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Wisdom-Trek / Creating a LegacyWelcome to Day 1306 of our Wisdom-Trek, and thank you for joining me.I am Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to WisdomMastering the Bible – One Long Sermon and Other Gods – Worldview Wednesday

Wisdom - the final frontier to true knowledge. Welcome to Wisdom-Trek! Where our mission is to create a legacy of wisdom, to seek out discernment and insights, to boldly grow where few have chosen to grow before. Hello, my friend, I am Guthrie Chamberlain, your captain on our journey to increase Wisdom and Create a Living Legacy. Thank you for joining us today as we explore wisdom on our 2nd millennium of podcasts. This is Day 1306 of our Trek, and it is Worldview Wednesday. Creating a Biblical Worldview is important to have a proper perspective on today’s current events. To establish a Biblical Worldview, it is required that you also have a proper understanding of God and His Word. Our focus for the next several months on Worldview Wednesday is Mastering the Bible, through a series of brief insights. These insights are extracted from a book of the same title from one of today’s most prominent Hebrew Scholars, Dr. Micheal S. Heiser. This book is a collection of insights designed to help you understand the Bible better. When we let the Bible be what it is, we can understand it as the original readers did, and as its writers intended. Each week we will explore two insights.

Mastering The Bible – One Long Sermon and Other Gods Insight Thirty-One: Deuteronomy Is One Long Sermon by Moses to the IsraelitesLike Leviticus and Numbers, Deuteronomy can be confusing since it seems like nothing is happening in Israel’s journey. It often seems like just a lot of talking. That’s because that’s what it is. Deuteronomy presents its content as a lengthy speech or sermon by Moses just before the Israelites try for the second time to enter the promised land. Deuteronomy, therefore, begins with the end of the forty-year wandering in the desert—a punishment imposed by God for their failure to enter the land in faith for fear of the giant Anakim in Numbers 13.

It’s because of this unfortunate history that the sermon of Moses starts out by rehearsing Israel’s history, warts and all, from its miraculous beginning with Abraham and Sarah to its miserable failure at Kadesh-Barnea (Deuteronomy 1.) Once Israel gets that painful reminder, Deuteronomy repeats the laws given at Sinai, but with some changes that reflect life in the land (Deuteronomy 5-26). This is why this book is referred to in English Bibles as “Deuteronomy’—a title made up of two words that mean “second law'’ (deuteros + nomos). The effect of all this is that the words of Moses are taking the people spiritually and emotionally back to Sinai so they can start over again.

But Deuteronomy is far more than a repetition of a long list of laws. Part of Moses’ sermon is designed to elicit a public response from the people that this time —and for good—they will obey God in faith. Accordingly, chapters 27-30 are framed as a public covenant commitment ceremony to solidify that decision. It’s serious content, too, since two whole chapters (28-30) comprise a long list of curses that will happen to the people if they forsake the Lord as their God. Specifically, the promise of the land itself is tied to obedience to God ,36-37: (https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Deuteronomy+28%3A36-37&version=NLT)

“But if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you:

Your towns and your fields

will be cursed.

Your fruit baskets and breadboards

will be cursed.

Your children and your crops

will be cursed.

The offspring of your herds and flocks

will be cursed.

Wherever you go and whatever you do,

you will be cursed.

“The Lord himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do,...