Plumbing the Riches

Deuteronomy for the Preacher

E L I Z A B E H A C H I EMEI ER
Visiting Professor of Bible and Homiletics
Union Theological Seminary in Virginia
Hearing the words of Deuteronomy, the preacher
is called to make clear what it means to be
God's covenant community and to live according
to his will rather than the dictates of the
surrounding culture.
T
HE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY has sometimes been called "The
Gospel in the Old Testament," and few Old Testament books are
richer in preaching resources or lend themselves more readily to the
proclamation of the Good News than does this book. Yet the preacher
needs to be clear, theologically, about why we can preach Christian ser-
mons from this book; and he or she needs to be skillful, hermeneutically,
in relating it to the congregation's life.
Deuteronomy is a covenant document, the basis of that covenant re-
newal celebrated by King Josiah of Judah with his people in 621 B.C.
(II Kings 2223; II Chron. 3435). It sets forth its teachings as the final
instructions of Moses to the Israelites in the plain of Moab in the thirteenth
century B.C., shortly before Moses' death and before Israel crossed over the
Jordan into the promised land. At Mount Sinai, in Deuteronomy' s view,
Moses received all of the commandments of the Lord, but gave only the
Ten Commandants to the people. Just before his death, however, he
preaches to them the rest of God's instructions for their lives, and Deu-
teronomy makes up those instructions. The view of the book's aut hors
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probably Levitical country priests and reform prophetsis that all the
covenant people stand once again before Moses to hear God's Word from
his lips (5:3). Nor are those covenant instructions intended only for
seventh century B.c.Judah; they are meant for every coming generation of
God's people as well (29:10-15).
It is within the framework of the covenant, therefore, that Deu-
teronomy becomes a book for Christians, for we have been grafted into the
covenant people of God through the death and resurrection of Jesus
Christ (I Cor. 11:23-25; Rom. 11:17-20; Gal. 6:16; Eph. 2:11-22). Deu-
teronomy is the church' s book only through Jesus Christ, and that has
several implications for preaching.
First, when preaching from Deuteronomy, the homiletician should pair
its text with a passage from the New Testament, to acknowledge the
mediation of Deuteronomy to us through the work of our Lord and to
proclaim the New Testament outcome of Deuteronomy' s ancient words.
Second, the preacher should keep firmly in mind that Deuteronomy is not
general moral law ( la Bultmann) but instruction for a specific covenant
people, with a particular history that reaches back to the time of Abraham.
Third, while Deuteronomy should be allowed to speak its own Word, as
valid canon, fully and apart from Christian bias, the preacher must be
aware of the fact that God' s act in Jesus Christ was the final re-
interpretation of the Old Testament, and that therefore the final shape of
the sermon must set forth sound Christian theology that accords with the
apostolic witness of the New Testament.
THE HERMENEUTI CAL APPROACH
The preacher is then confronted with the hermeneutical question of
how to relate some passage in Deuteronomy to the life of his or her
congregation. Parts of Deuteronomy, such as the great commandment in
the Shema (Deut. 6:49), have been affirmed and handed on to us in the
teachings of our Lord, of course, and can be applied to our lives directly.
Deuteronomy is one of the four books of the Old Testament quoted most
frequently in the New, and tradition mediates many of its texts as instruc-
tion for our living (e.g., Deut. 8:3 in Matt. 4:4; Deut. 6:16 in Matt. 4:7;
Deut. 6:13 in Matt. 4:10). Even so, the hermeneutical "jump" from the
"then" of the Scriptures to the "now" of the present congregation must be
made. Most frequently, in preaching from Deuteronomy, that j ump is
legitimately made on the basis of analogy. The preacher needs to ask, How
is my congregation' s relation to God analogous to that of the covenant
people's relation to God in Deuteronomy? The historical settings of
Deuteronomy give three possible answers.
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A. From the Thirteenth Century B.C.
