Here's how I see the book of Deuteronomy - it's basically a final set of instructions from Moses to the chosen people. It comes across very similar to a scene of parents dropping their child off at college and reminding them of everything they've been taught the previous 18 years. Moses is not telling his people anything new. He knows his time is limited. He won't go into the promised land. The closest thing the poor guy gets is to go up to the top of Mt. Pisgah and look at it from afar. But before his people can go on without him, Moses needs to remind them of all the things they've been instructed to do, and not to do. He even repeats the 10 Commandments.
I can almost feel Moses' urgency in giving these final lessons. With the benefit of hindsight, I know these people are not going to uphold their end of the deal with God. Does Moses know this too? It seems like it. He desperately wants his people to keep their covenant with God. They won't.
After giving the people one last reminder that their future is up to them, Moses sanctions Joshua to take his place, blesses the tribes, sends them on their way to complete the task started 40 years earlier, and dies on Mt. Nebo.
Why are lessons so hard to learn? Why do we struggle to do the right thing? It's easy for me to read these books and look down my nose on these people that seem to be very slow learners. But 3400 years later, have we learned anything?
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