Covenant Renewal on the Plains of Moab Text: Deuteronomy 1:1-5
Introduction: The Second Law for the Second Generation
The book of Deuteronomy is a book of covenant renewal. It is the second giving of the law, not because the first one was faulty, but because the first generation to receive it was. They had perished in the wilderness. Now, on the plains of Moab, on the very cusp of the promised land, Moses preaches a series of sermons to their children. This is not a dry, legalistic recitation of statutes. This is passionate, pastoral preaching. This is a father charging his children, reminding them of who they are, where they came from, what God has done, and what He requires of them as they prepare to go in and possess the land.
We live in an age that disdains memory. Our culture is obsessed with the new, the now, the next. It wants to sever all ties with the past, to tear down the monuments, to rewrite the histories, and to live as though we were all born yesterday with no debts, no heritage, and no obligations. But a people without a memory is a people without an identity, and a people without an identity is a people ripe for conquest. This is precisely what Moses is fighting against. He is anchoring this new generation in their history, the history of God's covenant faithfulness in the face of their fathers' staggering unfaithfulness.
Deuteronomy is structured like an ancient Near Eastern suzerainty treaty, a covenant between a great king and his vassal people. There is a preamble, a historical prologue, the stipulations of the treaty, the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience, and the calling of witnesses. God is the Great King, and Israel is His people. He is reminding them of the terms of their relationship. This is not a contract between equals; it is a covenant of grace, initiated and defined entirely by the sovereign. He saved them not because they were great, but because He is gracious and because He made a promise to their fathers.
And so, as we stand with Israel on the plains of Moab, we must see ourselves in this story. The Christian church is the new Israel, and we too are gathered on the border of our inheritance, waiting for the command to go forward and take the world for Christ. We too have a history of God's faithfulness to remember and a history of our own faltering to confess. We too need to hear the law expounded, not as a means of earning our salvation, but as the very shape of the life of gratitude that we are called to live. Deuteronomy is God's exhortation to the troops just before the Normandy invasion. It is a refresher course on the terms of victory.
The Text
These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab. It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea. Now it happened, in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that Yahweh had commanded him to give to them, after he had struck down Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei. Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law, saying, (Deuteronomy 1:1-5 LSB)
The Authority of the Word (v. 1)
We begin with the declaration of authorship and authority.
"These are the words which Moses spoke to all Israel across the Jordan in the wilderness, in the Arabah opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel and Laban and Hazeroth and Dizahab." (Deuteronomy 1:1)
The book begins by grounding us in historical reality. "These are the words." This is not mythology. This is not a collection of timeless ethical principles. This is a record of what a specific man, Moses, said to a specific people, "all Israel," in a specific place, "across the Jordan," at a specific time. The litany of place names, some of which are obscure to us now, serves to anchor the event in real-world geography. This happened. These words were spoken.
And who is speaking? Moses. But as we will see in verse 3, Moses is not speaking on his own authority. He is God's mouthpiece. The words of Moses are the words of God. This is the foundation of all biblical authority. When the prophet speaks, God speaks. To disobey the prophet is to disobey God. This is why the New Testament can speak of the "law of Moses" and the "law of God" interchangeably. This is not a human book with some divine insights; it is a divine book delivered through a human instrument.
Notice also that he spoke to "all Israel." The covenant is not a private affair. It is a corporate reality. The law is given to the entire nation, and the entire nation is responsible for keeping it. This establishes the principle of corporate solidarity. The nation will be blessed as a nation for obedience, and it will be judged as a nation for disobedience. This is a truth our radically individualistic age has forgotten. We are not autonomous individuals; we are members of families, churches, and nations, and we share in their covenantal blessings and curses.
A Painful Reminder (v. 2)
Verse 2 is a parenthetical comment, but it is a devastating one. It drips with holy irony.
"It is eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of Mount Seir to Kadesh-barnea." (Deuteronomy 1:2 LSB)
Horeb is another name for Mount Sinai, where the law was first given. Kadesh-barnea was the staging ground for the first, abortive attempt to enter the promised land. The journey from the mountain of God to the border of the inheritance should have taken eleven days. But where are they now? As verse 3 tells us, it is the fortieth year. An eleven-day trip has turned into a forty-year funeral march. Why?
