Copyright 1997MWSC/Jeanie C. Crain All
rights reserved.
Deuteronomy: Yahweh’s Steadfast Love
(Second Law)
- Setting:
Israel is encamped in the plains of Moab, prepared for an attack upon
Canaan from the East.
- Moses
bids his people farewell, rehearses the mighty acts of Israel’s God, warns
of temptations to be faced in Canaan, and pleads for loyalty and love of
God as the condition for life in the promised land.
Moses’ Three Addresses
Content of Messages
- Message
1
- You have stayed long enough
at this mountain 1.6; turn and take your journey; go, take possession of
the land sworn to your fathers 1.8.
- God has multiplied you 1.9;
you have rebelled 1.26; Yahweh bore you as a son 1.31.
- Caleb and Joshua will enter
the land, not Moses and not the rest of the living generation 1.37-40.
Messages of Moses
- Message
1, continued
- Wise, experienced heads of
tribe will lead 1.33.
- Ammon
given to sons of Lot for possession 1.18.
- King
of Sihon, Hesbon, utterly destroyed 1.33.
- Bashan
of Og left, but city destroyed 3.
- Land
allotment in Transjordan to Reubenites, Gadites, and half-tribe of Manasseh.
Messages
- Message
1, continued
- Give
heed to the statutes:
- Statutes give wisdom and
understanding 4.6.
- Israel’s Yahweh is "near"
4.7.
- Make statutes known to
children 4.9.
- Yahweh has no form, only
voice 4.12.
- Make no images of God 4.16.
- Forget the covenant, be
dispossessed and scattered; return only in latter days, for God is
merciful 4.25-31.
Message 2: Code of Laws to be Observed in Canaan
- Decalogue
Ch. 5 (cf. Exodus 20. 2-17)
- Decalogue, given directly;
rest of law mediated
- Great
Commandment 6.4-9 (cf. Mk 12. 29-30): restatement of first commandment in
positive form.
- Loving God is a matter of the
(mind, will) and soul (vital being, self): to be constantly thought about
(put on hand, forehead, and doorposts (cf. Exodus 13.9).
Message 2, Codes
- Do right; teach your children
to do right 6.18,20.
- Take possession, utterly destroy,
and make no covenant with the people of Canaan, Ch. 7.
- not to marry Canaanites 7.3
- take heed not to forget
ordinances 8.12; love God, statutes and ordinances 11.1
- set apart tribe of Levi to
carry Ark 10.6
- know choice before you is
divine blessing or divine curse 11.26
Message 2, Codes
- Not to eat blood, for blood
is life 12.23.
- Learn to recognize false
prophets who tell you to go after other gods 13.
- Kill the brother, son,
daughter, wife or friend who entices one to go after other gods 13; stone
them to death.
- Not to mourn as pagans do
14.1
- Not to eat unclean foods 14
- Grant release of creditors
every seven years 15.
- Keep the Passover 16.
- Set only a king chosen by
God over you 17.14.
Message 2: Codes
- King is to follow laws set
before him in a book which is the charge of the Levitical priests 17.18.
- Know that God will raise a
prophet like Moses from among you 18.15.
- Set apart six cities of
refuge to give respite where the murderer may flee for his life 19.
- Captives from conquered
cities to be used for forced labor 20.10
- Acknowledge the first-born
of the preferred wife by giving him a double portion 20.17.
Message 2, Codes
- Bury those hanged 21.22.
- Women should not wear men’s
clothing 22.5.
- Stone the woman taken as a
wife who is not a virgin 22.21.
- Stone those guilty of adultery
22.22.
- Bastards should not enter
the assembly of the Lord 23.2.
- Ammonites and Moabites not
to enter assembly until the tenth generation 23.3.
- Write a bill of divorce for
wife sent out of house, and take her not again if she is re-divorced 24.
- Thieves shall die 24.7.
Message 2, Codes
- Fathers shall not be put to
death for their children, nor children for their fathers’ crimes 24.16.
- Leave remains of harvest for
sojourners (fatherless and widowed) 24.19.
- Guilty man beaten in court
25.2
- Cut off the hand of any
woman seizing the private parts of any man with whom her husband is
contending 25.11.
- Spit in the face of the
husband’s brother who fails to perform the duty of husband to the bereaved
wife 25.5.
- Don’t carry two kinds of
weights for doing business 25.13.
Message 2, Codes
- Keep the commandments and
the statutes: cursed are those who (27)
- make graven images
- dishonor parents
- remove landmarks
- mislead the blind
- pervert justice for
sojourners, fatherless, and widowed
- lie with a father’s wife,
beast, sister, mother-in-law
- slay a neighbor or takes a
bribe to slay the innocent
- does not keep the law
Message 2 : Blessings and Curses
- Blessings
for obedience
- in the city; fields; fruit
of body, ground, beast, increase of cattle; flock and basket; coming in
and going out 28. 1-7
- Curses
for disobedience
- in the city; fields; fruit
of body, ground, beast, increase of cattle; flock and basket; coming in
and going out 28. 16-19
- 28.47-68 Reflect tragedy
befalling Judah when Babylonians conquered Jerusalem 597-587 BCE.
Third Message: Exhortation and Warnings
- Choice is life and good, death and evil 30.15; Moses calls for
Israel to choose life 30.19.
- Moses identifies Joshua as the leader who is to go with his people
into the new land, revealing the nearness of his own death 31.6-8, 14.
- Moses writes song and teaches it to Israel 31.19; he writes the
words of the law into a book and commands it be put by the side of the Ark
of the Covenant 31.26.
Moses Celebration of Life
- 32 Moses’ song: "I will proclaim the name of the Lord,
Ascribe greatness to our God… his work is perfect;... his ways are
justice… who created, …made… and established you; he fixed the bound of
his people…" 32.3,4,6,8)
- 33 The blessing of Moses: "There has not arisen a prophet in
Israel like Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face" 34.10.
Distinctive Teachings
- 12
Worship of God is to be centralized.
- God
loves as a father 1.31.
- God
sanctions resistance to Israel 2.30: Sihon of Heshbon: "God hardened
his spirit and made his heart obstinate."
- God
is a form without image 4.12.
- God
is merciful 31.
- God
keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him 7.9.
Distinctive Teachings
- God disciplines 8.5.
- God chooses a people 10.15.
- God gives rest 12. 8 & 9.
- God raises prophets 18.15.
- Disobedience is punished 28.47.
- God holds individuals accountable 24.16.
- God speaks in silence: "Keep silence, and hear, O Israel…
obey the voice of the Lord your God" 27.9&10.
Distinctive Teachings
- God
wants gladness in service 28.47.
- God’s
commandments are not too hard nor distant 30.11: "For
this commandment which I command you this day is not too hard for you,
neither is it far off. It is not in heaven that you should say, ‘Who will
go up for us to heaven, and bring it to us, that we may hear and do it?’"