August 30, 2025
So far in the book of Deuteronomy, Moses has taken a minute to encourage the people to “Remember” and “Not Forget” the past in order to fully reap the benefits of their covenant relationship with God – moving forward. To that end, he pointed back to the stubborn unfaithfulness of their fathers in contrast to the faithfulness of God.
Based on past evidence, the Children of Israel did not have a great track record in keeping their side of the covenant, even though they had repeatedly said, “Everything Yahweh says we will do.”
So, throughout his speeches, Moses called the people to “Shema” – to hear – to respond and act upon what they had heard.
The future does not need to be like the past. Your decisions can be different.
7 times (in various combinations) throughout chapters 9-11, Moses called the people to “fear Yahweh,” “walk in his ways,” “love and serve him with your entire heart and soul,” and “observe his commands and decrees.”
“Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds.” Moses said. “Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children. Talk about them when you are at home, when you walk down the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that Yahweh swore to give your forefathers.
If you carefully observe all these commands – to love Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways and to hold fast to him – then he will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you.
No man will be able to stand against you.”
Now we finally come to the meat of Moses’ 2nd speech – the Law – chapters 12-26. These were God’s expectations of how free, covenant keeping people live.
Chapter 12 – Laws regarding actions to be taken against places of idol worship and the place and manner of worship to God.
Vs. 28-32 - “Be careful to obey all these regulations I am giving you, so that it may always go well with you and your children after you, because you will be doing what is good and right in the eyes of Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God will cut off before you the nations you are about to invade and dispossess. But when you have driven them out and settled in their land, and after they have been destroyed before you, be careful not to be ensnared by inquiring about their gods, saying, ‘How do these nations serve their gods? We will do the same.’ You must not worship Yahweh your God in their way, because in worshiping their gods, they do all kinds of detestable things Yahweh hates. They even burn their sons and daughters in the fire as sacrifices to their gods. See that you do all I command you; do not add to it or take away from it.”
• 1 Kings 12:31 - Jeroboam built shrines on high places and appointed priests from all sorts of people, even though they were not Levites.
• Jeremiah 32:32-35 - The people of Israel and Judah have provoked me by all the evil they have done – they, their kings and officials, their priests and prophets, the men of Judah and the people of Jerusalem. They turned their backs to me and not their faces; though I taught them again and again, they would not listen or respond to discipline. They set up their abominable idols in the house that bears my Name and defiled it. They built high places for Baal in the Valley of Ben Hinnom to sacrifice their sons and daughters to Molech, though I never commanded, nor did it enter my mind, that they should do such a detestable thing and so make Judah sin.
Chapter 13 - Warnings against being enticed to worship other gods, even if it comes from a prophet, a dreamer of dreams, a relative or a "friend" and beyond that “you must purge that evil from among you.”
• Jeremiah 14:14-15 - Then Yahweh said to me, "The prophets are prophesying lies in my name. I have not sent them or appointed them or spoken to them. They are prophesying to you false visions, divinations, idolatries and the delusions of their own minds. Therefore, this is what Yahweh says about the prophets who are prophesying in my name: I did not send them, yet they are saying, 'No sword or famine will touch this land.' Those same prophets will perish by sword and famine.’”
• Zechariah 10:2 - The idols speak deceit, diviners see visions that lie; they tell dreams that are false, they give comfort in vain. Therefore the people wander like sheep oppressed for lack of a shepherd.
Chapter 14 - Laws regarding clean and unclean foods and tithing.
• Isaiah 65:2-4 - All day long I have held out my hands to an obstinate people, who walk in ways not good, pursuing their own imaginations – a people who continually provoke me to my very face, offering sacrifices in gardens and burning incense on altars of brick; who sit among the graves and spend their nights keeping secret vigil; who eat the flesh of pigs, and whose pots hold broth of unclean meat;
• Malachi 3:7-8 - Ever since the time of your forefathers you have turned away from my decrees and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you," says the LORD Almighty. "But you ask, 'How are we to return?' "Will a man rob God? Yet you rob me. "But you ask, 'How do we rob you?' In tithes and offerings.”
Chapter 15 - Laws regarding the treatment of the poor/needy, the release of servants and dedicating firstborn animals.
• Isaiah 10:1-3 - Woe to those who make unjust laws, to those who issue oppressive decrees, to deprive the poor of their rights and withhold justice from the oppressed of my people, making widows their prey and robbing the fatherless. What will you do on the day of reckoning, when disaster comes from afar? To whom will you run for help? Where will you leave your riches?
