Deuteronomy 31-34

Deuteronomy ends with the final words, and then the death and burial, of Moses. How fitting that the Pentateuch's bookends are Adam and Moses. One was responsible for man being cast out of Paradise. The other responsible for leading God's people to the Promised Land. At God's command, Moses teaches the people a song that they are to sing and to teach to the generations that follow. It is a song of God's anger and the consequences of the Israelites' eventual turning away from God, which God has foretold. It is a song of bitterness and regret. He commissions and consecrates Joshua as his successor, at God's command. Then, in a poignant moment, Moses ascends Mt. Nebo in order to view the Promised Land, which he is forbidden from entering. Moses gives a final blessing to the tribes, except the tribe of Simeon. (Why that tribe is omitted, I cannot tell.)  And then he dies and is buried and is mourned.  Thereafter, his successor, Joshua, "is filled with the spirit of wisdom" and the Israelites give him their obedience. 

The book ends with a short, yet powerful, statement of praise for Moses, which in part reads: Since then no prophet has arisen in Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face. None until Jesus.

Genesis 1-3

Is there any Bible story--any story at all--more often told, dissected, and interpreted than this one? Or better, these stories, as there are really several embedded in this opening of the Pentateuch. I am struck by the themes of abundance and fertility: The water "teems with an abundance of living creatures." The plants and trees across the earth are "seed-bearing." The animals, and the man and the woman, are exhorted to "be fruitful, multiply." Even as the man and woman are being cast out of Paradise, the talk is of child-bearing, the fruit of the trees, and the tilling of the land. They are cast out, but not cast away. God provides them "leather garments" to clothe and protect them as they are led east of Eden. To them, and to us, God has given a teeming creation, an Earth abundant with gifts, opportunities, talents, friends, family. It is for us, as for Adam and Eve, to till this creation, and co-create this world and ourselves with him.