I. MOSES AS THE SPOKESMAN OF GOD
WAS LIKE AN AGED, LOVING FATHER
SPEAKING TO HIS CHILDREN
WITH MUCH LOVE AND CONCERN
The first crucial point in Deuteronomy is that Moses as the spokesman of God was like an aged, loving father speaking to his children with much love and concern. This book contains God’s word more than any other book of the Bible—the words of God spoken through this one spokesman.
Some may think that there is more of God’s word in Job than in Deuteronomy. This view, however, is not correct. The book of Job does contain God’s word, but it also contains the word of Job and his three friends, who spoke according to human opinion, logic, philosophy, and psychology. Eventually, the young man Elihu spoke what was on God’s heart. In the book of Job God’s word is not as abundant as in the book of Deuteronomy.
Every word spoken by Moses in Deuteronomy was God’s word. Moses might have expressed something of his own feeling, but even this became the word of God. His speaking in Deuteronomy was like Paul’s speaking in 1 Corinthians 7. In that chapter Paul said, "I have no commandment of the Lord, but I give my opinion as having received mercy of the Lord to be faithful" (v. 25). Later, after expressing his opinion, he said, "I think that I also have the Spirit of God" (v. 40). Eventually, because Paul was a man constituted with God, his opinion became a part of God’s word as the divine revelation in the New Testament. In his speaking he was one with God; therefore, what he spoke was God’s speaking. The principle is the same with Moses’ speaking in Deuteronomy. Moses spoke for God for forty years, from the age of eighty to the age of one hundred twenty. He was a person not only soaked and saturated with the thought of God but also constituted with the speaking God Himself. So the word that proceeded out of his mouth was the word of God spoken through this one spokesman.
II. THIS BOOK SPEAKS
ABOUT THE LOVE OF GOD AND
THE GOVERNMENTAL ADMINISTRATION OF GOD
The book of Deuteronomy speaks about the love of God and the governmental administration of God. Moses was exercised in love and experienced in God’s governmental administration.
Although we cannot find the expression governmental administration in Deuteronomy, if we read this book thoroughly, we will see that it is a book of God’s government, even of His governmental administration. Moses often spoke explicitly about love, but the matter of God’s governmental administration is implied. If we get into the depth of this book, we will realize that God’s dealing with His people here is a kind of governmental administration.
Because God is wise, He does not spoil His children. He is a perfecting Father who loves His children and who deals with them governmentally. Hebrews 12:6 says, "Whom the Lord loves He disciplines." What is God’s purpose in disciplining us? He disciplines us for the purpose of perfecting us.
This is exactly what God was doing with the children of Israel, and also with Moses, in the wilderness. Because God loved them, He did not let them get by with their mistakes. Even Moses was disciplined by God for his mistake in Numbers 20:1-13. Moses became angry with the rebellious people, and instead of speaking to the rock, as God had charged him to do, he smote the rock a second time. This offended God, and as a result Moses lost his right to enter into the good land. God allowed Moses to view the land from the peak of Pisgah, but He did not permit him to go in. That was an instance of God’s governmental administration, of God’s governmental dealing.
God is a loving God and also a disciplining God. He loves and He also disciplines us, for He has His governmental administration. Because Moses knew God’s governmental administration and was experienced in it, he was qualified to do the respeaking recorded in Deuteronomy.
(Life-Study of Deuteronomy, Chapter 2, by Witness Lee)
