Moses and the Gospel of Life
Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux, Moses Speaks to Israel (c. 1885).
As readers of the Bible, occasionally we experience times when we must trudge through dense collections of laws and warnings. Sometimes the book of Deuteronomy can feel that way. But woven throughout the book is a powerful and persistent theme—life. More than mere biological existence, life in Deuteronomy refers to something fuller, richer, and ultimately more hopeful. In fact, Deuteronomy presents a theology of life that points beyond its immediate context toward a lasting, divinely given restoration. This post explores that theme and why it matters for Christians today.
The Hebrew word for life, ḥayah, appears nearly 40 times in Deuteronomy and over 200 times in the Pentateuch. But not every use carries the same meaning. A careful reading reveals three distinct referents:
Physical Life refers to the general state of being alive. This can include (a) animals, beasts, or living creatures; (b) trees, water, skin, or seasons, that are said to be alive; or (c) living human beings, or the span of human lifetime.
Experiential Life refers to a subset of Physical Life that is characterized by realization of covenant blessings. This is often the expression for the good, flourishing life in the land as the result of obedience.
Eschatological Life refers to a future, irreversible life granted by God, beyond death or exile.
“If, as I argue in this post, Deuteronomy truly does describe a future, post death/exile life, then it offers one of the earliest and most foundational theological anticipations of resurrection life in Scripture.”
Christians who re-read the Old Testament through the lens of the new covenant do not typically balk at the idea of “Eschatological Life” being present in the ancient book of Deuteronomy. But we should be careful not to assume what must be demonstrated. If, as I argue in this post, Deuteronomy truly does describe a future, post death/exile life, then it offers one of the earliest and most foundational theological anticipations of resurrection life in Scripture. While the doctrine of resurrection is made explicit much later—most clearly in Daniel 12:2, “And many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt”—I suggest that Deuteronomy lays the groundwork. Its vision of life after the failure of covenant obedience, secured by divine intervention, foreshadows what the prophets and the New Testament will later explain in full.
Physical Life
Frequently ḥayah refers simply to Physical Life. Moses says, “You who held fast to the Lord your God are all alive today” (Deut. 4:4). This type of life includes biological existence and the duration of one’s days. Twenty of the thirty-nine occurrences of ḥayah in Deuteronomy refer to Physical Life (Deut. 4:4, 9, 10, 33, 42; 5:3, 24, 26; 6:2; 12:1; 16:3; 17:19; 19:4, 5; 20:16; 28:66 [2x]; 31:13, 27; 33:6). While simple, this form of life is the foundation for the later concepts of ḥayah as will be seen in the next two sections.
Experiential Life
There are instances throughout the Pentateuch where ḥayah does not fit into the preceding category because it points to a certain kind (or experience) of physical existence. When the Israelites were enslaved in Egypt, the enjoyment and prosperity of their physical lives was negatively affected. Exodus describes this experience as follows: “So they ruthlessly made the people of Israel work as slaves and made their lives (ḥayah) bitter by hard service with mortar and bricks and by all kinds of work in the field. In all their work they ruthlessly made them work as slaves” (Exod. 1:14). Thus, life can refer to a subset of physical, biological existence, one that concerns the quality of life. In other words, human beings who are physically alive may experience a particularly good (or bad) life.
This experience of the blessing is conditional. Deuteronomy makes it abundantly clear that Israel would experience the good life of flourishing in the land if they obeyed the law. Consider a few examples:
- “And now, O Israel, listen to the statutes and the rules that I am teaching you, and do them, that you may live” (Deut. 4:1).
- “You shall walk in all the way that the Lord your God has commanded you, that you may live, and that it may go well with you” (Deut. 5:33).
- “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey... then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land that you are entering” (Deut. 30:15–16).
Deuteronomy uses life in this way as a summary term to refer broadly to the material blessings that come with covenant faithfulness. Yet, Israel failed to persist in choosing life and ultimately experienced exile. Deuteronomy accurately predicts Israel’s choice of death, experience of exile, and subsequent return/restoration (Deut. 30:1–14). While Israel eventually experiences restoration to the land, later writers of Scripture seem to indicate that there is a sense in which exile continues (Luke 4:18; John 7:35; Rom. 7:23; Acts 8:1, 4; 11:19; Jas. 1:1; 1 Pet. 1:1).1 This raises the question: Is there a third category of life? Does Deuteronomy’s theology of life include a life/blessing that has no threat of death/curse? Upon closer examination, the answer is yes. It is in fact Eschatological Life that emerges as the real hope of restoration.
