Category Archives: Biblical Reflections

Psalm 14- The Wisdom of Holding to the Covenant

Jozsef Somogyi’s statue of the Tired Man in Mako, Hungary

Psalm 14

To the leader. Of David.
¹ Fools say in their hearts, “There is no God.”
   They are corrupt, they do abominable deeds;
   there is no one who does good.
² The LORD looks down from heaven on humankind
   to see if there are any who are wise,
   who seek after God.
³ They have all gone astray, they are all alike perverse;
   there is no one who does good,
   no, not one.
⁴ Have they no knowledge, all the evildoers
   who eat up my people as they eat bread,
and do not call upon the LORD?
⁵ There they shall be in great terror,
   for God is with the company of the righteous.
⁶ You would confound the plans of the poor,
   but the LORD is their refuge.
⁷ O that deliverance for Israel would come from Zion!
   When the LORD restores the fortunes of his people,
   Jacob will rejoice; Israel will be glad.

In the ancient Middle East the idea of a godless world is unknown. However, in the Psalmist’s time and in every time there are those who functioned as practical atheists, whose spoken beliefs had little or no impact on their decisions throughout their lives. The heart in the Hebrew world view was not the seat of emotion but the seat of decision making and will. The heart is where actions spring from. Note that the Psalm does not say ‘Fools say with their mouths’ but ‘Fools say in their hearts.’ As the Psalm unfolds we see the way that the foolish actions are really actions against the covenant that God has made with the people of Israel. The LORD looks for those who are seeking the will of God. As Psalm 1 can state, “but their (the wise/righteous) delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night.” (Psalm 1.2)

The fool is known by what they do and their actions reflect a betrayal of the justice that was considered essential to the covenant. The book of Deuteronomy dwells frequently on the fear that the people in prosperity will “forget the LORD their God, by failing to keep his commandments, his ordinances and his statutes,” (Deuteronomy 8. 11) and the poor, the widow, the orphan and the alien will be denied justice. When the acquisition of wealth becomes more important than the neighbor then the people have forgotten the LORD their God. When the people turn away from placing God at the center of their day to day actions and decisions the result is the perversion of the covenant people. They are no longer the salt of the earth but rather they are corrupt and their corruption spreads to everything around them. The actions of the people have consequences for not only themselves, but also for the community and the very land that they live upon.

The language of the Psalm also reaches into the language of the prophetic. The dark line speaking about the wicked “who eat up my people as they eat bread,” reaches a fuller exposition in Micah. In Micah, speaking to the rulers who have turned away from the covenant, the prophet can say:

you who hate good and love evil, who tear the skin off my people, and the flesh off their bones, who eat the flesh of my people, flay their skin off them, break their bones in pieces, and chop them up like meat in a kettle, like flesh in a caldron. (Micah 3. 2f.)

And yet these same leaders may use their words to cry upon the LORD, but God will not answer them.

Unlike Psalm 13 which cries out for immediate action, Psalm 14 takes more of a tone of the inevitability of God’s action on behalf of the poor. The hearer is cautioned to take the way of the wise and the side of the poor for that is the side of God. God hears and sees and protects the powerless and the vulnerable. Those wise whose hearts are turned to God know that their actions towards the vulnerable and the powerless are also seen and weighed by God.

A biblical image that comes to mind with this Psalm is the ending of Solomon’s reign and the beginning of his son, Rehoboam’s reign. Solomon is initially lifted up as being wise and following the way of the LORD but in 1 Kings 11 Solomon’s heart is turned away from the LORD. When he dies and his son takes the throne there is already conflict within the nation of Israel, the economic policies of Solomon have placed a heavy burden on the population and the assembly of Israel asks for relief from Rehoboam. Rehoboam refuses to relieve any of the economic burdens on the people and the kingdom is spit in two, never to be united again. (1 Kings 12) The book of Kings looks upon this split as God’s judgment upon the house of David for turning their heart away from the LORD, even though God did not act in supernatural ways but rather simply didn’t sustain the reign of the line of David over the entire house of Israel.

So how do we approach this Psalm in our secular world that is influenced by global economic corporations? For me the Psalm speaks to the faithful as a way of remembering what is it to set one’s heart upon the LORD and how loving the LORD with all one’s heart, soul, mind and strength is linked to loving and protecting one’s neighbor. When we forget this connection we too can become corrupt and allow the community and the environment around us to become corrupted by short term economic interests at the expense of our neighbor. Entering into the prophetic worldview of the scriptures forces us to consider the impact of the decisions we make upon the life of my neighbor’s and especially the lives of the vulnerable.