First, as the book is framed, thirteenth-century B.c. Israel has been
delivered from slavery in Egypt, led through the wilderness, and brought
to the eastern shore of the Jordan. Israel is underway, at midpoint between
her redemption out of Egypt and her final fulfillment in the gift of the
promised land. So, too, is the church. We have been redeemed out of
slavery to sin and death, and set on a pilgrimage toward the final fulfill-
ment of God's promises to us of eternal life in the kingdom. Israel's
journey is ours, and all along the way there are texts from Deuteronomy
that tell what God is doing on the journey and how we are to respond to
him. For example:
Deuteronomy 5:127: Moses recounts to the people the meeting with
God at Mount Sinai, when Israel heard God speaking to his prophet out of
the midst of fire to give Israel the Ten Commandments. Israel was
overwhelmed by the experience, as human beings in the Bible are always
overwhelmed by the holiness or complete otherness of God's person. "No
man can see God and live." His glory is such that it melts the mountains
before him and causes the earth to tremble. Habakkuk 3:216, or Psalm
97: 1-5, or Ezekiel 1:428 give ample theophanic evidence of the over-
whelming majesty of his holy person. When God comes to human beings
in the Bible, they cry out in fear (cf. Isa. 6:5; Luke 2:9; 5:8), and divine
assurance in the form of "Fear not!" must be given.
Not only is it the glory of God which overwhelms us, however, it is also
his absolute moral purity. The Lord cannot look on wrong, says Habakkuk
(1:13), and he will not countenance evil. Thus none of us can stand before
God, for none is righteous in his eyes. Were he to come among us
"stiff-necked people," he would consume us (cf. Exod. 33:5). Israel needs
her mediator at Mount Sinai, to draw near to the Holy One of Israel and to
hear all that he will say and then to speak to her all that the Lord her God
has said (Deut. 5:27). Israel needs her Moses, and we of the new covenant
need him too. Yet God has condescended to us even more than he stooped
to Israel. He has provided a righteous Mediator through whom we our-
selves may approach his throne of grace (cf. Heb. 4:1416). He himself has
drawn near to us in his Son and forgiven us our sins against him. Thus we
always pray through the mediation of Jesus Christ.
Deuteronomy 7:611: Israel was chosen as God' s own people and
delivered out of Egypt through no deserving on her part. She was not a
great and mighty nation, admirable and strong. She was just a rag-tag
bunch of wander er s, slave l aborers, a "mi xed mul t i t ude" (Exod.
12:38)certainly not wise, or powerful, or of noble birth; but "God chose
what was foolish in the world," the weak and the low and the despised
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(I Cor. 1:2627), that the world might see that the Exodus was by his hand
and not by that of human might.
Certainly Israel was also not chosen for her great faith. According to the
record of Exodus, she did not even know God before the revelation to
Moses. Throughout all her wilderness trek, she murmured, and doubted,
and rebelled, constructing her own golden calf-god, hungering for the
onions and leeks of Egypt, ready to turn her back on her new life of
God-given freedom and to return to the mud-pits of slavery. But God
loved her! (Deut. 7:8). That made all the difference. God wanted to show
his love to the world through her, by fulfilling his promise to Abraham to
bless all nations through Abraham' s seed (cf. Gen. 12:3). So too with the
church. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8),
redeeming us out of our slavery long before we knew God or deserved his
love. We did not choose God; he chose us, because he wants to pour out his
love on the world through us, in fulfillment of his promise to Father
Abraham.
Deuteronomy 8:110: As the basis of her obedience to God, Israel was
to remember the way she had comethat long forty-year journey through
the terrors of the wilderness. Certainly she had experienced the Lord's
discipline along the way, like that of a father who teaches his son how
7
to
walk and live (v. 5; cf. 1:31; Hos. 11:3). She had been punished for
disobedience, had been taught patience through suffering, and time and
again had been shown that her own willful desires led only to disaster. Yet
along with it all, there was that guiding, sustaining hand of the Father,
showing his child where to pitch her tent (cf. 1:33), providing clothing for
sun-scorched backs and shoes for weary feet. When Israel hungered, she
was faithfully given her "daily bread." When she thirsted, she was pro-
vided with life-giving water (cf. 2:7; 33:8). Despite her weakness, her
doubting, her rebellious ways, underneath were always "the everlasting
arms" (33:27), sustaining and guarding her life. Should Israelor webe
unfaithful to such a faithful God?
Such are just a few of the many possibilities for using this hermeneutical
approach.
