Deuteronomy is Moses speaking. After forty years in the wilderness, he's about to die. He sees the Promised Land but won't enter it. And instead of bitterness, he preaches to the people. He recounts the law. He reminds them of God's faithfulness.
I've noticed something in this voice that's different from the Moses at the beginning of Numbers. He's not angry or urgent. He's reflective. He's seen forty years of God's provision, forty years of the people's stubbornness, forty years of his own failure and faithfulness.
When I was a younger pastor, I preached from urgency and fear. Now, in my fifties, I find myself preaching from something slower and deeper. I can see patterns now that I couldn't see before. I can see how God was working even in the hard parts. I can see that faithfulness doesn't depend on everything working out the way I expected.
Moses is handing over his authority to Joshua now. But first he's giving the people something more important than authority - he's giving them a framework for remembering what God has done and what God expects. That's what an elder does. That's what Moses is doing here.
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