
Scripture 101: Deuteronomy
Part 1: Hear O Israel (Numbers 22-24)
July 6, 2025, Pastor Scott Simon
1. Introduction and background.
a. Deuteronomy (LXX) means “second law,” but the Jews call it the “Debarim” or “Words.”
b. Moses was 120 years old when he wrote and spoke the words of Deuteronomy.
c. Israel spent thirty-nine years and eleven months in the wilderness after coming out of Egypt.
d. Moses understood that he would die within a month, before Israel entered the promised land.
e. Moses was forty years senior to Joshua (Caleb?), and sixty years senior to the rest of Israel.
f. The majority of Israel never saw the Exodus and did not witness God giving Moses the Law.
g. Moses seeks to bless, warn, and instruct this generation as they prepare to enter the Land.
h. Moses presents three major themes or “farewell addresses” in Deuteronomy:
i. Looking back at the young nation’s history (Chapters 1-3).
ii. Instructions on how to live as God’s Chosen People (Chapters 4-26).
iii. Israel’s future and Moses’ death (Chapters 27-34).
i. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy more than any other OT book (defeating of Satan’s temptations).
2. Looking Back: Pre-Entry victories and the two-and-a-half tribes east of the Jordan.
a. Yahweh forbade Israel from taking possession of the land given to Lot’s descendants.
b. King Sihon of the Amorites was defeated in the Transjordanian region east of Israel.
c. King Og of Bashan, a giant of the Amorites, was also defeated, and his sixty cities were taken.
d. This allowed two and a half tribes to settle in the Transjordanian region (mistake).
i. Reuben
ii. Gad
iii. Half of Manasseh
3. Hear O Israel!
a. Listen to the statutes and judgments … that you may live and go into the land (4:1).
b. You shall not add to the word that I command you, nor take from it (4:2).
c. Take heed and diligently keep the words and teach them to children and grandchildren (4:9).
d. God cannot be seen, so do not make any images of Him to worship (4:15-19).
e. Moses calls upon the power of heaven to destroy those who do not heed his words (4:26).
f. Obey God’s Ten Commandments (5:1-21).
4. Hear O Israel – obey the Greatest Commandment!
a. “The Shema”— Hear, O Israel! Yahweh our God, Yahweh is One! (Hb. ehad)
b. Ehad (one) is regularly used as a compound unit as well as an absolute value of one.
i. Gen. 1:5 “So the evening and morning were day one (ehad).”
ii. Gen. 2:24 “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one (ehad) flesh.
iii. Gen. 41:25 “Then Joseph said to Pharaoh, ‘The dreams of Pharaoh are one (ehad).’”
c. God is One (ehad) in three united Persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
5. Application for believers.
a. Follow Moses’ threefold pattern.
i. Look back and praise God for the things He has done in your life, and in all history.
ii. Hear God through His Word today and seek to do all that He has commanded you.
iii. Look forward with certainty that He will fulfill all of His promises.
b. Obey the first and great commandment:
i. Confess that Yahweh is the one and only true God (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).
ii. Love Yahweh as your God with all your heart, soul, and strength.
iii. Teach your children and grandchildren to love Him also as part of your daily walk.