Deuteronomy 31

Today’s Passage: Deuteronomy 31

Moses is a hundred and twenty years old, and he tells Israel plainly that he will not cross the Jordan with them. But the news is not that they are being left alone. The LORD Himself will cross over ahead of them, and Joshua will lead them in. So Moses charges the whole assembly, and then Joshua, to be strong and courageous, because the God who goes with them will never leave nor forsake them. He writes the law down and commands that it be read aloud to everyone every seventh year, so that no generation forgets. The LORD commissions Joshua at the tent. And knowing His people will one day turn away, God gives Moses a song to teach them, a witness that will testify to the truth even when their hearts grow cold.

As you read, hold this: As his life closes, Moses hands on the leadership and the word, because the LORD Himself goes with His people and will never leave nor forsake them.

Deuteronomy 31:1–6 (BSB)

¹ When Moses had finished speaking these words to all Israel, ² he said to them, “I am now a hundred and twenty years old; I am no longer able to come and go, and the LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the Jordan.’ ³ The LORD your God Himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will dispossess them. Joshua will cross ahead of you, as the LORD has said. ⁴ And the LORD will do to them as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, when He destroyed them along with their land. ⁵ The LORD will deliver them over to you, and you must do to them exactly as I have commanded you. ⁶ Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.”

Moses names his own limit without flinching. He is a hundred and twenty, he can no longer come and go, and the LORD has told him he will not cross the Jordan. That could have been a word of despair. Instead Moses turns it immediately into a word of assurance, and notice where he puts the weight. The one who really goes over ahead of them is not Moses and not even Joshua, but the LORD your God Himself. Joshua will cross, yes, but only because God is already going first. So the charge lands: be strong (חֲזַק) chazaq, pronounced khah-ZAK. Strong's H2388, to be strong, grip tight, fasten firmly. The word means to hold firm, to take a firm grip. It is the same command God will press on Joshua again and again as he steps into leadership. But hear what it is joined to. Moses does not tell Israel to summon courage out of nothing, as if bravery were a thing they had to manufacture. He tells them to be strong because the LORD goes with them. The command is really an invitation to lean the whole weight of their fear onto the God who will not forsake them. Strength here is not the absence of a good reason to be afraid. It is the presence of a God who is greater than the reason. and courageous, do not be afraid, and here is the reason, spoken over the whole nation, that the LORD your God is the one who goes with you, and He will never leave you nor forsake you. Their courage does not rest on their own strength or on the leader they can see. It rests on the God who does not leave.

Deuteronomy 31:7–8 (BSB)

⁷ Then Moses called for Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you will go with this people into the land that the LORD swore to their fathers to give them, and you shall give it to them as an inheritance. ⁸ The LORD Himself goes before you; He will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”

Having spoken to the whole nation, Moses now turns to the one man who must carry them, and he does it in the open, in the presence of all Israel, so everyone sees the leadership handed on. The words to Joshua are almost the same words Moses gave the people, because the promise does not change with the office. Be strong and courageous. And the ground of it is identical: the LORD Himself goes before you, He will be with you, He will never leave you nor forsake you. Joshua is not being handed a burden he must bear alone. He is being handed a God who has already gone ahead. That is the only thing that makes any leader able to stand, then or now, that the LORD goes first and stays close.

Deuteronomy 31:9–13 (BSB)

⁹ So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. ¹⁰ Then Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of remission of debt, during the Feast of Tabernacles, ¹¹ when all Israel comes before the LORD your God at the place He will choose, you are to read this law in the hearing of all Israel. ¹² Assemble the people—men, women, children, and the foreigners within your gates—so that they may listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and to follow carefully all the words of this law. ¹³ Then their children who do not know the law will listen and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

Moses does more than speak. He writes the law down and hands it to the priests and elders, so that when his own voice is gone the words remain. And then he builds a rhythm to keep them alive. Every seventh year, at the Feast of Tabernacles, the whole law is to be read aloud in the hearing of all Israel. Look at who is gathered for it: not the scholars only, not the leaders only, but everyone. Men and women, children, and the foreigner living among them. No one is too young and no one is too far outside to be shut out of the words of God. The purpose is stated twice, that they may listen and learn to fear the LORD, and that even the children who do not yet know the law would hear it and learn to fear Him too. This is how a people keeps from forgetting across generations. The word is read aloud, again and again, into every set of ears in the room.