B. From the Seventh Century B.c.
The second possibility of relating Deuteronomy to the life of a Chi istian
congregation stems from the purpose of the actual historical formation of
the book. Deuteronomy was assembled by Levitical priests and reform
prophets in the seventh century B.C. in order to call Judah back to loyalty to
her God. The nation had just emerged from the long reign of Manasseh
(687/6-642 B.C.) and of his son Anion (642-640 B.C.), a period character-
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ized by widespread syncretism, idolatry, imitation of Assyrian ways, child
sacrifice, witchcraft and superstition, persecution of the prophets, in-
justice, and ruthless murder of the innocent (I Kings 21). The people had
forgotten who God was and the history that revealed him. The Lord had
become a nameless nonentity who did and required nothing (cf. Zeph.
1:12), lost midst a multitude of other gods and powers. Deuteronomy was
therefore the reformers' attempt to recite Israel's history once again,
thereby revealing who God was and what he required, and calling J udah to
love him in return for his love.
Though seventh-century B.C. Judah is far removed from twentieth-
century AD. society, the attitude of the covenant people toward their Lord
in their century was not far different from ours. The God and Father of
our Lord Jesus Christ has also been lost to many midst a multitude of
deified powers and ideologies, supposedly making no demands upon
them, and forgiving whatever they do. And the ways of the church have
become very often indistinguishable from those of the society that sur-
rounds it. If such is the case with the preacher' s congregation, he or she has
ample material in Deuteronomy from which to work to correct the situa-
tion. For example:
Deuteronomy 10:1222: Thi s passage probabl y summari zes t he
message of Deuteronomy as well as does any. It follows a long section
(9:110:11) that details Israel's sin and God's constant forgiveness of it. In
response to such love from God, Israel is called to love God in return, by
obeying (fearing) him, walking in his ways, and serving him with all her
being. The pericope itself emphasizes God's mercy toward his people: He
is the Creater and Owner of the universe, and yet he has set his love upon
Israel's forebears and chosen them (v. 15). He made a promise to the
fathers to make them a great nation, and he has fulfilled that promise (v.
22). He delivered Israel out of Egyptian slavery and gave her the ne-
cessities of life (vs. 18-19). Thus, he should be Israel's praise, her only
God, for she has seen all these things that he has done (v. 21).
More than that, however, the Lord has shown himself worthy of praise
and love. He is God of gods and Lord of lords, sovereign over every earthly
power (v. 17); but in the exercise of his might, he is both just and merciful
(vs. 1718). The implied question is, who can help but love and serve such
a God?
The love that Deuteronomy asks from Judah, however, is a love from
circumcised hearts (v. 16)that inner love and obedience for which the
prophets also called (cf. Jer. 4:4; Ezek. 18:31-32)the love of a son for his
father, or of a faithful wife for her husband (cf. Hos. 11:1-9; Jer. 3:19-20;
Isa. 1:2-3). Such love "cleaves" to God and does not turn away from him
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(cf. v. 20). Such love knows its beloved and his desires and serves him.
The task of the Christian preacher is marked out by this passage: Tell
what God has done and therefore who he is, according to both Old
Testament and New Testament story, in order that the congregation may
be prompted and empowered to love and serve the Lord.
The same task is mandated by the pericope which we take up next, but
here we can enter into a fuller explanation.
Deuteronomy 6:49: Thi s passage makes up part of the famous
Shema, which is still recited by the Jews; it contains the first and greatest
commandment given us by our Lord; and it forms the central requirement
given in Deuteronomy' s sermons to the people of God. No fewer than
eleven times is this commandment to love God found in this book. It is the
central command of the covenant relationship, old and new alike.
The basis for the command is the same as that in the pericope just
discussed. We are to love God in return for his love. Most of the material in
the first four chapters of Deuteronomy recites the history of God's doings
with his people, and it is in response to those loving actions of God that we
are to love him in return. Love for God, in other words, grows out of
gratitude and thanksgiving for what he has done. It is a response of the
heart and whole being to "all his benefits" (cf. Ps. 103:114). No preacher
can expect that response without telling part of the biblical story, without
specifically and vividly recounting some of the mighty and merciful acts of
the Lord.
The opening of the pericope is significant, however, in this regard, for it
makes the affirmation that the God who is to be loved is one (v. 4). That is
deliberate polemic against identifying this God of the Bible's holy history
with some diffuse soul of nature, or with a power permeating all, or with
any "ground" of all beinga tendency seen most clearly today in radical
feminist and process theologies. No, this God who calls for our love is
oneone specific God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, one specific God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has revealed himself through his
words and actions in a specific history that has taken place in specific times
and places. The Old Testament always sums up the thought by identifying
God as the one who delivered Israel out of the house of bondage in Egypt.
