Sabbath: Deuteronomy in the Later Writings

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Sabbath Afternoon

Read for This Week’s Study: 2 Kings 22:1-20,Nehemiah 9:6, Jeremiah 7:1-7, Psalm 148:4, Jeremiah 29:13, Micah 6:1-8, Daniel 9:1-19.

Memory Text: “The LORD delighted only in your fathers, to love them: and He chose their descendants after them, you above all peoples, as it is this day” (Deuteronomy 10:15).

One of the fascinating things about the Bible, especially the Old Testament, is how often it refers or alludes to itself; that is, later writers in the Old Testament refer to earlier ones, using them and their writings to make their point.

Psalm 81, for example, goes back to the book of Exodus and then almost quotes verbatim from the preamble of the Ten Commandments when the psalmist wrote: “I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt” (Psalm 81:10).

All through the Old Testament, Genesis — especially the Creation story — is referred to, such as in “I beheld the earth, and indeed it was without form, and void; and the heavens, they had no light” (Jeremiah 4:23; see also Genesis 1:2).

And yes, many times the later writers of the Old Testament, such as the prophets, referred back to the book of Deuteronomy, which played such a central role in the covenantal life of early Israel. This week we will focus on how the book was used by later writers. What parts of Deuteronomy did they use, and what points were they making that have relevance for us today?