.

Acknowledgments

I need to first express my gratitude to God for the way in which he spoke to me through studying the book of Deuteronomy. I was often convicted of sin and unfaithfulness to God. I received many instructions on the pathways of repentance and obedience. I was specifically ministered to by the vision of God’s greatness that pervades this book and by the way it addressed some tough situations I faced while writing this book. I agreed to write this book because God has spoken to me clearly through Deuteronomy over the years. The opportunity to concentrate on it in order to write this book intensified that process.

I am grateful to my friends Dr. Lane Dennis, President of Crossway Books, and Dr. Kent Hughes, the general editor of the Preaching the Word series, for honoring me with the invitation to contribute to this series that I have grown to value highly. After my long struggle to complete this book, my admiration of Dr. Hughes increased even more. I am amazed that he has been able to maintain his consistently high standard of brilliant exposition in his treatment of so many of the volumes in this series. It is also a joy to work again with editor Ted Griffin.

The Board of Youth for Christ (YFC) granted me two short sabbaticals-of-sorts to work on this book. The first was canceled because of the massive relief operation following the devastation caused by the December 2004 tsunami. Needs in the YFC ministry resulted in my doing much less study than I had planned during the second sabbatical. I am grateful for God’s grace to complete this project despite that and for YFC’s willingness to let me squeeze in whatever opportunity I could get to work on this book. The exhaustion of trying to combine active ministry and expository study and writing is more than compensated by the refreshment from spending time delving into the riches of the Word. And what a rich book Deuteronomy is!

My basic approach to the passages was to first do an inductive study of them using only the Biblical text with a very wide margin and my lead pencil and color pencils. Only after this did I check the commentaries for clarification, correction, and enrichment. I am so grateful to Drs. Robert Traina and Daniel Fuller who introduced me to the thrill of discovering riches from the Word through inductive study. Another teacher, Dr. John Oswalt, who vividly communicated to his students the glory of Old Testament study, graciously read the first three parts of the first chapter. I harvested the godly scholarship of the unusually large number of superb Deuteronomy commentaries that I consulted. I am grateful to the scholars who wrote these commentaries, for their labors of love on behalf of us preachers. In terms of usefulness for preaching, my favorite commentary was that by Christopher Wright.

I am grateful to the many friends who opened up their homes for me to hide (sometimes with my wife) and work on this book. God used their kindness and friendship to help me bear the terrible loneliness I felt, especially during the times I was away from my wife and family. This book was written in the homes of so many friends, I decided that the list of their names is too long to include here. I find it difficult to write while in Sri Lanka because of the complication of involvement in so many ministries. However, the YFC Youth Guidance drug rehabilitation center provided me with a wonderful atmosphere for study and writing, while ministering to the staff and students there on the side.

This book took me more than eight years to write, and no one encouraged me during this time as much as my family. During these eight years my daughter Nirmali married a YFC worker and subsequently joined YFC staff. My son Asiri went to seminary and then also joined YFC staff. If I were to identify the primary human contributory factor to their love for the Lord and for Christian ministry, despite having to pay the price of having a father who was so busy in ministry, it would be their mother. Nelun’s contagious love for God, his Word, and his ways and for our family must surely have contributed to the joy my children have in following and serving Christ. I join that happy band of Christian workers who declare, “Thank God for the gift of family!”

A Word to Those Who Preach the Word

There are times when I am preaching that I have especially sensed the pleasure of God. I usually become aware of it through the unnatural silence. The ever-present coughing ceases, and the pews stop creaking, bringing an almost physical quiet to the sanctuary—through which my words sail like arrows. I experience a heightened eloquence, so that the cadence and volume of my voice intensify the truth I am preaching.

There is nothing quite like it—the Holy Spirit filling one’s sails, the sense of his pleasure, and the awareness that something is happening among one’s hearers. This experience is, of course, not unique, for thousands of preachers have similar experiences, even greater ones.

What has happened when this takes place? How do we account for this sense of his smile? The answer for me has come from the ancient rhetorical categories of logos, ethos, and pathos.

