Adult Lesson Plan: Deuteronomy 6–8;15;18;29–30;34

OPENING (2–3 minutes)

Moses begins his ministry on a mountain where God speaks from a burning bush, and he ends it on a mountain where God shows him the promised land (see Exodus 3:1–10; Deuteronomy 34:1–4). That ending carries a quiet ache. Moses has spent decades preparing Israel to enter, and then he stands on Nebo and looks in.

Come, Follow Me frames the twist: “Moses had spent his life preparing the children of Israel to enter that promised land, and the book of Deuteronomy records his final instructions, reminders, exhortations, and pleadings with the Israelites.” Then it names what Moses was preparing them for, and it is not mainly geography or politics: “It was about learning to love God, obey Him, and remain loyal to Him. That’s the preparation we all need to enter the promised land of eternal life.” (Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026, “May 11–17. ‘Beware Lest Thou Forget the Lord’”)

Hold that paradox in the room: Moses gets them to the edge, but the central work is internal. If a people can cross a river but forget God, they have not arrived.

A question to open discussion: Where does spiritual forgetting show up most often, not in rebellion, but in comfort?

SCRIPTURE EXPLORATION (15–20 minutes)

Read Deuteronomy 6:4–7 slowly, and let the repeated “heart” do its work. Come, Follow Me recommends that we “look for the word heart, and ponder what it might symbolize,” calling these verses “a kind of spiritual checkup on your heart.” (Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026, “Love the Lord thy God with all thine heart.”)

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart: And thou shalt teach them diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up.” (Deuteronomy 6:4–7)

Moses links love to a pattern of daily speech and memory. He does not say, “Feel warmly about God.” He says the words should be “in thine heart,” and then he describes ordinary life: sitting, walking, lying down, rising up. Ask the class: Which of those daily moments tends to be the most spiritually “unguarded” for you, the time when other voices fill the room?

Move next to Deuteronomy 8, where Moses interprets the wilderness as a classroom. Come, Follow Me points us to Deuteronomy 8:2–5 and 8:11–17 as another heart-diagnosis. (Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026, “Love the Lord thy God with all thine heart.”)

“And thou shalt remember all the way which the Lord thy God led thee these forty years in the wilderness, to humble thee, and to prove thee, to know what was in thine heart, whether thou wouldest keep his commandments, or no.” (Deuteronomy 8:2)

Then Moses warns about prosperity amnesia:

“Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God, in not keeping his commandments, and his judgments, and his statutes, which I command thee this day: Lest when thou hast eaten and art full, and hast built goodly houses, and dwelt therein; And when thy herds and thy flocks multiply, and thy silver and thy gold is multiplied, and all that thou hast is multiplied; Then thine heart be lifted up, and thou forget the Lord thy God…” (Deuteronomy 8:11–14)

Let the class sit with Moses’s realism. He worries less about hunger than about being “full.” Ask: Why does “eaten and art full” become a spiritual danger? What kinds of modern “fullness” lift a heart up?

Now read Deuteronomy 15:7–8, 11 and listen for the Lord’s desired posture toward the poor. Come, Follow Me summarizes the principle this way: “Helping people in need involves generous hands and willing hearts.” (Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026, “Deuteronomy 15:1–15”)

“If there be among you a poor man of one of thy brethren… thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand from thy poor brother: But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him…” (Deuteronomy 15:7–8) “For the poor shall never cease out of the land: therefore I command thee, saying, Thou shalt open thine hand wide unto thy brother…” (Deuteronomy 15:11)

Moses ties remembering God to the way we treat the vulnerable. The “heart” language returns, and the command becomes practical: open hands.

Finally, read Moses’s closing invitation in Deuteronomy 30:15–20, and let the moral clarity land without rushing past it.

“See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil… I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore choose life…” (Deuteronomy 30:15, 19)

Come, Follow Me suggests comparing these words with Lehi’s final teachings (see 2 Nephi 2:26–29; 4:4) and asks, “What do you find in these passages that inspires you to ‘choose life’?” (Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026, “Deuteronomy 29:9; 30:15–20”)

A question that often opens discussion: When Moses says “choose life,” what does “life” look like in a week that feels ordinary, repetitive, and crowded?

DOCTRINAL DISCUSSION (10–15 minutes)

Deuteronomy keeps pressing one doctrine into many angles: covenant loyalty lives in the heart, and it shows up in memory, worship, and mercy. Come, Follow Me states it plainly: “The law of Moses included many outward ceremonies and rituals. As you’ll see in Moses’s counsel in Deuteronomy, the Lord was also concerned about His people’s inward state, the spiritual condition of their hearts.” (Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026, “Love the Lord thy God with all thine heart.”)

