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About Jesus Steve Sweetman Chapter 31 ch. 31:1-8 ch. 31:9-13 ch. 31:1:29 Joshua
To Succeed Moses (ch. 31:1 - 8) This portion of
Deuteronomy is simply about the acknowledgment of the transfer of
leadership from Moses to Joshua. Moses
is now 120 years old, and it's not his age the prohibits him from
entering the promised land and continuing to be It is my thinking that
God wasn't going to allow Moses into the promise land anyway.
It's clear to me from other Biblical passages that Moses is a
type, or is a symbol of the Law. Joshua
is a type, or a symbol of Jesus. The
New Testament makes it clear that one can't enter salvation, which the
promised land symbolizes, through the Law.
Salvation is only through Jesus.
Since Moses represented the Law and the promised land represent
salvation, there was no way that Moses could ever enter the promise
land. Only Joshua could do
that. He represented Jesus.
This is my opinion. I'm
not stating this as the truth of Scripture.
This must have been one
very reflective and sad occasion for Moses.
He had led Twice in this passage
Moses says that the Lord will never leave you or forsake you.
This is one often quoted Bible passage.
It is thought to be a promise, and it was.
Christians can claim this promise for themselves, but, when it
was originally made by God, the promise was made to the Jews.
This is yet another reason why Replacement Theology isn't
Biblical. God has not
replaced It is also important to
note that if Christians want to use this passage of God never leaving or
forsaking them, they must understand its context.
As God punished Israel, and they felt all alone, God wanted them to know that He would never
leave or forsake them. He
would return to them. This
means that God can punish or discipline the Christian, and in these
times of punishment or discipline you
feel alone. We need to know
that God does not leave us in this times.
So if we want to use this passage as a New Testament promise, we
must also be willing to accept the fact that God can and will discipline
us at times, something many Christians don't want to hear or believe.
The
The section merely states
that Moses commands Israel
to read the Law once a year so they could fear the Lord and so their
children would know the law. Fearing the Lord is more
than reverence. It is
literal fear. Many
Christians these days want nothing to do with being afraid of God, but
they should be. That being
said, the one we are afraid of, and rightly so, is the one who loves us.
The one we feel like running away from in fear is the one we run
to in order to love. Israel's Rebellion Predicted (ch. 31:14
- 29) In the first part of this
chapter we noted that Moses reminded Israel
that Joshua would soon be their leader.
The commissioning and transfer of authority by God Himself takes
place in this section. This
must have been one very powerful commissioning service. During this commissioning
service God speaks to Moses and tells him that You might ask, "is God tells Moses in verse
16 that In verse 17 God says that
on the day that Israel
forsakes Him, He will forsake them for breaking the covenant.
That's the Mosaic Covenant. Many
Replacement Theology teachers say this is proof that Israel
is no longer significant in the eyes of God.
That's not true. You
must put this in context. Earlier
in this chapter God said that He would never leave or forsake Israel. So what does verse 17
mean. God would forsake,
destroy, and punish Israel
for a period of time for breaking the Mosaic Covenant.
After the time of punishment is up, God would be faithful to the
Abrahamic Covenant and restore Israel
to the place she was meant to be all along. You see the words
"hide my face" in verse 18.
I think this is a good picture of the relationship God has with Israel
during the time of punishment. He
is still there, but He has His hands over His face, so to speak.
He has not given up on them for good.
From verse 19 onward,
Moses becomes a song writer, one who is really inspired by the Lord.
God Himself gives Moses the lyrics to this song.
This is a very important song.
In the previous verses
God told Moses that one day Israel
would forsake Him. Now in
verses 19 to 22 God tells Moses that at some future point, that is,
beyond the time when Israel
forsakes God, and beyond the time of punishment, God will give them the
land of promise, and at that time, they will sing this song, which they
do. You can see that in
Revelation 15. This helps us
understand what Revelation 15 is all about.
We know the song of Moses will be sung again after Israel's punishment is complete
and the restoration process begins.
Revelation 15 must be futuristic.
It can't be something that has already taken place in light of
this chapter. From verse 24 on to the
end of this chapter Moses writes the Law in a book.
He gives it to the elders to put in the ark of the covenant so it
would be a testimony against Israel. That simply means that
this book would stand as the constitutional authority for I've often mentioned how
Moses must have felt at this point in his life.
He had spent most of his one hundred and twenty year life serving
God and Israel, and now the goal of entering the promised land, a goal that has been
in existence for more then four hundred years, can't be obtained by
Moses. He will stay on the
east side of the Joshua's ministry is seen
by many Bible teachers as symbolic of Jesus' ministry.
So, as Joshua led God's people into the promised land, only to
find himself in the midst of a corrupt people, so it is with Jesus.
Jesus came to earth, came to humanity, but, came to a corrupt
humanity. Like Joshua
and Israel, the followers of Jesus who obeyed Him, became corrupt as well.
This can be seen in the church of Rome throughout the dark ages
of history. Constantine
introduced Christianity to other gods and the church became
"utterly corrupt".
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