The first reason for his smile is the logos—in terms of preaching, God’s Word. This means that as we stand before God’s people to proclaim his Word, we have done our homework. We have exegeted the passage, mined the significance of its words in their context, and applied sound hermeneutical principles in interpreting the text so that we understand what its words meant to its hearers. And it means that we have labored long until we can express in a sentence what the theme of the text is—so that our outline springs from the text. Then our preparation will be such that as we preach, we will not be preaching our own thoughts about God’s Word, but God’s actual Word, his logos. This is fundamental to pleasing him in preaching.

The second element in knowing God’s smile in preaching is ethos—what you are as a person. There is a danger endemic to preaching, which is having your hands and heart cauterized by holy things. Phillips Brooks illustrated it by the analogy of a train conductor who comes to believe that he has been to the places he announces because of his long and loud heralding of them. And that is why Brooks insisted that preaching must be “the bringing of truth through personality.” Though we can never perfectly embody the truth we preach, we must be subject to it, long for it, and make it as much a part of our ethos as possible. As the Puritan William Ames said, “Next to the Scriptures, nothing makes a sermon more to pierce, than when it comes out of the inward affection of the heart without any affectation.” When a preacher’s ethos backs up his logos, there will be the pleasure of God.

Last, there is pathos—personal passion and conviction. David Hume, the Scottish philosopher and skeptic, was once challenged as he was seen going to hear George Whitefield preach, “I thought you do not believe in the gospel.” Hume replied, “I don’t, but he does.” Just so! When a preacher believes what he preaches, there will be passion. And this belief and requisite passion will know the smile of God.

The pleasure of God is a matter of logos (the Word), ethos (what you are), and pathos (your passion). As you preach the Word may you experience his smile—the Holy Spirit in your sails!

R. Kent Hughes

Preface: Why I Am Excited about Deuteronomy

In my thirty plus years of ministry I have worked primarily among first-generation Christians from other faiths both in Youth for Christ and in the church where my wife and I serve. We have faced three huge challenges in this work. The first is that of making contact with these people who have no contact with the church so that they would have an opportunity to hear the gospel. The second is communicating the gospel in such a way that they would not only understand it but also be persuaded to leave their past allegiances to accept the salvation it offers. I have addressed these two challenges in two books, The Supremacy of Christ1 and Sharing the Truth in Love.2

The third challenge is nurturing people who have not learned to view life using Biblical categories—that is, those with a worldview that is not Christian—and helping them move into a godly life. This is also becoming an increasingly important challenge in the West where those outside, and sometimes inside, the church have attitudes that are alien to the religion of the Bible. Around twenty years ago, while walking along the beach and praying, I told God that one day I would like to write a comprehensive theology of the Christian life, especially focusing on how to move people on to holiness. I think this book is God’s answer to that prayer.

When my friends found out that I was writing a preaching commentary on Deuteronomy, I usually got one of three responses. Some responded with enthusiasm, pointing out that it is such an important book. I share their enthusiasm. Others pointed to what a tough assignment this would be, and I agree with them too. When I started on this project I had not realized what a large book Deuteronomy is and how much I had to learn about its background in order to do this project justice. The third type of response I received seemed to imply that this is a dry book, with a lot of difficult and irrelevant material, which does not seem to have much to teach us today. I take strong exception to that sentiment!

Deuteronomy is an exciting book that is very relevant today. I first realized this about twenty-five years ago when, early in my ministry, I read the book for my devotions. I found that there was so much I can learn about the Christian life and ministry that I began to list it all. I ended up with a huge list that has had a huge impact on my ministry. For example, I made a list of 142 incentives to obedience from Deuteronomy. So when I was asked by my friends at Crossway whether I would be interested in writing the Deuteronomy commentary in the series I responded with an enthusiastic yes.

Why am I so excited about Deuteronomy? Primarily because in this book Moses is attempting to do something that is still so important for all Christians. He is close to death, and they are close to entering the promised land without him, the one who led them for forty years. Deuteronomy gives Moses’ farewell addresses to them. His aim is to motivate them to go forward and conquer the land and to help them to be faithful to God amidst all the challenges to such faithfulness that they will face. He warns them of challenges, he encourages them to a life of holiness, and he tells them the consequences of living and of failing to live such a life. All the time Moses was aware of the temptation the people would have to compromise their faith by assimilating aspects of Canaanite religion.

