Revising The Mission of God
3 February 2026That’s the response I get from some (knowledgeable) folk when they ask me what I’m writing these days, and I tell them I’m working on Deuteronomy (again). And if you’ve already memorised the content of the “Books” section of this website, you’ll know that indeed I have. But that was a long time ago (like Deuteronomy itself), thirty years ago in 1996. And that was a “proper” commentary, originally in the New International Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament series with Hendrickson, and now reissued by Baker in their Understanding the Bible Commentary series (which always strikes me as a bit of a failure of imagination; I mean, what commentary series is not about “understanding the Bible”?).
Anyway, as I was saying, I am back on the case again. And that’s because I grieve over the fact that Deuteronomy is such a neglected book. Maybe that’s because people often don’t get past Leviticus, or get bogged down in Numbers, and give up. Which is a shame, since Deuteronomy is like the John’s Gospel or the Romans of the Old Testament. All the great truths of biblical faith are there, including the good news of God’s love and grace, alongside a rich feast of guidance and principles for what it means to live in loving obedience to God in every part of life, as individuals and in society. Deuteronomy provides the spiritual and theological criteria by which the historians of Israel (especially Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings) assessed the life and leadership of the nation. The prophets likewise addressed their people on the basis of the covenant promises and threats in the book. And Deuteronomy was hugely influential on Jesus (he quoted it three times in his temptations), and on Paul’s theology of mission.
And besides all that…I just love the book! And I’ve taught it many times in years past, in India and at All Nations Christian College. So now I’m working on a more popular level exposition of it, to add to my little Zondervan series, Hearing the Message of Daniel, Ecclesiastes, Habakkuk. So this one will be Hearing the Message of Deuteronomy. The subtitle may be something like, The Obedience of Faith in the Midst of the Nations - but that’s yet to be decided.
Well, that’s the good news, but the bad news is, I’ve only got as far as chapter 5, on the Ten Commandments (writing this in July). I’d like to finish the work by the end of this calendar year, but let’s see…..
Which means it won’t be out till late 2027 at the earliest. Which further means that if you want to get stuck into this wonderful Bible book before then, well, there’s another commentary on Deuteronomy that I can recommend in the meantime….
Chris
July 2026
