Vol. 1 is done.

Genesis through Deuteronomy — 59 sessions, five books, the entire foundation of the biblical story. Creation. The fall. Abraham. Egypt. Sinai. The wilderness. Moses standing on Mount Nebo, looking at a land he'll never enter.

We're taking a short break before Joshua.

We'll be back Monday, June 22nd.

Here's what's coming: the Torah ends with a funeral. The history begins with a commission. Same God. New leader. Same story — which means it was never really about Moses. It was never really about any of them. That's what Vol. 2 is going to show you.

Joshua through Esther. Conquest, judges, kings, exile, return. Eighty-eight sessions. The most dramatic stretch of narrative in the Old Testament.

Rest this week. Let what you've read settle.

Monday, June 22nd. Joshua 1. The Jordan is waiting.

The last man of the first generation is about to die: Moses. As a prophet, he sees the future, and it's grim. This new generation will rebel just like their parents. Yet his final words aren't despair. He commissions Joshua: "Do not be afraid. The Lord will be with you." He writes a song. He blesses each tribe. Then he climbs Mount Nebo and sees the Promised Land he'll never enter. Moses dies, but the story doesn't end. God's faithfulness outlasts every human leader.

This final reading invites reflection on legacy, transition, faithfulness, hope, promise, and trusting God beyond the guide.

There's no confusion with God. It's right or left. Blessing or cursing. Life or death. Six tribes stand on the mountain of blessing; six on the mountain of cursing. The choice is put before them. Blessing is tied to trust. Consequence is tied to turning away. But even here, hope remains. God promises restoration for those who return. "The word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it." Grace holds the door open even after failure.

Here we consider choice, blessing, warning, repentance, hope, and God's persistent mercy.

This generation has known spectacle: plagues, the Red Sea, manna from heaven. It would be easy to think that's what life with God looks like. It's not. Life is ordinary. Laundry, children at dinner, a cold commute. If the law is to bring life, it must be about that. God cares about waste management, fair wages, and how you treat the foreigner. Daily obedience is tied to memory, remembering where you've been and who delivered you. Faith is sustained in the mundane, not the miraculous.

This reading invites us to reflect on gratitude, generosity, obedience, remembrance, humility, and trust shaped over time.

Your parents say "I love you" and drop you at college. But they forgot to register your room, fill out financial aid, or arrange your meal plan. Love was spoken. Life wasn't protected. God's love is different. Kings must not multiply horses, wives, or wealth. Judges must be fair. Don't move your neighbor's boundary stone. Even the seemingly small commands protect real lives. These laws aren't restrictions. They're guardrails. Faithfulness means love expressed through action and restraint.

This passage invites reflection on authority, responsibility, restraint, integrity, obedience, and faithful living.

Sometimes you just need a picture of what you're trying to achieve. Deuteronomy 12–16 gives one: Worship God. Enjoy His best. Set His people free. Destroy the pagan worship centers. Don't worship "in that way." Their services burned children alive. Center your festivals around gratitude and remembrance. Cancel debts every seven years. Free your servants. God-devoted life isn't abstract. It has a shape, and that shape is worship, generosity, and justice.

Here we reflect on worship, justice, obedience, leadership, faithfulness, and community shaped by God's ways.

Children engage in magical thinking. The egg just exists. This leads to entitlement: the egg exists for me. Then self-righteousness: the egg exists because I'm special. Israel is about to enter prosperity, and Moses warns them: success erodes memory. "Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.'" The word "remember" appears more in these chapters than anywhere else in Deuteronomy. Gratitude is the safeguard against forgetting God.

This reading invites us to consider gratitude, humility, blessing, warning, obedience, and remembering God in times of plenty.

We think of love as something we create. But in Scripture, love doesn't start with us. We don't see light itself. We see light reflected off a wall. The wall doesn't produce the light; it reflects it. Same with love. We reflect God's love back to Him and to others. Moses walks Israel through the Ten Commandments again, not as random rules but as a portrait of what love looks like inside a real relationship with God. Obedience isn't rooted in fear. It's rooted in being loved first.

Here we reflect on love, commandment, devotion, obedience, loyalty, and trust in God's covenant.

Moses has one final sermon: the book of Deuteronomy. "Repeated Law for a New Generation." He retells the entire story from Sinai to the present, not because it's new information, but because a new generation needs their parents' story. Memory is a teacher. He reminds them of God's faithfulness and their parents' failures. The next generation succeeds upon the learned wisdom of the old. You don't obey to earn God's love. You obey because you've already received it.

This passage invites reflection on memory, obedience, warning, faithfulness, responsibility, and hope shaped by remembrance.

The land is within reach. But Moses isn't focused on military strategy. He's focused on whether Israel can live together after they win. When Reuben and Gad want to settle east of the Jordan, Moses erupts. It sounds like the same self-interest that cost the first generation everything. But they commit to fight alongside their brothers first. Cities of refuge are established. Inheritance laws are clarified. Courage can take land. Character has to keep it.

Here we consider unity, commitment, responsibility, inheritance, obedience, and life lived together before God.