Deuteronomy is a difficult book. It’s old. It’s long. It’s full of super-specific laws that don’t exactly fit our historical situation. For example:
You shall have a place outside the camp, and you shall go out to it. And you shall have a trowel with your tools, and when you sit down outside, you shall dig a hole with it and turn back and cover up your excrement. Because the Lord your God walks in the midst of your camp, to deliver you and to give up your enemies before you, so that he may not see anything indecent among you and turn away from you. (Deut 23:12-14)
How do you lead a Bible study on that? What must God think about my infant daughter’s intestinal blowout in the middle of church a few weeks ago?
At Reformation 21, Bruce Baugus’s excellent article will help you get your bearings in Deuteronomy. A few key points help those of us in the 21st century to understand why this book would have been so foundational and exciting for ancient Hebrews:
- Moses structured Deuteronomy just like an ancient treaty. This book ratified the covenant treaty between God and Israel before Moses departed and handed things off to the next generation.
- Ancient treaties always contained a section for the terms of the covenant (what was expected of each party to this treaty).
- The long section of laws in Deut 4-26 describes those terms in painstaking detail. It begins with the summary: the Ten Commandments. Then it proceeds to explain what each of those commandments should look like in the lives of the people.
- We’ll best understand the specific case laws if we see them as commentary on the Ten Commandments, in the very order of the Ten Commandments.
Baugus then takes up the particular question of where exactly the commentary on the 9th commandment begins and ends, which is a fine question to ask. But I think the best value of the article is in the overview of the larger framework.
With these tools in hand, you’re ready to tackle Deuteronomy.
