Book of Deuteronomy - Bible Survey

The name "Deuteronomy" for the fifth book of Moses means "second law". But the book is more than a simple repetition of the laws contained in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers, which God had given the people of Israel at Mount Sinaï. Out of the generation who were older than 20 years of age at the Exodus out of Egypt only Moses, Joshua and Caleb were still alive (Num. 14:29-30). Therefore a renewed repetition of the law for the whole people after such a long time was quite appropriate and necessary. But the main purpose of the book is the preparation of the people of Israel for the passage through Jordan and the entrance into the land of Canaan that had been promised by Jehovah.

The subject of Exodus and Leviticus was meeting God in His sanctuary. The purpose of Deuteronomy is the preparation of the people for the blessings, which Jehovah wanted to give them in the (promised) land. Obedience therefore plays an important part in this book. Obedience to God's laws brings blessing but disobedience will draw after curse and judgment.

This book does not contain a second law, as suggested by the word Deuteronomy; nor is the book a mere repetition of the law previously given in Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers. The analysis and annotations as given in this work show that such is not the case. Dr. Martin Luther remarks on this book: "Deuteronomy is a compendium and summary of the whole law and wisdom of the people of Israel, wherein those things which relate to the priests and Levites are omitted, and only such things included as the people generally are required to know." This is a correct view. It is "a hortatory description, explanation, and enforcement of the most essential contents of the covenant revelation and covenant laws, with emphatic prominence given to the spiritual principle of the law and its fulfilment; and with a further development of the ecclesiastical, judicial, political and civil organization which was intended as a permanent foundation for the life and well-being of the people in the land of Canaan. There is not the slightest trace, throughout the whole book, of any intention whatever to give a new or second law."

Between this day and the day of Deuteronomy, Moses had had all the experience of the wilderness. We may well expect him to give a parting word after such experience. He does so. But the book of Deuteronomy is not to be read, as a second or enlarged edition of the statute-book. It may rehearse, in its own style, many of the earlier provisions, and give new enactments and ordinances. But still it is not, merely or properly, an enlarged edition of the former book. It is rather a discourse by the legislator, in the assembly and audience of the nation, as well as upon their past history, such as their travels, fortunes, and conduct, as upon their laws, ordinances, and hopes — a word full of affectionate appeal, of earnest encouragement, and of holy, serious admonition; the father rather than the law-giver being heard to speak, soliciting as well as directing the people in the way of obedience and blessing.

Deuteronomy is an eminently practical book. Types are but sparsely presented over the great bulk of the instruction which crowds its pages. We are far from being then on the ground of a mere rehearsal of what has been shown in the previous books. Deuteronomy, spite of its Septuagintal title, is no such repetition; but the Spirit of God by Moses has given us, along with special moral exhortation, such types as bear on the position of the people on the very edge of the promised land. They had marched round to the eastern side of the Jordan; they were now on that border of the land, after God's long-continued process of dealing with them in the wilderness had come to its full measure. And this book, while it does not want allusions to what God had said in all the other books, has, no less than the rest of them, its own peculiar character. It is not then a grouping of types, whatever might be the particular scope and aim of those employed, such as we have seen in distinct forms throughout the books of Exodus, Leviticus, or Numbers; but here all that the Spirit is using, whether it be direct moral application which forms much the larger part of the book, or whether it be a selection of such shadows as fall in with its practical object, seems to be from first to last an enforcement of obedience, grounded on the relationship between Jehovah their God and Israel, whom He was just bringing as His people into His land. Accordingly the very large introduction is an address to the people for the purpose of enforcing these claims.

