The book of "dude you're on to me"

Deuteronomy 1:1 - 26:19

It is very easy to want to skip right by this book. It starts with Moses recounting everything that happened in the book of Numbers and then goes in to quite some level of detail regarding everything from which fish and birds the Israelites could eat to how to handle cases of rape in town vs out in the country.
Read closely and you'll see the basis upon which many of our modern laws were built. The notion of extradition, the importance of requiring multiple witnesses to a crime, the distinction between premeditated murder and manslaughter...all found here.

For me it is a sad book.

As I read it I see Moses, a man we recognize today as a great leader but who probably would rather have been a quiet shepherd in the wilderness, giving his last words of advice and encouragement to the people God has asked him to lead. He has been at it for more than forty years. He is not going to cross the Jordan into the promised land, he knows his days are at an end.
We read his words and we see the tragically prophetic nature of his warnings. Tragic because we can read what happens later in the story and see that the things he warns about do come to pass. Tragic because had the Israelites made other choices we see quite clearly what blessings would have been bestowed upon them.
I read those warnings with a knowledge of what comes later and I think, "If only you had listened, or remembered. If only you had chosen otherwise...what effects would we feel from those choices even today?"
And then it makes me wonder how my story will be read after I'm gone. Will my children look back on it and say, "If only my dad had listened or remembered...how different would things be for us today had he chosen differently?"
It is a sobering thought.
One well worthy of diligent prayer.