Year 1, Day 181: Deuteronomy 30

The Simple Truth

Deuteronomy 30 is such a straightforward passage.  It lays it right out there, doesn’t it?  It is the parallel to Joshua 24 in many ways.  In fact, since Joshua succeeded Moses as leader of the people it should not surprise us too much that Joshua would close his farewell speech borrowing similar notes from Moses’ farewell speech.  Especially when we realize that those words are so true.

We begin with a foregone conclusion.  The blessings and the curses from the prior passage will both come upon the Hebrew people.  This chapter doesn’t begin with “if.”  Rather, this passage begins with “when.”  Humanity is what humanity is. 

This is really a point that breaks my heart when I read these passages.  It is not a matter of “if” we are going to fall away from God.  It is completely a matter of “when” will we fall away.  It is a matter of how long can we keep it together before we as individuals and we as a community fall away from that which God desires us to focus.  Our sinful nature is a given no matter how much we profess to love God and desire to be saved by Him.  We are sinful beings.  Praise be to God that He is greater than our sin!

God’s Love

However, the rest of the first half of this passage speaks to us about how much God longs for us to repent and return.  God knows it is only a matter of time before we fall away, and He still loves us!  He simply is waiting for us to return, just like Moses promises that God will wait for the Hebrew people to return whenever they fall away from Him.  God longs to bestow His blessings upon us.

We also know that this is true.  The Hebrew people will fall away.  They will go into exile.  Their temple will be torn down.  But they will come back.  It won’t be the same, mind you.  They’ll be under the Persians, the Greeks, and the Romans.  And then for thousands of years they’ll be scattered all over the globe.  But they will still remain.  The Hebrew people do still remain to this day!  God does keep His word, even if the context changes.

Not Too Hard

I also love the words that begin the second half of this chapter.  “The choice set before you is not too far off.”  It isn’t too hard.  The word is in our mouth and in our heart.  We know the truth.  It isn’t like the truth escapes us.  It isn’t like we cannot comprehend God’s truth – especially the truth that God has chosen to reveal to us as we learned yesterday.  The truth is fairly simply to know and understand!

The real question is whether or not we want to know the truth.  The real question is whether or not we actually want to put in the time or the energy to follow God.  Verse 15 makes it quite clear.  God has set before us life or death.  God has set before us good and evil.  Which one will we choose?  It is a simple question, yet it is the question upon which most stumble in this world.  Do I choose God – that is, life?  Or do I choose self – that is, death?

No, the choice is not too hard.  In the end, it makes sense to choose God.  Shall I cast my lot with my own power, knowing that I can follow my own will for a few decades but do absolutely nothing about this thing called death?  Or shall I cast my lot with God, obediently submit my life to Him for a few decades knowing full well that He can conquer death and bring me to Him for life eternal?  The choice is rather simple.  That is always the choice before us.

Moses’ words – God’s words – continue to call heaven and earth as a witness against us.  God desires for us to choose life.  Moses desires for us to choose life.  All of creation desires for us to choose life.  But ultimately the truth is that it is still our choice to make.  As individuals and as a community, it is our choice to make.

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Year 1, Day 180: Deuteronomy 29

A Simple Covenant

This chapter is simple, yet surprisingly deep.  Here’s what I mean by simple.  This chapter can be summed up in a single sentence: The Lord has redeemed you; if you obey Him then you stand in His blessing but if you disobey Him you will stand in His judgment.  It is a fairly simple message.

It is a very important and timely message as well.  Moses is winding up his final speech before the people.  This simple message will help the people focus on what is truly important.  Yes, many things are important; but not all things are equally important.  Moses is getting the people to focus on what is truly important.  We should follow God.  We should turn away from false gods.  We should obey God’s Laws for the sake of the community.  This is a message that really rings true even today, does it not?

A Deep Covenant

Yet, this passage goes incredibly deep in several places.  This passage gives a message that is similar to the expression “one bad apple spoils the whole bunch.”  Deuteronomy 29:19-21 seems to indicate that a single person who is turning from God is a hazard to the whole community.  There is a ton of truth in this warning.  One bad person can lead to the bending of rules should we be afraid to discipline the person properly.  One bad person can initiate a breakdown of a community’s confidence in the rule enforcers.  One bad person can spoil the whole next generation if the person is allowed to teach their ideas.  One bad person can cause dissention if their bad ideas are allowed to spread among the adults.  One bad person can cause serious problems in a community if we are not careful and observant as to what is going on around us.  I think this is actually why Matthew 18:15-20 is such an important passage – and why we would be wise to adhere to its teaching.

Secret Things

This passage from Deuteronomy also ends on a very deep note – and this deep note is rather confusing at first.  The ESV translates: “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”  In one case, what this passage tells us is that God is deeper than anything that can be revealed in words and thought, so we are only responsible for that which we have been given the ability to comprehend.  In other words, we are responsible for knowing God’s truth according to His Word that He has revealed to us.  We cannot know the full depth of God; we can only know Him as He reveals Himself to us.  This is very true indeed.  None of us can ever hope to truly fathom God; but we can know and understand His Word!