That is who God isthe one who did that actjust as the God of the New
Testament is identified by his action in Jesus Christ. Only the diety
connected with the Bible's holy history is truly God. Deuteronomy is
adamant on the point.
Because the command to love this God is understood as a response to his
prior saving actions, the commandment is obviously not legalistic, that is,
obedience to the commandment does not establish the relationship with
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God. The Lord himself has already entered into fellowship with his people
and made them his own possession, his "peculiar treasure," his elected
folk. The command, then, is understood as guide in the new life and
relationship which God has established; and in Deuteronomy, such guides
serve as the way to abundant life. Perhaps this last point is clearest in the
next pericope we discuss.
Deuteronomy 5:2833: The people have vowed at Mount Sinai that
they will hear and do the will of God, as mediated to them by Moses (v. 27).
In verse 29, we read the response of the Lord to this vow: "Oh that they
had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my com-
mandments, that it might go well with them and with their children for
ever!" God asks that we love him in return for his love, because he wants it
to go well with us always! One hears in the statement the yearning desire of
a God who wants only good for us, the burning love of a God who sent his
Son that we might have life and have it more abundantly, the aching heart
of a Lord who speaks his word to us that we may have joy and that our joy
may be complete.
Yet obedience to his commands, love in return for his lovethese are
the fingerpointings in the Torah toward that good, that life, that joy.
Deuteronomy emphasizes the point by stating that "all these statutes" are
"for our good always" (6:24; cf. 10:13), the way to life and blessing (cf.
30:1520), the opening of God's "good treasury" (cf. 28:12). These com-
mandments are "no trifle" for us but our "life" (32:47), and always that
"life" is symbolized throughout Deuteronomy by life in the good land that
God is giving Israel (5:33). That it is abundant life is clear from the
description of the promised land (8:7-10). God wants to give Israel a life in
which she will "lack nothing" (8:9).
If the modern preacher can get across to the congregation this burning
desire of the Lord to give us good, and the love involved in his guidance of
us in his commandments, much of the spirit of Deuteronomy will be
conveyed. The teachings of this book come across not as legalistic stric-
tures, not as restrictive ordinances of a sovereign Commander intended to
bring us to heel, but as the merciful, patient, specific instructions of God
who works in all things for good for those who love him. For example,
when God says, "You shall not commit adultery," such a commandment is
"for (our) good always." God knows that there can be no marital joy if that
command is not obeyed, and he wants us to have that joy more than
anything else in the world. How great is the love and attention of our Lord
to our well-being in all things! Indeed, that love extends beyond our
generation to our children and our children's children, as we see in the
next passage.
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Deuteronomy 6:2025: No book of the Bible is more concerned for
the religious education of children than is the Book of Deuteronomy. Not
only here, but in 4:9; 6:7; 11:19; and 31:1213, Israel is instructed to teach
God's statutes and ordinances to the next generations. But as we can see in
this passage, that instruction is to encompass the heart of the message of
Deuteronomy: the history of God's saving actions toward the people in the
past, which is to prompt the grateful response of love and obedience; and
the commandments themselves and their nature as the loving guidance of
God "for our good always" and as the way to abundant life. God so loves
our children that he wants good and life for them also! And the way to that
good life lies in thankful obedience to his will.
This is a marvelous pattern for the educational program of the church.
It shows that finally all religious education must begin with the story of
God's saving acts, out of which all commitment, all transformation of life,
all obedience and good fruit grow.
In using this passage, the preacher must be careful not to read verse 25
in a legalistic fashion. That verse says that obedience to the com-
mandments is righteousness; but in interpreting the verse, the homi-
letician should not see it as an expression of justification by works. Rather,
he or she must remember that the central commandment is for love
toward Godlove prompted by the recounting of what God has done.
Deuteronomy never abandons its context of grace. All comes from the
initiative and the love of God for his people.
Once again, these are just a few of the riches, among the many, which
can be gathered from this hermeneutical approach.
