What Gospel (Good News) can be found in Deuteronomy? The Gospel in Deuteronomy is the same as the Good News in Exodus, but is the retelling of the Good News of God’s rescue of Israel from Egyptian slavery, passing it on to the next generation.
…The Egyptians mistreated us and made us suffer, putting us to hard labor. Then we cried to the LORD, the God of our Fathers….the LORD heard our voice…saw our misery…brought us out of Egypt…brought us to this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey… Deuteronomy 26:6-9 NIV
I’ve never counted how many times this story is told in the Old Testament, but it is often, and many other times when just one piece of the story is repeated.
A prominent example is Psalm 78, one of he longer Psalms. …what we have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. We will not hide them from our children; we will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of the LORD, his power and the wonders he has done. He decreed statutes for Jacob and established the law in Israel, which He commanded our forefathers to teach their children, so the next generation would know them, even the children yet to be born, and they in turn would tell their children. Then they would put their trust in God and would not forget his deeds but would keep his commands. Psalm 78:3-7 NIV
The next 72 verses bring to mind many of the stories of God’s grace on that first generation that came out of slavery.
Another example is in Psalm 114 which I read with my granddaughters a couple of days ago. It’s just a hint of two of the earlier stories…the sea looked and fled, the Jordan turned back… So I asked the girls to remember when that happened. We turned to Exodus 14 and read about the miraculous crossing of the Red Sea with a wall of water on each side as they walked through on dry ground. I told them about a similar miracle 40 years later when the waters of the Jordan River were stopped so Israel could cross over into the land of Promise (Joshua 3 and 4).
But don’t forget that the Exodus from Egypt is a picture of a a much greater rescue from the bondage of sin and the reality of our separation from God. The Old Testament story points ahead to Jesus dying on the cross, the Lamb of God dying for our sins and raised from the dead to provide forgiveness of sin and eternal life for all who believe.
That’s the story you can bank your life on, and eternity too!
Tom Macy 