Following Through
Deuteronomy 4:1-15 (RCL 4:1-2, 6-9)
Tony’s Overview Video
How to Use
Preparing to teach
- Read the Bible Lesson by Tony Cartledge in this month’s issue of the Nurturing Faith Journal
- Watch Tony’s Video for this session
- Select either the Adult or Youth teaching guide and follow the directions
Click to read the Bible Lesson by Tony Cartledge
Key Verse: Deuteronomy 4:9 –
But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children’s children …
Labor Day weekend leads naturally to thoughts about work – and a day off from work – but also marks the season when children and college students go back to school after summer vacations
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Parents often have parting words of advice for younger children when they drop them off at school or the bus stop. “Behave yourself” or “Listen to the teacher,” they say, along with hopeful encouragement to “Have fun!”
Older children going off to college for the first time may hear much longer speeches replete with warnings, encouragements, and often a few tears. They’re off on a great new adventure in which they will succeed or fail on their own.
Parents want children to remember and be true to the values they’ve been taught.
Today’s text, from Deuteronomy 4:1-14, is presented as Moses’ farewell speech to the Israelites as they prepared to leave the plains of Moab and enter the promised land – without Moses to lead them. [DD]
There were things he wanted them to remember.
Take heed (vv. 1-4)
Although the book of Deuteronomy purports to be the very words of Moses, it was probably composed many years later as Israel’s scribes cited Mosaic traditions to encourage the troubled people of their own day. [DD] [DD]
As such, the book has multiple audiences. It was written as an address to Israelites who had survived the wilderness and stood on the edge of the promised land, but also spoke to those Israelites who were facing the possibility of exile, as well as a smaller group who had returned to Judah after the exile.
Finally, the book speaks to readers of every following generation, including us.
The first three chapters of Deuteronomy portray Moses as reciting a summary of the Israelite’s deliverance from Egypt, their rocky time in the wilderness, and their arrival in the plains of Moab. They conclude with Moses announcing that he would not be allowed to enter the land of promise, but would appoint Joshua to lead in his stead.
The reader expects the commissioning of Joshua to follow, but the narrative shifts abruptly a sermon on the subject of faithfulness.
“So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe,” Moses reportedly said, “so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you” (v. 1). In Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, Moses mainly gave commands, but in Deuteronomy speaks of “statutes and ordinances.”
The awkward placement of the sermon and the shift in vocabulary are literary indications that this material was a later development, as commands of the Decalogue give way to “statutes and ordinances” that have the ring of interpretive judgments and rules that developed in the priestly tradition.
The order to “give heed” to Moses’ commands is followed by a charge that nothing should be added or taken away from the covenant provisions (v. 2) [DD], and a warning that failing to follow the commands would lead to serious trouble, as they should know well.
The warning concerns what would have been a fairly recent incident described more fully in Num. 25:1-15, reflected differently in Num. 31:13-16, and recalled in Hosea 9:10 as a detestable memory, though it does not appear Moses’ historical summary of Deuteronomy 1-3.
The account in Numbers 25 relates that, after arriving in the plains of Moab, some of the people were drawn into having illicit sexual relations with Moabite women, joining them in offering sacrifices to their gods, including “Baal of Peor.” Yahweh reportedly grew angry and told Moses to execute the leaders of the affair. The story then shifts awkwardly to an Israelite man having sex with a Midianite woman. The priest Phinehas killed them both, possibly while in the act of intercourse, as the text says one thrust of his spear pierced them both through the belly. Phinehas’ act put an end to a plague, not previously mentioned, that had reportedly killed 24,000 Israelites.
Moses’ speech in Deuteronomy 4 reminds the people that all who followed the Baal of Peor had died (v. 3), “while those of you who held fast to the LORD your God are all alive today” (v. 4). This reinforces the basic theme of Moses’ speech: the purpose of following God’s covenant commands was “that you may live,” specifically, live to enter and occupy the land (v. 1).
Christian believers also seek life, not just life in a particular place, but the kind of life Jesus described as abundant and eternal. Such life comes through trusting in God’s grace through Christ and following his teachings, notably the “new commandment” to love one another as Christ loved us (John 13:34-35).
Be diligent (vv. 5-8)
In vv. 5-8, not included in the lectionary, the writer has Moses offer a second and somewhat surprising rationale for why Israel should keep the “statutes and ordinances” he was teaching (v. 5).