Yet, let’s take this a different direction.  This can also mean that there are secret things that belonged to God at the time of Moses giving this speech.  As time goes on, God may choose to reveal some of those things as we are capable of comprehending them.  Hopefully you see where I am going with this: Jesus Christ.  Jesus Christ, the living and breathing Word of God, was a secret thing in the time of Moses.  Yet now He has been revealed to us.  What once was secret is now revealed.  The same can even be said of the Holy Spirit.  What this means is that since He has been revealed He belongs to us – or perhaps we belong more to him.  My point is simply that we have a place with Christ through Christ because He has been revealed to us.

Sure, we cannot ever hope to truly fathom the depths of God.  But that doesn’t mean we don’t try.  We reach for whatever we can understand.  We focus on anything and everything that will put us in touch with God.  When God chooses to reveal His secret self to us – especially as He has done in Christ – we are to take ownership and possession of that revelation.  But perhaps even more importantly, we take possession of that revelation forever.  We who are in Christ can live knowing that nothing can separate us from God.  {Romans 8:38-39}

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Year 1, Day 179: Deuteronomy 28

Blessings and Curses

Wow!  What a chapter!  While I do mean that in a tongue-and-cheek kind of way, I also say that in a very honest and respectful tone.  Deuteronomy 28 is a tough chapter to read just because it focuses so heavily on the curses.

This is no surprise to me, and I’ll pass along some information so that it will not be of any surprise to you in the future.  In ancient writing when a treaty is made, a list of blessings and curses was always a part of the treaty.  It is typical for the list of curses to double (in space and words) the list of blessings.  In this case, notice that we have 14 verses of blessings but 54 verses of curses!  That’s almost 4 times as many!  But this is completely normal for ancient writings.

You might wonder why.  Well, it is simple.  If I tell someone that they need to believe in God because God really loves them and they need to get in touch with the depth of that love, it should make sense to them.  If it does make sense to them, they are already in the mind of God and will see everything as a blessing.  There is little need to convince the person who is already predisposed to obedience.

On the other hand, there are many people who are not naturally predisposed to God and willing to abide and be obedient to Him.  Thus, if I tell them about the dangers of sin, the presence of evil in the world, the presence of evil within ourselves, and things like this they are much more likely to stop and listen and see whether what I am saying is true for them or not.  The truth is that human beings are deterred by the bad far more greatly than they are encouraged by the good.  We are much more caught up by the bad things of life than we are caught by the good.  Every wonder why our news casts are all bad stories and very little good stories?  Ever wonder why we have prisons instead of ‘reward centers?’  This is why the list of curses in this chapter is so much longer than the list of blessings.

Communal, not Individual

So rather than talking about the individual blessings, let me say something in general.  Notice that the Hebrew people have access to the land because they are the children of Abraham.  But they will only enjoy the promise of the land if they choose for themselves to obey God’s ways.  I love the parallel that can be made here with Christianity.  We have access to salvation because God offered it to us through Jesus Christ first, just like these Hebrew people were brought out of Egypt because of God’s relationship to Abraham.  But we only enjoy the benefits of salvation when we obey God’s ways, just as these Hebrew people will only enjoy the blessings of God when they themselves are obedient!

However, notice that there is a communal element to this passage.  God is saying these things through Moses to the community.  When their community is obedient, all of their fields will prosper, all of their vineyards will fruit, all of their animals will enjoy productivity and reproducibility.  Much of this passage has a communal sense more than an individual sense.

Going Deeper into the Curses Section

I apologize ahead of time but this next section isn’t going to be all that enjoyable.  But I think it is something that we as human beings should confront, realize, and accept.

As I was reading through the curses, I was struck by Deuteronomy 28:63.  Just as God delights in blessing the faithful, God will delight in bringing ruin to the faithless.  This is a hard teaching, and there may be some who simply cannot accept that this verse accurately describes a part of a righteous God.  However, I believe that scripture is an accurate testimony to who God is and therefore I must accept this verse as true.

Just to make sure I wasn’t dealing with a particular translational issue in the ESV, I decided to check the NRSV, the NIV, the Holman, and the NASB.  In those bibles I found the following translations where the ESV says delight: delight (NRSV), pleased (NIV), made glad (Holman), and delight (NASB).  Looking up the actual Hebrew word tells me that these translations are spot on.  The Hebrew word means to exult or rejoice.  So there isn’t a translational issue here.  The Bible does say that God delights in bringing ruing to the faithless.

And really, why shouldn’t He?  The definition of something “righteous and just” is something that does the right thing for the right reasons at the right time.  I as a human must absolutely be careful in judging because I cannot truly know anyone’s heart but my own.  But God does know.  God knows who has turned against Him – or at least away from Him.  God absolutely knows who is truly faithful and faithless.  If God did not allow the faithless to fall into a punishment of their own choosing in their own free will, would we even be able to call God righteous?  No, God is only righteous when He allows people to choose life or death and then allow the consequences of their actions to take them where they have chosen to go.  That is the behavior of a righteous God.