Psalm 13- The Cry from the God Forsaken Place

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Job (oil on canvas) by Bonnat, Leon Joseph Florentin (1833-1922)

Psalm 13

To the leader. A Psalm of David
¹How long, O LORD? Will you forget me forever?
   How long will you hide your face from me?
² How long must I bear pain in my soul,
   and have sorrow in my heart all day long?
   How long shall my enemy be exalted over me?
³Consider and answer me, O LORD my God!
   Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep the sleep of death,
⁴ and my enemy will say, “I have prevailed”;
   my foes will rejoice because I am shaken.
⁵ But I trusted in your steadfast love;
   my heart shall rejoice in your salvation.
⁶ I will sing to the LORD,
   because he has dealt bountifully with me.

Psalm 13 is one of the examples used to talk about a Psalm of lament because it comes out of the experience of struggle and strife and calls upon God to act upon the crisis that the faithful one is experiencing. The crisis is not only a physical or emotional crisis but for the Psalmist, at its core, it is a theological crisis. The confident opening of the Psalter with Psalm 1 that sings about how the LORD watches over the righteous and the way of the wicked perishing is called into crisis by the moment of conflict where God seems to have forsaken the one lifting up this prayer. In the midst of the crisis the Psalmist cries out to the LORD and calls upon God to act.

This type of bold prayer, which calls upon God to act and to intervene, might seem unusual for many people. Many Christians were taught growing up that you didn’t accuse God or question God’s motives and that prayers were always to be polite and stoic. Although this view is common it has little to do with the Biblical model of prayer or the relationship of many of the faithful with God. Jeremiah, for example, makes numerous accusations towards God throughout the book of Jeremiah, Job also can cry out and expect God to act upon his complaints, and finally the Psalter is full of powerful, unfiltered emotions that are directed towards God and wrestle with the LORD who can bring about a resolution to the struggle. It takes courage to ‘gird up ones loins’ and stand before God in this manner, to be willing to accuse God in failing in God’s responsibility to maintain faithfulness and watchfulness as a covenant partner. The Psalmist views the relationship with God as pivotal for their life and if God turns God’s face away and removes God’s protection and allows the enemy to prosper and prevail then God is not fulfilling God’s part of the relationship. The Psalmist’s faith is strong enough to confront God that all is not right in God’s creation (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 163) and that God is the responsible party to ensure that the righteous are protected and the wicked are punished.

How long, which is repeated four times in the first half of the Psalm is not asking for a time period but rather for an immediate intervention. It is a rhetorical device that is common in African-American preaching to increase the intensity of the expectation and hope that change is coming for the way things are cannot be sustained in a creation where the LORD is paying attention and is active. For example Martin Luther King, Jr. in his speech in Montgomery, Alabama on March 25, 1965:

How long? Not long, because no lie can live forever. How long? Not long, because you still reap what you sow. How long? Not long, because the arm of the moral universe is long but it bends towards justice. How long? Not long, ‘cause mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord.’ (Brueggemann, 2014, p. 79)

How long will the Psalmist continue to cry out to God before God answers? The hope is certainly not long. In the God forsaken place that the Psalmist cries from they know that only the enemy’s triumph and the sleep of death wait for them. They are at the end of the strength and the end of their resources and despair is coldly creeping into their soul, and yet in an act of defiance the call out to their God to act on their behalf, to fulfill God’s promises and to rescue the righteous one from the triumph of the wicked.

The Psalm ends with a note of trust or perhaps, as many commentators believe, the Psalmist has seen God’s answer to their prayer. If the prayer is answered we have no way to know how long elapses between verse four and the final statements in verses five and six. Perhaps they come hours, days, weeks or even years later when the Psalmist now stands in a place where God’s face continues to shine upon them. Yet, perhaps the ending is not a triumphal as a final answer but the whisper of trust into the deafening depression of despair. From my own experiences there can be this type of internal dialogue in that place of hopelessness where one struggles with and for one’s faith. One can boldly cry out to God and call upon God to act in the situation. Even in that space where all one perceives is isolation there can still be that turning back to the foundations of one’s life. I have trusted in you before, your love has not failed in the past, the how long will be not long and even though I may not see it now I can trust that I will indeed sing the songs of the LORD again.

Psalm 12-Save Us from Ourselves

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Bible Paintings in Castra center, Haifa- David and Batsheva, David and Avshalom

Psalm 12

To the leader: according to The Sheminith. A Psalm of David.
¹Help, O LORD, for there is no longer anyone who is godly;
   the faithful have disappeared from humankind.
²They utter lies to each other;
with flattering lips and a double heart they speak.
³May the LORD cut off all flattering lips,
   the tongue that makes great boasts,
⁴those who say, “With our tongues we will prevail;
   Our lips are our own—who is our master?”
⁵“Because the poor are despoiled, because the needy groan,
   I will now rise up,” says the LORD;
“I will place them in the safety for which they long.”
⁶The promises of the LORD are promises that are pure,
   silver refined in a furnace on the ground,
   purified seven times.
⁷You, O LORD, will protect us;
you will guard us from this generation forever.
⁸On every side the wicked prowl,
   as vileness is exalted among humankind.