Deuteronomy 31:14–18 (BSB)

¹⁴ Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, the time of your death is near. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the Tent of Meeting, so that I may commission him.” So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the Tent of Meeting. ¹⁵ Then the LORD appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance to the tent. ¹⁶ And the LORD said to Moses, “You will soon rest with your fathers, and these people will rise up and prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake Me and break the covenant I have made with them. ¹⁷ On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and afflictions will befall them. On that day they will say, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is no longer with us?’ ¹⁸ And on that day I will surely hide My face because of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods.

The commissioning of Joshua happens where it should, at the Tent of Meeting, with the LORD appearing in the pillar of cloud over the entrance. God Himself installs the new leader. But right beside that moment comes a hard and honest word. The LORD tells Moses plainly what is coming: after Moses rests with his fathers, this very people will turn away, chase after the foreign gods of the land, and break the covenant. God does not pretend it will go otherwise. He names the coming unfaithfulness before it happens, and He names its cost, that His people will one day feel as though He is no longer with them. It is a sobering thing to see the whole future laid bare like this, the turning and the trouble both. And yet the LORD is not caught off guard by any of it. He knows His people through and through, and even now, before they have crossed the river, He is making provision for the day they forget.

Deuteronomy 31:19–22 (BSB)

¹⁹ Now therefore, write down for yourselves this song and teach it to the Israelites; have them recite it, so that it may be a witness for Me against them. ²⁰ When I have brought them into the land that I swore to give their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, they will eat their fill and prosper. Then they will turn to other gods and worship them, and they will reject Me and break My covenant. ²¹ And when many troubles and afflictions have come upon them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants. For I know their inclination, even before I bring them into the land that I swore to give them.” ²² So that very day Moses wrote down this song and taught it to the Israelites.

Here is the LORD’s provision for the forgetting. He gives Moses a song. Not a lecture, not a stone monument only, but a song to be written down, taught, and recited, so that it lives in the mouths of the people and their children after them. And God says something striking about why a song: because it will not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants. A tune stays when a sermon fades. A song can be carried into a generation that has drifted from the covenant, and it will still be there, quietly testifying to the truth, waiting. God knows the inclination of His people before they even enter the land, and rather than leaving them defenseless against their own forgetfulness, He plants the truth in a form their hearts cannot easily lose. That very day, Moses writes it down and teaches it. The witness is set in place before it is ever needed.

Deuteronomy 31:23 (BSB)

²³ Then the LORD commissioned Joshua son of Nun and said, “Be strong and courageous, for you will bring the Israelites into the land that I swore to give them, and I will be with you.”

For a third time in this chapter the same charge is spoken, and this time it comes straight from the LORD’s own mouth to Joshua: be strong and courageous. First Moses said it to the people, then to Joshua before the nation, and now God Himself says it directly to the new leader. And the reason is always the same reason, the single thread that holds the whole chapter together. Not because Joshua is capable enough, but because, in God’s own words, I will be with you. The presence of God is what turns a frightened successor into a leader who can walk a nation across a river.

Deuteronomy 31:24–30 (BSB)

²⁴ When Moses had finished writing in a book the words of this law from beginning to end, ²⁵ he gave this command to the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD: ²⁶ “Take this Book of the Law and place it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God, so that it may remain there as a witness against you. ²⁷ For I know how rebellious and stiff-necked you are. If you are already rebelling against the LORD while I am still alive, how much more will you rebel after my death! ²⁸ Assemble before me all the elders of your tribes and all your officers so that I may speak these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them. ²⁹ For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt and turn from the path I have commanded you. And in the days to come, disaster will befall you because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke Him to anger by the work of your hands.” ³⁰ Then Moses recited aloud to the whole assembly of Israel the words of this song from beginning to end:

Moses finishes writing the law and gives it a home: beside the ark of the covenant, where it will remain as a lasting witness. He is clear-eyed about his people to the very last. He has watched them rebel while he was still among them, and he does not imagine that will change once he is gone. So he takes no chances with the word. He writes it in a book, places it beside the ark, gathers the elders and officers to hear it, and calls heaven and earth themselves to witness. The truth is set down in a book, set beside the ark, set into a song, and set into the ears of the leaders, all at once. And then Moses lifts his voice and recites the whole song aloud to the entire assembly. His last great act as leader is not to secure his own legacy but to make sure the word of God will outlast him, standing guard over a people he knows will wander.