This is the Bible Book Club, and we're in Deuteronomy.

Welcome to the club.

When last we left you in chapter four of Deuteronomy, we discovered that the Hebrew word

Shamir has a much stronger meaning than its English translation.

Our translation, to keep or to be careful,

but the Israelites, to them and to Moses, it meant to vigilantly protect with a hedge of thorns,

like a shepherd protects his sheep at night. Moses also laid out four things that he wants

the Israelites to protect with that hedge of thorns.

God's commandments, their calling, their covenantal relationship, and their confidence that the Lord is God.

And can't you just hear God calling you to those same four things?

Exactly. I especially like, and we're going to hear it again in this episode or the next one, I'm not sure, just the Lord is God.

Moses wants to drill us into their brain, and I wish it was a little bit more in the New Testament that the Lord is your God because it is a little confidence building, you know, when you keep saying it over and over.

All right. In this episode, I want us to remember that

Moses's mission in Deuteronomy is to encourage the next generation to be faithful to God.

Now, Moses has set the tone for his passionate challenge with a historical review that we called

Moses's Remember What God Has Done sermon, and that was covered in chapters

one through four. In the second sermon, Moses's message is a review of what the Israelites

must do going forward. Moses is going to use an if-then pattern to challenge the Israelites.

In other words, if God did all this for them in the past, you know, the miracles, the covenant,

the promises, everything we kind of just covered, then why can't they obey?

Keep the covenant and enjoy the promised land in the future.

Now, the second sermon is the core of the book of Deuteronomy. It is a massive challenge to the second generation of Israel

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