Jesus in Deuteronomy

Deuteronomy continues with the wandering of the Israelites and the recount of the promises and instructions for God’s people. You, Jesus, are the culmination of the promise of God.

I see you in Moses the prophet, deliverer, mediator, messenger. You carry the words of God. You are the word of God…God in flesh.

God doesn’t want His people in poverty or bondage. He makes a way for freedom and provision (Deut 15:1-18). He declares a year of Jubilee every seven years – a Sabbath, a year of rest and renewal -- where debts are canceled and servant workers set free. What joy as every seventh year rolls around. What freedom as the debt burdens are removed. Those formerly enslaved walk a little lighter, a little jump in their step. Freedom. A new start. That doesn’t even come close to the freedom you give us, Jesus, when you paid for our debts on the cross. The heavy burden of guilt, shame, eternal punishment rolled off our shoulders and onto yours. In turn, we get your white robe, your crown, your righteousness. Freedom. A new start.

I see you, Jesus, as the only one who could ever satisfy the instructions for a king God lays out and Moses utters to the people (Deut 17:14-20). One of the Lord’s choosing. A fellow Israelite. One who doesn’t acquire many things, gold, silver, wives. One with whom the law is known and ever present. One who is humble, who doesn’t consider others better than themselves. Only you fit that job description, Jesus.

You are the prophet to come Moses speaks of (Duet 18:14-22), the firstfruit offering and the firstfruit of resurrection life (Deut 26:1-15). You are the gap Deuteronomy closes with that doesn’t seem will ever be filled…

¹⁰ And there has not arisen a prophet since in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face,¹¹ none like him for all the signs and the wonders that the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, ¹² and for all the mighty power and all the great deeds of terror that Moses did in the sight of all Israel. Deuteronomy 34:10-12

And you, Jesus, become the curse for us. The one person who doesn’t deserve it who takes it for all of us who do.

²² “And if a man has committed a crime punishable by death and he is put to death, and you hang him on a tree, ²³ his body shall not remain all night on the tree, but you shall bury him the same day, for a hanged man is cursed by God. Deuteronomy 21:22-23a

Finally, as Moses, who though flawed served faithfully, steps into his last days knowing he will not enter the promised land, God takes him atop a mountain to see it. I can’t help but picture Moses with you in that beautiful moment hundreds of years later before your last days on earth…

And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. ² And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light. ³ And behold, there appeared to them Moses and Elijah, talking with him. Matthew 17:1-3

You, Jesus, usher in the ultimate promised land. Moses enters it and watches it unfold from above. And thanks to your work on the cross, we too can enter it.