Don’t forget, by the way, that God also offers salvation to all.  Anyone can come to Him and try to abide by His ways in relationship with Him.  So it truly is God as a righteous God desiring to love us all but allowing us to choose or deny relationship with Him.

The parent does not look for opportunities to discipline their child except where it is called for and where it is expected.  Then the parent should delight knowing that while the consequences might be tough, the discipline will ultimately result in the child being a healthier person in the long run.  The teacher does not delight in giving a student a failing grade on a test.  However, the teacher knows that giving a student a failing grade when they truly deserve it will demonstrate the student’s lack of understanding and hopefully spur them on to a greater performance later.  We would not think the parent who never disciplines to be righteous.  We would not think the teacher who never fails a student to be righteous.  We should therefore accept that God is only righteous when discipline and judgment are a part of the process.

Along with these difficult words, we should be careful to understand that words like “plucked off the land” and “destroyed” do not necessarily imply absolute annihilation.  God does not violate His covenant with Abraham.  Even if God punishes the disobedient – and He does via the Babylonians, the Greeks, and ultimately the Romans – He does not utterly annihilate them, either.  God does preserve a remnant: those who are faithful to Him.  Faith in God – and thus repentance of our wrong ways – always trumps judgment and condemnation.  Even if God does take pleasure in seeing the self-destruction of those who refuse to obey, God enjoys taking the repentant and setting them along the ways of righteousness even more.  If He didn’t, He wouldn’t have sent Jesus Christ.  The main reason God sent Jesus Christ to save us is because God’s love is greater than God’s wrath.

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Year 1, Day 178: Deuteronomy 27

Remembering the Lord His Way

Today we begin with Moses speaking to the people about how to remember the Lord their God once He has brought them into the Promised Land.  It basically says, “set up and altar and inscribe this law for all to see.”  That part is self-explanatory enough.  But then I hit a sentence that took my mind in a totally different direction: “Do not use any tools of iron.”  See Deuteronomy 27:5.

I asked myself the question: what’s so wrong with using tools of iron?  And I came upon a fairly simple answer as I asked the question.  The altar is to be made of uncut stones.  In other words, the place of worship is to be made up of things the way God made them.  Moses was telling the people to create a place of worship that would remind them of who God is and of what things His power is capable.  God doesn’t want the people to build an edifice displaying the greatness of human engineering.  Rather, God wanted the people to build a reminder of God’s awesome power.

Don’t get me wrong.  God doesn’t have a problem with people using tools and making buildings using cut stones.  We know that God gave directions for a manmade tabernacle.  He allowed Solomon to build a temple in Jerusalem.  So this isn’t going to be a tirade on how our church edifices are problematic to God at all.

However, I think it is a warning to us that the more we as humans do in the building process, the more dangerous the worship of the work of our own hands becomes.  If we build a simple church with functionality, we set ourselves up to be able to focus on God much more easily.  It we build a gorgeous church with all kinds of artwork, statues, woodcarving, plush carpet, fancy doors, fancy bibles in the pews and things like this then it will be much more likely that we stop worshipping God and we actually start worshipping the beauty of the space that we have created.

Sure, we’ll talk about how the beauty of the space will draw people in – but even that comment I don’t buy.  If people are coming in to our space because it is beautiful, then we’ll be attracting people who are naturally disposed to worship our space and not our God.  Rather, if we have a functional space that is all about the true worship of God then when people come into our midst those who stay will be staying because of the worship that is happening there and the presence of God that they find.

The Heart of Worship

You see, it isn’t really about “man-made” or “uncut” as much as it is about what is in our hearts and what the point of our worship is.  I think Moses is careful here to tell the Hebrew people to be intentional about setting themselves up to be able to worship God rather than their own creations.  Remember, these are slaves out of Egypt coming into a land of wealth and opulence – you remember the “milk and honey” part, right?  It will be easy for these people to become infatuated with their opulent lifestyle and forget their God.  Unfortunately, we are not so different from the Hebrews as we might like to think.

String of Curses

The second portion of our scripture deals with the curses.  Again, I think the curses are fairly self-explanatory, especially if we have read through the first 4 books of the Bible already.  So what I am going to focus on today is that Moses has the people stand up and pronounce the curses themselves.  Sure, Moses has said these things to the people in the past.  But as they transition into the Promised Land Moses has these people proclaim the curses themselves.

Why is this significant?  Have you ever been a part of a play, musical, or some sort of a performance?  If you have, then you will know that there is a big difference between being a part of a performance and watching other people perform.  When we watch, we are entertained for a little bit but we are not really likely to be affected all that greatly.  When we participate in the performance we must take it much more seriously, we must practice, and we are far more likely to internalize the things that are going on in the performance.  Moses wants the Hebrew people to not just witness the act; he wants them to internalize it.

