Deuteronomy 10 explained: A Fresh Start and What God Asks

New stone tablets (vv. 1-5)

Moses had smashed the first tablets when the people worshiped a golden calf, so the LORD writing the Ten Commandments again signaled that the relationship was being restored. This time the tablets went into a wooden chest, the ark, to be kept safe as a lasting treasure.

A travel note on priests (vv. 6-9)

This aside records Aaron's death, the priesthood passing to his son Eleazar, and the tribe of Levi being set apart to carry the ark, lead worship and bless the people; Levi got no land because they lived from what was offered to the LORD. Scholars are unsure why this note interrupts the speech here or why its route differs from the list in Numbers 33.

Moses pleads, God relents (vv. 10-11)

Moses spent another forty days on the mountain, and the LORD listened to him and chose not to destroy the people. Instead he told Moses to lead them on toward the land promised to their ancestors.

What God really asks (vv. 12-13)

Moses boils everything down to deep respect for the LORD, love, faithful living and wholehearted service. The laws are presented as given for the people's own good.

Change on the inside (vv. 14-16)

The God who owns the whole universe chose Israel's ancestors out of love, so the people are told to stop being stiff necked, a picture of an animal stubbornly refusing to be led. Circumcision was the physical mark of belonging to God's people, and the call to circumcise the heart means letting that belonging reshape who they are inside, an idea Christians read as later developed by Paul in Romans 2.

Justice for outsiders (vv. 17-22)

This God takes no bribes and stands up for orphans, widows and foreigners, so Israel must love foreigners because they were once foreigners in Egypt themselves. Moses ends by noting that the family of seventy who went down to Egypt has grown into a nation too large to count.

Key verse: Deuteronomy 10:12

Something to think about

Moses asks people to treat outsiders well because they remember being outsiders themselves; how, if at all, has a time when you were the stranger shaped the way you treat others?