Well, we’re coming into the home stretch of Deuteronomy – only two sermons left and then we’ll start a series on Biblical Priorities called “First Things First” where we’ll spend the summer looking at twelve verses that tell us to do something “first.”  I think it will be helpful for us all.

Meanwhile, Deuteronomy concludes by focusing on a challenge facing Israel: living life in the land without Moses.  Moses makes provision for this in a number of ways, but his most important role, as covenant mediator, is the trickiest to address.  Perhaps that is why these final chapters, even while making practical provisions, shift the focus back to the heart of the matter: the covenant itself.  It’s as if Moses is telling the people that, in the end, they must learn to trust God for themselves.  In this way, Deuteronomy portrays the covenant itself as the environment in which Israel can come to know God better.

But these chapters, and we’ll be in chapters 27-30 this Sunday, also point us to the Gospel of God’s Grace as it’s found in Jesus Christ.  Some of the verses contrast God’s blessings and curses (quite graphic and disturbing) and force us to face the wrath of God, and to consider the surpassing value of God’s grace, since the only one who kept the covenant perfectly was our new covenant mediator, the Lord Jesus.  So the covenant always points us to Him and to His gospel.  And that’s what we need.  See you Sunday, Dr. Dave