C. From the Sixth Century C
About 550 B.c , the Book of Deuteronomy was added to and incor-
porated into the Deuteronomic History, which makes up our present
books of Deuteronomy through Second Kings. There may have been an
earlier edition of the Deuteronomic History, but certainly the final edition
was formed by early postexilic times; and the work apparently had the
purpose of showing why Israel and Judah had been sent into exile. It
recounted the long history of the people's sin, in order to show that God
was justified in his j udgment and true to his words of blessing and curse,
recorded in Deuteronomy 27 and 28, as well as to the words spoken by the
various nonwriting prophets portrayed for us in the Samuel books and
Kings. In this setting, Deuteronomy can serve as a warning to the church,
for it forms the introduction to a history in which God's warnings of
j udgment come to pass.
"Warning" and "j udgment" are not, of course, words fancied by our
generation. Views of God have been so distorted in our time that many in
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our congregations believe that God does nothing but forgive. The result
has been the loss of any meaningful Christian ethic. But the God of the
Bible does j udge sin; not every lifestyle is acceptable in his eyes; and the
New Testament picks up and carries on the Old's warnings of j udgment.
"Harden not your hearts as in the wilderness," admonishes the Epistle to
the Hebrews (chaps. 34). "God is not mocked," writes Paul, "for what-
ever a man sows, that he will also reap" (Gal. 6:7). "When the Son of Man
comes, will he find faith on the earth?" asks our Lord (Luke 18:8).
Deuteronomy' s warnings are consonant with all that follow after in the
canon. Thus , in this setting, the preacher might preach from the
following:
Deuteronomy 30:1520: Israel's time in the land is understood in the
Deuteronomic History as a time of testing. Will she love and serve the Lord
in grateful response to his love shown toward her, or will she go after other
gods and thus lose her life and good? She is set before the choice of life or
death, blessing or curse, and her response is a matter of whether she will
live or die. The people of God can fail to possess their final inheritance.
Having been redeemed and now finding themselves at midpoint on their
pilgrimage, they can yet fail, by their lack of love and trust, to enter into the
promised fulfillment. The passage recalls Jesus' words about the narrow
way that leads to life and the broad way that leads to destruction (Matt.
7:13-14), or his repeated teachings about those who do or do not obey his
words (cf. Matt. 8:21-22, 24-27). Perhaps the church in our time needs to
hear that the Christian faith is a matter of life and death. In this respect,
the following pericopes are also pertinent.
Deuteronomy 12:114: One of the primary effects of the religious
reform instigated by King Josiah of Judah in 621 B.c. on the basis of
Deuteronomy was the centralization of all worship in Jerusalem, and in the
Deuteronomic History that centralization then became one of the tests by
which every ruler of Israel and Judah was j udged. If the monarch fostered
the centralization of worship, he or she was counted righteous; if the
monarch did not do so, he or she was wicked. The law was designed to
abolish the "high places" throughout the landthose worship sites where
the gods and goddesses of the Canaanites were revered, or where the Lord
of Israel had been confused with the deities of other peoples. It effected a
thorough transformation of Israel's worship practices; from 621 c. on,
Israel's three great festivals of Passover, Weeks, and Booths, as well as all
occasions of sacrifice, had to take place in Jerusalem, although un-
fortunately syncretism and idolatry continued, even within the confines of
the Jerusalem temple (cf. Ezek. 8).
Yet this law of centralization emphasizes that God is Lord, even over the
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manner of his worship. He is not to be found everywhere and at all
timeswhether in and through the processes and scenes of nature, as the
Canaanites believed, or mirrored in the actions of any human state or
person, as the Mesopotamians and Egyptians with their divine kings and
vicars professed. No, says our passage, God is to be found and worshiped
only at that place where he chooses to put his name (vs. 5, 11, 13-14). Only
there will he make himself available to his people. Only when he draws
near to that site, can he be found (cf. Isa. 55:6). The law gives the lie to
every absolutizing of human and natural structures, and prevents every
thought that God can be summoned at human will.
In the light of such law, it seems significant, then, that the New Tes-
tament emphasizes that Jesus Christ alone is the bearer of God's name (cf.