The same should be true for us as spiritual people.  My favorite kind of Bible Study is one where we open up the scripture and proceed through the study with everyone’s participation.  Sure, the leader may have an agenda of what they would like to teach, but we also go along and are open to pursuing questions that spontaneously arise even if it means going down a bit of a rabbit trail.  The reason that I like this kind of study is because when everyone is involved, everyone has a greater chance of internalizing the information.  I think as spiritual people we should be all about being as involved as possible in our spirituality – taking roles of leadership whenever possible.  When we participate, we grow.  When we lead, we grow even more!

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Year 1, Day 177: Deuteronomy 26

Wow.  It feels really good today to be out of the “various law” passages!  Don’t get me wrong.  There is nothing wrong with the legal parts of Deuteronomy (or Numbers and Leviticus for that matter).  But it is good to have a passage made up of a single fairly cohesive thought, too.

Religion versus Religious

So, what is Deuteronomy 26 about?  For the most part, this chapter is about the difference between religion and being religious.  I have a favorite shirt that says it all.  On the front, in bold letters, the shirt declares, “Christianity is not a religion.”  The back then more softly says, “Religion is mankind working our way to God.  Christianity is God becoming man and working His way towards us.”  This shirt lifts up the difference between “having religion” and “being religious.”

Religion is typically defined along this way:

• people's beliefs and opinions concerning the existence, nature, and worship of a deity or deities, and divine involvement in the universe and human life

On the other hand, being religious is defined as:

• believing in and showing devotion or reverence for a deity

Do you inherently see the difference between “religion” and “religious?”  The word “religion” emphasizes my own beliefs, my own opinions, and my own thoughts.  See how me-centered that definition sounds?  Religion begins with me and what I want.  On the other hand, “being religious” emphasizes my reaction to what the divine has already done.  Being religious implies that the divine has acted first and I am simply a response to His greater action.  Being religious implies that I am not at the center; God is.

Okay, I’m splitting a really fine hair here, and to be truthful I don’t really mind using the word religion in conjunction with Christianity as much as the shirt might imply.  But I’m lifting up a particular line of thinking today.  There is a difference between focusing on what I believe and focusing on being devoted to the teachings of a particular deity.  The first has me and my needs at the center of life; the second has the deity and the deity’s ways at the center.

How does all of this relate to Deuteronomy 26?  Well, it is fairly simple.  Deuteronomy 26 tells us to offer up a gift of first-fruits.  We offer this gift for several reasons.  First, we offer it up simply because God is God and God’s name is to be praised.  Second, we offer it up so that the Levite, the sojourner, the poor, the homeless, the orphan, and the widow might be able to live.  We offer it up as a response to what God has already done for us so that we might imitate His grace, love, and mercy.  That’s why the people are told to remember Abraham, his offspring, and the oppression they felt at the hands of Egypt.

For me, the focus of this chapter for me is in verses 16-17: 

“This day the Lord your God commands you to do these statutes and rules. You shall therefore be careful to do them with all your heart and with all your soul.  You have declared today that the Lord is your God, and that you will walk in his ways, and keep his statutes and his commandments and his rules, and will obey his voice.”

 

The thrust is doing these things with all of our heart and soul.  We do them to declare who is God and who is our Lord.  We do them to declare our willingness to walk in His ways.  We do them to declare our obedience to His voice.

On the other hand, we don’t give to God in order to appease a guilty conscience.  We don’t give begrudgingly only because God commanded it.  We don’t give unto God wishing that we could keep it for ourselves.

That right there is the difference between religion and being religious.  Anyone can come to church, spend an hour a week, do all the right things, but in their heart actually mean none of what they are doing or saying.  That is religion right there, and that is not how God wishes us to act.  That is not the relationship that God longs after.

Rather, God wants a relationship that is genuine.  God wants our relationship to genuinely be within our heart and soul.  He wants us to genuinely love Him and to have that love lead us to genuinely obey Him.  When that happens, we no longer “have religion” but rather we “are religious.”

On this day of worship, I hope that you find today that you are more than just “having religion.”  I pray this day that God has made you His child and that you desire to be in genuine relationship with Him.  I pray this day that Paul’s words in Romans 12:2 are true for you:

“Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.”

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Year 1, Day 176: Deuteronomy 25

Tying Up Some Loose Ends

Deuteronomy 25 is the last section of law within the book, and as one would expect it is another conglomeration of laws.  Moses is tying up loose ends here just to make sure all the bases are covered.  Tomorrow we will move into a different element in the book and progress through the blessings and curses before dealing with Moses’ farewell.  But for today, we have to wrap up the law.

As I finish the Law, I cannot help but wonder about it’s compilation.  I used to wonder how these chapters came to be.  How do random laws get put altogether? That was before I led people.  Now that I have experience leading people, I understand it all too well.  We have a saying.  “Behind every stupid law there is a stupid person who made that law come into existence.”  I’m not trying to call these laws stupid.  But some of them are rather random.

