Warren D. Carter

Vienna Int’l Chapel

6.April.03

What Does God Want from Us ?

An introduction to a little-known approach of understanding ancient Hebrew literature – which provides some clues about the answer to this important question for Christians living in today’s world … from the ages old book of Deuteronomy. A survey of the fifth book of Moses will give us an overview from the traditional perspective, including insights into Semitic cultures. Join us for this look into the Father’s heart!

Deuteronomy Overview

Context: The 4th Book of Moses – Numbers – ends with the wandering Israelites temporarily settled on the plains of Moab, across the Jordan from Jericho, near the end of the 13th or 15th century b.c., depending on your preferred dating method. They had already successfully taken over and occupied the lands east of the Jordan (the Transjordan), when they took a pause. Moses utilized this opportunity to explain once again to the people of Israel, exactly what their faith and nationhood meant in terms of their character and reliance upon God … and what Yahweh’s expectations were of them.

Title: The 5th Book of Moses or the Torah, was known by several names to pre-Christian Jews. “These are the words” or simply “words” or “the 5th” were common references, since this is how the book starts out. We derive the name Deuteronomy from the Vulgate, which relied on a mistranslation of Dt 17:18 in the Septuagint, to give us deuteronomium … or “this 2nd law”. The 1st had been given on Mt. Sinai [Horeb], this was not intended to be a 2nd law but really a repetition of the 1st, 40 years later, here on the plains of Moab … although in more of an expository fashion. It could represent something like 2 weeks of teaching from Moses, right before his death and the invasion of Canaan.

Author: Jewish and Christian tradition recognizes Moses as the writer of Deuteronomy, but some documentary scholars are skeptical on the basis of its diversity in writing styles, narrative approaches, word choices, etc. There are clear instances of where others have augmented Moses’ writing, e.g. in ch. 34 in describing Moses’ death – but there is no evidence that supports the contention that Moses did not write the vast majority of the book … nor is Divine inspiration of this Scripture in any way jeopardized.

Canonicity: Originally, Deuteronomy was the last part of one very long book, known as the Pentateuch by the Greek translators of the Septuagint, which was broken into 5 parts for convenience sake. Hebrews refer to this long book as simply “the law” or Torah.

Influence: Deuteronomy is one of the most significant books of the OT, indeed the whole Bible. Its impact on corporate and individual faith through time is not surpassed by any other book. Its major message is on renewing the people’s covenant with God. NT writers refer to it over 80 times, in all but 6 books of the NT. There are at least 43 direct quotations, with Jesus Himself repeating 10 passages of Deuteronomy in His responses to the Devil during His temptation in the desert and using Dt 6:5 when answering the religious leader’s question about the greatest commandment. [Matt 22/ Mark 12/ Luke 10] And early Christians frequently referenced Deuteronomy in their writings, teachings, and councils.

Structure: very important, but we’ll leave this for the middle of May – for now, note that carefully balanced structures exist at virtually all levels of analysis … this is a work of literary art in poetic form, subject to the restraints of the musical media and traditions of ancient Israel.

Dt overview - What Does God Want from Us

28.3.03