The name ‘Deuteronomy’ means “second law, or repetition of the law’. It was the second giving of the Mosaic Law, the first being at Mount Sinai. It is important to note that it was not a rethink, or an amendment. It was not a reform of the old law. God clearly got it right first time. Moses in Deuteronomy 5:22 states this quite clearly, ”These words the LORD spoke to all your assembly, in the mountain from the midst of the fire, the cloud, and the thick darkness, with a loud voice; and He added no more. And He wrote them on two tablets of stone and gave them to me.” There was no changing God’s law to fit the circumstances. God’s law was a ‘one fits all’, it was right from the very beginning. We tend towards adapting the law to suit our situation, sadly, even the church is guilty of this. We, wrongly, state that we are living in a more enlightened society and, therefore, old laws don’t meet the circumstances. Not so with God’s law.
Deuteronomy is thought to have been written around 1406 BC, at the end of the forty years of wandering from leaving Egypt. It is stated that the author is Moses but of course, he could not have written the last chapter of the book which deals with his own death. It is clear, however, that he ‘recorded’ the other parts of the book, and he was reminding them of the journeys and what God had done for them and how He had kept them despite their disobedience along the way. The final chapter was probably thought to have been written by Joshua.
It thought that it was told to the younger generation who were about to enter the Promised Land. It contains a lot of laws and Moses reminds this new generation of the vital importance of obedience, learning from the things of the past. Obviously, they are Moses’ final words to them.