John 17:6, 26; 5:43; 10:25; 12:28; 14:13-14; 20:31), that he alone is the
way to the Father (14:6), and that "there is no other name under heaven,
given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12; cf. 2:21; 3:16;
9:21; 10:43; etc.). God is still to be found only at that placebecome a
person, in the New Testamentwhere he puts his name. Jesus has re-
placed Jerusalem, with its temple, as the one through whom God is to be
worshiped. (Cf. in this connection our Lord's claim to replace the temple in
John 2:19; also Mark 14:58 and par.).
Similarly, in this passage in Deuteronomy, the promised land is de-
scribed as the place of "rest" (vs. 9-10), which is a prominent motif
t hroughout the Deuteronomic History. The Epistle to the Hebrews
catches up this motif, in chapters 3 and 4, to identify Jesus with the
promised "rest" (cf. Heb. 3:14). The promised land also, like its temple,
has become incarnate in our Lorda thought of the utmost significance,
incidentally, for evaluations of the modern Zionist movement. Israel and
the new Israel in Christ find their fulfillment, not in the land of Palestine,
but in Jesus Christ.
Such are some of the possibilities that grow out of this hermeneutical
approach.
PREACHI NG THE COMMANDMENTS
Ultimately, in preaching from Deuteronomy, the question arises, What
does it mean to love God? Love, as we have seen from this book, is acted out
in obedience to God's commandments. Love in Deuteronomy is always a
verb, an action, never simply an inner emotion. God's love toward Israel
consisted in his deliverance of her out of Egypt, his guidance of her
through the wilderness, and his gift to her of the promised land (cf.
26:5-9). So too Israel's love toward God was to be active obedience in
response to his love. But what is the content ofthat obedience? Concretely,
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what does God command? All of the laws in Deuteronomy are intended to
spell out the answer. They are explications of what it means to love God;
and in preaching from them, the homiletician has a wealth of subjects with
which to deal and can select from among the commandments materials to
fit the situation of the congregation.
Once again let it be emphasized that these are commandments designed
as guides in the life of the already-redeemedto be used in the manner of
Calvin's third use of the law, if you will. They do not establish the
relationship with God but give guidance about how to live in the relation-
ship which has already been effected by God.
Many of the commandments of Deuteronomy are no longer relevant to
our lives, of course. For example, we no longer have Lvites (18:1-8), or
wear robes with tassels (22:12), or lack modern plumbing (23:1213).
Some of the laws have been directly countermanded or transformed and
deepened by our Lord (Mark 10:2-12 vs. Deut. 24: 1-4; Matt. 5:21 vs.
Deut. 5:17; Matt. 5:27 vs. Deut. 5:18; Matt. 5:38 vs. Deut. 19:21). Yet it is
amazing how often the intention of the commandments remains fully
valid for Christians and is confirmed by the teachings of Jesus. If we ask,
What does it mean to love God? Deuteronomy replies:
It means to show liberality and kindness toward the poor (Deut.
15:1-18; 23: 19-20; 24: 14-15, 19-22).
It means to respect your neighbor' s property (19:14; 23:24-25) and his
dignity as a human being (24:10-11), even if he is a criminal being
punished (25:1-3).
It means to protect your neighbor against accidents (22:8) and to help
him out when he has suffered loss (22:1-4).
It means to practice justice in a court of law (16:1820; 19: 15-21;
24:17-18) and in all business and commerce (25:13-16).
It means to recognize that there is a sphere of justice belonging to God,
beyond human justice (19:1-10).
It means to protect the realm of nature, as stewards of God's good
creation (20:19-20; 22: 6-7; 25:4; 5:14).
It means to foster the well-being of the family (24:5; 22: 13-21, 22, 30),
and to protect the chastity of the unmarried (22:2329).
In short, it means to construct a society which reflects the justice, the
love, and the mercy of God (cf. 5:15; 15:15; 16:12; 24:18, 22)surely a
new phenomenon in the history of humankind! "We love because he first
loved us." That affirmation from I John 4:19 characterizes most of
Deuteronomy' s laws.
Yet to love God, in the view of this book, is also to worship him in
sincerity and truth. It means to offer him worthy and costly sacrifices
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(17:1 ; 23:18), and to intend sincerely in one's heart what one says and vows
to him (23:21-23). It means to acknowledge with one's gifts his ownership
of creation (15:1920; 26:1 11), and to thank him with grateful hearts for
his bounty bestowed.
