Why Read and Study the BookS of deuteRonomy and heBReWS ...

Why Read and Study the Books of Deuteronomy and Hebrews Together?

God may do remarkable acts to bring one generation of humanity into a saving relationship with himself. But these acts will become just artifacts of history if the next generation doesn't respond to them and join in that relationship themselves, keeping the same opportunity alive for future generations as well.

The most important saving act of God recorded in the First Testament is the exodus, the deliverance of the people of Israel from slavery in Egypt. The most important saving act of God recorded in the New Testament--indeed, the culmination of the whole story in the Bible--is the incarnation, life, death, and resurrection of Jesus. Two biblical books are addressed to people living in the generations right after each of these events, calling them to embrace in their own day, and for the sake of future generations, the salvation that God has inaugurated through these acts.

Deuteronomy speaks to people who lived one generation after the exodus. Hebrews speaks to people who lived one generation after Jesus. Both books stress that God's redemptive acts were not just for those who were alive when they happened; rather, these acts present every generation with a call to decision and an invitation to relationship. In Deuteronomy Moses tells the children of the Israelites who came out of Egypt, "It was not only with our parents that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today." The author of Hebrews similarly urges his listeners, "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts," insisting that the same opportunity that people had in the past to embrace God "still remains."

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Both books invite their audiences to become part of a new covenant, a new way in which God's ongoing relationship with the community of faith will be expressed. Deuteronomy invites the Israelites of the wilderness generation, whose nation had long related to God under the covenant made centuries before with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to embrace the covenant God had just made in the previous generation with Moses. Hebrews invites first-century Jewish believers in Jesus to recognize that through him God had established a long-promised new kind of covenant, in which the spiritual realities behind the physical features of the covenant with Moses become directly accessible, dissolving the earlier covenant itself in their heavenly glory.

Both books are written records of public addresses. Deuteronomy records a long speech that Moses gave to the people of Israel just before he died. Hebrews is a collection of messages (sermons) that its unknown author gave in worship gatherings of Jesus' followers. These are the only two books in the Bible that are made up essentially of speeches. This form is vital to their purpose of urging and persuading their listeners to embrace the saving acts the previous generation witnessed in order to keep these works of God alive for future generations.

As these books show us, when it comes to experiencing and embracing God's saving acts, it's always today. It's today for you at this moment. Will you hear God's voice? Get together with a group of friends to read and discuss Deuteronomy and Hebrews with the help of this guide. The future depends on what you decide now.

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Understanding the Books of the Bible

DEUTERONOMY and

HEBREWS

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Also available in the Understanding the Books of the Bible series:

John Genesis Job Isaiah Wisdom: Proverbs/Ecclesiastes/James Biblical Apocalypses: Daniel/Revelation Paul's Journey Letters: Thessalonians/Corinthians/

Galatians/Romans Lyric Poetry: Psalms/Song of Songs/Lamentations Paul's Prison Letters: Colossians/Ephesians/Philemon/

Philippians/Timothy/Titus

Future releases:

Prophets Before the Exile: Amos/Hosea/Micah/Zephaniah/ Nahum/Habakkuk

Mark

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Understanding the Books of the Bible

DEUTERONOMY and

HEBREWS

Christopher R. Smith

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