• Ezekiel 22:29 - The people of the land practice extortion and commit robbery; they oppress the poor and needy and mistreat the alien, denying them justice.
• Amos 8:4-7 - Hear this, you who trample the needy and do away with the poor of the land, saying, ‘When will the New Moon be over that we may sell grain, and the Sabbath be ended that we may market wheat?’ – skimping the measure, boosting the price and cheating with dishonest scales, buying the poor with silver and the needy for a pair of sandals, selling even the sweepings with the wheat. Yahweh has sworn by the Pride of Jacob: "I will never forget anything they have done.”
Chapter 16 - Laws regarding the Appointed Feasts (Passover, Feast of Weeks and the Feast of Tabernacles, etc.), the appointment of judges and rulers to judge the people fairly and warnings against setting up "wooden images".
• Isaiah 1:13-15 - Stop bringing meaningless offerings! Your incense is detestable to me. New Moons, Sabbaths and convocations – I cannot bear your evil assemblies. Your New Moon festivals and your appointed feasts my soul hates. They have become a burden to me; I am weary of bearing them. When you spread out your hands in prayer, I will hide my eyes from you; even if you offer many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood;
• Micah 3:9-11 - Hear this, you leaders of the house of Jacob, you rulers of the house of Israel, who despise justice and distort all that is right; who build Zion with bloodshed, and Jerusalem with wickedness. Her leaders judge for a bribe, her priests teach for a price, and her prophets tell fortunes for money. Yet they lean upon Yahweh and say, "Is not Yahweh among us? No disaster will come upon us."
Chapter 17 - Laws regarding acceptable sacrifices, the establishment of a high court and kingship:
Appoint the king Yahweh chooses from your own people (no foreigners).
He must not:
• Acquire great numbers of horses for himself or make the people return to Egypt to get more of them.
• Take many wives, or his heart will be led astray.
• Accumulate large amounts of silver and gold.
He is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere Yahweh his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees.
• 1 Kings 3:1 - Solomon made an alliance with Pharaoh king of Egypt and married his daughter….
• 1 Kings 10:26-29 - Solomon accumulated chariots and horses; he had 1400 chariots and 12,000 horses, which he kept in the chariot cities and also with him in Jerusalem. The king made silver as common in Jerusalem as stones, and cedar as plentiful as sycamore-fig trees in the foothills. Solomon's horses were imported from Egypt and from Kue – the royal merchants purchased them from Kue. They imported a chariot from Egypt for 600 shekels of silver, and a horse for a 150. They also exported them to all the kings of the Hittites and of the Arameans.
• 1 Kings 11:1-8 - Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh's daughter – Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which Yahweh had told the Israelites, "You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods." Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had 700 wives of royal birth and 300 concubines, and his wives led him astray. As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods, and his heart was not fully devoted to Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father had been. He followed Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, and Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites…. On a hill east of Jerusalem, Solomon built a high place for Chemosh the detestable god of Moab, and for Molech the detestable god of the Ammonites. He did the same for all his foreign wives, who burned incense and offered sacrifices to their gods.
• 2 Kings 22:3-11 - In the 18th year of his reign, King Josiah sent the secretary, Shaphan, to the temple of Yahweh. He said: "Go up to Hilkiah the high priest and have him get ready the money that has been brought into the temple of Yahweh…. Have them entrust it to the men appointed to supervise the work on the temple. And have these men pay the workers who repair the temple of Yahweh…. 8 Hilkiah the high priest said to Shaphan the secretary, "I have found the Book of the Law in the temple of Yahweh." He gave it to Shaphan, who read it. Then Shaphan went to the king and reported to him…. "Hilkiah the priest has given me a book." And Shaphan read from it in the presence of the king. When the king heard the words of the Book of the Law, he tore his robes.
• Hosea 8:2-4 - Israel cries out to me, 'O our God, we acknowledge you!' But Israel has rejected what is good; an enemy will pursue him. They set up kings without my consent; they choose princes without my approval. With their silver and gold they make idols for themselves to their own destruction.
Chapter 18 - Laws regarding the inheritance of the Levites, the detestable practices of the Canaanites that were to be avoided: Child sacrifice – The practice of divination, sorcery, witchcraft or casting out spells – Mediums, spiritualist or those who consult the dead, and how to identify false prophets.
vs. 12-13 - Anyone who does these things is detestable to Yahweh, and because of these detestable practices Yahweh your God will drive out those nations before you. You must be blameless.
• 1 Samuel 28:7-8 - Saul then said to his attendants, "Find me a woman who is a medium, so I may go and inquire of her." "There is one in Endor," they said. So Saul disguised himself, putting on other clothes, and at night he and two men went to the woman. "Consult a spirit for me," he said, "and bring up for me the one I name."