Because of unbelief. At Kadesh-barnea, the people rebelled. They heard the report of the spies, saw the giants in the land, and their hearts melted. They refused to trust God's promise and refused to go in. As a result, God swore in His wrath that that entire generation would perish in the wilderness, one year for every day the spies were in the land. This one verse is a monument to the catastrophic consequences of disobedience. It is a memorial to a generation that died in the desert because they would not take God at His word.
Moses inserts this here as a sharp, pastoral jab. He is saying to this new generation, "Do not be like your fathers. What should have taken them less than two weeks took them a lifetime of wandering and ended in death. Do not repeat their mistake." The path of obedience is direct. The path of rebellion is a long, circular, and ultimately fatal detour.
The Setting for the Sermon (v. 3-4)
Verses 3 and 4 establish the precise historical moment for this great covenant renewal ceremony.
"Now it happened, in the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the children of Israel, according to all that Yahweh had commanded him to give to them, after he had struck down Sihon the king of the Amorites, who lived in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, who lived in Ashtaroth and Edrei." (Deuteronomy 1:3-4 LSB)
The date is specific: the fortieth year, eleventh month, first day. The old generation is dead. The forty years of judgment are complete. A new day is dawning. And Moses speaks, but notice the qualifier: "according to all that Yahweh had commanded him." Once again, the authority is divine. Moses is under orders. He is not giving them his own reflections on the past forty years. He is delivering the unvarnished Word of God.
And what is the immediate context? Victory. They have just defeated two powerful Amorite kings, Sihon and Og. These kings had refused Israel safe passage, and God had given them into Israel's hand. This was a foretaste of the conquest to come. These victories were God's down payment, His earnest money, proving that His promise to give them the land was good. He had demonstrated His power on their behalf. The giants they now faced were no bigger than the giants God had already defeated for them.
This is a crucial lesson. God's past faithfulness is the ground of our future confidence. He is reminding the people, "Look at what I have just done. The enemies ahead are no match for me. The God who defeated Sihon and Og is the same God who is leading you into Canaan." This is why we must constantly rehearse the mighty acts of God, both in Scripture and in our own lives. Remembering God's past deliverances fuels our faith to face present and future battles.
The Task of Preaching (v. 5)
Finally, verse 5 describes the nature of Moses' task. It is the task of every faithful preacher.
"Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law, saying," (Deuteronomy 1:5 LSB)
The key word here is "expound." The Hebrew word means to make plain, to explain, to clarify. Moses is not simply reading the law. He is preaching it. He is applying it to their specific situation. He is taking the timeless principles of God's covenant and showing this new generation how it applies to them, right here, right now, on the plains of Moab.
This is what faithful preaching has always been. It is not the invention of new truths. It is the clear explanation and powerful application of the old truths, the ones delivered once for all to the saints. The preacher's job is to take the Word of God and "make it plain." He is to connect it to the lives of his people, to show them its relevance, to press its claims upon their consciences, and to call them to faith and obedience.
Moses is about to give them the law a second time. But it is more than a repetition. It is an exposition. He is showing them the heart of the law, which is love for God and love for neighbor. He is explaining the spirit of the law, not just the letter. He is preparing them not just to conquer a piece of real estate, but to build a society, a civilization, founded upon the justice and righteousness of God's good law.
Conclusion: Our Deuteronomy Moment
We too are living in a Deuteronomy moment. We are a generation that has seen the failures of our fathers. We have wandered in the wilderness of secularism and seen its bitter fruit. And now God is calling us to stand up, to cross over, and to take our inheritance. He is calling us to build a Christendom that is faithful to His Word.
To do this, we must do what Israel did. We must stop and listen to the law of God being expounded. We must remember our history, the good and the bad. We must recall God's mighty acts of salvation, supremely in the death and resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ, who is the true Israel and our victorious King. He has already defeated our Sihon and Og, that is, sin and death. He has already secured our inheritance.
And so, the Word comes to us today as it came to them then. It is not a distant word, high in heaven or across the sea. "But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it" (Deut. 30:14). That word, Paul tells us in Romans 10, is the word of faith which we preach: that Jesus is Lord. He is our law. He is our life. He is our victory. Therefore, let us hear His word, let us trust His promises, and let us go forth in His name to possess the land.