Eschatological Life
“Whereas the texts examined in the previous category all conditioned life upon Israel’s covenantal obedience, here Deuteronomy asserts that God will intercede in the people’s hearts to enable them to love God consistently and genuinely ‘that you may live’ (Deut. 30:6b).”
According to Deuteronomy, the God who grants life is himself the “living God” (Deut. 5:26; cf. Num 14:21, 28), the one who has “life forever” (Deut. 32:40). The life that God possesses is not merely physical, biological existence, nor it is the human flourishing of “the good life.” This divine life is categorically different from the two previous kinds of life; it is everlasting, and death poses no threat to it.
In a few very important passages in Deuteronomy, God promises to deliver this category of life to his people at some point in the indefinite future. While the conception of life after death, or resurrection life, is not fully developed until later in the Old Testament (e.g. Isa. 26:19; Ezek. 37:1–10; Dan. 12:1–3) and even more so during the Second Temple period (e.g. 2 Esd. 7:32–38; 4 Macc. 18:6–24), it is already anticipated in Deuteronomy (Deut. 30:6; 32:39). In the passages that follow, we can observe seminal notions of Eschatological Life in the very texts that later authors use to describe “eternal” or “resurrection” life.
Deuteronomy 30:6 says, “And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live.” Whereas the texts examined in the previous category all conditioned life upon Israel’s covenantal obedience, here Deuteronomy asserts that God will intercede in the people’s hearts to enable them to love God consistently and genuinely “that you may live” (Deut. 30:6b). God’s intercession in this text forms a striking contrast to the previous command for Israel to “circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no longer stubborn” (Deut. 10:16). Up to this point in the book, Deuteronomy casts a pessimistic outlook on Israel’s successful obedience, as they are expected to fail (Deut. 4:25–28; 29:15–27; 31:16–17, 27–29; 32:1–43). But in the discourse of Deuteronomy 30:1–14, the paradigm shifts from human responsibility (e.g., “do the statutes and rules that you may live,” Deut. 4:1) to God’s saving activity: “that you may live,” or, more accurately translated, “for the sake of your life.”2
It is important to notice that the kind of life depicted here is not realized by simply returning to the land and having the material blessings of the good life restored (i.e. a return to Experiential Life). Rather, life is presented as something beyond (or in addition to) the good life of post-exilic dwelling in the land.3 In this sense, the good life of blessing in the land is a type of the Eschatological Life that God will give in the new covenant.
Deuteronomy 32:39 says, “See now that I, even I, am he, and there is no god beside me; I kill and I make alive.” The sovereign God of the universe is powerful to give physical, biological existence, and to take it away. He also has power to give health and prosperity (the good life) and to take it away as he pleases. Yet this passage may also suggest the idea of Eschatological Life. The sequence of verbs in Deuteronomy 32:39 is noteworthy: because “I make alive” is placed after “I kill,” the former phrase could suggest life after death.4 In view of the immediately following verse (v. 40), which affirms that God lives “forever,” it is plausible that this sovereign and immortal God may invite his people to participate in the life that endures with him. Such a reading would align with Deuteronomy’s broader vision in which life is not merely physical survival or experiential blessing, but a relational participation in the enduring life of Yahweh.
Escalation
This analysis not only reveals three distinct senses of Deuteronomy’s robust theme of ḥayah, but it also suggests that earlier conceptions of life prefigure later conceptions of life. By using the same word but with a fuller, figurative sense, Deuteronomy borrows the patterns and concepts from the idea of Physical Life to depict Experiential Life. And again, by using ḥayah also to refer to a third category of life, the patterns and concepts from the previous two preface and illuminate Eschatological Life. Thus, ḥayah escalates in meaning throughout Deuteronomy (indeed, the entire Pentateuch). The base meaning of ḥayah is Physical Life: the state of being alive. Experiential Life is a subset of the base meaning category—the experience of Physical Life. Eschatological Life, however, is not subsumed under the first and second categories, but rather Physical and Experiential Life foreshadow and anticipate a greater and irreversible Eschatological Life that God’s people enjoy in the new era of restoration after exile.
Conclusion
“The Gospel of John reveals that this mediator is none other than Jesus who announces: ‘I know that his commandment is eternal life.’”
The taxonomy of life presented in this post reveals that the themes of life move toward Eschatological Life. In addition to the seminal references to this climactic life in 30:6 and 32:39, Deuteronomy looks forward to a future age in which a prophet will “speak” the (life-giving) “word” that God “commands” (Deut. 18:18–19). In this future time, the people will “listen” to the prophet (Deut. 18:15) as they “obey the voice of the Lord and keep all his commandments” with a new heart (Deut. 30:8). This represents a reversal of the condition of Moses’ contemporaries who failed to have ears to hear (Deut. 29:4). Thus, the anticipation of effectual “listening” in Deuteronomy 18:15–19 links with the book’s prediction of a future new covenant age in which God’s word will be “in your mouth and in your heart” (Deut. 30:14) through the agency of Yahweh.