The reality is that Moses had to lead a whole nation.  I’m sure in the midst of his leadership he came upon some strange situations and had to make laws preventing those strange situations from happening.  We get strange laws from government trying to keep people from doing strange things.  In a sense, every time we see a weird compilation of laws we should think of it as a sign that people lack common sense and have a propensity for putting themselves in strange positions in the first place.  If common sense could be trusted, law codes could be small.

Punishment

The first section of this chapter gives us a bit of a unique perspective on punishment.  Although we do know that prisons existed in ancient times, notice how this section of the law indicates that a criminal is punished with a beating and then released.  The reason for the release is so that restitution can be made and the offender might be able to bring a guilt offering before the Lord.  This ancient law code is about allowing punishment to happen but also allowing people to get on with their life.

In some respects, this perspective is vastly different from our own law code in America.  Here we imprison offenders and let their state-financed (hence tax-payer financed) jail sentence be equated to them “paying their dues.”  Personally, when I think about it in those terms, I don’t see jail time in the “paying dues” category.  Sure, it is a disruption in the life of a criminal.  Certainly means that the criminal cannot be out perpetrating more crimes.  But neither can the offender work towards restitution nor have any chance at learning the evilness of their ways.  We all know that while jail time is supposedly about the rehabilitation, rehabilitation is far too seldom the outcome.

One important difference between the ancient Hebrew law code and our American law code is the perspective of capital punishment.  One can see evidences of capital punishment (or attempts at capital punishment) all throughout the Hebrew Scriptures and the New Testament.  When serious offences are legitimately punishable by death, there is no fear of repeat offenders.  When the serious offenders (adulterers, murderers, etc) are punished by death, there is much less of a need for prisons.  Therefore, with the capital offenses being punished with capital punishment, it meant that the lesser criminals could be given a beating and expected to make restitution.  That punishment would be expected to be carried out lest a more serious punishment be handed down.

Now, I’m not saying that we should go back to that system.  The prior two paragraphs are simply meant so that we can understand the fundamental difference between the modern legal system of punishments and the ancient systems.  I think both have advantages and both have grave flaws.  I think it is important to accept that the modern system presents a grave possibility where criminals are not truly making acts of repentance for their crimes.  The ancient system no doubt convicted and killed many innocent people because their justice was quick and severe.  I guess where I come to stand is to patiently long for the day when we will live in God’s presence directly knowing that He will be a perfect judge.

Marriage Among Levites

The Levirate Marriage law that follows this section on capital punishment needs a little clarification.  It is easy to feel confusion when this passage is put in juxtaposition with all the laws of sexual intercourse being limited to a husband and wife.  After all, these verses seem to be indicating that sex is not always between a man and his wife.

There is one significant difference in this passage.  Here one husband dies without producing an heir.  The dead husband’s brother is mandated to have sex with his sister-in-law (and essentially making her his wife as the passage attests).  This means that the brother of the dead man may have multiple wives.  That’s where the confusion happens.

It should be stated that the purpose of this act was in no way for the sake of lust or carnal pleasure.  Rather, this exclusion is for the sake of keeping the promise of God’s inheritance in Israel.  As we can see in this passage, the brother had a right to refuse and accept social degradation in the process. 

For me, when I look at this passage I see a passage that is about establishing a hierarchy among various levels of sexuality.  Carnal lust is still prohibited very strongly, and this passage does nothing to ease that prohibition.  However, this passage also attempts to lift up the idea that obeying God for the sake of bringing His promise to the world can supersede carnal relations.  For the sake of producing an heir – and only for the sake of producing an heir – permission is granted for a specific sexual encounter – and thus a man potentially being married to more than one woman.

Even still, living with a modern perspective I think that this kind of exception would have to be handled with the utmost of care.  Sexual relations are incredibly strong bonds that when grown outside the dynamic of a healthy two-person marriage they can quickly turn into something that is destructive to a healthy marriage.After all, remember back to the story of Rachel and Leah with Jacob.  I understand God’s provision for the making of an heir, and I do not quibble with it at all.  I simply assert that this is a passage that should be handled with the utmost of care; especially should we attempt to give this passage an interpretation and application in our modern world.

An Awkward Ending

In fact, much of what was said above is also true about the woman who grabs the genitals of someone attempting to harm her husband.  The force of this law is likewise all about the inheritance of God being granted throughout the generations.  Should a man’s genitalia be harmed in a fight, his ability to procreate might well be compromised.  This is to be avoided, so we have a special law to draw attention to the fact that all Hebrew people have a right to bring children into God’s promise.  This isn’t a law about whether the act is sinful or not sinful.  This is a law attempting to uphold the supremecy of God’s promises over everything else.

