◄ Deuteronomy Devotional Commentary ►
Deuteronomy 3:24
God has a plan for each of our lives just as He has a plan for His chosen nation of Israel. God had rescued His people from Egyptian bondage in order to bring them into the land He had promised to their forefathers. In this passage, Moses had just transferred Israel's leadership to Joshua, before delivering a detailed review of all that had taken place during his 40 years of leading Israel through the wilderness.
During the first read more...
Deuteronomy 4:2
The children of Israel were rescued from enslavement in Egypt on that first Passover night, when they smeared the lintels of their houses with the blood of an unblemished Passover lamb, by faith. Because they believed God, the angel of death passed over them. They demonstrated their faith by carrying out His instructions and smearing the lintels of their houses with the shed blood of the Passover lambs.
It was not read more...
Deuteronomy 4:31
This final book of Moses is a reiteration of the Mosaic Law which God gave to His people when they were redeemed from Egyptian slavery. For 40 years the disobedient nation of Israel, who murmured against the goodness of God, had wandered in the wilderness until a new generation of Israelites had grown up.
Moses was once again instructed to rehearse the Law of God in the ears of His chosen people as his final duty before the read more...
Deuteronomy 5:29
God made a covenant with His people Israel, following their escape from Egypt. He promised that if they would faithfully honour the covenant they made with God, keep His Law, and trust in His Word, that the Lord would be their God and they would be His people.
“All that the Lord has said, we will do," was their immediate and heartfelt response. But they failed. They broke their covenant and were condemned to wander read more...
Deuteronomy 6:4
Following the judgements in Eden, the flood, and the tower of Babel, man continued to rebel against the Lord and delighted to serve and worship the creation rather than the Creator. And so, God took the little nation of Israel to be His chosen people, His holy, set-apart mouthpiece on earth, to proclaim the good news of a coming Messiah through Whom all the families of the earth would be blessed.
And to the tiny nation of Israel, read more...
Deuteronomy 6:5
At the end of their long, 40-year trek in the wilderness, Moses repeated the words of the covenant that God made with Israel, which began, "Hear O Israel, you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might." But this appears to be an impossible command for fallen man to attain.
We are born dead in sin and at read more...
Deuteronomy 6:6
The Lord had a special relationship with Israel. He brought them out of 400 years of Egyptian slavery, as had been promised to their forefather Abraham, and they were now His chosen people with whom God made a conditional covenant. The covenant contained commands which promised reward for obedience but punishment for disobedience. And the commandments of the Lord which God gave to Israel was to be stored in their heart, taught to their children, and practiced in read more...
Deuteronomy 6:7
There are two mindsets in the world today 1) a biblical mindset and 2) a secular worldview. The first is a God-focussed, Christian mindset that is rooted in the wisdom and knowledge of God and the second is a God-rejecting, Christ-hating, worldly view, that is grounded on the wisdom of the world - where man is the focus of his own attention.
The mindset of the world permeates every avenue of life. It has become saturated in the read more...
Deuteronomy 7:9
When we are exhorted in Scripture to KNOW something, we should make sure that this is something that we really and truly KNOW in our heart and soul and mind and strength and spirit. We are to KNOW without a shadow of turning that the eternal Creator of heaven and earth Who has locked Himself into an everlasting convent with humanity, is our Lord and God and that He is faithful and true in all that He says and in all that He has promised.
read more...
Deuteronomy 10:12
For the best part of 40 years, the children of Israel wandered through the wilderness because of their unbelief. The Lord had brought them out of Egypt but they did not trust Him to bring them into the land of Canaan. It would only have taken a few short weeks to complete their journey across the Red Sea into the Promised Land, but they would not, because of unbelief.
And so, after decades of weary wandering, a new generation of read more...
Deuteronomy 10:14
God is not man, but the eternal Sovereign Ruler of heaven and earth. He is the universal Creator of all and the omnipotent God Who dwells in unsearchable light. Without question, the Lord our God belongs to heaven above and inhabits the highest heaven. He rules the farthest reaches of the earth, and He alone is deserving of our honour and praise.
This was the important message that Moses sought to get across to the people of read more...
Deuteronomy 10:16
Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness... and as God's elect nation, Israel was expected to trust in the Lord with all their heart and soul and mind and strength. They were to trust in the Lord and not rely on their own limited understanding. They were to heed His Word, obey His commandments, trust in His faithfulness, circumcise their hearts, and love the Lord with their whole being.
As God's covenant read more...
Deuteronomy 18:9
Before entering the Promised Land, Israel was instructed to remain separate from the pagan people they would encounter there. They were to behave differently from the despicable Canaanites who already inhabited the land that God had promised to Abraham as a perpetual inheritance.
In this verse, they were warned not to intermingle with the local inhabitants. They were not to learn their horrible traditions or participate in any read more...
