“You must love the alien, for you once lived as aliens in
Egypt.” —Deut. 10.19
Take a moment to let that sink in. How repulsive and anti-Christian is the
American Taliban?
Old Testament
Book Five:
Deuteronomy
Primary Charge of Moses to the People (cont’d)
Chapter 9: The basis
for the granting of the land
Chapter 10: The basis
for the granting of the land (cont’d)
Chapter 10 (cont’d):
A final exhortation to future obedience
It seems to me the bible is definitely better written as it
goes on. It is interesting how it is not
rewritten from beginning to end, they leave the earlier ancient garbage, then
try to elide the problems or retell them (which is the point of
Deuteronomy). So, here Moses is
retelling everything that happened to Israel (but again, this was written
later, with the Kingdom of Judah as the audience). It’s nice to read this, written better and
focused better, you get a better sense of what they consider to be important
from the previous 200 pages.
Moses’ point here is that Canaan is not going to be
destroyed as a reward for Israel’s merit, but to punish Canaan’s
wickedness. (Echoes of Sodom and
Gomorrah.) Israel really pissed off God
in the desert with all their moaning about how crappy manna is, and making the
false gods when Moses was up in the mountain.
I have said this before, but I think the real story of the old testament
is really a fascinating one, one that I’m not sure has ever been told from a
modern point of view before, that of a God and a people who hate him, and the
centuries long contentious relationship between them. There is absolutely no love lost between God
and Israel. He says here he’s doing it
because he promised it, not because he wants to or because they deserve
it. This puts a really interesting spin
on the concept of “chosen people.” It’s
really hard for anyone to hear you’re part of the “chosen people” and not think
it means you’re special, rewarded, better than others. But here God says that’s not true at
all. I don’t even like you. But, I
made a promise so I have to go through with it.
Any time you hear someone say something about “chosen people” understand
that that is not a bragging point at all, it is an arbitrary and undeserved
designation.
Most important here is that even at this point, Canaan is
not being destroyed because it was promised to Israel: they don’t deserve
it. It is being destroyed
because Canaan was itself wicked. There
are also interesting implications here for predestination. God promised Canaan to Israel, indicating
that he would have given it to them no matter what, right? But he didn’t want to be unjust? Is that it?
So did he influence Canaan to be wicked so he could justify destroying
them? What if they had been good
people? Or was it preordained that they
were evil? Or did God not make it
happen, but he could see the future?
Then you’re back to the usual problem that a promise without
consideration is not a promise. (This
story would be a brilliant illustration of consideration for a contracts
class.)
This is interesting, I am not going to go back and check,
but it sounds like this is a quite explicit retelling of what happened in
Exodus, event by event. Anyway, once
again a human intercedes and argues with God and changes his mind. According to this, God would have destroyed
Israel at Mount Sinai if Moses had not convinced him not to. Moses’ reasoning for it is very interesting,
and again weirdly not strong. He doesn’t
remind God of his love for the people even if they are wicked. Instead he tells God that if he destroys
them, then “the people in the land out of which thou didst lead us will say,
‘It is because the Lord was not able to bring them into the land which he
promised them and because he hated them, that he has led them out to kill them
in the wilderness.’” Others would find
God weak if he doesn’t save them. An
utterly selfish reason. It never ceases
to amaze me how condescending the Old Testament is toward God! I love it!
Anyway, one other thing, I had forgotten that it was Aaron
who made the false idols while they were waiting for Moses. It’s so strange how the characters who in one
section are clearly the worst of the worst later become important. The unusual thing about the old testament
compared to the new is that apparently all this stuff actually happened. So they couldn’t just rewrite it; instead
they had to add a new book to explain how now Aaron is a good guy. It’s all so dumb.
The notes have a very interesting comment. Moses is going through all the different
times Israel was unworthy of God’s love.
And he mentions things that happened that were apparently not preserved
in the OT. That is interesting; this is
some kind of history of Israel, but it’s not complete. Or, maybe the notes are suggesting, they were
recorded at one time but at some point have been edited out.
—bibletoenail
Quotables:
“Know then this day that it is the Lord your God himself who
goes at your head as a devouring fire; he will subdue them and destroy them at
your approach; you shall drive them out and overwhelm them, as he promised
you.” —Deut. 9.3
“So now you must circumcise the foreskin of your hearts and
not be stubborn anymore.” —Deut. 10.16
“He is no respecter of persons.” —Deut. 10.17
“He secures justice for widows and orphans, and loves the
alien who lives among you, giving him food and clothing.” —Deut. 10.18
“You too must love the alien, for you once lived as aliens
in Egypt.” —Deut. 10.19
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