The much-anticipated Annapolis Peace Conference began today at the US Naval Academy in Maryland. It is the first such conference to take place in seven years, since the Bush administration took office. The Annapolis conference is meant to be a starting point for future negotiations. In his opening remarks, President Bush read a "joint statement" which expressed the desire of both sides to put an end to the bloodshed. Both sides have also pledged to continue peace negotiations in accordance with the Road Map Peace Plan with the goal of reaching an agreement by the end of 2008.

The Israeli-Palestinian "joint statement" has already been meet with a great deal of skepticism and criticism. Many experts doubt this latest effort will succeed where others have failed so many times before. The reason is that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is not as straightforward as some may think. There are no easy answers or simple explanations. The deeper you dig, the more complicated it becomes.

The most difficult part of the peace process is not the establishment of a Palestinian state, but the terms on which it is established. Palestinians have demanded the complete withdrawal of Israel from all the occupied areas back to the 1967 border, the dismantling of all Israeli settlements in the West Bank and Gaza that are home to more than 250,000 Jews, a Palestinian capitol in east Jerusalem, the right of return for all Palestinian refugees to Israel, the removal of Israeli roadblocks, the release of some 8,000 Palestinians being detained in Israeli jails and military prisons, and the dismantling of the controversial barrier wall.

The right of return for the refugees is a particular source of friction between the Palestinians and Israelis. The Palestinians argue that according to a 1948 UN General Assembly resolution, they have a right to live in what is now Israel. Those who left during the 1948-49 war and their descendants now number roughly 4 million, and Israel argues that it can in no way accept such a potentially huge influx of Palestinians. Israel says the refugees belong in the Palestinian territories, not in the state of Israel. The controversy has caused a multitude of problems. Rather than being integrated into the general populations of the countries where they fled, the majority of refugees have remained in refugee camps under deplorable conditions. The Arab states do not want the refugees and, with the exception of Jordan, they are unwilling to give them citizenship. If the refugees were allowed to return to Israel, the Palestinian population would quickly outnumber the Jewish population. Former Egyptian President Gamal Abdel Nasser - a key player in the Six Day War who openly advocated the destruction of Israel - told an interviewer on September 1, 1961: "If the refugees return to Israel, Israel will cease to exist."

Even if the Palestinians are successful in obtaining their own state there are no guarantees that the violence will end. A poll conducted by Public Opinion Research of Israel and the Palestinian Center for Public Opinion reported that over 60 percent of Palestinians believe that Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad should continue their armed struggle against Israel even if Israel leaves all of the West Bank and Gaza, including East Jerusalem and a Palestinian state is created.

For most Westerners it is difficult to understand why the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has continued for so long or why it has resulted in so much violence. The fundamental problem is that the Palestinian leadership has ardently resisted making any concessions toward Israel and have maintained an all-or-nothing approach to peace negotiations. Too few Palestinians truly desire peace. Palestinian children are consistently taught in school to hate Israel. Most Arab nations have yet to officially recognize the right of Israel to exist, and many Muslim groups, like Hamas and Hezbollah, will not allow peace unless it comes in the form of Israel's destruction.

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Whose sermons are quoted most in the Bible? The answer may surprise you. Just as the New Testament epistles are our primary interpretive commentary on the historical narratives (the Gospels and Acts), the most venerated portion of the Old Testament - the Torah - has, within it, its primary commentary in the form of three sermons by its principal author, Moses.

Moses was eminently qualified to speak for God. He was more than Israel's human Lawgiver: he was the founder of Israel's religion; he was the mediator of the covenant at Sinai; he was Israel's first prophet. (Though God called Abraham a prophet, Israel did not then exist as a nation.) Through Moses, God set such a high standard for the people that all subsequent prophets lived under his shadow, never attaining to it, until the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Not surprisingly, the New Testament authors mentioned Moses more frequently than any other Old Testament person. His concluding remarks after a 120-year lifetime have been handed down to us as the Book of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is essentially a series of sermons by the greatest Old Testament prophet. Jesus Himself quoted more from Deuteronomy than from any other portion of the Old Testament. (In a sense, Deuteronomy is the "Book of Romans" of the Old Testament.)

The Hebrew title of the book is 'elleh haddebarim ("these are the words") in keeping with the Hebrew custom of often titling a work by its first word(s). The English title Deuteronomy stems from the Septuagint's mistranslation of Deuteronomy 17:18, "this repetition of the Law." The Septuagint translated those words deuteronomion (deutero means "two" or "second," and nomion is "law"; lit., "second Law"), which were rendered Deuteronomium in the Vulgate, Jerome's fourth-century Latin translation of the Bible.

Moses' words were addressed to all Israel, an expression used at least 12 times in the book. Its frequent occurrence emphasizes the unity of Israel which was brought about by God's mighty deliverance of the nation from Egypt, and by her acceptance of His covenant at Sinai. They were uniquely God's people, the only nation on earth that had as its "Constitution" the Word of God.

Sometimes very crucial progress occurs at an excruciatingly slow pace. From Horeb to Kadesh Barnea was only about 200 miles. The Israelites turned an 11-day journey - from Horeb (another word for Mount Sinai) to Kadesh Barnea, the first site for entering into the Promised Land from the south - into a 40-year wandering in the wilderness before they came to their second potential site for entering the land. It took only three days to get Israel out of Egypt; but it took 40 years to get "Egypt" out of Israel! As Stephen pointed out centuries later, the Israelites had always been slow to believe God.

Moses' review of the Law includes many crucial issues such as the legitimacy of war, the role of capital punishment, divorce, as well as the proper forms of worship, keeping the Sabbath, etc. But the surprise for many are the prophetic aspects of this foundational book: the future history of Israel-including an astonishing prediction of the Holocaust, etc. However, all Scriptures are Christ centered, so perhaps most challenging for the dedicated students are the "types" and "macrocodes" throughout the book. We find them in the roles of the goel, the Kinsman-Redeemer, the cities of refuge, the levirate marriage, and the many calendar issues.

God has not changed since then. Man has not changed since then. And God's primary message through His servant Moses was Love. Not a list of do's and don'ts, not legalism, but relationship. And, of course, the ultimate consummation of all these things was, and is, fulfilled in our Kinsman-Redeemer, the Lord Jesus Christ. God always rewards the diligent student, and a careful review of this foundational book is guaranteed to be life-changing! See our Expositional Commentary on Deuteronomy for an in-depth study!

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