There is another peculiarity in the book of Deuteronomy which it is well to present briefly before we descend to particulars; it supposes the failure of the people. It was after the golden calf, nay more than this; it was after the whole disciplinary dealings of Jehovah had now come to an end. They had had many a sight of their own hearts, and they had had ample experience of God's ways in patient and gracious government. All this was now closed. This therefore gives its tone to the book. The lawgiver, about to be taken from them, looks back on all the past; but he looks forward also to the land they were about to enter. Hence there is a tone of exceeding seriousness, as well as of chastened affection; there is a solemnity founded on the grand dealings of a God whose faithful and holy hand was now ushering them into His land. Above all the prime object is to press obedience on the people of God, but the obedience of a people who had already found what it was to have utterly broken down on their own assumed responsibility. That generation had passed away no doubt. The question was, did the present generation about to be brought into the holy land profit by the past? The aged lawgiver in these last words was led of the Holy Ghost to speak home to their souls.

We have no allusion, here, to the fact recorded in Exodus 18, namely, that the appointment of those rulers was at the suggestion of Jethro, Moses' father-in-law. Neither have we any reference to the scene in Numbers 11. We call the reader's attention to this as one of the many proofs which lie scattered along the pages of Deuteronomy, that it is very far indeed from being a mere repetition of the preceding sections of the Pentateuch. In short, this delightful book has a marked character of its own, and the mode in which facts are presented is in perfect keeping with that character. It is very evident that the object of the venerable lawgiver, or rather of the Holy Ghost in him, was to bring everything to bear, in a moral way, upon the hearts of the people, in order to produce that one grand result which is the special object of the book, from beginning to end, namely, a loving obedience to all the statutes and judgments of the Lord their God.

If we believe the book (and he is God's enemy who does not), Moses spoke and wrote on the eve of his approaching death. This could not but impart a peculiarly earnest and solemn tone. Ethic, affectionate, and expostulatory elements predominate beyond what we find in any other of the five books. As Moses says, in closing the brief preface of Deut. 1:3-5, he began to declare or expound this law. Obedience is urged continually, and the spirit of it in the heart. It is the people as a whole therefore, who are in general addressed directly throughout, on their responsible tenure of the land. Typical teaching is comparatively rare, moral abounds, not without prophecy at the close especially. "The priests, the Levites" only appear for specific reasons, and Levites also as such. But the people are regarded as under the moral government of Jehovah their God in the land; and this accounts for its characteristics. Those born in the wilderness had been uncircumcised, and so disqualified for the privileges of Israel. This was no longer to be tolerated. Israel must henceforth take their normal place of obedience in Jehovah's land. So the book urges anticipatively.

Deuteronomy is a quite distinct revelation — declared to be so — a covenant made in the plains of Moab besides the covenant made in Horeb, Deut. 28:63. It is not a history save some small portions of it laying a ground for others, but exhortations and directions for the future, for the time of judges and priests, when Israel had already departed from God, going on to the case of asking for a king. This distinct covenant was founded, no doubt, on the relationship with God formed under the Sinaitic covenant, but formally supposes the people to have been unfaithful, and provides, in mercy, practical directions for the state, and predicts the issue in judgment and sovereign grace.

In Deuteronomy, God's purpose is further seen. He Himself not only gives the history, as in Exodus and Numbers, but goes over it, reviewing it with His people and gathering the special lessons which He would impress upon them.

Deuteronomy completes the books of Moses, and being a fifth book of Scripture, is a review of Israel's history and of the laws given them, with more detailed explanations and application of the law, thus reminding us of the judgment seat of Christ at the end of our wilderness journey.

The name signifies 'The Second Law,' but this does not properly describe it, as the ten commandments and Jehovah's name and His covenant made in Horeb are the basis of its instructions. Neither does 'Repetition of the Law' give the right thought, because some parts of this book were not given before. It rehearses God's covenant relationship with Israel under new circumstances: they had come to the border of the promised land, and were just about to enter into its possession, not on the ground of faithfulness to the law, but according to the covenant made with the fathers: Deut. 9:4-5. Some things are added which could have had no application in the wilderness, even referring to their having a king.

The style of the book is different from those preceding it: a vast typical system is portrayed in the three preceding books, while in this the Spirit of God is occupied with the actual circumstances connected with their possession of the land of promise. Nearly all of Deuteronomy is what Moses rehearsed in the hearing of the people. Thus, "Moses began to declare this law." Deut. 1:5. He called all Israel, and said unto them, "Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgements." Deut. 5:1.