• 2 Kings 16:2-4 - Ahaz was 20 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem 16 years…. He walked in the ways of the kings of Israel and even sacrificed his son in the fire, following the detestable ways of the nations Yahweh had driven out before the Israelites. He offered sacrifices and burned incense at the high places, on the hilltops and under every spreading tree.
• 2 Kings 21:1-6 - Manasseh was 12 years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem 55 years….. He did evil in the eyes of Yahweh, following the detestable practices of the nations Yahweh had driven out before the Israelites. He rebuilt the high places his father Hezekiah had destroyed; he also erected altars to Baal and made an Asherah pole, as Ahab king of Israel had done. He bowed down to all the starry hosts and worshiped them. He built altars in the temple of Yahweh, of which Yahweh had said, "In Jerusalem I will put my Name." In both courts of the temple of Yahweh, he built altars to all the starry hosts. He sacrificed his own son in the fire, practiced sorcery and divination, and consulted mediums and spiritists. He did much evil in the eyes of Yahweh, provoking him to anger.
In 18:18-19 Moses spoke a prophecy regarding Jesus. A Prophecy Peter later referred to during his sermon at Pentecost – 1450(ish) years later.
• Acts 3:19-23 - Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Christ, who has been appointed for you – even Jesus. He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets. For Moses said, 'The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own people; you must listen to everything he tells you. Anyone who does not listen to him will be completely cut off from among his people.'”
Chapter 19 - Laws regarding the Cities of Refuge and the treatment of true and false witnesses.
Chapter 20 - Laws regarding warfare.
vs. 16-18 - However, in the cities of the nations Yahweh your God is giving you as an inheritance, do not leave alive anything that breathes. Completely destroy them – the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites – as Yahweh your God has commanded you. Otherwise, they will teach you to follow all the detestable things they do in worshiping their gods, and you will sin against Yahweh your God.
• Joshua 15:63 - Judah could not dislodge the Jebusites….
• Joshua 17:13 - However, when the Israelites grew stronger, they subjected the Canaanites to forced labor but did not drive them out completely.
• Judges 1:21 - The Benjamites, however, failed to dislodge the Jebusites….
• Judges 1:27-35 - But Manasseh did not drive out the people…. for the Canaanites were determined to live in that land. When Israel became strong, they pressed the Canaanites into forced labor but never drove them out completely. Nor did Ephraim drive out the Canaanites…. Neither did Zebulun drive out the Canaanites…. Nor did Asher…. Neither did Naphtali…. The Amorites confined the Danites to the hill country …. But when the power of the house of Joseph increased, they too were pressed into forced labor.
Chapter 21 - Laws regarding removing blood guilt, taking captive women as wives, the inheritance of the firstborn and stubborn and rebellious children.
Chapter 22-25 - Laws regarding community life: caring for your neighbor’s property, cross dressing between the sexes, nesting birds, a new house, sowing vineyards, plowing, mixed cloths in garments, fringes on garments, virginity and sexual purity, who may enter the congregation, sanitation, slaves belonging to others, prostitution and sodomy, usury, vows, eating from the vineyard or field of another person, marriage and divorce, kidnapping, making a loan, wages, gleaning, preserving family lines, honesty in business.
• 1 Kings 14:22-24 - Judah did evil in the eyes of Yahweh. By the sins they committed they stirred up his jealous anger more than their fathers had done. They also set up for themselves high places, sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. There were even male shrine prostitutes in the land; the people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations Yahweh had driven out before the Israelites.
• Ezekiel 22:11-12 - In you one man commits a detestable offense with his neighbor's wife, another shamefully defiles his daughter-in-law, and another violates his sister, his own father's daughter. In you men accept bribes to shed blood; you take usury and excessive interest and make unjust gain from your neighbors by extortion. And you have forgotten me, declares the Sovereign LORD.
Chapter 26 - Laws regarding the firstfruits of the harvest and provisions for the Levites and the poor and needy.
vs. 16-19 - Yahweh your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared this day that Yahweh is your God and that you will walk in his ways, that you will keep his decrees, commands and laws, and that you will obey him. And Yahweh has declared this day that you are his people, his treasured possession as he promised, and that you are to keep all his commands. He has declared that he will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made and that you will be a people holy to Yahweh your God, as he promised.
As Moses began to conclude his speech, he looked into the future --- to the time the people would be settled in the land. The time when remembering would become vital to their survival.
Until Next Time……………….
