The Last Book in the Pentateuch - Deuteronomy Quiz

Answer: By having the written words in a container fixed to the doorpost

The container is called a 'mezuzah' and the parchment it contains has two sections from Deuteronomy hand-written on it. One section is from Deuteronomy 6 verses 4-9 which begins "Listen, Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD alone. You are to love the LORD your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your strength" (ISV). Jesus said this was THE most important commandment in the whole Law, adding 'mind' to heart, soul, and strength (Luke 10:27). Observant Jews still obey this regulation and fix a mezuzah to the doorpost.

Question submitted by Watchkeeper.

Answer: The Israelites were loved by Him

See Deuteronomy 7, especially verses 6-11. The LORD didn't choose the Israelites as His chosen people because there were numerous Israelites. To the contrary, verse 7 states that they were the smallest nation or ethnic group there was. In addition, while the LORD called Israel to be a holy nation, they weren't always holy. Actually, Deuteronomy 9:6 says that the Israelites were NOT righteous; instead, they were "stiff-necked people" (New King James Bible).

Certainly, their skin color didn't matter much to God, or at least I don't think it did. Again, verses 7 and 8 tell us why He chose Israel: "The Lord did not set His love on you nor choose you because you were more in number than any other people, for you were the least of all peoples; but because the Lord loves you ... " In other words, they didn't do anything to deserve to be "the chosen people". God simply loved them!

Since the Bible Believers Brigade is a Christian group, and we plan to write quizzes about the Protestant Bible, I feel like it is appropriate to discuss things from a Christian perspective. From a Christian perspective, the signs of the Israelites as God's chosen people are that the Israelites brought the Bible, including the New Testament, into existence. Remember that the earliest Christians were ethnic Israelites; for example, the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 11:1 that he was an Israelite from the tribe of Benjamin. Christians also believe that Jesus descended from the tribe of Judah, as a result of the Israelites being God's chosen people. But it's interesting to note that according to John 3:16, God loves the whole world, not only Israel. This makes me wonder, if God loves everyone, then why exactly did He choose Israel instead of some other nation? I don't think the Bible ever truly provides an answer to that question.

From one Jewish perspective, the answer is fascinating. The website My Jewish Learning states in the article "Are Jews the Chosen People?" that while the Bible provides no explanation for why God chose Abraham, a rabbinic source argues that the Jews weren't God's first choice. Rather, the extra-biblical source argues, it was only after God went to every other nation and got rejected that He finally gave the Torah to the Jews.

Question submitted by Ced-uh.

Answer: Keep God's commandments.

One example of this is Deuteronomy 11:27, which says, "A blessing if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day."

The 10 Commandments are in Exodus 20. Moses had dropped and broken the first set of Commandments so in Deuteronomy God gives them again. These are the commands, along with others that are not part of the 10 Commandments, that God is telling the Hebrews to keep.

Question submitted by Ilona_Ritter.

Answer: 0%

It says in Deuteronomy 18:2 (King James Version) that the Lord is their inheritance. They are the special tribe who are the priests and get to communicate directly with God in the Old Testament. They are scattered throughout the other tribes' lands.

Question submitted by Ilona_Ritter.

Answer: Trees that bear edible fruit

This regulation is found in Deuteronomy, chapter 20, where we read "When you attack a city and have to fight against it for many days, don't destroy its trees by cutting them down with an axe. You may eat from them, but you must not cut them down. Are the trees of the field human beings, that you would come and attack them? However, you may cut down the trees whose fruit you know isn't edible, in order to build siege works against the city that waged war with you, until it falls" (ISV).

Question submitted by Watchkeeper.

Answer: Miriam

The correct answer is Miriam, Moses's sister. Back in Numbers 12, which Deuteronomy 24 alludes to, the LORD struck Miriam with leprosy because she insulted Moses and his Ethiopian or Cushite wife (in the Bible, Noah's grandson Cush is considered the ancestor of Ethiopians).

The Bible provides no details about the Cushite wife. Some people believe that she was Zipporah, but others think that she was a different woman whom Moses married, most likely after Zipporah died.

The LORD considered Miriam's words against His servant Moses to be wicked, and He punished her. Being the decent man and brother that he was, however, Moses cried out to God, asking Him to heal her. God did heal her, but she had to be considered unclean for seven days anyway. In Deuteronomy, the point of the Israelites remembering Miriam was so that they would remember what they needed to do with a person who suffered from the disease.

Question submitted by Ced-uh.

Answer: He must copy out the entire Law himself by hand and read from it every day

These regulations are found in Deuteronomy 17 vv 14-20. It's instructive to read how Israel's kings disobeyed this section. For example, Solomon had 700 wives and 300 concubines (1 Kings 11:3), he received about 25 tons of gold each year worth over a billion U.S. dollars at April 2018 prices ("This did not include the additional revenue he received from merchants and traders, all the kings of Arabia, and the governors of the land", 1 Kings 10:14, NLT), he had 1,400 chariots and 12,000 horses (called "a huge force", 1 Kings 10:26 NLT), and he imported horses from Egypt to sell them on (1 Kings 10:28, 29).

Question submitted by Watchkeeper.

Answer: You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.

The verse is Deuteronomy 6:5. It's important to note what exactly it means to love the LORD with all your heart, soul, and strength. In Deuteronomy 6's context, God instructed the Israelites to follow ALL of the commandments that He gave them. He also told them to keep His words in their hearts and teach them to their children and grandchildren. In other words, to love the LORD is to follow Him.

Even Jesus said in John 14:15 that if you love Jesus, you will keep His commandments! Of course, it's important to note that most Christians don't believe that they are required to keep the Old Testament Law; instead, there is the "Law of Christ," which Galatians 6:2 mentions. Nonetheless, Deuteronomy 6:5, love the LORD your God, seems to be very important in both the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible and the New Testament.

Regarding the incorrect choices, Leviticus 19:18 says to ". . . love your neighbor," which Jesus said was the second greatest commandment. "Honor your mother and father" can be found in Exodus 20:12 and Deuteronomy 5:16. "You shall not eat pork", as I wrote, is NOT a direct quote, but it is a paraphrase of Leviticus 11:7.

Question submitted by Ced-uh.

Answer: The poor need to be helped with whatever they need.

In Deuteronomy 15:7-11, the LORD said that the poor needed to be helped with whatever they needed. In addition, He told His people to NOT be selfish or to have wicked thoughts against the poor, but to give with willing hearts. If they blessed the poor, then God would bless them in return. The LORD also said that there would always be poor people, so the Israelites needed to open their hands to them.

The comment about there always being poor people reminds me of Matthew 26:11, in which Jesus said, "For you have the poor with you always, but Me you do not have always" (New King James Bible).

The New Testament also stresses the importance of helping other people. For instance, 1 John 3:17 questions how someone can have God's love inside him/her if he/she has the financial or material ability to help someone else who is in need, but yet he/she simply refuses to do so.

Question submitted by Ced-uh.

Answer: We do not know exactly

Deuteronomy 34: 5-7 states that Moses was buried in the land of Moab (today it is known as Jordan), but no one knows "of his sepulcher unto this day." It says that God buried Moses. Moses was 120 years old when he died, and according to these same verses "his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated."

Question submitted by Ilona_Ritter