Are these not some of our greatest challenges today? How can we remain faithful to God? How can we avoid compromise when the lure of the society around us is so powerful? And how can we help our children and the people we lead to be faithful? Deuteronomy tells us how Moses tackled these challenges. After citing a story that appears in Deuteronomy, Paul writes, “Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction” (1 Corinthians 10:11).

Therefore I have approached every passage of Deuteronomy as having significance to Christians today. Because all of Deuteronomy is part of God’s inspired Word, that affirmation should be accepted without question. But it is often not, for many Christians think that in this era of grace many of the teachings of the Old Testament are not significant for us. Indeed we may not use some of the laws and regulations that are given there because they apply only to the Jewish nation. But the religion of this nation had the same basic ingredients that the Christian religion has today. Their life was to be a response of faith and obedience to the God who had graciously acted to redeem them. So even the laws that are specific to Israel have principles behind them that help us in the life of faith today.

When I studied Deuteronomy this time around with a view to writing this book, I found another feature that makes it extremely helpful. Many consider Moses to be the greatest national leader in history. From what Moses says and does in Deuteronomy we can learn many important lessons on leadership. Perhaps this has been to me the most thrilling aspect of this present study that I have done of Deuteronomy. This book has also had a chastening influence in my life because often through it the Lord showed me areas where I have been slack in my Christian commitment.

The Biblical writers seem to have considered Deuteronomy to be a very important book; they used it all the time. Gordon Fee and Douglas Stuart say that “Deuteronomy has perhaps had more influence on the rest of the biblical story (both Old and New Testaments) than any other book of the Bible.” They point out that “Deuteronomy . . . had considerable influence on Israel’s and Judah’s prophets, especially Isaiah and Jeremiah, and through them influenced the major figures of the NT (especially Jesus and Paul).”3 Chris Wright says, “The book of Deuteronomy lies close to the very heartbeat of the Scriptures. It is to the Old Testament something like the book of Romans to the New Testament. It deals with many of the key themes that inform the rest of the Bible.”4 It is quoted over eighty times in the New Testament, and references to it occur in all the New Testament books except John, Colossians, 1 Thessalonians, 2 Timothy, and 1 and 2 Peter. Thus it belongs to a small group of four Old Testament books—Genesis, Deuteronomy, Psalms, and Isaiah—to which early Christians made frequent reference.5 When Jesus was tempted, he quoted from Deuteronomy in each of his three responses to Satan.

We must never forget that when the New Testament was written, the only Bible that the Christians had was the Old Testament. When they “studied the Word,” they studied the Old Testament. Therefore it was not necessary for some of the things emphasized in the Old Testament to be emphasized again in the New Testament. The New Testament takes it for granted that Christians were very aware of these emphases. Some of these emphases are not very strong in the thinking of Christians today. Therefore it is especially important that we study the Old Testament, because the failure to do that would result in our not being influenced by a key aspect of God’s thinking.

Let me list some of those things that are very important for the Christian life but that the New Testament does not emphasize as much as the Old Testament because they already have a good emphasis there. Each of these is an emphasis found in Deuteronomy also.

The importance of order and the attention to detail especially in connection with worship.

The importance of visual and symbolic reminders of Biblical truth, such as festivals.

The importance of constantly being aware of the holiness of God and how it influences a faithful life. In fact, in the Old Testament the life of faith is often described as walking in the fear of the Lord, an emphasis that may be much needed today when people tend to be careless about sticking to Christian principles in every sphere of life.

The need for discipline and disciplining people when serious disobedience occurs.

The need to have a vital relationship with the Word through memorization, meditation, discussion, and obedience.

Deuteronomy is particularly important because it records a series of sermons given to help people in their day-to-day lives. It begins with the words, “These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel . . . ” (1:1). Deuteronomy 1:5 says, “Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law. . . .” So it is an expository sermon. Paul Barker points out that “apart from chapter 34 there are only five major paragraphs in the book which are not reported speech.”6

Because it consists of sermons, Deuteronomy would also give us helpful models for preaching today.

