“This is the blessing that Moshe, the man of God, spoke over the people of Israel before his death.”-Deuteronomy 33:1
I finished off yesterday’s post by stating that at this final stage in his life, Moses had now become the kind and warm grandfather of Israel as opposed to the stern and harsh Lawgiver.
It would now be Joshua who would pick up the role of having to lead the Israelites.
If there are any grandparents in the house I think you can all relate well to what I’m saying.
In a family, it is the parents who are the stern “lawgivers” since they’re the ones responsible for setting boundaries for their children who at the early stages of their life are usually hog wild out of control.
However, on the other hand, the grandparents are usually much more relaxed.
At their seasoned age, they’ve pretty much seen it all and know that as disastrous as any given situation may seem to be at the moment, their experience and wisdom tells them that this too will pass.
Even though I’ve never been a father nor a grandfather, I’ve seen this phenomenon at many family gatherings I’ve been to.
It’s usually the parents who are all stressed out and running after their kids trying to keep them in order with frustrated looks on their faces while the grandparents are just kicking back in their comfy chairs sipping coffee and eating donuts enjoying the whole spectacle.
Onward.
Don’t get upset with what I’m about to say but the very first verse of Deuteronomy chapter 33 was NOT written by Moses.
There should be no argument about this because this verse is written in the 3rd person and it refers to Moses in the past tense.
So obviously another third party later redacted this part of the Torah.
There’s another reason why some scholars will confidently assert this first verse was NOT written by Moses.
Notice how Moses is called a “man of God” in this verse.
This is actually the first time Moses is referred to as a “man of God”.
Here’s the thing.
Some scholars will reason this constitutes proof that another Hebrew editor went in an added the 33rd chapter of Deuteronomy to the Torah AFTER Moses passed away.
Scripturally speaking, a “man of God” is just another term for “prophet”.
In fact, we’ll see that several prophets were called ISH ELOHIM or men of God in the Scriptures.
Up until now Moses’ role was that of Israel’s mediator but in his very last hours another aspect of his divinely ordained office was revealed: one who will now utter prophecies.
And we’re going to see in the following pronouncements Moses makes that indeed he was a prophet or a “man of God”.
Leave a Reply