Expository Notes on the Bible (Constable)

• The creation of man 2:4-17
  2:4 Having related the creation of the universe as we know it, God next inspired Moses to explain for his readers what became of it.129Sin entered it and devastated it."The destiny of the human creation is to live in God's wo...
• Message9
  Let me share with you a couple of quotations that point out the importance of this book."Deuteronomy is one of the greatest books of the Old Testament. Its significance on the domestic and personal religion of all ages has no...
• Outline
  I. Introduction: the covenant setting 1:1-5II. Moses' first major address: a review of God's faithfulness 1:6-4:40A. God's past dealings with Israel 1:6-3:291. God's guidance from Sinai to Kadesh 1:6-462. The march from Kades...
• I. INTRODUCTION: the Covenant setting 1:1-5
  This brief section places the events that follow in their geographical and chronological setting. It introduces the occasion for the covenant, the parties involved, and other information necessary to identify the document and...
• IV. MOSES' SECOND MAJOR ADDRESS: AN EXPOSITION OF THE LAW chs. 5--26
  ". . . Deuteronomy contains the most comprehensive body of laws in the Pentateuch. It is clearly intended to be consulted for guidance on many aspects of daily life, in sharp contrast with the laws of Leviticus, which are ver...
• 2. Exhortation to love Yahweh ch. 6
  Another writer suggested that chapters 6-26 expand the Decalogue with the intent of addressing the spirit of the law.92He believed the structure of the book supports his contention that the writer chose exemplary cases. Moses...
• 3. Examples of the application of the principles chs. 7-11
  "These clearly are not laws or commandments as such but primarily series of parenetic homilies in which Moses exhorted the people to certain courses of action in light of the upcoming conquest and occupation of Canaan. Within...
• The consequences of obedience and disobedience ch. 11
  The section of Deuteronomy dealing with general stipulations of the covenant ends as it began, with an exhortation to covenant loyalty (5:1-5; cf. 4:32-40)."This chapter is to be understood as a re-emphasis of these principle...
• B. An exposition of selected covenant laws 12-25
  Moses' homiletical exposition of the law of Israel that follows explains reasons for the covenant laws that arose from the Ten Commandments. This address concludes with directions for celebrating and confirming the covenant (...
• The central sanctuary 12:1-14
  When Israel entered the land the people were to destroy all the places and objects used in the pagan worship of the Canaanites (vv. 2-4). Pagan peoples generally have felt that worshipping on elevated sites brings them into c...
• Pagan gods 12:29-31
  The Israelites were not to investigate the pagan religious practices of the Canaanites with a view to worshipping their gods or following their example in the worship of Yahweh (v. 30; cf. Rom. 16:19; Eph. 5:12). Moses develo...
• The prophet or receiver of a dream 12:32-13:5
  The last verse of chapter 12 in the English Bible is the first verse of chapter 13 in the Hebrew Bible. It introduces what follows.God permitted prophets (people who claimed to have direct revelation from God or to speak for ...
• Prophets 18:9-22
  The context of this section is significant as usual. Verses 1-8 deal with people who ministered to Yahweh in various ways for the people, and verses 15-22 concern the delivery of God's revelations to His people. Verses 9-14 c...
• 1. Laws of covenant celebration and confirmation 26:1-15
  This section concludes the "purely legal material."284The ordinances with which Moses concluded his second address (chs. 5-26) not only specified the Israelites' actions in further respects but also focused their thinking on ...
• 2. Summary exhortation 26:16-19
  "The presentation of the commandments and the statutes and ordinances that will guide Israel's life in the land is over now. Verse 16 serves as a concluding bracket around chapters 5-26, matching Moses' introduction to the wh...
• 2. The seventh year covenant renewal ceremony 31:9-13
  "Moses assigned the priests and elders the duty of regularly republishing the law of the covenant. The effect of this was to associate the priests and elders with Joshua in the responsibility of rule and in the esteem of Isra...
• 2. Joshua's charge to Israel 1:10-18
  Having received his marching orders from Yahweh, Joshua prepared to mobilize the nation.1:10-11 Joshua expected to be able to cross the Jordan within three days."The Jordan River wanders about two hundred miles to cover the s...
• A. The return of the two and one-half tribes to their inheritances ch. 22
  The main part of the second half of the Book of Joshua dealing with the division of the land ends with the appointment of the Levitical cities (chs. 13-21). The rest of the book deals with settlement in the land (chs. 22-24)....
• Message9
  The Book of Ruth is one of the most fascinating and important short stories that anyone has ever written. As a piece of literature it is almost perfect. The German poet Goethe called it "the loveliest complete work on a small...
• B. Naomi's inability to provide husbands for Ruth and Orpah 1:6-14
  God eventually withdrew the famine from Judah (v. 6) probably in response to His people's calling out to Him for deliverance (cf. Judg. 3:9, 15; 4:3; 6:6; 10:10; 16:28). This verse sounds one of the major themes of the story:...
• Solomon's attitudes 3:1-3
  Should Solomon have married Pharaoh's daughter? In view of 11:1-2 and 2 Chronicles 8:1 there is no way we can say yes. Furthermore Solomon already had a wife when he married Pharaoh's daughter (14:21; cf. Gen. 2:24). Why then...
• Solomon's prosperity 4:20-28
  We can explain the writer's unusual reference to Judah and Israel at this time, before the division of the kingdom. When he wrote Kings the nation had split, so probably the writer was using the designation that was common in...
• 2. Josiah's reforms 22:3-23:27
  Josiah began to seek Yahweh when he was 16 years old and began initiating religious reforms when he was 20 (2 Chron. 34:3-7). His reforms were more extensive than those of any of his predecessors. One of them was the repair o...
• 1. The first account of God's promises to David chs. 17-21
  In some particulars the promises God gave David related to himself personally. However other promises pertained to his descendants and, in particular, to one descendant who would do for Israel much more than David could do. I...
• The erection of the altar 3:1-6
  The text does not record exactly when the exiles arrived in Jerusalem, but it was probably sometime in 537 B.C. since Cyrus issued his decree in 538 B.C. The "seventh month"(v. 1) of the Jew's sacred calendar was Tishri (late...
• A. An observer's sorrow over Jerusalem's condition 1:1-11
  Jeremiah first viewed Jerusalem's destruction as an outsider looking in. Verses 1-7 describe the extent of the desolation and verses 8-11 its cause.1:1 Jeremiah bewailed the abandoned city of Jerusalem that had once been so g...
• VI. Oracle five: The people's sin of robbing God 3:7-12
  The Lord had said that Israel's earlier history was a time when the priests and the people of Israel pleased Him (v. 4). Now He said that those early days were short-lived (cf. Exod. 32:7-9). In contrast to His faithfulness (...
• C. The Possibility of Rest for God's People 4:1-14
  The writer returned again from exhortation to exposition. He now posed the alternatives of rest and peril that confronted the new people of God, Christians.127The writer warned his readers so they would not fail to enter into...