Page 132 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

The book of Deuteronomy shuts the door on all attempts to earn God’s favor through law keeping. By
using the pagan form of a vassal treaty for the book, Moses brings other nations to the same point.
Other similar treaties had the same disproportionate emphasis on curses. Other nations were quite
aware of the human tendency to disobey no matter the cost. Other nations tried to insist on faithfulness
through threats. Other nations knew the repeated failure of promises to keep the terms of a treaty.

If Deuteronomy stopped here, if the Pentateuch stopped here, we would be left without hope. We
cannot on our own follow the law any more than ancient Israel. As the book comes to a close, God
promises to “circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with
all your heart and with all your soul, and live (30:6).” As is true in any successful venture throughout
these five books, God must take the initiative. The context makes clear that this change of heart will be
at some future time. The blessings and curses already uttered and the people’s “Amen” in response are
not the last word. Where his people will fail, God will intervene to change their hearts.

This future hope of heart change is not the final word either. A people living
in frustration over their failure to keep the law with only a far-away hope
would hardly speak of the love of YHWH so often mentioned in the first
chapters. How is this any credit to the God who shows love to a thousand
future generations (5:10)? An entire nation stands before Him right now.
YHWH insists, “Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for
you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask,
‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey
it?’ Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, ‘who will cross the sea
to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it’ (30:11-13)?”

If we have been correct from the beginning of our studies, we have
witnessed a rising understanding of Christ from chapter to chapter and book
Fig 85: Ascending to heaven to book. Adam and Eve were promised a special seed who would crush Satan
(Gen. 3:15). Abraham was also promised a special descendent, and God
taught him about the sacrifice this unique Son would make (Gen. 22:14). The first generation of free
Israelites sacrificed a Passover lamb and sprinkled its blood on their doorposts to save the life of a
firstborn (Exod. 12:7, 13). They were taught at length about the sacrifices they could bring to YHWH in
free offerings and about the sacrifices they had to bring as a result of sin (Lev. 1-7). The great Day of
Atonement showed them how their sins could be carried into the wilderness by a substitute (Lev. 16:21-
22). Time and time again judgment fell on those who got in the way of God’s lessons, blurring the
message for others (Num. 12:10; 16:3, 31-32). God was teaching, teaching, teaching his people all along.

The answer to their problem is simple. “The word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart
so you may obey it (Deut. 30:14).” The “word” to obey in this verse is not the law. We have already seen
the impossibility of such obedience. The “word” to obey is faith, just as Abraham believed and it was
accounted to him for righteousness (Gen. 15:6). By faith he fulfilled the law (Gen. 26:5). His faith in a
coming Messiah became the pattern for all who followed after him. “If you confess with your mouth,
“Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved (Rom.
10:9).” The “word of faith” does not change from age to age. We today believe that same word and are
saved. (Rom. 10:8). “Jesus is the ultimate referent of Moses’ word. He alone bridges vaster distances
than even those overseas or to heaven.” “Paul is explaining the ‘nearness’ of the word of faith, the
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139 Teleford Work, Deuteronomy (Grand Rapids: Brazos Press, 2009), 270.

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