PROLOGUE — The Beginning of the Final Section
Deuteronomy 31 opens this book’s final major section (Moses’s final days, chapters 31–34). Moses now formalizes the transition of leadership, both before the people and personally to Joshua. At the same time, God reveals to Moses a very dark future — Israel’s inevitable apostasy.
ACT ONE — Be Strong and of Good Courage (verses 1–8)
“And Moses went and spake these words unto all Israel. And he said unto them, I am an hundred and twenty years old this day; I can no more go out and come in: also the LORD hath said unto me, Thou shalt not go over this Jordan.”
I am an hundred and twenty years old… thou shalt not go over this Jordan. Moses calmly declared that his death was imminent. But his next words were filled not with fear, but with confidence.
“Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the LORD thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”
Be strong and of good courage… he will not fail thee. After proclaiming this encouragement before the whole people, Moses called Joshua aside and personally delivered the same message once more — both public affirmation and private encouragement were needed.
ACT TWO — Read the Law Every Seven Years (verses 9–13)
“And Moses wrote this law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and unto all the elders of Israel… At the end of every seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the feast of tabernacles… thou shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and observe to do all the words of this law.”
At the end of every seven years… thou shalt read it in their hearing. This regular, communal reading was an institution ensuring that the law never remained in an archive, but was heard afresh by every living generation.
ACT THREE — The Warning of Coming Apostasy, and the Command for a Song (verses 14–30)
God appeared directly to Moses and Joshua, delivering a remarkably dark prophecy.
“And the LORD said unto Moses… this people will rise up, and go a whoring after the gods of the strangers of the land, whither they go to be among them, and will forsake me, and break my covenant which I have made with them. Then my anger shall be kindled against them in that day, and I will forsake them, and I will hide my face from them, and they shall be devoured, and many evils and troubles shall befall them; so that they will say in that day, Are not these evils come upon us, because our God is not among us?”
Go a whoring after the gods of the strangers. God foretold Israel’s future apostasy as a certain fact — this was not pessimism, but sober realism.
To prepare for this apostasy, God commanded a distinctive countermeasure.
“Now therefore write ye this song for you, and teach it the children of Israel: put it in their mouths, that this song may be a witness for me against the children of Israel… And it shall come to pass, when many evils and troubles are befallen them, that this song shall testify against them as a witness; for it shall not be forgotten out of the mouths of their seed.”
Let it become a witness through song. This was practical wisdom — a song is remembered longer and more deeply than a legal text. Moses’s song, which follows in the next chapter (32), was given precisely for this purpose.
REFLECTION — A Love That Prepares Even While Foreseeing Failure
What Deuteronomy 31 teaches us is that even though God already knew Israel’s future failure, He never gave up on them — instead, He prepared them even more carefully. Knowing the apostasy to come, God still planted truth into their memory through the creative means of a song.
Even knowing the possibility of failure, do you refuse to give up on those you love, and prepare them wisely instead?
NEXT EPISODE PREVIEW
Deuteronomy Chapter 32 — the Song of Moses, a magnificent poem containing the whole of Israel’s history and the character of God, unfolds.
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