Indeed, worship in Deuteronomy is above all ajoyful occasion. Whether
the occasion is one of the three great, yearly, pilgrimage feasts (16:1-17),
the payment of a vow, a tithe, or a freewill offering (12:1-19; 14:22-29), a
special day of commemoration (27:1-8), or the offering of the first fruits
(26:1 11), the thought always is that Israel shall "rejoice before the Lord"
(12:7, 12, 18; 14:26; 16:11, 14; 26:11; 27:7), because she is worshiping a
God who has first loved her.
The preacher has ample opportunity to spell out from these passages
what it means to be the covenant community and to live according to the
will of God and not the will of human beings or the will of the culture
surrounding the church.
SOME LECTIONARY TEXTS
Deuteronomy 8:1120 is one of the stated texts for the yearly celebra-
tion of Thanksgiving Day, and as such, it is often used to remind the
congregation that material blessings stem ultimately from God's hand and
not from our own. Yet the text has to do with much more than material
goods. Verse 17 is its heart: "Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power
and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.' " The passage has
to do with reliance on God for all life and all power for salvation. It
reminds that the goods of creation come from God, to be sure. But it also
recalls that it was God alone who redeemed us out of slavery (v. 14), who
has sustained our life in the face of every danger and need (vs. 1516),
who has corrected us with his fatherly discipline (v. 16), who leads us
toward the fulfillment of our lives in his promised land or kingdom
(implied by the context of vs. 810), who empowers us for our daily tasks
(v. 18), who keeps all his promises to us (v. 18), and who guides us by his
living Word (v. 11). By recounting the history of what God has done for us,
the text gives enormous cause for thanksgiving!
Deuteronomy 18:15-22 is a stated text for the Epiphany season in some
lectionaries. It contains the promise that God will raise up for his covenant
people a prophet like Moses, whom they are to "heed" or listen to.
Probably every prophet in Israel was understood to stand in this Mosaic
linecertainly the call of Jeremiah (1:410) reflects such an under-
standing. Yet by New Testament times there had arisen the expectation of
a special, eschatological prophet like Moses, and this expectation is re-
flected in John 1:21, 25; 6:14; 7:40. In Acts 3:22-23 and 7:37, then, Jesus
280
Plumbing the Riches
Interpretation
is specifically indentified as this Mosaic prophet. Such a comparison with
Moses is also made in Matthew, where so many incidents in Jesus' life
parallel those in Moses' and where Jesus becomes the new Moses, giving
the new law on the new mount for the new people of God (Matt. 57).
If one looks at the figure of Moses in Deuteronomy, it is not hard to see
why our Lord is compared with him. Moses is the covenant mediator in
Deuteronomy, who speaks God's commandments to his people (5:22-33),
as we have seen. Yet Moses is far more than that in Deuteronomy. There is
none like him, says Deuteronomy 34:1012, "whom the Lord knew face to
face." He is the intercessor for his people, spending forty days and forty
nights in prayer on the mountain, that God may forgive Israel for their sin
of the golden calf (9:15-21) and again undergoing the same strenuous
asceticism for the people's sin in the wilderness (9:22-29). Moses is a
suffering intercessor, whose final act on behalf of his people is to die
outside of the promised land for the sin of Israel, in order that she may
enter into her fulfillment (3: 23-26; 1:37). In Numbers 20:12 and
27: 15-16, as well as in a later insertion into Deuteronomy (32:48-52),
Moses cannot enter the land because of his own sin. But in Deuteronomy,
he dies outside of the land for Israel's sin. It is not hard to draw parallels
with the sacrifice of our Lord. Moses is not the Son of God, to be sure, but
this towering figure was borrowed by the gospel writers to help explain
who Jesus Christ is.
Finally, Deuteronomy 34:1 12 is a stated lesson for Transfiguration,
the last Sunday in the Epiphany season. In the passage, Moses goes to the
top of Pisgah's ridge to view the promised land from afar. He sees the final
fulfillment of God's promise to the fathers stretching out before him, just
as Peter, James, and John sec the final outcome of Jesus' life and death in
the transfigured Christrisen, glorious, Lord triumphant, God's purpose
fulfilledwith the Law and the Prophets, symbolized by Moses and Elijah,
sharing in his kingdom come (Luke 9:2836). Significantly, in Luke's
account, a voice from heaven borrows a phrase from Deuteronomy 18:15:
"This is my Chosen; Listen to Him y
281
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