Follow the Lord

Deuteronomy 31 - Episode 113

Follow the Leader - Deuteronomy 31:1-8

God explained to Moses that he would soon die, and the Israelites would enter the Promised Land without him. So, he stood before the people when he was 120 years old, to give his last words of encouragement and present them with their new leader. He began by reminding them that he wouldn’t enter the new land with them. They’d never known a day outside of Egypt without Moses. So, it must have been a little scary to think about their future without him. He had been their steady leader for 40 years.

But then came his hopeful message to them. God Himself would go ahead of them, and Joshua would be their new leader. They wouldn’t be alone. The first one to enter the already inhabited land would be the Lord. He was leading the way and Joshua would follow Him. God had already proven His ability to bring victory in the land of Sihon and Og, which were on the east side of the Jordan River. So they could trust Him to bring victory to them on the other side of the river too. So, Moses urged them to have courage as they entered the new land and dismiss any feelings of dread or fear. The Lord their God would be with them, and they could believe that He had the power to fulfill His promise.

Then Moses presented Joshua to them as their new leader and told him not to be afraid or intimidated by the role he'd been given. Just as the Lord had led Moses all these years, He would lead him too. Joshua would not be alone, and he would not have to enter the land first. God would go before him and pave the way, fulfilling the almost 500-year-old promise through him. What a blessing to be chosen as the man who would finally bring it to fruition!

Imagine a group of children standing before an unknown, mysterious place. They all want to know what’s inside, but are too afraid to go in. Each one saying to the other, “Go in and see what’s inside.” Then you hear, “You go first” and “I’m not going by myself” then “I’ll go if you go.” After a while of everyone standing around too afraid to enter, a man comes along and says, “Stay here. I’ll go check it out”. He goes in, looks around, clears the area of all the obstacles, then calls to the leader of the bunch. “Okay, the coast is clear. Come on in.” The leader peaks around the corner, then the man takes him by the hand and begins to show him around. The other children follow when they see it’s safe. The man explains not to touch this, and how to handle that and so on until the children finally make themselves at home.

This is the picture of what God would do with Joshua and the rest of the Israelites. He would enter the new land, prepare it for them, then bring Joshua in and show him what to do. Joshua could be encouraged by the Father’s lead and the people would know that they were safe to follow him. We too need the Lord to go before us and prepare the way into the scary unknown places. But we can trust Him when He says it’s time to enter. He won’t leave us there afraid or without direction. He will be with us every step of the way. Luke 12:12; John 14:16, 16:7, 13

He also gives us spiritual leaders like Joshua. These people follow Him and can lead us in a more tangible way. Then, we too can have the courage to forge ahead. So, look for godly leaders and follow them. Hebrews 13:7

Read and Teach God’s Word - Deuteronomy 31:9-13

The entirety of the Bible at that time, Genesis through Deuteronomy, had been written by Moses. He was obviously not around when God created Adam and Eve in the garden over 2,500 years before. But the words of the Lord, and the history of the earth, had been handed down through the ages. Before the flood, people lived for hundreds of years, so they were able to give firsthand information to many generations. Seth, Adam’s son, was still alive when Noah was born, and Noah was still alive when Abraham was born. Abraham was alive when Levi (Moses’s great-grandfather) was born. Moses’s grandfather, Kohath, entered Egypt when Joseph (Kohath’s uncle) invited his family to live there during the famine. Moses’s father, Amram, lived his whole life in Egypt. Also, God, the Creator of all heaven and earth, who’d been there through all of history, had a personal relationship with Moses. He spent 40 days on Mount Sanai, two separate times, talking with God and writing down what He dictated to him. God gave him every detail to write in these first five books, and he had been obedient to write it. 2 Timothy 3:16

So, Moses presented these “books of the Bible” to the people and then gave them to the priests and elders. Every seven years, when they gathered in the Year of Jubilee, at the Feast of Tabernacles, the priests were to read these words to the people. This feast began with a sacrifice that the high priest would bring before the Lord in the Holiest of Holies where His Presence dwelt, and atonement would be made for the sins of that year. Then the people would set up tents and stay there for the next week, reminding themselves of the 40 years they lived in tents after their ancestors had refused to enter the Promised Land out of fear. They would praise God for providing for them in that time and celebrate the home that they now had because of Him. Every seventh year was a year when the land was allowed to rest, and they were all set free from their debts. Because all the families were gathered in celebration and fellowship at this time, Moses commanded the priests to read God’s Word, so they would all hear and learn to obey the Lord. As each adult was reminded of these words again, they went home better able to live them out as an example to their children and others. As the young children became of the age to understand, they would hear His Word for the first time. Because they did not have multiple prints as we do today, they had to listen very carefully when the word was read and there was probably a lot of memorization. They would go home talking about the history and narratives teaching it to their children. Then no doubt, every seven years, they heard something specific, that pertained to their family in that season of life, and they memorized it. The Word of God was precious and guarded.

Do we count God’s Word precious today? Do we guard it, read it, and listen carefully when we hear it read? Do we know what it says enough to repeat it to someone else? Do we have scriptures memorized that specifically pertain to us or that are relevant in our everyday lives? Today, we all have access to a Bible, yet we often take that for granted and probably don’t know it as well as they did. We have less of an excuse, yet we often don’t count it as important. Psalm 119:11, 50, 103-105, 133, 140, 148, 160-162, 172