Fairy Tale Spotlight: Deuteronomy [Book Review]

"Fairy Tale Spotlight: Deuteronomy [Book Review]" by T.K. Wade

"Deuteronomy" is the fifth book of the "Holy Bible" and the last one written by Moses.  Right off the bat, the name of this book needs an explanation. It is a Greek word that simply means "second law." There. Enough of that.

"Deuteronomy" is a glorified pep talk, by Moses himself, too the people of Israel before they enter into the Promised Land to kill everyone and take it for themselves. Of all the books written by Moses, "Deuteronomy" feels like the most personal. It is less of an accounting book and more of a set of final words. In many ways, it sounds like a graduation speech.

It completely recaps the entire journey to that point. Apparently God was pissed off at Aaron for making that golden calf. That was not clear in "Exodus." Another thing that was clarified was the situation with Moses' denial of entering the Promised Land. It clarifies that Moses pled that God take back this judgement, but He refused. A bit surprising since God was fairly long suffering with Moses for the entire trip.

Even though many of the laws are rehashed in "Deuteronomy," it doesn't sound as much as Moses is quoting God as much as he is simply talking as himself. This is a first. And here we come to one of the most controversial moments in Biblical history: divorce. Heck, even Jesus went up against this later on. Moses hands out a law that allows unhappy couples to divorce each other, but it did not at all seem as if it was coming from the Lord. It seemed to come from Moses himself. This is the book and moment where it happened, for your information. I say so that you can understand that there is a difference between the law of man and the law of God.

I guess that's really the bulk of it. The only odd thing about this is that Moses writes about his own death. Two things confused me about this:

1. How did he write about it if he was dead.

2. Everyone and there friend has been telling me that Moses had been taken up like Enoch.

I am reviewing a book--one single book. There may yet be other books that explain these things, but I have to take these as they are written. Let's look at these 2 issues with what we have up to book number five.

Number one: I had a friend of mine suggest that he wrote about his death, having been told what to write before he died. Basically, God would have told him exactly what his fate would be so that he could finish his book. This is fairly reasonable if you consider how great a rapport Moses had with the old man. Nevertheless, "Deuteronomy" leaves this unexplained. It just does. There's nothing I can do about it.

Number two: Not only does "Deuteronomy" counter the very idea that Moses was taken up, it even goes so far as to very clearly say that he dies at the age of 120, and then his body was even buried. Interestingly, it says that God buries him in a place nobody will ever find. But seriously, how much more can you say "dead and buried" here? As far as these five books are concerned, Moses is dead, and he likely died for his sins--the big one being the one where he would not speak to a rock to make it flow out water. That really upset God because it shows that Moses had doubt.

If there is any other book or reference that defies what it written in "Deuteronomy," I'll probably come across it later... or not. Whatever the case, the idea that he was taken up will heavily conflict with what is so coldly and concretely written in this book. If God did tell him what to write, telling him that he will die and be buried and then that not actually happening, then that would have been a deception on God's part. Still, we don't actually know how any of this went down. Speculation can be a bitch.

"Deuteronomy" is a hard one to recommend because the majority is just a rehash of the other four books, yet it is a personal rehash. Moses wrote it in a far more personal way than he ever had, and it was nice to see that. I have no regrets for reading it, and I am quite happy to be done with the old man and his bad writing.

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