Benefits of Deuteronomy

Articles

Ross Triplett
12/19/21 - Articles

“These are the words which Moses spake unto all Israel beyond the Jordan in the wilderness,” saying, “Behold, I have set the land before you: go in and possess the land which Jehovah sware unto your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed after them” (Deuteronomy 1:1, 8).

The book of Deuteronomy takes its name from the phrase, “These are the words.” Other phrases, such as “a copy of this law,” from Deuteronomy 17:18, or “this second law,” have also been used to depict the book of Deuteronomy.

Nevertheless, the book of Deuteronomy covers a period of four or five weeks: “And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that Jehovah had given him in commandment unto them” (Deuteronomy 1:3). After the death of Moses, “the children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days” (Deuteronomy 34:8), and the children of Israel “came up out of the Jordan on the tenth day of the first month” (Joshua 4:19), following the mourning of Moses.

The book of Deuteronomy can be divided into three parts: (1) Moses’ recap of Israel’s journey from Horeb to the plains of Moab. (2) Israel exhorted to observe God’s law, and the establishment of the “covenant which Jehovah commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab” (Deuteronomy 29:1), and (3) Moses’ final charge.

There are many lessons to be learned from the book of Deuteronomy. However, there is one specific account that best suits the purpose of this article, i.e., evidence regarding the coming of Jehovah’s anointed one, of whom Jehovah said to the serpent, “Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: and I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: he shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Genesis 3:14-15).

In Deuteronomy 18:15-19, Moses said, “Jehovah thy God will raise up unto thee a prophet from the midst of thee, of thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken; according to all that thou desiredst of Jehovah thy God in Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the voice of Jehovah my God, neither let me see this great fire any more, that I die not. And Jehovah said unto me, They have well said that which they have spoken. I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee; and I will put my words in his mouth, and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will require it of him.”

Ross Triplett, Sr.