Deuteronomy 18:15
The book of Deuteronomy reiterates the Law of Moses to a new generation of Israelites who were soon to enter the promised land following their long, 40-year wanderings in the wilderness.
God knew that the abominable practices of the Canaanites would tempt His people to engage in idolatry and other detestable practices. And so, in this eighteenth chapter of Deuteronomy, the Lord forbids His people from engaging in all aspects of read more...
Deuteronomy 18:18
When God says something through His prophets, we should take heed of what they say. But when God, Himself, restates a truth multiple times, we should take especial note of what the Lord is saying.
Only a few verse earlier, Moses had informed the second generation of Israelites: "The LORD your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me. He will come from among you. He will be one of your countrymen and you shall listen to Him."
In read more...
Deuteronomy 24:20
The Law of Moses was given by God to Israel and there were 613 separate laws. Israel were the chosen people of God, whom He redeemed from slavery in Egypt. And the Lord made a covenant with His people. He would protect and provide for them and they would obey His Law, but if they offended in ONE Law, they would be guilty of breaking their entire covenant with God.
When the nation transgressed or an individual sinned, they had to read more...
Deuteronomy 29:29
The Lord God Almighty is the all-knowing, infinite, and eternal Creator. We are His limited and finite creation, and we need to understand that there are certain things that have been forbidden for us to look into. God in His grace has given us His Word and has shared many of His mysteries with us through His prophets, and yet there is a bank of knowledge and information which is not permitted for us to share in.
There are secret read more...
Deuteronomy 30:15
Israel were God's chosen people who had been brought out of Egypt after 400 years of slavery - just as the Lord had promised Abraham. They were to be God's ambassadors on earth, and He made a conditional covenant with them that they would be blessed in every area of life if they would but honour His name, trust His Word, and obey His commands.
They were warned, however, that should they be read more...
Deuteronomy 30:19
In the Old Testament, men and women were saved by grace through faith in the Word of God. People in the Old Testament who believed God's promise in connection with the coming Messiah, were saved by grace through faith. They trusted that God's Word would one day be fulfilled, and Israel was the nation selected by God to be His chosen people through whom would be born God's anointed Saviour of the world.
It was not long after the read more...
Deuteronomy 31:6
For 40 years, Moses led the Children of Israel as they wandered through the wilderness. The generation that witnessed God's mighty power in the land of Egypt, celebrated the Passover when the angel of death slaughtered the firstborn in Egypt, walked through the Red Sea on dry land, and saw the great, Egyptian army sink beneath into a watery grave, lived a defeated life through murmuring, complaining, unbelief, and pride.
Israel's read more...
Deuteronomy 31:8
Moses had led the children of Israel for forty years, but he was not be permitted to lead them across the Jordan. The time came when Moses was led to remind the Nation of the conditional covenant they had with God and urged them to choose life over death and blessings over curses. Faithfulness to God would result in many blessings for His covenant people, but disobedience would result in the entire Nation being cursed and scattered.
read more...
Deuteronomy 32:4
A new generation of Israelites had grown up during the nation's 40 years of wandering in the wilderness. The first generation murmured against the Lord and so He refused to allow any of these rebellious folk to enter the land He promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, as an everlasting inheritance. Instead, every one of them, with the exception of two faithful men, Joshua and Caleb, died in the desert and were read more...
Deuteronomy 32:10
For nearly forty years, Moses had led the Israelites. Their futile wanderings in the wilderness resulted from disobedience, unbelief, and constant complaining. God was angry with their attitude and allowed an entire generation to die in the desert and not enter His promised rest.
The time arrived for Moses to pass the reins of leadership to Joshua. To help God's people remember His never-failing faithfulness, he taught them the read more...
Deuteronomy 32:11
Before he died, Moses taught the people of Israel 'The Song of Moses', to help them remember the goodness and faithfulness of God towards His people. It was to encourage them to heed the Word of the Lord and obey His will after he was gone. He recited the words of the covenant that God made with Israel, in the hearing of all the people. 'The Song of Moses' is a long, but beautiful poem, that contrasts the love and loyalty of God to His people, with their wilfulness read more...
Deuteronomy 32:12
As we look back on our lives, we hope that others will remember the good things about us, and not bring up those times we would prefer to remain buried in the sea of forgetfulness. We would prefer that those little indiscretions were relegated to a closed archive - never again to see the light of day! And we genuinely thank God that our sins are forgiven, and praise Him, that in His goodness and grace He has clothed us in Christ's righteousness and remembers our read more...
Deuteronomy 33:27
Little by little, the eternal Lord of the universe and the omniscient Creator of humanity graciously unveiled Himself to mankind, and Moses discovered Him to be a refuge and a dwelling place.
He discovered Him to be a place of protection in the storms of life, and a source of comfort in the trials that surrounded the children of Israel in their pilgrimage through their wilderness walk. And in the midst of the enemies that read more...