Episode 1: Deuteronomy: The Call to Remember
Deuteronomy here we go! In our first episode of the season, we talk about how to get into such a large book of the Bible, and why it’s worth it…
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What preconceptions do you have about Deuteronomy before we get stuck in?
What will be some helpful ways for you read Deuteronomy?
As you're reading through, put yourself in the shoes of someone sitting on the plains of Moab, listening to Moses. What would it have felt like?
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The following is an uncorrected transcript generated by a transcription service. Before quoting in print, please check the corresponding audio for accuracy.
Felicity: We are delighted to have a new sponsor for this season. Alongside 10those.com, Kaleidoscope kids Bibles have jumped on board and we love their products. As with anyone we partner with in this way, we stand with what they're about and love what they're doing. I wonder if, like us, you're kids are beginning to get too old for those kids Bible story books on your shelf. They've read them loads of times, but are not quite old enough for a Bible. Yay. For Kaleidoscope, who are rewriting all the books in the Bible, they're already a third of the way through in a way that makes them accessible for those elementary and primary age kids in our homes. They're well written, beautifully produced, and it's a joy to read them together and know that God's word is taking root in our kids'hearts. There are volumes ranging from Exodus to Revelation, matthew to Psalms and many more in between. Brilliantly. Ten of those is the place to get them in both the USA and the UK. Grab one today at www.10ofthose.com.
Sarah: Welcome to season seven of Two Sisters and a cup of tea. My name is Sarah and I live in the UK and this is my sister Felicity. She lives in the USA. And today we are all about introducing Deuteronomy, which is our book of the season and we're really excited to be back. Hi, Felicity.
Felicity: Hi, Sarah. We are really excited to be back. It feels like it's been a while and rather than just going slow, we're going big. Deuteronomy.
Sarah: We're going big. And I have to say, I have a big tea to match Deuteronomy today.
Felicity: Yes, big tea.
Sarah: It was a gift. A lovely, sweet Chinese lady at church gave us a gift for Christmas and it's flowering tea. It's the tea where you put a flower into your wow.
Felicity: And it flowers as the water hold on. The tea flowers or you put a flower into the tea?
Sarah: No, you put like a bundle of leaves tied together, dried leaves into the water. The teacup has a lid on it and it's gradually turning itself into a flower as we speak.
Felicity: Wow. Sarah I've never even heard of such a thing.
Sarah: I've seen them before, but I've never had one before, so we've been testing it out over the last couple of weeks. And does it taste good as well as look good?
Felicity: It doesn't taste wonderful. Oh, no. It's a beautiful but there's different I've.
Sarah: Got different flowers, so I'm on a different one today, so I'll tell you a bit later.
Felicity: Okay. I was actually quite excited about my tea, but I think you might have just trumped it. There. This tea, which was also a gift, is called Dance in Yellow. I mean, I know what you're thinking, that do you really want yellow tea? I wasn't sure.
Sarah: This is a bit yellow. Yeah.
Felicity: To be honest, I've had this for a while and I haven't actually had a go until yesterday because I haven't felt that I would like it in a classic. You know me, I'm not great at trying new things. I've made decisions before I've tried them because inside this tears Nicaraguan turmeric paired with lemongrass, ginger and pink peppercorn, which I read that and I thought, that sounds really fun, but also not what I want in a teacup.
Sarah: It sounds very good for you, though.
Felicity: Exactly. Turns out it's actually quite lovely. In fact, it's quite gentle and it's got an amazing name. I know it's not all about that. I've made this mistake before buying a tea because of the name, but I actually think this one might stick.
Sarah: I might a grower.
Felicity: A grower indeed. More so than your flower.
Sarah: Your flower. It's growing as we speak. Anyway, on to Deuteronomy. How are you feeling about it?
Felicity: Yes, indeed, Deuteronomy. I don't know when we decided to do this, I thought we were being a little ambitious, to be honest. It's a big book. It's a big book, as we've said a few times, haven't we? Let's leave the big bookness. But aside from the big bookness, it's one that I have not spent a lot of time in before. How about you?
