D’VARIM

“On the first day of the eleventh month of the fortieth year, Moshe spoke to the people of Isra’el, reviewing everything Adonai had ordered him to tell them.”
Deuteronomy 1:3

I remember back to my days in college, to a Saturday specifically, when all students as a part of the general education requirements had to “Walk Thru the Old Testament”. Some of the key words I can even remember the hand motions to. The book of Deuteronomy is one of those. I remember placing my hands together like a book, then opening them as I said aloud, “Second Law”. Oh what good times. If I had known then what Adonai has been showing me now, however, I may have had a little more respect for those early stages in my theology classes.
But the key words taught to us in the course were correct, and are seen in the opening verses of this final book of Moshe. On the far side of the Jordan, in the desert of ‘Aravah, Moshe collected all the people and gave once more the words of Adonai. But why? Granted the people had been through a lot, and had been exposed to the sun for forty years, but why was the Law having to be given again? If you remember back to Numbers 13, ten spies came back with an ill report of the land, spreading depressing news within the camp. As a result, Adonai pushed the people by demanding a year in the desert for each day the spies were gone. Additionally, the older generation that started the trip from Egypt died in the desert. Adonai was asking Moshe to share with the younger, now still living generation of Hebrews, to make sure that they would recall the same Laws first given.
Beginning with a recollection of the days in Egypt when Moshe first saw the vast number of people, going to the time when he began to judge, Adonai brought the people to Kadesh-Barnea. Now, to the people, Adonai was saying to go up and possess the land.

Deuteronomy 1:1-11
Deuteronomy 1:12-21