Ordinances as righteous!
Deuteronomy 4:7-8
Deuteronomy 4:1-2, 6-9
1 So now, Israel, give heed to the statutes and ordinances that I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live to enter and occupy the land that the Lord, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.
2 You must neither add anything to what I command you nor take away anything from it, but keep the commandments of the Lord your God with which I am charging you.
6 You must observe them diligently, for this will show your wisdom and discernment to the peoples, who, when they hear all these statutes, will say, "Surely this great nation is a wise and discerning people!"
7 For what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him? 8 And what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just as this entire law that I am setting before you today?
9 But take care and watch yourselves closely, so as neither to forget the things that your eyes have seen nor to let them slip from your mind all the days of your life; make them known to your children and your children's children.
Deuteronomy
Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Pentateuch, Ha Torah. They've been called Books of Moses, not because Moses could have written them, but because Moses is the central human character. In Greek Deutero means "second" and nomen means "law;" in a limited sense Deuteronomy refers to a second giving of the law.
Our English word "law" too easily can lead to a caricature of Torah. God's covenantal way of Torah is fluid, dynamic, stretchy, and flexible, always on the side of grace, mercy, love, justice, and life.
Deuteronomy 4:1 "Give heed to the statutes and ordinances I am teaching you to observe, so that you may live…" Choose life by considering the needs of the other at least as important as our own. That's the neighborology we especially discussed during Luke's lectionary year.
The compilation of Deuteronomy was a long time coming over about five centuries:
• from the United Monarchy of Saul, David, and Solomon
• to events and written sources prior to the Babylonian exile
• to events and sources afterwards
• during rebuilding of Jerusalem's infrastructure, social, political, and economic institutions
• restoration of worship
• "rediscovery" and canonization of Torah
• into the post-exilic period of (almost endless) Persian imperialism
Wide, expansive, and inclusive, Deuteronomy demonstrates Torah neighborology to stranger and native-born actively lived out on turf and in time.
Today's Reading
Immediately before the actual Ten Words or Commandments, scribes who assembled Deuteronomy placed today's passage that asks:
• what other great nation has a god so near to it as the Lord our God is whenever we call to him?
• what other great nation has statutes and ordinances as just, as righteous, as this entire law that I am setting before you today?
What country, gathered people, community, assembly, has such a wonderful way of being, style of living, of guidelines:
• for living together
• for loving the neighbor
• for maintaining the common-wealth
• for staying free?
Exodus 20:2-17 and Deuteronomy 5:6-21 refer to the ten commandments of the Sinai Covenant not as statues, ordinances, or commandants, but as words. The Hebrew dabar denotes speech and action as one.
At least twice in Exodus, the account of the formation of Israel as a people, God's people / Moses' people (who are one and the same), announce
"we will do all the words the Lord has spoken."
Exodus 19:8; 24:3, 7
Reformer John Calvin insisted "there is no pre-obedience knowledge of God." Reformer Martin Luther began his Small Catechism – traditional preparation for First Communion – with the Commandments. Hebrew Bible scholar Walter Brueggemann reminds us, "It is the God of the Commandments with whom we commune."
God in Our Midst
"…a god so near to it as the Lord our God"–the commandments carry the same attributes or characteristics as God; this God whose people, "do all the words" have the same qualities as the God who gifted them. When they practice Torah/observe the Ten Words, the people assume God's justice, love, righteousness, and mercy. When God's obedient, observant people are nearby, God is there.
In our recent five weeks of John 6, we heard about manna and quail from heaven, water from the rock, feeding a whole lot of people with very few fish and five loaves of bread. Like people in the scriptures, we daily encounter evidence of God's presence. Those signs or symbols include waters of baptism, bread and wine of holy communion. Signs and symbols of God's nearness include the commandments that share God's characteristics of holiness, righteousness, justice for the neighbor and the stranger. Signs of God's presence include us, the church, the contemporary people of God, wherever we go…
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