Moses’s First Sermon: “Look What God Has Done” (1:1–4:43)

1:1–5 · In what will be the style of the prophets of Israel, the book begins with, “These are the words Moses spoke” (1:1; cf. Jer. 1:1; Hos. 1:1). Moses is to “proclaim . . . all that the Lord had commanded,” and to “expound [make clear] this law,” thus Deuteronomy is “preached law,” the torah of God explained with divine authority and clarity, showing its sufficiency for those times and ours (1:3, 5).

Most of the place names cannot be identified, but the location certainly is north of the Dead Sea on the east side of the Jordan River. Moses’s first sermon takes place in “the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month” (1:3). Miriam has died already in the first month (Num. 20:1), and Aaron too died on the first day of the…