The sermonic style is found here with its sense of urgency, with frequent pleading and exhorting, and with calls to action.

The laws are not simply listed, they are preached.

Deuteronomy is full of imperatives to love, fear, serve, obey, walk after, and hold fast.

The two main ways Moses tries to motivate the people to faithfulness are reviewing history and retelling the Law. Surely that has something to teach us about good preaching!

“Almost every time Moses talks about the land, he is seeking to motivate Israel.”

Therefore, when he mentions the land he qualifies it with terms like “which the Lord your God gave you,” “the good,” “flowing with milk and honey,” or “which the Lord your God swore (or promised) to give you.”

I must confess that usually I get excited about any book in the Bible I am studying at a given time. The study of all of Scripture is a thrilling exercise. But I needed to give reasons why Deuteronomy is exciting because I have found that many people, assuming that this is a boring book that is difficult to understand, avoid studying it and preaching from it. This is a serious error.

1 Deuteronomy: Highly Relevant History

DEUTERONOMY 1:1–3, 5

THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY consists primarily of speeches that Moses gave to the Israelites shortly before he handed over the leadership to Joshua. They aim to prepare the people to conquer Canaan and live faithful lives in their new land. The speeches give some strong teaching that would be somewhat unpopular today. Our natural tendency would be to dismiss this teaching as not being relevant to our lives. However, this book claims to contain the very thoughts of God. Deuteronomy 1:3 says, “Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him in commandment to them.” If these are indeed God’s words, we are forced to take them seriously. Therefore, I will give a brief defense of the historical reliability of this book. This study is more technical than the others in this book.

The Name Deuteronomy

The Israelites usually used the first two words in the Hebrew text of Deuteronomy, “elleh haddebarim,” meaning “these are the words,” as their title for the book. Sometimes they simply used the shortened form debarim (“words”). The name that has become popular in English comes from a translation of Deuteronomy 17:18 in the Septuagint, the most important ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, usually abbreviated as LXX. Here Moses is asked to make “a copy of this law,” and the LXX translated that as “second law” or “repetition of the law.” The Latin Vulgate version of the Bible, which was completed by Jerome in AD 405, titled the book Deuteronomium meaning “second law.” And that is from where we get our English title.

This strange history of the name should not trouble devout Bible students too much, as the claims we make for the Scriptures are for the text of the Bible, not the titles. Besides, the title is not entirely inappropriate because it is a second version of the one law given at Sinai and originally recorded in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers and because it is structured along the lines of the renewing of the covenant that was originally done at Sinai.

Are These Really the Words of Moses? (1:1)

Deuteronomy begins with the statement, “These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness . . . ” (1:1a). In other places too, the book often claims to have a record of the words of Moses (1:5; 31:30). There are references to Moses writing parts of it (31:9, 22, 24). “Other OT books similarly assert Mosaic authorship of Deuteronomy (1 Kings 2:3; 8:53; 2 Kings 14:6; 18:6, 12), as do Jesus and others in the NT.”1 Over the past 200 years or so there has been a strong (but misguided) challenge to the claim that Moses is the main person behind Deuteronomy.

Verse 1 uses the expression “beyond the Jordan” to describe the place from which Moses spoke the words of Deuteronomy. This expression came into use only after the Jordan was crossed, that is, after Moses had died. This points to the hand of an editor in the composition of Deuteronomy. Chapter 34 records the death of Moses, which again is from the hand of someone else. Sometimes there are explanatory notes added to the words of Moses that seem to come from an editor (e.g., 2:10–12, 20–23; 3:11, 13b–14). In this book we will view Deuteronomy as essentially coming from Moses though it contains several editorial touches by others. That is, we believe that Moses really did say what Deuteronomy says he said.

From the beginning of the nineteenth century there was among Biblical scholars a growing acceptance of “higher critical” approaches to the study of Scripture. Along with this came the view that Deuteronomy came from the time of the righteous king Josiah. Some asked whether Deuteronomy was “the book of the Law” that was found around 621 BC during the reign of Josiah, as recorded in 2 Kings 22:8. Some even said that Deuteronomy was a “pious fraud”; that is, that someone had placed the book in the temple so that it would be “found” accidentally. Many said that the writing of Deuteronomy was part of the seventh-century reforms under Josiah.

