Deuteronomy 31

v1-8: “It is a great encouragement to people when, to replace good workers whom he has removed, God raises up others to carry on his work.”

v9-13: Moses wrote down the law “so that those who heard it might often review it for themselves and call it to mind,” and “so that it might be more securely handed down to future generations.” It is God’s will “that everyone should come to know his word.” As “His word provides guidelines for everyone,” it “should be read to everyone.”

v14-21: There are “many ways of communicating the knowledge of good and evil,” and God in His wisdom “has made use of them all in Scripture,” whether that be “laws, history, prophecies, proverbs, and songs,” so that “the ignorant and negligent might be left without excuse.” This song of Moses, if taken to heart, was “a way of preventing them from turning away from God,” and if it did not “it could still help to bring them to repentance, and to win them back from turning away from him.”

v22-30: Moses foresaw that these people “he had taken so much care over to make them holy and happy” would turn away from God and be destroyed. Our Lord Jesus also foresaw apostasy in the church in the future. Praise God that though this will take place, we can be confident that He will build His church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.