Deuteronomy 31
McGeeCHAPTER 31THEME: Moses’ last counselsWe have come now to the last section of the Book of Deuteronomy. It is a requiem to Moses and extends from chapter 31 through 34. It begins with the fifth oration which Moses gave to the children of Israel and which is recorded in this book. We are coming to the end of the life of Moses. The entire Bible up to this point has been written by Moses. A great deal of it has been about Moses. He has been a key person ever since the time they came out of the land of Egypt. He has been concerned with Israel for forty years, and he has left us a record of the 120 years of his life. Now he is getting ready to die.
Deuteronomy 31:1
Note the two statements about himself. He is getting old. We all get old, and most of us will not make it to 120. When we move toward that area, we are no longer vital as far as God’s program is concerned. Moses is not the essential one to bring Israel into the Promised Land. God has made it very clear to him that a new leader will take the people over the Jordan River and into the land. Moses will not be the leader much longer.
Deuteronomy 31:3
Moses did not choose Joshua; God selected him to be the leader to succeed Moses. I doubt whether Moses would have chosen Joshua if the choice had been left to him. Actually, Caleb seems more impressive than Joshua, and it would seem more natural for him to be the new leader. Or, (after all, Moses is human) wouldn’t he have been apt to choose one of his own sons to succeed him? That was the way the Pharaohs did down in Egypt, and it would be natural for Moses to do the same thing. So God chose Joshua to lead them over the Jordan. Moses is no longer essential. That has a great lesson for us. It teaches us that none of us are essential to God’s program. God uses each man in his own time, but when the time of work for the man is finished, God’s work still goes on. I can remember a pastor who was up in years telling me, “I just can’t retire because I am so essential to this work.” Since then he died in the harness, but the interesting thing is that the work prospered more after he died than it had before. We may think we are essential, but we are not. When the time comes for us to step aside, God will raise up someone else. That is what is happening to Moses here.
Deuteronomy 31:6
Moses is encouraging these people not to fear the enemy tribes that are in the land. You will notice that he encourages this generation over and over, telling them to cross over into the land. He had lived through the experience of Kadesh-barnea. He had seen the older generation turn yellow and run back into the wilderness. So Moses over and over again encourages this new generation to go on in, assuring them that God will lead them into the land.
Deuteronomy 31:7
This was good; this is as it should be. He encourages Joshua before all the people. By encouraging Joshua, he is also encouraging the people.
Deuteronomy 31:8
This was the same lesson that Isaiah had to learn. Remember that the sixth chapter of Isaiah starts, “In the year that king Uzziah died I saw also the Lord sitting upon a throne….” Poor Isaiah! Uzziah had been a good king, and now that he was dead, Isaiah thought things were really going to be bad. Another king would be raised up and the nation would just go to the dogs, so to speak. But what did he find when he went into the temple? He found that God was still on the throne, that the real King of Israel and of Judah was still on the throne. He wasn’t dead. He wasn’t even sick. Isaiah learned that although Uzziah had died, God was still very much alive.
Deuteronomy 31:9
Remember that Deuteronomy began, “These are the words which Moses spoke.” There are about eight orations of Moses in the bookgiven orally, then written down. Moses wrote this Law. As you may know, the Graf-Wellhausen theory rejects the Mosiac authorship, considering the Pentateuch as historical documents compiled shortly before 400 B.C. The original argument for this theory was that writing was not in existence at the time of Moses. Of course archaeologists have found that writing was in existence long before Moses’ day, but the Graf-Wellhausen theory is still held by the liberal wing of the church for the obvious reason that the prediction of Israel’s declension after entering the land is so accurate that the unbeliever would like to think it was written as history rather than prophecy. Now even at this time, when the children of Israel are ready to enter the land, you would think that God wouldn’t take them in if there were a chance of their failing. Yet He tells Moses here this is exactly what will happen. God knows human nature. He knows your being and my being. My friend, you and I would walk away from God in the next ten minutes if He didn’t keep us close to Himself. Now notice what the Lord says to Moses:
Deuteronomy 31:14
Now I know that there are people who say, “We are different today. We’ll not turn away from God.” But do you know that the Lord Jesus said the same thing about the church? In Luk_18:8 He said, “Nevertheless when the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” “Faith” is the faith, the whole body of revealed truth. The answer to that is no, He won’t. In fact, the way the question is couched in the Greek demands a negative answer. In the New Testament there is predicted the apostasy of the church, just as it was predicted of Israel, and you and I are living in it today.
I have seen in my day that which curdles my blood. I have watched church after church, which at one time was conservative, take the emphasis off the Word of God and finally depart from the faith. And I have seen man after man, who at one time professed to be sound in the faith, turn away from the things of God. Now don’t say that you can’t do it or that I can’t do it. In these days I pray more than anything else, “Oh, God, keep me close to Thee.”
Deuteronomy 31:19
Music is a very important factor. We are all greatly influenced by music. Right now some of the music that is getting into our churches is a disgrace, according to this poor preacher’s opinion. Someone needs to speak out against it. The music must say something, must have a message that will draw people closer to the Lord Jesus. Too much of our music attempts to reach the modern generation all right, but fails to meet them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. In the next chapter we will read the song. The interesting thing about the song is that it is rock music. Do I really mean that? Yes, it is all about the Rock, who is Christ. That is the kind of rock music that Moses taught to Israel, and that is the kind of rock music we need today.
Deuteronomy 31:24
This “book,” you understand, was not a book such as we have today. It was a scroll or it may even have been a clay tablet. However, in Moses’ day they had scrolls and this law was probably written on a scroll. Remember that we are in the section which we have labeled the requiem of Moses. He is getting into his final report to the nation. He calls the tribes around him just as old Jacob had called the twelve sons around him. The twelve sons have now become the twelve tribes, and they are a great nation. Moses calls them to him.
Deuteronomy 31:27
May I say that this statement which Moses made about 3500 years ago is still accurate, still true. It has been fulfilled quite literally. It is also true of the entire human family, for God has said that mankind apart from God will utterly corrupt itself. All we need to do is look around us today and we can see that this is true.