Josiah clearly seems to have been acting under the influence of the teaching found in Deuteronomy. What is controversial is the claim that Deuteronomy was written in the time of Josiah. Those who hold this view say that Deuteronomy has a tone like that of the prophets and even opens like the prophetic books that were written during the time of the kings (Isaiah 1:1; Amos 1:1; etc.). In answer we would ask, could not the prophets have been influenced by Deuteronomy rather than vice versa? After all, the influence of Deuteronomy is found in many other sections of the Bible too, including the New Testament. We contend that Josiah and the prophets were influenced by Deuteronomy, which is a much earlier document. After all, the book does claim to contain the words of Moses.

Gordon McConville has given several arguments in support of the view that Deuteronomy came from a time much closer to the time of Moses than claimed by the critics.2 “First, Deuteronomy shows no knowledge of the main institutions of Israel’s political and religious life during the period of the kings, namely the kings themselves and the Jerusalem temple.” McConville further points out that Deuteronomy is also unenthusiastic about the idea of a king (17:14–20), merely permitting such a thing, and trying to ensure that the king would not become a tyrant. This law is unlikely to have come from the time of Josiah.

“Secondly,” McConville says, “Deuteronomy knows only a single, united Israel, and shows no acquaintance with the division of the nation into two kingdoms following the reign of Solomon, around 930 BC (1 Kings 12).”

“Thirdly, the book warns again and again about the dangers of Canaanite religion (e.g. chs. 7, 13).” While this remained a problem until the time of the exile, it was a seriously urgent problem immediately after setting foot in the promised land. And Deuteronomy claims to contain material that prepares the people for their life after they enter the promised land.

“Fourthly, certain laws make best sense in relation to imminent (or recent) occupation of the land.” According to Leviticus 17, all slaughter of animals was to be sacrificial and carried out in the tent of meeting, which is where the Israelites worshipped and sacrificed until the temple was built. After settling in the land it would have been too difficult for the people to travel to the tent of meeting every time they wanted to consume meat. Therefore, Deuteronomy permits the secular eating of meat also (12:15–25), indicating that it is talking about a new situation to be faced by the people.

“Fifthly, Deuteronomy shares the concerns of the prophets, namely, the need for heartfelt religion, and a love of justice and the rights of the poor (14:28–29). Yet,” says McConville, “it is different from the prophetic books in the sense that it does not address particular occasions and individuals. It has much more the appearance of a programme for the future.” McConville says that it is likely “that the prophets take their cue from Deuteronomy, as well as from other parts of the Pentateuch.”

McConville’s last point is that “it has been shown that Deuteronomy formally resembles certain political treaties made by Hittite kings with weaker states, as well as certain ancient law-codes, such as that of the famous Babylonian king and lawgiver, Hammurabi.” Of the eighty or ninety documents of law codes that have been found by archaeologists, Deuteronomy resembles the Hittite treaties from 1400 to 1200 BC, which according to more conservative scholars is the time that Moses lived.

Kenneth A. Kitchen, an esteemed expert in ancient Near Eastern studies from the University of Liverpool, has recently written a 662-page book, On the Reliability of the Old Testament, in which he painstakingly presents evidence for the historical reliability of the Old Testament. In his discussion of the Sinai covenant (of which Deuteronomy is a record), he shows how a comparison of the Sinai treaty, as described in the Pentateuch, with ancient Near Eastern treaties gives strong evidence for a dating of the records of the Sinai covenant in the era when Moses is said to have lived. He divides the history of treaties, laws, and covenants into six phases covering 2,000 years. He says, “It is vitally important to understand that the documents of each phase are sharply different in format and full content from those in the phases before and after them. There is no ambiguity.”3

Kitchen’s observations cause him to place Deuteronomy and other records of the Sinai covenant squarely within the fifth phase, which includes the Hittite treaties. This phase covers roughly 1400 to 1200 BC He shows how there is a “glaring contrast” between the Hittite and Sinai treaties on the one hand and the treaties of phase VI which covers roughly 900 to 650 BC and includes Assyrian treaties.4 His conclusion is:

