Why did Moses have to give the Law to the people a second time? That’s what Deuteronomy means, second law. Why doesn’t the Bible just say at the end of Numbers, “And Moses repeated all the law before the people crossed over into Jordan?

One big reason in that, in the Hebrew language, if you want to emphasize something, you repeat it. That’s why God is called “Holy, Holy, Holy,” in Isaiah chapter 6. Just so, the whole book of Deuteronomy makes it clear that if Moses took the trouble to repeat all the words of God’s Law to the people, and if they took all the trouble to write them down twice every time they made a copy of the Bible, God’s Law must be pretty important. It’s no wonder that Moses says in 5:1 that the people should learn the Law and be careful to put it into practice.

But in Deuteronomy 5:3, Moses gives us another reason for the repetition – God ‘s law is, in a sense, new for every generation. That doesn’t mean it changes, for God doesn’t change His mind. But it does mean that God has no grandchildren: every human being that is born needs to have an encounter with God’s law and needs to understand it for himself or herself, and needs to make a decision to follow it. And that means that all of us have to come to the conclusion that we can’t, in fact, keep the Law and thus that we are nothing more than sinners in desperate need of a Savior.

And we see a foreshadowing of that need even here in today’s passage, when Moses reminded the people of their reaction when God came down upon Mt. Sinai, accompanied by fire and smoke and an earthquake: they were terrified. After hearing the Ten Commandments, they knew there was no way they could possibly stand before God in all His holiness and righteousness. That’s why they told Moses to go up on the mountain and hear the rest of the Law on their behalf. And that’s why Moses says in Deuteronomy 5:5 that he acted as a mediator, standing between God and the people, speaking God’s Word to them.

But the good news is that we have an even better Mediator, Jesus Christ. For Jesus didn’t just come to speak God’s Word to us. He came to take all our sins upon Himself and receive the just punishment we all deserve. And He rose from the dead so that all who would trust in Him might receive not just eternal life in the presence of God on Resurrection Day, but also abundant life today as we live in the presence of our righteous and holy God as His children, forgiven and free and fearless.

Yes, just as God told His people in 5:6 that He brought them out of slavery before giving them His law, so Jesus redeems us from the power of sin, giving us new life before expecting us to be able to trust Him and obey Him and follow Him. But since He has done so much for us, isn’t our trust and obedience the least we can do for Him? After all, He’s told us twice.

Deuteronomy 5:1-21 (NASB)

Then Moses summoned all Israel, and said to them, “Hear, O Israel, the statutes and the ordinances which I am speaking today in your hearing, that you may learn them and observe them carefully.
2 “The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.
3 “The LORD did not make this covenant with our fathers, but with us, with all those of us alive here today.
4 “The LORD spoke to you face to face at the mountain from the midst of the fire,
5 while I was standing between the LORD and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the LORD; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain. He said,
6 ‘I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
7 ‘You shall have no other gods before Me.
8 ‘You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth.
9 ‘You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,
10 but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.
11 ‘You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not leave him unpunished who takes His name in vain.
12 ‘Observe the sabbath day to keep it holy, as the LORD your God commanded you.
13 ‘Six days you shall labor and do all your work,
14 but the seventh day is a sabbath of the LORD your God; in it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant or your ox or your donkey or any of your cattle or your sojourner who stays with you, so that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you.
15 ‘And you shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the LORD your God brought you out of there by a mighty hand and by an outstretched arm; therefore the LORD your God commanded you to observe the sabbath day.
16 ‘Honor your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your days may be prolonged, and that it may go well with you on the land which the LORD your God gives you.
17 ‘You shall not murder.
18 ‘You shall not commit adultery.
19 ‘You shall not steal.
20 ‘You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
21 ‘You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, and you shall not desire your neighbor’s house, his field or his male servant or his female servant, his ox or his donkey or anything that belongs to your neighbor.’