Following them diligently, he said, “will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!’” (v. 6).
When these words were likely written, either during the exile or on either side of it, the Israelites were far from being a great nation. The northern kingdom had fallen to Assyria and the southern kingdom to Babylonia. The people were scattered far and wide: they might claim to be an ethnic people, but were no longer a nation.
The Deuteronomist, however, believed that if the remaining Israelites would fully trust in God and follow God’s teaching, they Would not only endure, but live among other peoples as a shining beacon of a people who lived close to God: “For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the LORD our God is whenever we call to him?” (v. 7).
Moses insisted that Yahweh was present in a way that no other peoples’ gods could be. Yahweh was no idol shut up in a shrine, but living and active and present among the people, ready to hear and respond to their pleas.
The statutes and ordinances Moses commanded were not to be thought of as a burden, but as evidence of a God who cared enough to provide guidelines for living in respectful harmony with others and with God (v. 8).
Watch yourselves (vv. 9-14)
Moses’ purported speech is clearly intended to speak across the generations in a way that recognizes Israel’s corporate identity with the ancestors as well as one another. Verse 9 warns the people to “take care and watch yourselves closely” lest they forget “the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life.”
Moses was about to recite an example that the vast majority of his audience had not seen. If we take the narrative at face value, only Moses, Joshua, and Caleb remained alive from the generation that had witnessed the giving of the Ten Commandments and making of the covenant at Mount Horeb (an alternate name for Sinai) that he recounts in v. 10.
So, Moses’ audience in Deuteronomy 4 would not have personally “approached and stood at the foot of the mountain while the mountain was blazing up to the very heavens, shrouded in dark clouds,” (v. 11). They would not have heard Yahweh speaking out of the fire, when their ancestors “heard the sound of words but saw no form” as Yahweh declared the covenant stipulations that came to be known as the Ten Commandments (vv. 12-13). [DD]
Yet, the Israelites were to remember it and live as if they had been there, present in the DNA of their ancestors. Furthermore, they were to make the memories known to their children and their children’s children, so none would forget (v. 9b).
The writer’s audience might not have been at Sinai, but he wanted them to relive the experience of having assembled beneath the mountain so God could “let them hear my words, so that they may learn to fear me as long as they live on the earth, and may teach their children so” (v. 10).
People of a certain age will remember a “golden oldie” from 1969 by Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. During the late 1960s, during the height of the Vietnam War, Graham Nash expressed his concern that children were learning more about war than peace when he wrote the song “Teach Your Children.” The lyrics encouraged parents to “teach your children well,” lest they experience “your father’s hell.”
Like Israel, we are called to teach our children what they need to experience life at its best. Moses taught words of the law in order that the people might live and inhabit the land (v. 1). John’s gospel speaks of Christ as God’s Word made flesh, sent that believers could live eternally (John 1:14).
As Israel was called to be an inspiration to other nations (vv. 5-8), John said of Christ that “In him was life, and the life was the light of all people” (John 1:4). Israel’s identity and purpose was found in knowing and living out the words of the law. Christians find their identity and purpose in knowing Jesus and following his teachings – and in passing them on to their children.
Teach your children well.
Adult Teaching Resources
Download the PDF of teaching resources for this lesson.
This PDF contains the Teaching Guide, Digging Deeper, and Hardest Question pages.
Read Scripture online: Deuteronomy 4:1-15
Youth Teaching Resources
Parent Prep
Coaches get farewell speeches. Graduates get to hear farewell speeches. People give farewell speeches at retirement parties. Farewell speeches are a great way to summarize everything you have learned and pass it on to the next generation. Parents don’t get to give farewell speeches. Instead, parents live into what they want the next generation to live by. Parents model what their students see. Parents daily guide the direction they want their students to go. Sometimes parents think it would be more effective if they had a farewell speech, but remember that you students are always watching a listening to the constant farewell speech you give.
Additional Links/Resources
Read Scripture online: Deuteronomy 4:1-15
Download the PDF for youth teaching resources using the button below. This PDF contains the Teaching Guide for this lesson:
Video
Encourage youth to check out this video ahead of the lesson.
“Mr. Rogers Goodbye” from Mr. Roger’s
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