The impartial and very extensive evidence (thirty Hittite inspired documents and versions!) sets this matter beyond any further dispute. It is not my creation, it is inherent in the mass of original documents themselves, and cannot be gainsaid, if the brute facts are to be respected.5

The six arguments given above give us confidence to say that the contents of Deuteronomy can be traced to the time of Moses. This is very important in determining our approach to Deuteronomy. Some scholars think it is not important. Recently there has been a return in Biblical studies to studying Biblical books as a whole in the way they are found in the Bible—that is, in their canonical form—without chopping the books up according to the various sources from which different parts of a book are said to have been derived. This chopping up was done a lot in the twentieth century in the heyday of what was known as form criticism. The canonical approach (called canon criticism) is being advocated even by those who would not call themselves evangelical Christians. They study a book as a whole to see what it teaches. This has been a welcome trend, and it has produced some outstanding and helpful studies of Biblical texts.

However, some (not all6) people advocating this canonical approach would say that it does not matter if the words attributed to Moses were not said by Moses himself. They say that what we need to learn is the teaching of the book without bothering with historical details. I find that approach unsatisfactory. If Deuteronomy contains God’s clear teaching to his people, and if it is inspired so as to become a definite infallible source of authority for our belief and practice, shouldn’t we expect its basic historical premise—that these are indeed Moses’ words—to be true? After all, it claims to contain the speeches that Moses gave to the Israelites and claims that God is the one who is behind those speeches (1:3)! If the claims it makes for itself are inaccurate, I do not think we could come to the book as being a bearer of ultimate and trustworthy teaching that will have an exclusive and authoritative claim on our thinking and behavior.

The Scriptures contain many radical teachings that run contrary to popular thinking, and embracing those teachings is not easy today. In this environment I cannot see how the Bible could become our reliable and ultimate source of authority for faith and practice if we do not accept some of the things it claims for itself. We could drop things that we don’t like by claiming that those statements are not historically reliable and that they do not reflect the mind of God. This is what many have done with radical statements of Christ that present him as divine and absolute Lord. These claims go against the pluralist mood of the present day, and they are rejected on the grounds that they come from a period much later than Jesus and therefore should not be attributed to him.7 I believe it is not necessary for us to jettison statements in the Bible because of a suspicion that they are not historically accurate. A strong case has been made by several writers in recent years for the historical reliability of both the Old and the New Testaments.8

Today people who call themselves Christians are discarding some teachings of the Bible and accepting lifestyles that are contrary to these teachings. For example, homosexual practice, which is explicitly prohibited in Leviticus 18:22; 20:13, is accepted as a legitimate alternate lifestyle by some who call themselves Christians. If we really believed that God gave those commands to Moses, we would be more cautious about discarding them. Deuteronomy clearly teaches that sex belongs within marriage (22:13–29) and that adultery is prohibited (5:18). But adultery is publicly and shamelessly flouted by famous people and reported in the news media as something quite normal. Sadly, the statistics seem to show that the incidence of extramarital sex is quite high among those who call themselves Christians. If Christians understood that God himself gave those prohibitions to Moses, they would be much more reluctant to violate them. And that is the claim that Deuteronomy makes. Deuteronomy 1:3 says, “Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him in commandment to them.”

Deuteronomy and Hittite Treaties

Moses’ aim in his final speeches is to ensure that the people will remain faithful to God. He reminds them that they are a people under a covenant with God. It probably is not accidental then that the book takes a form somewhat similar to the covenants made by people at that time. We should be cautious about attaching too much significance to the similarities between Deuteronomy and the ancient Hittite treaties that have been discovered. However, the two listings below show the parallels between the parts of a Hittite treaty and the contents of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy, of course, is not a political treaty like the Hittite treaties but a document describing the covenant between God and his people.

Scholars differ about the precise ways in which the parts of a Hittite treaty should be described. We know for sure that the treaties in Moses’ time generally had the six parts (see the column on the left in the chart below). The right column shows Deuteronomy structured according to a pattern that shows remarkable similarities to the Hittite treaties.

