Deuteronomy 10-12 Obey and Love the Lord

Thoughts

Deuteronomy 10

God tells Moses to carve two new stone tablets like the first ones (which Moses broke). Moses also builds an ark to hold them.

Brief travel notes and the Levites

• Mentions the journey of Israel, Aaron’s death, and Eleazar becoming high priest.
• The Levites are set apart to carry the ark and serve the Lord, and they will not receive land because the Lord is their inheritance.

Verse 16: Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. Now isn’t that a verse! God wants not just outward transformation but inward as well.

A call to Israel:

• Fear the Lord, walk in His ways, love Him, serve Him, and keep His commands.
• God is the God of gods, shows no partiality, and loves the foreigner.
• Israel is reminded of God’s mighty deeds, including multiplying them from 70 people to a great nation.

Verse 22: Your fathers went down to Egypt seventy persons, and now the Lord your God has made you as numerous as the stars of heaven.

Deuteronomy 11

Israel is told to love the Lord, keep His commands, and remember what He did:

• His mighty acts in Egypt
• The Red Sea
• The earth swallowing Dathan and Abiram (rebels with Korah),
• His discipline and miracles during the wilderness years.

If Israel obeys, they will thrive in the land cared for by God Himself. God promises to send rain, blessing crops and livestock.

In Egypt, farmers would irrigate their fields by manual labor (from the Nile) because it did not rain often. The Promised Land would not rely on this, but through God’s rain.

If they turn to other gods, He will shut the heavens and the land will fail. Canaanite gods were thought to ‘control the weather’ and they are warned against following those gods.

Israel must “bind these words” on their hands and foreheads, teach them to their children, and write them on their homes (tefillin and mezuzot practices I mentioned before).

If they are careful to keep God’s commands, God will give them strength to take the land. No one will stand against them, and their territory will be vast 

Moses sets before them a choice: blessing for obedience, curse for disobedience.

Verse 29 And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
These are two mountains near Shechem, standing opposite each other. When Israel entered the land, half of the tribes would stand on Gerizim and pronounce blessings, while the other half stood on Ebal to pronounce curses (Joshua 8:30–35). 

Deuteronomy 12

Israel must completely tear down altars, sacred pillars, Asherah poles, and idols used by the nations. They are not to worship God in the same way the nations worshiped their gods.

God will choose a specific place for His name to dwell (later, the temple in Jerusalem).

Israelites can eat meat freely within their towns (not as a sacrifice) as long as they drain the blood, because blood is sacred and represents life.

Israel must not adopt the practices of the nations they drive out. God explicitly forbids their practices such as child sacrifice

DO NOT ADD OR SUBTRACT FROM GOD’S COMMANDS

Questions

Was Moses’ breaking of the first tablets what God wanted?

Still dying to know what God’s handwriting looks like

Application

A common theme from these chapters is that obedience is not just a ritual to be followed day after day. God wants a radical change in our hearts and a true longing to follow His commands. We can pray, tithe, go to church, help others, etc. but if we are just doing it to check off a box then we’ve missed the point. God wants love, gratitude, and trust in Him. Our obedience should flow from a relationship with Him, which will then reflect His love for us.