This blog post is getting long, so I’ll stop here.  The rest of the laws are pretty self-explanatory.  I do apologize for the randomness of the blog posts of late.  This should improve once we have moved beyond readings which contain random sets of laws.

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Year 1, Day 175: Deuteronomy 24

Deuteronomy 24 is all about protecting the easily targeted in society. 

Women Sent Away Because Their Husbands Hate Them

We start with a passage on divorce, although it really isn’t so much about divorce as it is remarriage.  What this passage has to say is that if a man divorces his wife and she is taken by another man, then she is forever off limits for the first man. 

Culturally, this law makes quite a bit of sense.  Emotionally, people need to be able to move forward.  We know from Jesus’ words that divorce was allowed because of the hardness of people’s hearts.  Also, we know from this passage in Deuteronomy that the words used to describe the emotion behind the divorce are “hates,” “dislikes,” or even “turns against.”  Clearly this passage is a law written to make it clear that if a man’s heart is hard and he turns against his wife out of hatred, he cannot have her back once she finds someone else.  If his heart turns before she finds someone else, that’s okay.  But afterwards, it’s too late.  She deserves the right to move on.

I think this is really good advice.  If love turns to hate, it should be left behind.  I’ve seen far too many people experience hate and then get burned because the person who “hates” claims to “love” again only to have it turn quickly back into “hate.”  That is a disruptive cycle that benefits nobody.

Of course, please don’t take that paragraph as an endorsement of divorce.  Jesus speaks on divorce pretty clearly.  There is a right time and a right place for it.  In all other circumstances, it should be acknowledged as happening because of the hardness of our human hearts and the people should just move on.

Poor and Oppressed

Many of the other laws in this chapter have to deal with the poor and the oppressed.  You can’t take a person’s millstone because that may be how they relied on being able to make food.  You can’t take a person’s cloak overnight because that might be how they relied on staying warm throughout the night.  You should pay the worker daily because they had daily needs for food and support of their family.  Keep in mind that this was a society in which banks didn’t really exist, people lived literally day-to-day.  You should leave a bit in the field or upon the grapevine to allow for the orphan, widow, and sojourner to be able to find food.  This chapter spends a good bit of time looking out for those whose life is easily snuffed out.

I wonder today whether we do a good job of caring for the poor.  Sure, we have Medicare, Medicaid, food stamps, and the like.  There are people in this country that are genuinely helped through those programs and I am glad for that.  They should be helped; and within the context of this passage that kind of help is right in the spirit of these laws.  However, I also know that many people’s poverty is enabled because the system is too easily taken advantage.  Rather than helping the orphan, widow, and sojourner to their feet; systems often teach that it is easier to simply stay down.  This often results in generational poverty; generational poverty is a help to nobody – even the people in Jesus’ day.

I think this is where I am going to wrestle today.  God’s Word clearly indicates that we should watch out for those who are easily forgotten or whose plight is easily ignored.  We should not look for ways to oppress the easily oppressed.  But that goes both ways.  Systems that encourage generally poverty are just as oppressive as not caring for the poor in the first place.  It is a tough line to follow without falling off to either extreme.

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Year 1, Day 174: Deuteronomy 23

Obscure Physical Conditions

Deuteronomy 23 begins with some pretty odd teachings – teachings that if it were not for Jesus’ teaching in the New Testament I would really struggle here.  Essentially, most of the first few verses of this chapter talk about how certain physical conditions – or genealogical conditions – prevent a person from coming into the presence of God.  Clearly the New Testament teaches us differently.

All who seek God will find God.  Okay, that’s actually from Jeremiah 29:13, a reference from the Hebrew Scriptures, but I could have easily referred to Galatians 3:28-29 as evidence to all those in Christ are Abraham’s offspring regardless of their stature.  My initial question with the opening verses of this chapter is that they seem to indicate that physical deformity implies a spiritual deformity.  While I know the Hebrew Scriptures are clear that sacrifices are to be from the unblemished, I personally think that all people are spiritually unblemished whether we look it from the outside or not.

Thanks be to God that Jesus gives us perspective on this passage.  Jesus heals the man born with a crippled hand (See Matthew 12).  Jesus teaches that eunuchs have a place in the Kingdom of God (See Matthew 19:11-12).  In fact, the first recorded non-Jew (or Samaritan, who were a sort of ‘half-Jew’) converted in the Bible was a eunuch (See Acts 8:26-38)!  We have the teachings of Jesus to bring perspective on this passage.  While God may desire unblemished sacrifices, through Jesus Christ we can know that those of us with both physical and spiritual deformities have a place in the presence of God.  That is indeed something for which we can be grateful!

Exceptions

In the midst of all of this is a teaching that I don’t want to get lost, however.  Notice that God says in this passage that the Hebrew people are not even to desire peace with the Moabites or the Ammonites – or desire their prosperity, for that matter.  Within this passage I hear a general call to those who follow God to not seek the prosperity of those who reject God.  Yes, we are called to proclaim God to the world.  But when someone makes it clear that they reject God and are no longer open to Him, we are to not desire what they offer – whether it is peace or prosperity.  They have made themselves enemies to God, and until they become open to God’s forgiveness and His ways they are really our enemies as well.