This prophet is presented as a mediator between God and the people—in the same way Moses mediated at Horeb. The expectation of a coming prophet suggests that Deuteronomy’s theology of life anticipated a new/further revelation of God’s word (the new covenant) that would be mediated by this new prophet. Deuteronomy 30:1–14 presents this new covenant age to be one in which God acts to transform people’s hearts so that they will love God and receive life (Deut. 30:6). The previous covenant offered life but resulted in death—a reality that Deuteronomy anticipated (Deut. 4:25–29; 28:64–68; 31:16–18, 27). Conversely, the new covenant, mediated through a new prophet, is one in which God will guarantee success (Deut. 30:6).5 Thus, Deuteronomy 18:15–19 looks forward to a day when people will be able to listen to and obey Yahweh’s commands because he has acted to change their hearts and grant them life. The Gospel of John reveals that this mediator is none other than Jesus who announces: “For I have not spoken from myself, but the Father who sent me has himself given me a commandment—what to say and what to speak. And I know that his commandment is eternal life” (John 12:49–50). It is to this Prophet that God’s people will “listen” (John 10:16; cf. 5:24–25; 8:43–47; 10:3–4, 27; 18:37).
*For a fuller explanation of these claims, see my article, “The Theme of Life in Deuteronomy,” in the December 2025 issue of the Journal of Evangelical Theological Society.
1 Michael A. Knibb, “The Exile in the Literature of the Intertestamental Period,” HeyJ 17.3 (1976): 253–72; N. T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of God, COQG 2 (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996); James M. Scott, Exile: Old Testament, Jewish, and Christian Conceptions, JSJSup 56 (Leiden: Brill, 1997); Odil H. Steck, Israel und das gewaltsame Geschick der Propheten: Untersuchungen zur Überlieferung des deuteronomistischen Geschichtsbildes in Alten Testament, Spätjudentum und Urchristentum, WMANT 23 (Neukirchen-Vluyn: Neukirchener Verlag, 1967); J. A. Dennis, Jesus’ Death and the Gathering of True Israel; Nicholas G. Piotrowski, Matthew’s New David at the End of Exile: A Socio-Rhetorical Study of Scriptural Quotations, NovTSup 170 (Boston: Brill, 2016); John K. Goodrich, “Sold under Sin: Echoes of Exile in Romans 7:14–25,” NTS 59.4 (2013): 476–95. ↩︎
2 Jason DeRouchie uses the phrase “do this that you may live” to summarize the message of the old covenant according to Deuteronomy (DeRouchie, “The Use of Leviticus 18:5 in Galatians 3:12,” 258, emphasis added). See also, Turner, The Death of Deaths; Turner, “Deuteronomy’s Theology of Exile,” 189–220; Colin J. Smothers, In Your Mouth and in Your Heart: A Study of Deuteronomy 30:12–14 in Paul’s Letter to the Romans (Eugene: Pickwick, 2022). ↩︎
3 Eugene Merrill says regarding the nature of this life, “Here more than physical life on the land is in view. There is a glimpse of life that does not end, life that comes to birth with the supernatural work of grace that alone is sufficient to account for all of these aspects of Israel’s future restoration (cf. Lev 18:5; Ezek 20:11–13; Luke 10:28; Rom 10:5–10)” (Merrill, Deuteronomy, 389). ↩︎
4 Daniel Block writes, “When the complete story of Israel has been told, the sequence of her experience will be clear: From the perspective of this poem, YHWH will kill/wound; but YHWH will bring to life again” in Daniel I. Block, Hearing the Gospel According to Moses, 323. ↩︎
5 Christopher Wright says, “Given that no OT prophet was really ‘like’ him (cf. 34:10–12), he also prefigured the one prophet who was not only like him (cf. Acts 3:22ff.) but indeed surpassed him as a son surpasses a servant (cf. Heb 3:2–6),” in Wright, Deuteronomy, 218. ↩︎
Dr. Mark Kelley
Provost, Compass Bible Institute
Raised in Orange County, Dr. Kelley graduated with a bachelor’s degree in biblical studies from The Master’s University, a Master of Divinity at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and a Master of Theology and a Ph.D. in Biblical Theology at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
In addition to serving as Provost and Professor of Biblical Studies at CBI, Dr. Kelley is a staff pastor at Compass Bible Church, Aliso Viejo. Dr. Kelley married his wife, Bethany, in 2006 and they have four children: Alyssa, Andrew, Anna, and Aaron.
