Overview

Deuteronomy, like the four books before it, is traditionally attributed to Moses and is part of the Torah. While the Mosaic authorship is a long-standing tradition, modern scholarship suggests that the book is likely a compilation of oral traditions, historical events, and laws.

These were possibly edited and compiled over centuries, with some scholars suggesting that the final form may have been completed as late as the 5th Century BC.

In many ways, Deuteronomy has more in common with the books that follow it (Joshua, Judges, 1-2 Samuel, and 1-2 Kings) than the rest of the Torah. Because of the language and structure, some suggest these books were edited and collected together as Deuteronomistic History.

The structure of the book is as follows:

Deuteronomy 1-11 - Moses’ opening speech

• Deuteronomy 1-3 - The story so far

• Deuteronomy 4-11 - A call to covenant faithfulness

Deuteronomy 12-26 - Collection of Laws

• Deuteronomy 12-17 - Israel’s Worship

• Deuteronomy 17-18 - Israel’s Leaders

• Deuteronomy 19-26 - Civil laws & social justice

Deuteronomy 27-34 - Moses’ final speech and death

• Deuteronomy 27-30 - The warning and ultimatum

• Deuteronomy 31-34 - Moses’ last words and death

The focus of the book is to rehash the journey the Israelites have been on so far and to take all that they have learnt so far and apply that specifically to the new context they will be living in in the land.

Many of these rules and instructions were to set them apart from their corrupt neighbours, so rather than compare the laws with modern society, we should compare them to the laws and practices of their neighbours.

There will be a lot similar with what we’ve read before, but when looked at closely you’ll notice there’s some subtle variations.

The lesson we learn from this is that each generation needs the wisdom of Torah translated to their specific contexts. In terms of themes, two phrases we’ll see are listen/hear and love.

Deuteronomy 1-3

We're now into Deuteronomy. At this point the people have wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. The old generation of Israelites who didn't trust God and grumbled and complained have died, and the new generation are ready to enter the land promised to them.

When we finished in numbers, the narrator was on the east side of the Jordan with the Israelites. Here at the start of the Deuteronomy the narrator seems to be talking about past events from the west side of the Jordan looking out to the east.

If this is true then we are to read this as a future generations reflections back on what Moses said, rather than a writing down of what Moses said at the time.

Moses gathers all the people together for one last time, he won't be joining them as they move into the new land, and gives them one long speech preparing them to face what is to come ahead. That speech is the book of Deuteronomy. He starts it with a recap of the last 40 years, most of which may seem familiar to you if you've been following along this far.

There are various different bits I could pick up one, but I'm going to focus on a very small part of today's reading because this is a topic I'm really interested in. It's quite niche and quite deep, so don't worry if it doesn't all make sense straight away.

If you remember all the way back to when the spies when out to spy the land (Numbers 13), you might remember we read about 'the sons of Anak', the Anakim. We noted then that Anak was a Nephilim, a race of tall people that came from Sons of God (key spiritual beings) sleeping with human women in Genesis 6.

The Anakim were then descendants of one of the half-spirit being, half-human being people. In Deuteronomy 2 we read of many different groups like the Anakim. They are classed as Rephaim (Deuteronomy 2:11), so from this we can guess that Rephaim is the name for any group of people that are descendants of Nephilim.

Why is this important? Well the Nephilim were never meant to exist. The Sons of God were never meant to sleep with human women. Therefore, the Rephaim, including the Anakim and others, were never meant to exist. It may seem harsh for us to say now but to the Israelites and to God they would have been an abomination.

Here in Deuteronomy 2 we see a few times how God destroys these people groups, to let other nations move in. The Ammonites destroyed a group of Rephaim called the Zamzummim and took over their land. The people of Esau destroyed the Horites. The Caphtorim destroyed the Avvim (Deuteronomy 2:20-23).

In the same way, there are Rephaim in the land that Israel are going to enter, and they need to destroy them. We'll see a lot of this in Joshua, and as you read it you think "why is God asking them to kill everyone? That's not nice." Well one of the reasons is because they are part of the Rephaim, and people that were never meant to exist and are a powerful symbol of the rebellion of heavenly beings.

Even the nations that Israel defeated on the east side of the Jordan were home to Rephaim. “For only Og the king of Bashan was left of the remnant of the Rephaim.” Deuteronomy 3:11. We then finish the recapping of the Israelites journey, ready for Moses to starts his sermons in full in Deuteronomy 4.

Psalm 53

The psalm is associated with King David and can fall into the category of a wisdom psalm. In most ways this psalm is a copy of Psalm 14 with a couple of slight variations. Where Psalm 14 uses Lord (Yahweh), Psalm 53 uses God (elohim). This is pretty common for the psalms in book 2 of the psalms (Psalm 42-72).

Because of this, what we said of Psalm 14 is also largely true of Psalm 53.

Psalm 53:1 - The foolish

Psalm 53:2-3 - Are there any who are wise?

Psalm 53:4 - Why do they attack my people?

Psalm 53:5 - God scatters the wicked

Psalm 53:6 - Hope for salvation

The psalm opens on a problem that foolish corrupt people exist. And there seem to be a lot of them. These foolish people do not believe in God, and they do wicked things.

In response, God searches the earth for those who aren’t foolish. Those who have understanding and who seek God. But all have them have allowed themselves to become foolish.This is hyperbole (over-exaggeration) as we’ll see there are still those who are innocent and righteous.

Turning back to the foolish, the psalmist notes how they oppress and consume ‘my people’. Who is the person talking? As the psalm is attributed to King David, this could be from the point of the king. But it is perhaps more likely that the psalmist is talking from the point of lady wisdom.

Lady wisdom is a character that appears in a lot of wisdom literature, who is the embodiment of wisdom. Her people are those who seek after and live by wisdom.

This is where Psalm 53 changes focus a little from Psalm 14. In Psalm 14 the focus is on how God protects the righteous and the poor. Psalm 53 focuses on the terror God will bring on the wicked. He will scatter them and shame them.

And then Psalm 53 picks back up with Psalm 14. Lady wisdom looks forward to the day where there will be no more wicked. Where God restores the good fortunes to his people. This will be a day of celebration.

We learn much the same lessons as we did from Psalm 14 but with that slight different focus. While Psalm 14 is an encouragement to the righteous in a world that seems wicked, Psalm 53 is a warning to the wicked. If you don’t learn your lesson it will not end well for you.