Deuteronomy 31

After reading chapter 31:


*Moses says that he is now 120 years old and Yahweh told him he would not cross the Jordan. Yahweh will cross over the Jordon along with Joshua. Wait a minute, why does Yahweh need to cross the Jordan? Isn't Yahweh an omnipresent god, ruling over the entire earth? Apparently Moses and the authors of Deuteronomy didn't know that. So, the Israelite's God would deliver the people and the land into the hands of the Israelites and it would be their inheritance. They are not to be afraid, yet.

*Moses wrote down the laws and gave them to the Levite priests,to be read at the end of every seven years, during the feast of tabernacles. Everyone, men, women, and children,  must hear and learn the law and learn to fear Yahweh as long as they live in the promised land.

*Then Yahweh told Moses his death was imminent. So, Joshua was commissioned at the tabernacle to be the replacement leader. Yahweh appeared over the tent as the pillar of cloud and told Moses it wouldn't be long before the people broke the covenant. Then Yahweh would be angry and the consequences would be bad. (Why was he angry if he already knew this would happen? Of what benefit are emotions in an eternal deity? How does he feel anger without a brain, body, cortisol, and adrenaline?) Moses wrote a song about the coming events of their destruction and taught it to the Israelites. The song appears in the next chapter.

*Again, we are told Moses wrote down the law and gave it to the Levites. They were to put the book of the law beside the Ark of the covenant where it would be a witness against the Israelites because they are so rebellious and provoking. The elders and officials were to be assembled so Moses could tell them how they would deserve what they had coming to them when they broke the covenant.  Heaven and earth would also be witnesses. After all two or more witnesses are required in a legal proceeding. Before the Israelites even got to the promised land they were heaped with the guilt of their descendants.