In this video, Dr. W. Robert Godfrey shares why the often-overlooked book of Deuteronomy is essential reading for every Christian.
When I’m asked about Old Testament books, one of the books that comes to mind is the book of Deuteronomy. I feel a little embarrassed encouraging the study of Deuteronomy since I have a Ligonier study series on the book of Deuteronomy. And so I’m not just hyping my study series, but what I learned in preparing for that study series is that Deuteronomy is the third most quoted book in the New Testament after Isaiah and the Psalms. And I think that would be a surprise to a lot of people. It’s clear that Jesus and the Apostles had Deuteronomy on their mind often.
And so I think by just thinking, “Well, isn’t Deuteronomy a book full of kind of obscure laws about sacrifices and how to run your city in the ancient world?” I think people will be surprised to find out how much of Deuteronomy is really talking about basic issues of how the people of God relate to God, basic issues of what God has done to save His people and basic issues of how God wants to structure the life of His people around the kingship that is going to be, obviously, hundreds of years later in the coming of David, but preparing the people of God to anticipate a king.
And of course, even David is just pointing the way to the coming of Christ our true King. So, I think Deuteronomy is a book often neglected and yet really having a lot of very helpful insights into the character of God, the saving actions of God, and the passion of God for His own worship so that the Reformers and the Puritans frequently turned to Deuteronomy for teaching on worship in particular.