Sarah: No, but I think we should. That's why we're doing it. The more that I spend time in it, the more I'm like, why have I not spent time studying this before? And also, why have I not heard this preached through really before? Because it was really important. So I'm convinced that we should, even though I feel really daunted and I feel like I've got so many questions and not a lot of answers.
Felicity: Yes, I think that's exactly it, a lot of questions. But having spent some time in it, I do feel like I'm beginning to understand more of what's going on. I think that's probably reassuring for us.
Sarah: To give us a bit of context, then. Give us a bit of context to the book, if you can.
Felicity: Well, Moses is the guy. It's basically a collection of Moses sermons to the Israelites to the rescue people they've just come out of. Not just come out, in fact, they've been rescued from Egypt in the Exodus and they are just on the precipice of the promised land, having had a 40 year detour.
Sarah: Which he gets into in the first few chapters. So we'll get there next time. But it's all said in one day, isn't it? So it's this bizarre book where no one moves. It's not action packed in the sense that it is him giving the sermon of his life. He's like he's a dying old man giving a bell through a sermon on one day, isn't he? Which is a static book, but it does detail journeys and events that have happened in the past and what's going to happen in the future. So, in that sense, it is also a preach that is talking through a narrative as well, yeah, I think that's.
Felicity: Really helpful to notice that you have then this narrative that tracks back and tracks forwards and it's like the history and the future of the people, isn't it, in that? But I think it's helpful to know that it's Moses speaking to these people. He's the leader, isn't he? So he's not only is he the guy from Exodus, he's actually been with these people who's been leading them and caring for them and pasturing them. And so I think that's really helped me as I've been in it, to hear the pastor rather than just the kind of, I don't know, the Moses of my imagination who just raises his staff and does cool stuff, but actually he's preaching out of pastoral care for that.
Sarah: Absolutely. Yeah. He's preaching to their heart, isn't he? And the heart is a thing that comes through all the way through the book, isn't it? And I think, as you say, that's really just helpful to remember that context that he's preaching to them and he's exhorting them to live for God to obey and to walk in his ways because that is the best thing to do as you approach this land that's been promised. It's kind of steeped in covenant language in that way, isn't it? The whole book, you kind of feel like you're walking again and again through this covenant that's been promised to Abraham, to the ancestors and now they're kind of there and they're nearly there, they can see the land. It's so tangible.
Felicity: Yeah, you've just said covenant there, Sarah, and we're going to use that word so many times as we're going through deuteronomy. Let's just pause and just make sure we get it. What is being said? What do you mean by covenant?
Sarah: So covenant is God's promise to his people, right from back in Genesis and to Abraham. He makes the first promise that he will be his God and Abraham's people, his descendants, they will be God's people. So it's a relational promise that is tracked through the Old Testament and then into the New with Jesus fulfilling that in every way. And particularly in this part of the covenant promise. It's the fact that they're about to receive the land that they have been promised as God's people and blessing comes in that land. So that's kind of the context of the covenant promise that these people are sitting in by grace, nothing but grace has got them to this point and now kind of Moses is exhorting them to live in that covenant promise, live as a people whose identity is rooted in that first and foremost.
Felicity: Yeah. And that is I think really clearly comes through the book, is that idea of relationship with God. These people are in permanent relationship, steadfast relationship with their God despite so much sin and so much disaster along the way. But God is faithful in his covenant promise. Yeah, absolutely. So I think as listeners heard us say we're going to do deuteronomy. They thought, why? So hopefully we've begun to tackle that. I wonder whether they also thought, but how are we supposed to deal with the length? How are we supposed to read along with this? We're not going to cherry pick. We are going to be trying to deal with the whole book, aren't we? We're not going to sort of read out whole chapters of it. But how would a listener kind of get into the length with us, this lengthy book?