Figure 1.1: Hittite Treaties and Deuteronomy

Hittite Treaties

Pattern of Deuteronomy

1. A preamble: announcing the treaty and those who are a party to it

1. Preamble (1:1–5)

2. A historical prologue: remembering the previous relations between the parties

2. Historical prologue (1:6—4:49)

3. General stipulations (conditions): setting out the nature of the future relationship between the two parties

3. General stipulations (chs. 5—11)

4. Specific stipulations: the detailed requirements applicable to the weaker party

4. Specific stipulations (chs. 12—26)

5. Witnesses: gods were called to witness the treaty

5. Witnesses (ch. 32). Calls on heaven and earth to witness the words of Israel

6. Blessings and curses: these are pronounced for loyalty and disloyalty respectively

6. Blessings and curses (chs. 27, 28)

The six features in the pattern of Deuteronomy introduce us to six very important features in a healthy life of faith. We will have occasion to look at them in some detail in the rest of this book.

Disobedience Slows Us Down (1:1–3)

The first three verses of Deuteronomy give some introductory historical and geographical notes. Verse 1 says that the words of this book were spoken by Moses “beyond the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph. . . .” The Arabah was a rift valley running from the Sea of Galilee in the north all the way to the Gulf of Aqaba, which is some distance south of the Dead Sea. Verse 5 also gives the historical context: “Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law. . . .” God’s people are in the northern part of the Arabah. The promised lands east of the River Jordan have been conquered. Now it is time to go into the main portion of the promised land west of the Jordan.

Verse 2 makes a strange observation: “It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea.” Horeb is another name for Sinai and is the preferred name in Deuteronomy (Deuteronomy uses the word Sinai only once [33:2]). Kadesh-barnea is where they camped after leaving Horeb. This is at the border of the promised land, and it is from here that they sent the twelve spies to check out the land (Numbers 13; Deuteronomy 1:19–25). They had left Horeb a long time ago. Verse 3 even gives the time that these events took place: “In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month . . . ” This is the only time specification in the whole book. And “fortieth year” refers to the time calculated from when they left Egypt.

There seems to be a reason for mentioning the eleven-day journey just before mentioning the fortieth year. It takes eleven days to travel from Horeb to the border of Canaan. But it took forty years for the whole journey from Egypt to Canaan. They traveled for about two years before coming to Kadesh. This means it took about thirty-eight years to go from the border of Canaan to Canaan itself and only eleven days to go from Horeb to the border. That is the price of disobedience! The thirty-eight-year wilderness wandering was a punishment for the stubborn disobedience of the people. Deuteronomy will refer to this many times. Disobedience never pays. God will forgive us when we repent, but the consequences of sin make it sheer folly to disobey. Disobedience slows down our progress!

Verse 3 says that “Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him in commandment to them.” The book consists of God’s words given in a specific historical setting. Here it differs in style from the Qur’an, which contains absolute statements that claim to be directly given by God. In the Bible the style of the writers and the contents of their writings differ according to their personalities, experiences, and the specific cultural situations in which they lived. If we are to fully understand the meaning of a text we must work hard to understand the context from which it arose. This makes for an exciting lifelong pilgrimage of discovery as we seek to understand the Bible.

The fact that Deuteronomy was written to a specific context adds a freshness and relevance to it. The places, people, and experiences mentioned in Deuteronomy are real. This is why the Bible is so relevant to everyday life. I will never forget a conversation I had one day with a colleague working in our drug rehab ministry while we were traveling to our rehab center. We were talking about the things of the Lord, and suddenly my colleague said, “When I read Paul’s epistles, I feel that Paul himself may have been a drug addict at some time.” He told me that the struggle with sin that Paul records in Romans 7 is very similar to the experience of drug dependents. Our study of Deuteronomy will show how relevant it is to our lives today.

Moses Gives the People God’s Word (1:3b, 5, 6)

A Practically Relevant Word from God (1:3b, 5)

Moses is an aged leader who has led his people from slavery to the brink of possessing a land that will be permanently theirs. He knows he is soon going to die. Now he speaks for the last time to these people whom he has led for forty years. He is considered by many to be the greatest national leader in history. You can imagine the eager anticipation of the audience. These messages will need to be motivational in tone because the people have a river to cross and a few battles to win before they take possession of the land. They will also need to be exhortational, because the people will face many temptations to disobedience, and remaining faithful to God is going to be a big challenge.

