Reading: Deuteronomy 4-6, Psalm 54
When I was in late grade school, I began reading Second World War memoirs. I think it started with Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo, which was a school assignment. But within a few weeks, I buying paperbacks from Goodwill or picking them up from the library. The Men of Company K, Company Commander, With the Old Breed. I read these and a bunch of others I don’t remember. There are hundreds, probably thousands, of these memoirs, but they all seem to have one thing in common: they practically beg the reader to remember. In some cases overtly, but in all cases it is implied. The soldiers who wrote these books had seen things, and they wanted to makes sure the next generations knew about them.
In today’s reading, Moses will several times reference the future. When the people have children and grandchildren. When they have occupied the land. When their children ask them “why?” Up to this point, the commands have been given for and in the present. The people hearing them are to do them, and while this continues to be true, Moses is making a strong suggestion that the book of Deuteronomy is really for the later generations as a way to instruct them. Particularly he tells the people that when their children ask why they do what they do and worship the God of Israel, they are to tell them the story of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers. This story is the constitution of the nation of Israel. It defines them every bit as much as their blood descent from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
In order to prove his point about leadership, Moses begins a long recounting of the things God has done for Israel, interspersed with interpretations and comments. He puts the question to the people: has anything like what happened to you ever happened before? Do any other people have a god like the God of Israel? Has anyone ever treated a people like a treasure the way God treats Israel? These questions are, of course, rhetorical- there are no stories like these among the nations around them. Moses is continuing his case for God as monarch.
He then moves to the commandments- specifically the ten commandments, which have in one way or another informed the concept of justice for the majority of the human population for almost three thousand years. But while legal codes would grow out of them, this wasn’t the point of these commandments to begin with. These commandments all share one overriding quality: the respect for human life and being. The design of humanity is rooted in the primacy of their creator, as we see in the first and third commandment. There are to be no images of God because God already has an image running around on the Earth- the human man and woman. Any attempt by humans to create an image of God will degrade our appreciation for the original. The rest of the commandments govern respect for rest, for parents, for life, possessions, family, marriage. And not just for the people like you, but the stranger and sojourner as well. The ten commandments weren’t about enforcing rules or maintaining order, they were (and are) about the formation of character. The attitudes of humans towards one another and towards God.
Following on the heels of the ten commandments we are so familiar with is another, which we really ought to pay attention to, because a pretty important character in the story is going to confirm that it is the greatest commandment. It confirms that the ten commandments are more than rules, but guides for life. It calls for a new level of commitment to the rulership of God. Normally I just comment on the reading, but this is so important that I am going to go through it line by line.
Hear O Israel, Yahweh is God, Yahweh only and alone. You may have seen this end with “Yahweh is one.” I think this has stuck because of the King James influence on Bible translations, but the idea getting put across here is that the God of Israel is the only valid God- he is totally unique, in a category of one.
You shall love Yahweh your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might. The worship of the God of Israel is not confined to the surrender of a part of life or a part of a person. It is a total commitment of the whole person. Israelite religion was to encompass how they thought, how they expended their energy and resources, how they felt. Everything.
these I command you shall be on your heart The commandments were to be absorbed into the character of the people, not just enforced by the ruler or codified into legal code. They were designed to get into the heart of the people and inform who they were.
You shall continually repeat them to your children- when you sit at home, when you walk, when you lie down, and when you get up. The language here carries an emphasis on the continuous presence of the commandments. They are to be communicated at all times, in word and deed.
You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and place them before your eyes. The word for “hand” here is a pretty flexible Hebrew word that really communicates something like strength or power. The idea is the commandments are to guide actions. The eyes constantly seeing through them, the hand constantly engaged in doing them.
You shall write them on the door of your house and on your city gates. The commandments aren’t just for private life, but family, tribe, and nation. They are to guide formation at every level of Israelite society.
This the key to the entire plan. This commandment is the summation of everything God is doing with and for the people of Israel. He will bring them into the land of promise and use these commandments to form the behavior and character of a people radically different from the people around them. He will use this people to declare to the rest of humanity that there is a solution to the human problem. He will use this people to tell all the world that they are not who they think they are. He will show the rest of humanity what it will look like when he makes all things new.
And all they have to do is follow all these commandments without deviation. Seeing everything through them, taking every action in line with them. Not turning aside to the right or the left. Then the commandments will be their righteousness.
This should go well. But remember: this is for the future. The commandments are to be passed down, continually repeated. We are getting ahead of the story, but Israel will soon come to understand that this commandment is all about hope. Hope that someday, someone will actually be what this commandment says they should be.