That gives teachers permission to move past checklists and into the interior life. Deuteronomy 6 does not treat the home as a spiritual afterthought. Moses places discipleship inside the rhythms of conversation, the topics we return to when no one is performing. When the Lord’s words are “in thine heart” (Deuteronomy 6:6), they also end up in our children’s ears, our daily decisions, and our private self-talk. Discussion question: What do you talk about “when thou sittest in thine house” (Deuteronomy 6:7)? If someone listened for a week, what would they conclude you love?

Deuteronomy 8 adds another doctrine: God uses both scarcity and abundance to reveal what is “in thine heart” (Deuteronomy 8:2). Moses describes a God who leads, proves, and teaches over time. The wilderness is not wasted time; it is training time. Discussion question: How has the Lord used a season you did not choose to show you something true about your heart?

Then Deuteronomy 15 refuses to let “love God” remain abstract. It is possible to speak covenant language while hardening the heart. Moses names both: “thou shalt not harden thine heart, nor shut thine hand” (Deuteronomy 15:7). Heart and hand move together. Discussion question: When have you felt the difference between giving that feels reluctant and giving that feels like “open thine hand wide” (Deuteronomy 15:8)? What changes inside a person when generosity becomes willing?

Deuteronomy also anchors all of this in Christ. Come, Follow Me highlights the prophecy of a Prophet “like unto” Moses and notes that “Peter, Nephi, Moroni, and the Savior Himself all commented on the prophecy in Deuteronomy 18:15–19.” (Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026, “Deuteronomy 18:15–19”) Jesus declared, “I am he of whom the prophet Moses spake” (3 Nephi 20:23, cited in Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026, “Deuteronomy 18:15–19”). Discussion question: If Moses’s final sermons aim at the heart, what does that suggest about the kind of discipleship Jesus asks for?

One more question to weave through the conversation: Deuteronomy 30 frames agency with witnesses, “heaven and earth” (Deuteronomy 30:19). What helps you experience commandments less as pressure and more as a path to “choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19)?

PRACTICAL APPLICATION (5–7 minutes)

Adults often forget God the same way Israel did, by getting busy building “goodly houses” and managing multiplied responsibilities (Deuteronomy 8:12–13). Deuteronomy offers a practical countermeasure: place God’s words where daily life happens. Moses names ordinary moments, “when thou walkest by the way… when thou risest up” (Deuteronomy 6:7). A teacher can invite class members to identify one moment they already have every day, a commute, a quiet minute before a meeting, the first sixty seconds after waking, and ask what it would look like to let the Lord’s words enter that space.

Deuteronomy 15 also speaks to modern budgeting, exhaustion, and compassion fatigue. “Thou shalt not harden thine heart” (Deuteronomy 15:7) can describe emotional scarcity as much as financial scarcity. When people feel stretched, the reflex is to close the hand and guard the heart. Moses gives a different reflex: open the hand. That can include offerings, time, or attention. The class can reflect on one person they tend to overlook because the need feels complicated, and then ask what “open thine hand wide” (Deuteronomy 15:11) might mean in a realistic, sustainable way.

Deuteronomy 30 brings it back to choices. “I have set before thee this day life and good” (Deuteronomy 30:15) fits the small crossroads adults face: the next conversation with a spouse, the next click on a phone, the next response to a child’s need. Choosing life often looks like choosing covenant loyalty in a moment no one applauds.

CLOSING TESTIMONY & INVITATION (2–3 minutes)

Moses’s last message carries one steady concern: “Beware that thou forget not the Lord thy God” (Deuteronomy 8:11). He answers that danger with a way of living where God’s words stay close, “in thine heart” (Deuteronomy 6:6), and where covenant love becomes visible in open hands (Deuteronomy 15:8).

Carry one question into the week: Where, in my ordinary day, will I place the Lord’s words so I do not forget Him?

I bear witness that the Lord who led Israel through the wilderness leads His covenant people now, and that choosing life through Him is real. Moses’s invitation still stands, “therefore choose life” (Deuteronomy 30:19), and the Savior is the Prophet Moses pointed to, the One who speaks God’s words and brings us home (see Deuteronomy 18:15–19; 3 Nephi 20:23, cited in Come, Follow Me, For Home and Church: Old Testament 2026, “Deuteronomy 18:15–19”).