What approach would Moses take? Would he dazzle the people with creativity and brilliance that would elicit praise from them for his eloquence? That is what many consider to be a great speech today. Moses’ intention is not to leave an impression of his brilliance. He has a far more important task before him. He has to give people the word of God that will mediate to the people the health and stability they need in order to face their challenges successfully.

Verse 3b says, “Moses spoke to the people of Israel according to all that the LORD had given him in commandment to them.” Verse 5 explains this further: “Beyond the Jordan, in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to explain this law.” What the people needed most was not eloquence or attractive speeches. They needed a word from God.

A short while later, when commissioning Moses’ successor Joshua, God told Joshua, “This Book of the Law shall not depart from your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do according to all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous, and then you will have good success” (Joshua 1:8). The path of prosperity and success for Joshua was the path of obedience to the Word of God. It would be so for Joshua’s people too. So when Moses addresses them, just before Joshua is appointed, he expounds God’s Word to them.

When will we learn that our great responsibility as leaders is to get our people into the Word? That is what will help them successfully tackle the challenges they face. I think one reason for the woeful statistics, showing that Christians are not behaving very differently from non-Christians today, is that the church has focused much on keeping the people entertained and much less on making them strong through the Word. In this marketing-oriented era we have concentrated on providing people a program they will like and have neglected our responsibility to give them “the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). Jesus asked God to “sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). People who are not properly fed the Word will not be sanctified.

I am amazed at how many Christian leaders today think that it is not appropriate to expound the Scriptures in their regular preaching to their people. A prominent evangelical leader once told me that he exegetes society more than exegeting the Scriptures so that he can give a relevant message to the people. But wouldn’t the message of the Creator to his creation be most relevant to people? Indeed, because the Bible is a message for all time we will need to work hard at applying its eternal message to a particular context. Yes, we must exegete society, but it is even more important to exegete Scripture because that is where the power to change lives lies.

The challenge to exegete both Scripture and society and then integrate the results into an attractive and powerful message calls for hard work. But our desire to faithfully fulfill our call would make us take on this tough challenge. I believe a primary reason for the scarcity of relevant expository preaching in the church today is that preachers are not willing to devote the time needed to do that well.

Another reason is that we live in a postmodern society where the value of objective truth has been greatly diminished. This affects us because objective truth is basic to Christianity, and it is given to us in the Bible. Therefore, today we need evangelists for objective truth. Earlier we had the challenge of convincing people that the gospel is the truth. Now we have the more basic challenge of convincing people that truth is valuable, necessary, and appealing.

Some people say that Biblical preaching does not attract people anymore. The answer to that is not to stop doing Biblical preaching. It is to do it in a way that is attractive. We may use creative means of communication and the new methods that are currently popular in society. We can use things like story, drama, film, PowerPoint, dialogue, and discussion. But the driving force should be the Scriptures. That should never be dethroned by the methods we are using. All the methods are servants of the truth of the Word that needs to be communicated.

A Year of Equipping the People (1:6)

The major job of equipping the people with God’s Word took place at Horeb (Sinai) when God gave Moses the Law and Moses explained it to the people. In Deuteronomy, Moses reminds the people of the things they were taught at Horeb. Moses’ first speech begins with God telling the people that they had stayed long enough at Horeb and that now it was time for them to move on (1:6). They had to spend approximately a year (see Exodus 19:1; Numbers 10:11) at Mount Horeb9 learning from God before they went any farther. After that year God says, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain” (1:6) and commands them to proceed with the journey. This long stay follows the pattern of God giving people an extended period of preparation before they launch out into difficult projects.

Moses started his leadership of the Israelites at the ripe old age of eighty years. It would look like a waste of time for him to be hidden for so long while there was the urgent need of delivering his suffering people. Need or no need, we must let people be spiritually prepared for the challenges they face before giving them the huge responsibility of leadership. So Jesus started his public ministry only when he was “about 30 years of age” (Luke 3:23). Paul became an evangelist immediately after his conversion, but several years elapsed before he joined Barnabas to begin what would become his life’s work.