Sure, we don’t need to treat them horribly – we are to love our enemies.  But as enemies we are not to desire what they can offer us, either.  For the record, Ruth the Moabite – grandmother of King David – is a great example of this.  The Moabites were not well regarded as people, yet Ruth made it clear that she was open to the movements and forgiveness of God.  Her personal openness to God allowed her to enjoy the peace and prosperity that God was giving to the Hebrew people.

Miscellaneous

We have many other miscellaneous laws here in this chapter.  Most are self-explanatory, such as the burying of excrement among the camp.  I won’t spend time on every law here.  Rather, I’ll focus in on a few that we can use to go deeper in our faith.

More on Sexual Sin

The passage about prostitution should have some words spoken of it, especially if the translation being read has the word “dog” in verse 18.  I personally prefer the translation “male cult prostitute” to that of “dog.”  It is a sort of ancient slang that often gets missed in translation.

That little translational bit aside, we need to understand this passage has more to do with the concept of worship than prostitution.  Cult prostitution was a common practice in almost all Mediterranean religious practices.  Prostitutes (female and often male) would be at the temple of their god and offer up sex as a means of drawing close to the god through personal ecstasy.  This is a bit of an over-simplified explanation, but those wanting to know more about the practice can no doubt find out more on their own.

Essentially, then, what this passage is condemning is the need to engage in human sexuality to get close to God’s presence.  When stated that way, this passage can be read in a brand new light!  Other cultures used their human lust to bring them close to the things they thought were gods. 

The God of the Hebrew people wanted no part of that behavior – much less that pattern of thought!  God draws near to us repeatedly as seen in the stories of creation, Abraham, Moses, Elijah, Jesus, and ultimately through the Holy Spirit.  We do not need to engage in our lust in order to feel the ecstasy of drawing close to God!  In fact, if you go through the Bible and search, you will see that cult prostitution is a way of life that is usually punished with a quick and immediate death.  The idea of sex as a tool of drawing us close to God is not something God desires. 

That being said, I don’t want anyone thinking I am saying sex is bad.  God has given us sex within marriage and it should be enjoyed.  That act helps bond us to another person and we can give praise to God for that bond.  But that act does not inherently draw us closer to God as the cult prostitutes would encourage.  Hopefully this distinction that I am making is clear.

Interest

I would love to spend some time on the laws regarding charging interest, but I think they are self-explanatory enough.  God blesses us; we should not need to oppress our neighbor to increase our own blessing.

Vows

However, I would like to spend a paragraph on the laws regarding vows.  The Bible takes vows pretty seriously.  When we make a commitment to the Lord, we should follow through with that commitment. 

More generally speaking, we should take our communication with God seriously.  It is easy to think that God doesn’t really hear us or that God doesn’t really remember all the little things we say to Him.  The reason it is easy to say and think that is because God seems so distant at times.  Yet this is not true!  God, who created the universe, is capable of knowing your innermost thoughts even better than you.  These words about vows are there to help us remember that God does take us seriously.  He does know us intimately, and when we don’t take our words to Him seriously we are showing Him that we don’t take His relationship with us seriously as well.

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Year 1, Day 173: Deuteronomy 22

Am I My Brother’s Keeper?

Deuteronomy 22 has a couple of great laws in the midst of this first set of “various laws.”  The first of which is the set of laws concerning the property of another.  The thing that I love about this set of laws is that it is the direct rebuttal to the claim of Cain in Genesis 4:9.  There Cain says to God, “Am I my brother’s keeper?”  Here in Deuteronomy, God definitively answers this question: Yes.  Not that I am responsible for my brother.  But I am responsible for making sure that my brother’s stuff doesn’t necessarily go away when he’s not there to take care of it himself.

Who is My Brother?

Notice, however, that God does not define “brother” along bloodlines.  I find it hard to believe that one might “not know” one’s blood brother as is suggested in verse 2 of this chapter.  No, the thrust of this verse is that our brothers and sisters are those within our community, those that live beside us, those that God has called us to love.  When Jesus Himself was questioned about his brothers and sisters he says that those around him – bloodline or not – are His brothers and sisters.  (Matthew 12:46-50)

You see, this passage is ultimately about community.  We are to look out for one another.  We are to care about our neighbors and our neighbor’s stuff.  We are to protect our community, even if it means taking something into our possession and keeping it safe until the lost possession is sought out.  In many respects, I think of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan as flowing right out of this law (Luke 10:25-37).  The Samaritan comes upon a wounded person he does not know.  He loves the wounded person, picks him up, cares for him, and does all of these things at his own expense.  The Good Samaritan is a great example of the fulfillment of this law.  We should care for our communities and love people whether we know them or not.

