Day 53. Deuteronomy 5-7

In chapter 5 the voice of Moses brings the events of Israel’s past into the present for his hearers. (Remember, Deuteronomy is structured as a series of good-bye sermons.) God’s actions are not just a past reality. It is not with our ancestors, Moses says, “but with us, who are all of us here alive today,” that the LORD makes his covenant (5:3).
Then he transports his hearers back to the events of Sinai in order to reiterate the commandments that are the heart of the Law. These are the law which the LORD spoke to the “whole assembly at the mountain” and “added no more” (5:22)—these are the perfect, sufficient and complete expression of God’s moral will for humankind. The people are to follow that path exactly without turning “to the right or to the left” (5:32).
Those commandments are more than familiar to us, but it is worth noting in the exposition given to the first commandment forbidding the making of idols that the LORD, calls himself “a jealous God.” He threatens his wrath upon the third and fourth generation of those who reject his love, but he offers his “steadfast love to the thousandth generation of those who love” him and keep his commandments (5:9-10). God is jealous, but he is not spiteful. His wrath is overshadowed by his mercy and love, and the threat of punishment is overwhelmed by the promise of faithfulness.
To these Ten Commandments Moses, as the first and greatest rabbi, adds a final capstone commandment intended to sum up all of them., It is called the “Shema,” for its first word in Hebrew which means “hear”—“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” (6:4). All the human person-- emotions, mind, and will--are involved completely in his or her relationship to God.
The God who is “jealous” (6:15—we also heard this word is 5:9) demands this kind of undivided love. The meaning of jealous here is “passionately in love.” God is passionately in love with his people and he will endure no rivals in their affections. He will not be ignored or forgotten. Again in 6:12 the voice of Moses returns to his favorite theme—remembering—“Take care that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery (6:12). Forgetting means death, but remembering will continue keep the people alive, as it has until now (6:24).
They are to remember that they are a chosen people, and the purity of God’s love demands absolute purity of purpose among his chosen ones. Chapter 7 absolutely forbids intermarriage or accommodation with the pagan peoples of the land they are entering. They are to break down the altars, smash the pillars, hew the sacred boles, and burn the idols with fire (7:5), being sure not to preserve the precious metals with which these objects are decorated (7:25).
These commands are couched in the language of passionate love. Israel was chosen out of love and for no other reason (7:7), and for that reason the people are to be radically different from all others, a treasured possession belonging to God alone.
If they keep faith with the LORD their prosperity and fertility are assured (7:12 following), but they are to “devour all the peoples” that the LORD is giving over to them and “show no pity” (7:16). In this context pity is worse than weakness--it is betrayal.
But most of all, they are to remember what the LORD did to Pharaoh and not be afraid. The conquest will be complete if they remain true to their purpose--but they are to be patient. It will not take place overnight. The LORD will clear away all the people before them, but “little by little.” There is the most practical reason for a measured conquest of the land—Israell will not be able to make “a quick end of them, otherwise the wild animals” will become so numerous in a depopulated land they will become a greater danger than human enemies (7:22). And we are reminded again that the world of the Old Testament is still a wild and empty place.