2. Overview of Deuteronomy
1. Covenant Preamble (1-3)
2. The Covenant Obligations, Blessings, and Curses (4-13)
3. Distinctions (14-17)
1. Animals (14)
2. Economics (15)
3. Feasts (16)
4. Justice (17)
4. Laws of the Covenant (18-25)
5. Covenant Ratification (26-30)
6. Joshua is the New Leader (31)
7. Moses’ Final Words and His Death (32-34)
3. Covenant Preamble
Deut 1-3
This is the preamble of the covenant. The covenant that God makes with
the people is similar in form to covenants from that time and culture. Just like
we have common structure for legal documents today, they had a common
structure for covenants back in that time. In this opening part, God is relating
the history of the relationship of the Suzerain (God) and the vassal (Israel).
This historical review is common to covenants and it's the basis for the
following parts of the covenant which are related in the rest of the book.
4. The Covenant Obligations, Blessings, and Curses
Deut 4-13
This section details all the obligations of the covenant. The basic idea is that this
section lists out everything that the vassal state must do. If they obey and do what the
covenant says, they will receive the blessings that are listed in the covenant. If they do
not obey, they will receive all the curses listed in the covenant. This section of scripture
is really important then, because throughout the history of Israel we can see how they
obey and are blessed, or how they violate their covenant and experience the curses.
It's also important to know that while this is all about rules in one sense, God was
planning and hoping that the people would follow him with their hearts. Check out 5:29
and 6:5!
5. Distinctions
Deut 14-17
The distinctness of Israel is a big part of these chapters. This is the point: God was
making Israel into the people He wanted them to be. This was to be a special nation for
a special purpose. That is why they needed to be so distinct. These are the rules people
always talk about when they don’t understand how Christians view the Old Testament.
Why don’t we follow these laws? Because we are not Israel. God's plan has progressed
from there, and the history of salvation has moved on and been fully revealed in Christ.
6. Covenant Ratification
Deut 26-30
In this section the people agree to the covenant and the
blessings and curses are listed out again. The interesting part of
the blessings and curses (chapter 28) is that they are a reverse of
each other. If the people obey they will inherit the land and
prosper, on the other hand, if they break the covenant they will be
driven out of the land and perish. Much of the rest of the history
of Israel is seen through the lens of this covenant. Do they follow
it and experience blessings? Or do they break their covenant and
perish?
7. Theology of Deuteronomy
The theology of Deuteronomy is vast and complex. Since the whole book is essentially a covenant
document, it follows that much of the theology is covenantal. What this means is that God made an agreement
with His people, and he set out their moral, civil, and cultic laws. What needs to be remembered is that this is all
part of His plan to fulfill his promise to Abraham to bless all nations, and ultimately to fulfill His word to Eve, to
crush the head of the enemy. Through His own people God had a plan to bring about salvation for the whole
world. We don't quite see all of that here, but the groundwork is set for it.
Through the covenant we can also get a glimpse into God's moral character. As much as we might like to
rely on our own consciences for morality, our minds are marred by the fall into sin. If we try and make our own
system of morality, it's ultimately corrupt because we are corrupt. So while we don't follow the same civil and
cultic laws, the moral principles of the covenant are important for us to understand, internalize, and live by even
today.
