What's the Book of Deuteronomy About?

   The book of Deuteronomy opens up with Moses recounting the journey of the children of Israel to all the kids who had been born during the 40 years of their wilderness trek. Only Joshua and Caleb were still alive when Moses had given the Israelites the 10 commandments plus all the statutes, and ordinances.

    Like every Life-Study Witness Lee opens up with an introduction. He says the literal word for Deuteronomy is "second law," which signifies that it is a re-speaking. Because Deuteronomy is a repetition of the law, he asks his readers if they know what the nature of the law is. 

    The answer he gave may surprise you like it did me. It's that the law is God's breathing because Paul tells us in 2 Timothy 3:16 that ALL Scripture is God-breathed.  Even the seemingly tedious statutes and ordinances given in Exodus and Leviticus arerepeated again in Deuteronomy. And as the word breathed out of God's mouth, God wanted His people to know that these words were their spiritual food.  He quoted this verse to show that fact: 

And He humbled you and let you go hungry and fed you the manna, which you had never known nor your fathers had ever known, so that He might make you know that man lives not by bread alone, but that man lives by everything that proceeds out from the mouth of Jehovah.   Deuteronomy 8:3

  
Here's his commentary on this verse which is on page 3:

Notice that this verse [Deut. 8:3] does not speak of every word but of everything. The words written in the Pentateuch, of which Deuteronomy is the conclusion, are things which have proceeded out of the mouth of God.  These things are God's breathing. While Moses was with God on Mount Sinai, many things were breathed out by God. The ten commandments, for example, are items of the basic law. Nevertheless, even the Ten commandments are God's breathing.  If we read these commandments with an open heart and with a seeking and exercised spirit, we will sense that the commandments are not merely legalities but also something living, something full of life to supply us and full of light to enlighten us (Lee, Witness. Life-Study of Deuteronomy. Anaheim: Living Stream Ministry, 1991, Print).

 I am more familiar with the last part of this verse because the Lord quoted it to Satan when he tempted him to turn rocks into bread (Matthew 4:4).  Even way back in Deuteronomy God wanted His people to know our human life isn't centered on physical loaves of bread. It's about taking time to get into God's word to get a spiritual supply to meet the day.  Everything starts here.

 You can listen to excerpts of Witness Lee's speaking the Life-Study of Deuteronomy on Life Study of the Bible with Witness Lee.   You can also read the online Life-Studies of Deuteronomy and check out other resources available to enhance your study of the Bible on Living Stream Ministry's website.

Other Posts on Deuteronomy:

What's the book of Deuteronomy about?

The Importance of the Place of Worship in Deuteronomy 12