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Monday, 10 November 2008 12:32 |
My good friend and congregation member questioned the purpose of Deuteronomy for Christians, citing those aspects of God in Deuteronomy that are so disturbing to modern readers, the warrior God, the jealous God, the God of harsh, seemingly arbitrary laws, the God who demands near genocide in warfare. Those images of God do not fit with my understanding of a just and kind God, either. In a recent Inter-religious dialogue I led a few weeks ago, a Jewish participant raised those same criticisms. And yet, I believe that the book of Deuteronomy has a great deal to offer from a religious and literary perspective. I believe Deuteronomy is still an important book for Christians and Jews alike. Jesus quoted Deuteronomy throughout the gospels, particularly in Matthew 4 when tempted by Satan in the wilderness, and seems to have had it memorized.
We have already acknowledged that the Bible was written in a culture very different from our own, and so we can just try to get past those disturbing passages. But a better approach might be to ask what these difficult passages say about the community of the time? What might the writers of this book have been trying to say or do to influence this community? And then, we can ask how this may or may not address our contemporary life.
Why would the writers of Deuteronomy depict a God who would command Israel to completely destroy the people of the land? “When the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are about to enter and occupy, and he clears away many nations before you—the Hittites, the Girgashites, the Amorites, the Cannanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, seven nations mightier and more numerous than you—and when the Lord your God gives them over to you and you defeat them, then you must utterly destroy them. Make no covenant with them and show them no mercy.” (Deuteronomy 7:1-2) What we must understand is that the Israelites never did utterly destroy these nations. In fact, these nations continued to live in the land along with the Israelites. This created some of the tension in the book of Judges when the Israelites were harassed by some of these same peoples. I doubt that it was ever God’s intent that the Israelites utterly destroy these nations.
This is where a little bit of source criticism can be helpful. The book of Deuteronomy is presented as a speech by Moses to the people of Israel before they entered the Promised Land, the land of Canaan. As such, one would take these commands literally as God’s word to the people of Israel before they went in to occupy the land. But the book of Deuteronomy was not written at the time of Moses, but around 622 BCE as part of the Reforms of Josiah. The Reforms of Josiah took place after a century long occupation by the Assyrians, during which time foreign forms of religion were introduced into Judaism. The Reforms of Josiah, which include the Book of Deuteronomy, Ezra, Nehemiah, and other writings did not merely point back to previous laws and customs, but introduced a strict religion emphasizing religious and cultural purity, and rejecting foreign influences. (See notes from Oxford Annotated NRSV Bible). These commands supposedly from God but written well after the fact, were meant to emphasize this concern for religious purity. So, just after God’s command to utterly destroy the seven nations, we find the real program being put forward by the Deuteronomists. “Do not intermarry with them, giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons, for that would turn away your children from following me, to serve other gods. Then the anger of the Lord would be kindled against you, and he would destroy you quickly. But this is how you must deal with them: break down their altars, smash their pillars, hew down their sacred poles, and burn their idols with fire. For you are a people holy to the Lord your God.” (Deuteronomy 7:3-6). I can see some positive reasons for these reforms as well as some critical dangers, which I will address, later. But for the moment, I want to emphasize that these commands had little or nothing to do with the Israelites entry into Canaan, and everything to do with an occupied Judean nation several hundred years later trying to preserve its culture and keep its religion alive.
It may be troubling to some to know that the first-person speech of Moses to the people of Israel is more of a literary device than an actual recorded speech of Moses. The writers of history in ancient times were not concerned with recording actual events in the way that modern historians do, but in teaching through stories and “histories” how the people ought to live and worship in their own time. Furthermore, it was common among ancient writers to attribute their books to a well known historical figure. This was done throughout the Bible and other literature of ancient times. The speech of Moses in Deuteronomy is a masterful work of literature and a powerfully effective way to interpret Israel’s past to inform, or rather, reform their present.
I can see positive and negative aspects to the Reforms of Josiah. The most powerful and central contribution to the worship and life of Israel was the emphatic call to love and serve God completely. This is the heart of the book of Deuteronomy, and I believe the heart of Jewish faith. “Hear O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul and with all your might.” (Deuteronomy 6:4-5). Jesus also affirmed this, (along with Leviticus 19:18, “love your neighbor as yourself”) as the greatest commandment. Luther’s explanation of the first commandment also reflects this kind of complete devotion to God. “We should fear, love and trust in God above all things.” (Luther’s Small Catechism). This is the heart of religion, to turn to the God who gives us life and to worship, love and serve God.
It is generally agreed that the “scroll of the Torah” discovered in Josiah’s Temple was the Book of Deuteronomy. Oxford NRSV notes p. 240). Along with the “discovery” of this supposedly lost book was an assembly calling the people to repent and to dedicate themselves to God and to Josiah’s reforms. It seems this was successful.
Josiah’s reforms called the people back to the worship of God, and kept alive the religion and culture of Israel that was threatened by the long presence of foreign invaders.
The down side to the Reforms was the narrow view of religion, the protectionist attitude, the xenophobic nationalism that it created. It centralized the worship, financial and power base of Israel to Jerusalem. “Josiah’s reform restricted all sacrificial worship of God to Jerusalem and removed foreign elements from the system of worship;” (NRSV introduction to Deuteronomy p. 240) The Reforms seem to have fostered a distrust and hatred of any foreign nations, beliefs or influences. As with most “corrections” of religion, politics and culture, the pendulum can swing too far. A positive call to return to God and to preserve the worship and cultural life of Israel became an oppressive centralized power and fostered distrust of any outside influence that threatened that new status quo. The Book of Jonah was written to counter-act the extremes of Josiah’s Reforms. Jonah fled God’s command to preach to the Ninevites because he knew that God was merciful and would forgive them. Jonah’s excessive zeal for his own religion, culture and nation caused him to lose the essential truth that to love God means to have compassion for others. This was the dark side of the Reforms of Josiah.
Understanding the source and purpose of the book of Deuteronomy, we can now ponder its relevance to our contemporary religion and life in the first part of the twenty-first century. We could certainly use some reforms. After years of war, near global economic collapse, the threat of global warming and a growing disparity between the rich and poor of the world, we could use some reforms. With so many people longing for a deeper meaning to life and a real connection with someone or something beyond themselves, but who also feel distrust of institutional religion, we could use some reform. We could sure use an authentic call to all people to turn back to God. Hear O Israel (and everyone) the Lord is One, the Lord is God. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might. Oh yeah, and Love your neighbor as yourself. We need to do this. It is good for us to return to God and in God we will find life.
But on the other hand, in a post 9/11 world we do not want to foster fear and distrust of everything foreign. We do not want to close ourselves off from other people, religions and cultures. We must not practice exclusiveness and elitist attitudes. The call to God must be lived out with radical love for others, even and especially those with whom we differ. In fact, I believe as we actively seek relationship with people of other faiths and cultures we are led to a greater understanding and appreciation of God the source of all life, who loves all God’s children. We find, perhaps, that we are all being led through the wilderness, and that God cares for us all just as God cared for the children of Israel.
At the end of the journey, just before the people of Israel crossed over the Jordan into the Promised Land, Moses reminded the people of God’s care. “The clothes on our backs did not wear out and the sandals on our feet did not wear out.”
We can look to Deuteronomy for its call to turn back to the God who created us, liberates us, loves us and leads us, the God who brings us through the wilderness times of our lives, both personal and international, the God in whom we can trust to guide and sustain us on our journey together.
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