Blogging Bible Study: Digging in the Desert-- Final Words of Moses

Posted by Lisa Laree to Beer Lahai Roi

Before I dive into the look at the rest of the 'desert' verses in Deuteronomy, I thought I'd share a little bit of humbling God did for me this week...I am taking a ministry course at church and, owing to the fact that we had to cancel a class due to winter weather (um, didn't happen, but that's Alabama for you), I was a week ahead on my  homework.  So I wasn't at all worried about the 'show your workbook' homework check that happened this week.  Until I flipped open my workbook and found that all the fill in the blanks were...blank.  I hadn't done it after all.  I could've sworn I remembered doing it...so, yeah, a little embarrassment there.  Now, there's lots of grace in that class and I caught it up this morning, but, wow, how could I have missed that?  I'm sure there's a lesson in there somewhere....

Anyway.  Deuteronomy.  Discourse Three is in chapters 27-28 and...there are no verses that mention 'desert' in that entire little review of blessings and curses.  So...moving right along to Discourse Four, which is recorded in chapters 29 -30 and reviews the terms of their covenant with God and has one reference to 'desert':

"During the forty years that I led you through the desert, your clothes did not wear out, nor did the sandals on your feet.  You ate no bread and drank no wine or other fermented drink.  I did this so that you might know that I am the LORD your God." - (29: 5-6)

Have you ever pulled something out of your closet to wear for the day, and suddenly wonder how long it's been there?  And realized that it's about as twice as old as you thought?  I kinda think the Israelites had a similar reaction.  I wonder if anyone even really noticed that they were still wearing the clothes they...or their parents...wore when they left Egypt.  I wonder if anyone suddenly looked at their sandals...that they had worn longer than they could remember...with awe as they realized they really and truly weren't worn out.

God does lots of small miracles for us day by day that we never notice...not because they are invisible but because they involve ordinary things that we just don't perceive.

In Discourse Five (chapters 31 - 33) Moses  gives advice and presents them with a written copy of everything he had recorded.  He sings a song over them and  blesses all the tribes individually.  His last trip up a mountain to converse with the LORD is in chapter 34.

He mentions the desert in his song:

In a desert land he found him, in a barren and howling waste.  He shielded him and cared for him; he guarded him as the apple of his eye  (32:10)

Of coures, 'He' is the LORD; 'him' is Israel, as is established in preceding verses.

At the end of his speeches,  God gives him instruction regarding the transition of leadership and states,

"both of you broke faith with me in the presence of the Israelites at the waters of Meribah  Kadesh in the desert of Zin, and because you did not uphold my holiness among the Israelites." (32:51)

Here, Moses is recounting his conversation with God after he an Aaron had hit the rock at Meribah.  He got no special treatment on account of who he was: he had sinned, like those around him, and he would suffer the same penalty...he could not enter the land promised to them.  Just like the rest of his generation, he would die before they crossed the Jordan.

Whatever lay before them in the promised land, they would have to do it without Moses.

But they were there.  In the clothes that came out of Egypt 40 years earlier.  With no mall to shop at, no Amazon prime delivering new stuff, they likely  raided their parents luggage to find clothing they could wear.  It was, by and large, old stuff.  Ironic that, while their parents didn't make it in, their clothes likely did.

We have a conference next week, so it'll be two weeks before we get back into the Desert with Joshua.  Not even gonna try, lol.