They had celebrated the Passover forty times during those forty years in the wilderness. They knew it by heart. Having observed the somber Day of Atonement ceremony forty times, during the season hearing the entire Law read aloud by the rulers of Israel, the Law of God was quite familiar to them. Many parts of it were imbedded in the tongue of the elders as they taught it to the young. Through that journey from Egypt to Canaan, the Israelites had experienced both the goodness and the severity of God, and Moses saw to it that they knew and understood the truth of all they had experienced. Moses, with his Levitical helpers, explained the already simple words of God and enforced the precepts of the Law at all times. The Israelites needed not to sigh and long for someone to reveal God’s way to them. God’s way was the Law under which they lived. It was an integral part of their behavior. It was so close to them that it was in their mouths and in their hearts and minds.

Camped across the Jordan from the promised land, the Israelites were given a last message from the one hundred and twenty-year old man who had led them out of Egypt. Knowing that these words would be among his last to his much-beloved people, Moses obviously chose his words with extreme care and passion. It is instructive to observe that these final words, which Moses must have considered precious, were words of pleading exhortation to his people for them to be faithful to what they already knew, for them to realize the value of the revelation that had been entrusted to them, for them to resist the temptations that would cause them to forget that the God of Truth was among them. There were no new commandments, no surprises.

“This commandment that I command thee this day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off”, Moses said (Dt. 30:11). Why did he say that? Because they had possessed the commandment of God and lived forty years by its standard. “It [God’s Law] is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say ‘Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it and do it?’” Why should they not say that? Because forty years previously God himself had brought it down from heaven and, from Mt. Sinai’s smoking heights, delivered the Law to them. “Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say ‘Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?’” God had already “gone over the sea” for them, indeed had brought them through the sea on dry land to the mountain where He gave his Law. “But the [God’s] word”, Moses concluded, “ is very nigh unto thee.” How near to them was it, Moses? “In thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it” (Dt. 30:14). Yes, they knew by heart the right way. The heathen might have to long for revelation from heaven, might have to cross mountains and seas to hear the Law of God taught, but not Israel. Israel’s righteousness would be their faithfulness to what God had already given them.

Actually, the Israelites could have preached the same message to Moses. “Moses, you needn’t wonder what God’s will is for you. He has already shown you. Be careful to trust him and obey!” Moses’ last sermon, then, was not an evangelistic message for those who did not know God, but an exhortation to God’s people to be faithful to Him. In a nutshell, Moses was saying to his people what Jesus would later say to his disciples: “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved” (Mt. 24:13).

In Romans 10: 9-10, the Apostle Paul was exhorting the saints at Rome to endure to the end, using in his exhortation the pattern of Moses’ words. As with Moses, Paul was not speaking to unbelievers, but to saints whose faith was world-renown (Rom. 1:7-8). “Say not in thine heart ‘Who shall ascend into heaven’ (that is, to bring Christ down from above).” Why do the saints not need to long for the Christ to come? Because he has already been sent to live on earth several years. It would be unbelief for the saints now to wonder who the Christ is. We know who he is! Continuing then in Moses’ pattern of exhortation, Paul told the saints that they also need not to say, “‘Who shall descend into the deep?’ (that is, to bring up Christ again from the dead).” He is already risen! And the believers in Rome knew it, rejoiced in it, indeed, preached it to the world! Paul was simply exhorting them to trust in what God had already done, and not to be lured away by deceivers to look for another way to eternal life.

Quoting Moses again, Paul continued, “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth and in thy heart.” What word was in their mouths and hearts, Paul? “The word of faith, which we preach.” Yes, the same word Paul preached, these Roman saints preached as well. They could have exhorted Paul to do as he was exhorting them. “Confess the Lord Jesus, Paul! Believe in your heart in his resurrection! And if you continue in this holy faith, Paul, you shall be saved.”

This confession in Christ can only be made by believers (Rom. 10:13-14). Sinners can no more confess Christ than the ancient heathen nations could obey the Law. They didn’t have the Law to keep. And sinners do not have Christ to confess him. Sinners confess sin. Saints confess Christ.

Paul, in Romans 10:9-10, was no more telling sinners how to be converted than Moses in his last sermon was telling the Egyptians how to become Israelites. Heathen nations weren’t even there to hear Moses’ words, and unbelievers were not there to read Paul’s letter. Both Moses and Paul knew that in order for the people of God to be saved in the end, they must continue trusting in what God had already provided them. They were only dutifully reminding those precious people of the simple requirements for believers who would inherit the glorious Kingdom of their Father.

“Wherefore I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance of these things, though ye know them, and be established in the present truth.” 2Pet. 1:12