GCS Camp 2012: Dueteronomy

Deuteronomy is one of the most important books in the Old Testament - in the entire Bible.  When satan tempted Christ three times in the wilderness (Matthew 4:1-11), Christ rebuffed him from Deuteronomy each time: “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every Word that proceeds out of the mouth of God” (Deuteronomy 8:3); “You shall not put the LORD your God to the test” (6:16) and “You shall worship the LORD your God, and serve Him only” (6:13).  Christ teaches us to defeat satan over and over, having faith in the Person & Character of God through total immersion in the truths of Scripture.

This is why Moses wrote Deuteronomy.  Moses was teaching God’s people how to live and not die: by carefully focusing on, remembering, cherishing, obeying and ordering their lives according to every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.  Deuteronomy is Moses’ last book – his dying book.  Moses himself had violated God’s Word and would die without entering the Promised Land (Numbers 20:12; Deuteronomy 34:5).  An entire generation of Israelites died in the wilderness, over 600,000 adult males, because they disobeyed God’s Word (Numbers 2:46; 14:23; Hebrews 3:18).  Therefore, before he died, Moses wrote the first 5 books of the Bible - Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers & Deuteronomy – as a legacy, so that God’s people would read, remember, cherish, obey, worship, love and serve God, instead of experiencing His fierce wrath because of their disobedience and lack of faith (Hebrews 4:2).

From Genesis to Revelation, from Moses to Christ, the core of the spiritual life remains the same: to cherish the Person & Character of God through careful attention to and reverence for God’s Word.  During Summer Celebration 2012, Grace Church of Sacramento will apply these same lessons that both Moses and Christ taught in the wilderness and in their ministries:  God’s people, who are rebels at heart, must always go BACK TO THE SCRIPTURE.