Sarah: Yeah, that's a good question. I think by committing to reading it along with us. So we're splitting intersections. So for example, next week, our first episode, we're going to be doing chapters one to three. Obviously we're not going to read out all of those three chapters. That would take probably 20 minutes, well, time. So we're just going to read parts chapter one. But if you can commit to reading the rest, you will get so much more out of our conversations. Also listening to it again, like we say this quite often, don't we? But I've really benefited from listening to it being read to me a few times and that just helps, particularly in the harder chunks. I think listening is just good, it kind of gets you in your mind if you're struggling to kind of read it word for word. And then I genuinely think the best way to track with us is to talk about it with someone else together. So this is a book and this is a sermon that is spoken into a community of people and Moses is exhorting these people to live out these words in community with one another. And I just can't kind of emphasize that enough. Look for how we have benefited already in how we're talking about it. But also with a book like this, when it's long and it's Old Testament and you don't understand some of it, actually, there's a beautiful kind of accountability that comes with just committing to do it with someone else. And to kind of keeping going with someone else, talking about the hard things, the questions with someone else and applying it together in community because that's what it was made to do in this first place. So that would be my recommendation. How about you? Yeah.
Felicity: And even if it's just to say to people, to the person you're reading with, I've only got to chapter four, is it worth carrying on? Should I keep going? I think it's always helpful to have someone jogging alongside you, even and it's just a very act of reading, isn't it? Yeah, absolutely. That's really helpful. So basically be up for it and we would say we have spent some time in it. We're definitely still at the beginning of kind of getting our heads around it, but already we think it's worth it.
Sarah: It'S totally worth it. We are getting so much out of it, even though we have a lot of questions that we don't know the answers to and that will remain the case, I think. I think my prediction is we'll get to the end of Deuteronomy and we'll still think there's a lot of that book that we don't know and that's okay. I think one of the challenges with it is that I don't know whether you found this, Christie, but with some other books that we've studied together, I feel like I've been able to kind of hold it in my head, like what's going on at different points of the letter of the book or that psalm. And Gtronomy is just too big to do that. There's 34 chapters. Like, it does feel like I can't hold all of it in my head, but I just think that's okay because I just think this is the book that Jesus quotes the most. Other than the psalms, this is what's on his tongue the most. And if he quotes it, if it's on his tongue the most, then we should really understand why.
Felicity: Yeah, I totally agree. Totally agree. And what we're seeking to do, as ever in these episodes, is to start the conversation, aren't we? And I hope to give confidence, to be able to just give reading Gtori a go and to get into it a bit. And we're not promising all the answers, we never have all the answers. I don't know. But just through talking about it for 20 minutes, hopefully people will have confidence to get into this gold book.
Sarah: It is gold and yet so within the gold, there is this really quite large chunk of lore. Flisty, tell us what are we going to do with that?
Felicity: That's such a question. There are theologians all over the world who are still after a lifetime Old Testament. Laura is something that as New Testament people, we have to try and work out. Why is it in the Bible, to what extent is it applicable to us now? How do we pull it through the cross? To us, those are the kind of questions we're asking and wrestling with. And I imagine it's a lifelong wrestle rather than one that we're going to work out now, but we are going to think hard and try and work it out. To a degree. At this stage, I'm wholeheartedly convinced that there's more to it than just showing us that we can't keep it, which I think is maybe where I've thought previously at some point that it's just to kind of show us that we need Jesus, which I think that is a part of what's going on. But I do think we have something of God in relationship with his people, lovingly giving them the best way to live and that this is a beautiful way of life. It's distinctive and it reflects God's character. And so just that very fact means that I want to really think through, like, what does this mean for me then? Because we have the same God and I want to live for Him. And yeah, that's kind of where I've got to that. We're going to try and work it out a bit and we're going to wrestle. We're going to get other people's help as well. We've already been listening to a couple of things, reading a couple of things and mining the wisdom riches wherever we can find them. Any other insights there on that?