Miniscule Laws in the Middle

I’m going to skip over the rest of the various laws.  I think they are fairly self-explanatory and it would take up too much space to handle them all one-by-one.  Instead, let’s move forward and speak to the law of sexual purity.

Laws about Virginity

This passage about “virginity” is confusing in many translations because the word virginity can be translated a number of different ways – although all of them revolve around sexuality and chastity.  From what I can tell, the best way to interpret the word “virginity” is “evidence of not being pregnant” – in other words, menstruation.  If we take this word in this connotation, the passage becomes much clearer and makes a whole lot more sense.  If a man takes a woman and she is pregnant, there will be no evidence of menstruation and the elders could know for a fact that she was not a virgin when married.  However, if there is evidence of menstruation then the elders could know that she was at least not pregnant when she was married.

Of course, this still does not prove her virginity but it does prove that any children coming from her would belong to her husband and nobody else.  Assuming that there hasn’t been any infidelity after the marriage had been consummated.  This interpretation focuses on establishing the purity and the genuineness of the relationship and the offspring.

There is another possible interpretation of this passage which also makes sense.  Many believe that a married couple would consummate the marriage behind a curtain with both sets of parents outside the curtain as “witnesses.”  The bedclothes would then be collected by both sets of parents and brought forth as evidence that the marriage was properly consummated.  This interpretation focuses on the propriety of the wedding and establishes that the marriage was consummated in case a divorce would be desired later.  In other words, this is a legal interpretation. 

While this interpretation is certainly possible, I personally tend to fall in line with the first interpretation I gave.  That one seems to be more in line with what God is concerned about – purity and faithfulness – rather than legality and the hardness of human hearts.

Extra-marital Sex

The next law of sexual conduct is pretty clear.  If any man has sex with a married woman, they both are to be stoned.  It is adultery.  There is no wiggle room, nor is there room for “colorful interpretation.”  If a woman is married, the only one who is to have sex with her is her rightful husband.  End of story.  Yet, we’ll see as we move through this post how the laws actually develop to protect women.

Moving along, we encounter two laws towards the end that draw a very interesting distinction.  One involves sex within a town’s limits while the other involves sex out in the country.  The important distinction is that of guilt. 

It is assumed that if a woman is taken unwillingly within a city that she could cry out and someone would hear it.  Someone would could come to her rescue and witness to her desire to not be a part of such an event.  Her cry would be evidence of her innocence – or at least her unwilling participation of the act.  Thus, if two people are caught having sex within a city and there is no cry for help, it is considered consensual and both are punished according to the overarching law of sexual infidelity. 

However, notice that if the woman is taken in the country – even if it was consensual – her innocence is presumed because she could have cried out and nobody was likely around to hear her.  Here we see that the Law is actually overcompensated in the direction of grace when it comes to women.  Here we see more evidence that God is not truly a misogynist God but rather a God of grace and a respecter of womenkind.

I find this law incredibly grace filled – or at the very least in a status of erring on the side of grace.  In any case of extra-marital sex, the man having sex with a married or betrothed woman is stoned.  Men having sex with married women are killed.  Period.  There is no grace for them. 

But the punishment of the woman depends on both her actions and the location.  She is guilty – and thus stoned – only if it happened in a city and she did not cry out for help.  To me, this is a law that gives a great amount of evidence of grace towards women.

Unmarried Women and Sex

Now let’s tie up a loose end.  All the situations we’ve talked about up until now involve a married or betrothed woman – and the automatic stoning of the male participant.  What about when an unmarried woman is involved?  Well, if an unmarried woman is caught having sex with a man, the rule is simple.  She becomes his wife.  They may never get divorced.  End of story.

In all of this, what I think is important is the sanctity of the wedding relationship.  This sanctity rests on so many levels.  First, in many ways we who follow God are thought of as God’s “spouse.”  How many times in the Old Testament are the people of Israel considered God’s bride?  How many times in the New Testament is the church considered the “bride of Christ?”  Our relationship with God is more often compared to that of a marriage in the Bible than any other kind of relationship.  So the way we treat marriage speaks very closely to the way that we think about our relationship with God.  If our heart is adulterous in a sexual manner, then we are more than likely also adulterous in a spiritual manner.  If our heart is pure in a sexual manner, then we are also much more likely to be pure in our relationship with God.

 But sex is important on a communal level as well.  Sex is an intimate act.  It is the foundation of a bond between people that is deep and fruitful.  When that intimate relationship is given away multiple times through sex with multiple partners, that special bond and relationship is tarnished and it becomes cheapened.  We take what God gave for our enjoyment and fulfillment and trample on it until it becomes common.  We take the fundamental building block of our society and discard its importance.

Thus, sexuality is an important concept for us to consider and discuss.  It has much to say about our spirituality as well as our perspective on community.  And unfortunately, it is one of the things that our modern world frequently gets wrong.  I apologize for the length of this blog, but I thought these were important concepts worth spending a little extra time on today.

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