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Moses' Farewell - Deuteronomy 31

This is essentially Moses’ farewell address. He says “I’m 120 years old and God said that I’m not going into the promised land, so this is it for me,” essentially. We talked about it previously, that Moses was forbidden by God from going into the promised land and the reason given was because Moses talked out of turn on a certain occasion. I don’t think that was it, I think that was the reason, but just like Joseph Smith not being the one to take the saints to Utah, Moses couldn’t be the one to take the people into the promised land. It had to be another leader, for a lot of reason which we discussed earlier. Moses reiterates to the people that God will win the military victories that it will take to clear the people out of the land of Canaan so that the Israelites can inhabit it. He also calls and talks to Joshua “in the sight of all Israel” indicating that Joshua is Moses’ successor, even though it’s going to be a split authority. Moses was the spiritual AND political leader of Israe...
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The Covenant - Deuteronomy 29 & 30

Chapters 29 and 30 are where the whole book of Deuteronomy has been leading up to, the covenant that Moses will put the people under before they go into the promised land. TB makes a point that I think is important here. He reminds us that this is the 2nd of 3 covenants the people will make with God before settling into the promised land. The first covenant was at Mount Sinai after the incident with the golden calf, then the people wandered in the desert for 40 years. Now the second one in Moab, right before they cross the Jordan river, and the last one that Moses will do. Then the third one will be once they cross the Jordan river into the promised land to start taking it. The reason that God had the people do this was because at the time the prevailing belief of ALL people was that the gods they worshipped had geographic boundaries, meaning that the gods worshipped at Mount Sinai were different than the gods worshipped at Moab and in the promised land. We know that the God of the Tor...
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Blessings & Curses - Deuteronomy 28

Chapter 28 is VERY long and honestly I was dreading it, but after reading it, I really like it. In this chapter, Moses spells out again how Israel will be blessed by God if they are obedient and how they will be “cursed” if they are disobedient. Before getting into it, TB pointed out a couple of key points that I thought were interesting and that I didn’t even realize until he said it. This contrast is between the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic Covenant. He said that with the Abrahamic covenant, it was only one way, a promised made by God to Abraham where the only condition was that Abraham accept it, he didn’t have to do anything else, these were all promised blessings that came with no strings attached. I hadn’t realized that before. Conversely, the Mosaic covenant was a two way promise between God and the Israelite people, and there were strings attached. Additionally, it wasn’t the kind of contract where if Israel breached it by being disobedient, they were just let out of the c...
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Uncut Stones - Deuteronomy 26 & 27

Chapter 26 is basically just Moses telling Israel that they are to sacrifice their first fruits when they settle in the land of Canaan and then to pay their tithing and they covenant with God to do all the things that He commanded them. The covenant that Moses puts them under is “this day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. Thou hast avouch the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice: And the Lord hath avouch thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments; and to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord thy God,.” That was long, but the IM explains, “After briefly reminding Israel of God...
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Dragging - Deuteronomy 25

I’m not going to lie, Deuteronomy is starting to drag and we still have 9 chapters to go but if I keep on trucking, I should be done with the Torah in the next two weeks. I started the Old Testament in January 2022, meaning that I’ve been in the Torah for over 4 years. Granted I’ve had some serious set backs and taken time off but that’s a long time and I’m excited to move on. Anyway, the first 3 verses of chapter 25 talks about punishment for a criminal which was “forty stripes.” TB says that this is in contrast to the usual 100 stripes that the surrounding pagan communities were doing demonstrating that the God of Israel was more merciful than those other surrounding gods. TB also notes that this was because God wanted to ensure correction, not punishment and this was the amount of whipping that was deemed adequate for that. He said that any more than that would more likely permanently harm the person thus limiting his ability to support himself, and at that level of physical punishm...
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Coats - Deuteronomy 24

The first 5 verses of chapter 24 pertain to divorce. TB said that while there is no law allowing for divorce in the Torah, it’s mentioned so frequently that it’s clear that it was common enough in Hebrew society. First is says that if a man is displeased with his wife, he can give her a ‘bill of divorcement” and let her leave and marry another man. I have mixed feelings on this, especially considering that I am divorced myself. Back then, I’m sure that it was devastating to have your husband divorce you, just like it is today. But there was probably the added difficulty of shame and limited options of remarriage, but then again maybe not, I really don’t know. But on the other hand, if a man is tired of his wife and doesn’t want her anymore, it seems more likely that he’ll abuse her if he can’t divorce her, so in that case it’s best that she be allowed to leave and marry someone else. I don’t know it’s complicated, but I know for sure that having your husband throw you away is devastati...
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Citizenry - Deuteronomy 23

The first several verses of chapter 23 have to do with the “congregation of the Lord” which according to the IM and TB, has to do with who can participate in which levels of government. There was extensive lecture and a big section in the IM that goes through who exactly is allowed to do what and participate in which levels of government, but I’m not going to go through all that because frankly I don’t understand it all and don’t really care that much. There are a few points that I think are worth pointing out though. First is that there didn’t seem to be any prohibition on who could become a believer and accepted as an Israelite by belief and there were even levels of participation depending on how involved the person who wasn’t born an Israelite wants to be. For instance, if a man wants to be a believer but doesn’t want to get circumcised, then there was a level to which that man could participate, etc. The second point that I think is important to bring up is that Ruth was a Moabi...
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