Priorities and Power: Lessons from Deuteronomy

Imagine it.1 You are a Hebrew, standing in Moab, shoulder to shoulder with your fellow-Hebrews, poised to cross the Jordan. All your life thus far – this past forty years or so – has been spent – wasted – in a nomadic existence, wandering in a howling wilderness until the last of the adults who had come out of Egypt under Moses (except Caleb and Joshua) died (as God's judgment for their unbelief and rebellion, especially at Kadesh Barnea). Now, at last, you have reached the east bank of Jordan. What thoughts are racing through your mind?