Sarah: No, I don't think so, other than the more that we kind of delve into that question, the more that I see a crop up in the New Testament as well. So even, you know, we were doing James a while ago, weren't we? Or reading other books like Titus or Hebrews or like it's just cropping up a lot. The more that I read just touteronomy the more that I'm seeing it in other places in the Bible, and the more I think this question is really important to wrestle with because a lot of the other Bible writers are drawing on it. And so I need to form an opinion yes. Which I think I've probably in the past have just it's been one of the kind of Bible read through books that kind of squashed in with numbers and Joshua and the Vitagus, and you just kind of get through it rather than thinking, oh, actually, there's weight to this law. There's weight to the whole book being actually called a law, that it's not just the middle chunk, but it's all of it. And actually I need to really wrestle through this and work hard. Like, I think that's that's been one of the things, isn't it, actually, in the last few weeks, as we've kind of come to this, realizing, yeah, we need to work hard at this, we need to pray hard, we need the Spirit's help. We need Him to give us insight and understanding. This isn't something that we can do by ourselves, but the fruit of doing that is so valuable, and already it's really impacting well, tell us, Christie, how is it impacting your heart, just having been in Geronomy for the last few weeks, kind of gently starting to mull on it?
Felicity: Yeah, I am finding already that I feel like I'm beginning to be shaped by God's word through gautonomy. I think that the people, as they heard this, that Moses is almost sort of shaping the people in order that they might then go and kind of live well in the land. And I think that as I'm hearing Moses talk about our God and then I'm hearing Him, it kind of exhorts the people to live in a certain way because of who they are. They are rescued people, then I have a greater desire to listen, I think, and to really seek to live that out like I'm a rescued person, like this side of the cross. Even more so, I think my clarity on my identity in that and therefore letting that impact the way I live and the way I think and the way I know God and all those things. So I feel like, yeah, it's beginning to shape me in that way already, which yeah. What about you?
Sarah: It's so cool, isn't it?
Felicity: I know I don't feel like I understand loads, but already I feel that. So I'm excited to kind of delve.
Sarah: In and dwell more, I think, in my kind of read through so far, I've just really struck with God's grace that it is all flowing out of his grace to his people, and in that sense is a very familiar message. And it's just being kind of slowly and gently blowing my mind. It is all grace and it's all in light of his grace and his goodness and it's all his work to make everything happen. So I'm really excited to see that fleshed out. And, yeah, it's good. We need to wrap up, really. Would you pray for us as we close?
Felicity: I'd love to. Father, we praise you so much that you are a speaking God. Thank you that we have Your word. Thank you that we have this book of deuteronomy. We pray that as we start to read it, would you lift our eyes to you that we might have a big view of you. And as we do, we pray that we'd be eager to listen and to live out who we are as Your people. Help us, Lord. Give us all we need, by Your spirit that we might be for Your glory. Amen.
Sarah: Amen. So we have a brand new website, two Sisters and a cup of Tea, and on that website you'll be able to find some shown up questions to go with this episode. And we produce those for every episode that we do to just help you have these conversations with someone in your church, family or someone who you're going to read your tuonomy with. Do go make the most of that. The link will be in our show notes, take you to the website, enjoy exploring around. We're really excited that the website is finally up and running. Do head along to Two Sisters and a cup of tea.com to find all you need to go with this episode and we will see you next time. I guess I just want to loop back on my tea. It smells amazing and it tastes not very nice. It's a little disappointing. The actual flower bit, it's not as colorful. It looks more like a seaweed weedy kind of thing going on. But there's more there's more to come from the box of flowers.
Felicity: I see you've got lots of different flowers. Okay, well, good to know. This has been a joy. We look forward to it, Sarah. We're excited to be back in it. And we'll see you next time.
Sarah: Indeed. All right, take care. Bye bye.
Felicity: We're thankful to Kaleidoscope and ten of those for sponsoring this effort, head over to ten of those.com to grab a fantastic Kaleidoscope Bible.
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