Day 55. Deuteronomy 12-15

In today's reading we hear the voice of Moses preaching an extended sermon about faithfulness of the LORD and obedience to the Law. This passage is set at the time when Israel is preparing to invade the Promised Land, but it speaks to the much later situation when the people are settled and facing the challenges of living there.
Once they have conquered the land the Canaan, Moses is insistent that the Israelites gather and worship in a centralized place, "that the LORD [their] God will choose out of all [their] tribes as his habitation to put his name there" (12:5). At first, that was the place where the tabernacle was pitched, but later, under the kingship of David, that centralized shrine would be established in Jerusalem.
But the voice of Moses is emphatic about this--under no circumstances is Israelite worship to take place in localized shrines, far from the worship center, where authority is lax and the temptations of idolatry are greater.
The preacher makes this point once, and then returns to it in chapter 14 in his discussion of the regulations given for tithes. The people shall set apart a tenth part of the produce of the field and the firstlings of the flock and shall eat it in the presence of the LORD "in the place that he will choose as dwelling for this name" (verse 23). This shall be done nowhere else. Those who live at a distance are allowed to turn their tithe into money, travel to the central shrine, and buy there what they need to feast, they and their household rejoicing together (14:26). But they are not to establish their own cultic centers. God does not want to be worshipped anywhere except the place he has chosen.
This unification of worship was intended to promote the orthodoxy of the people, their oneness of faith and practice, in the face of the constant temptations of idolatry. Chapter 13 demonstrates that radical measures are necessary to deal with those temptations and to prevent the people from worshipping the gods native to the country into which they are going.
Those measures are draconian. If prophets arise who give oracles that encourage the people to adopt foreign worship, those false teachers are to "be put to death for having spoken treason against the LORD" (13:5). In this way the people will purge evil from their midst (13:5). Or if friends or relatives try to lead the people into apostasy, they are to show no mercy nor try to shield them (13:8). They are to be stoned to death "for trying to turn [their friends and close relations] away from the LORD . . . , who brought you out of the land of Egypt" (13:10). Or if a whole town turns away from the LORD to worship idols, its inhabitants are to be massacred, its livestock slaughtered, its spoil burned and utterly destroyed "as a burnt offering the LORD" (14:16). Then the sight of that town shall "remain a perpetual ruin, never to be rebuilt" (13:16). This is the savage price that must be paid for any accommodation with paganism.
Yet in spite of the harshness it manifests toward any sign of idolatry, our reading is also filled with compassionate concern for the poor within the faith community. Recognizing that "there will never cease to be some in need on the earth" (15:11), it establishes methods of relief. Every seventh year, in the Sabbatical year, the obligations of those in the community who cannot pay are to be forgiven without grumbling on the part of their creditors. This radical notion was designed to keep anyone from falling to permanent, hopeless debt (15: 1-3) and preserve the dignity of all citizens of the nation. Also if any member of the community falls into slavery, he or she is to be freed in the seventh year. Six years of labor is enough to discharge any debt (15:18).
The faith community which the Law of Moses envisions is not without economic differences. There are some who have more and others less. This is a natural situation, accepted in Deuteronomy as slavery is accepted, as part of the order of things. But if there is real poverty in that community, that is a sign of disobedience on the part of those who have too much (15:4); destitution is not accepted and condoned as a natural situation. God has provided enough for all to be cared for.
Even the Levites, who will be largely unemployed when Israel enters the Promised Land and Tent of Meeting no longer has to be taken down, transported, and reassembled, are proved for in our text. The people are solemnly warned not to "neglect the Levite" as long as they live in the land (12:19). The landless Levites are mentioned here, together with orphans, resident aliens, and widows, as in special need of charity (14:29). And taking care of these unfortunates carries with it a special blessing from the LORD, who is the God and Father of all.