The Psalm begins as a cry for help and while the cry may come from an individual the cry goes forth on behalf of a community that no longer is the place it was intended to be. What was dreamed to be a place of faithfulness and trustworthy people has turned into a place where tongues have been loosed, boasts have been made and community has been destroyed. The double-hearted nature of the community has broken the heart of the Psalmist and sent them into a search for hope in the midst of the empty words they see in a community that was meant to be something much different. In a toxic environment where the tongues of those who are seeking their own interests rule the day the community of the faithful is in mortal peril.

Many leaders of communities have known times where the community, through conflict or by the actions of a bully, devolves into the opposite of its original intent. Unfortunately, it is all too common for churches and places of worship which preach forgiveness to become unforgiving. Sometimes the message of justice becomes perverted into a message of just-us, and sometimes the boastful words overpower the quiet insistence of those trying to follow whole heartedly. It is from this experience of disillusionment that the Psalmist cries for help. In a feeling of isolation and desolation where the faithful have been replaced by the duplicitous, the powerlessness of the Psalmist on their own is overpowering.

Steven B. Karpman, M.D. – http://www.karpmandramatriangle.com/pdf/DramaTriangle.pdf

Family Systems Theory can talk about a Karpmann Drama Triangle where people are stuck into roles as the victim, oppressor or hero. Claus Westermann noted that in many of the Psalms of Lament that Israel or the speaker find themselves in the role of the victim where the LORD becomes the liberator of the speaker or Israel from their adversaries. (Brueggemann, 2014, p. 74) With the speaker in the role of the victim in the midst of their adversaries they are reliant upon God as their deliverer from their adversaries. This is the nature of the relationship that the people of God have with their deliverer. However, the danger is that these same people can easily move into the role of the oppressor where now the LORD must stand with the oppressed ones over against them. Perhaps, this is something that the Psalmist feels is now happening among their community. That the empty words have allowed the people to deny the contingency of their existence that is based upon their living into the covenant they have with the God of Israel.

The Psalmist sees those around him denying reality and doing violence to others in that denial. They have arrogated themselves into the position of being their own gods who no one can judge. (Nancy deClaisse-Walford, 2014, p. 156) Their tongues have become the small member that boasts of great exploits, setting fire to the world around them. (See James 3: 1-12) In claiming this place they have denied the reign of God feeling free to craft their own dominions. Yet, as so often is the case, when the powerful and the boastful feel free to create their own realities it comes at the expense of the poor and the vulnerable. Whether the Psalmist can claim a spot among the alien, the widow and the orphan (the classic way that the Hebrew bible speaks of the vulnerable) or not they are aware of the way in which the law, the commandments and the ordinances of God attempt to create a society where the oppressed are cared for. Yet, as the community moves away from its groundings and devolves into a place where unpleasant truths are denied at the expense of a more convenient illusion it also becomes a place that loses its understanding of hospitality and mercy.

The Psalm rests on the confidence that God will see and God will intervene even when the immediate evidence may point in the opposite direction. In a place where vileness is exalted among humanity and the poor are despoiled and the needy groan the Psalmist sees beyond the present moment to a hopeful future where God sees and acts. The Psalms understand, like the rest of the Bible, that God acts on behalf of the powerlessness and has an ear for the cries of the poor and oppressed. It is in the LORD’s answer, “I will now rise up” that the Psalmist trusts. The LORD has acted in the past; the LORD’s promises are true and precious. In comparison to the dross the Psalmist hears spoken around him the promises of God to them are like pure silver. As Mary can sing in Luke’s gospel the time is coming when:

He has shown the strength with his arm; he has scattered the proud in the thoughts of their hearts.
He has brought down the mighty from their thrones, and lifted up the lowly;
He has filled the hungry with good things, and sent the rich away empty.
He has helped his servant Israel, in remembrance of his mercy,
according to the promise he made to our ancestors, to Abraham and to his descendants forever. (Luke 1: 51-55)

Psalm 11: Confident Faith in the Midst of Trouble

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Giovanni Francesco Barberi (il Guercino), King David (1651)

Psalm 11

To the leader. Of David.
¹ In the LORD I take refuge; how can you say to me,
“Flee like a bird to the mountains;
² for look, the wicked bend the bow,
they have fitted their arrow to the string,
to shoot in the dark at the upright in heart.
³ If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do?”
⁴ The LORD is in his holy temple;
the LORD’s throne is in heaven.
His eyes behold, his gaze examines humankind.
⁵ The LORD tests the righteous and the wicked,
and his soul hates the lover of violence.
⁶ On the wicked he will rain coals of fire and sulfur;
a scorching wind shall be the portion of their cup.
⁷ For the LORD is righteous;
he loves righteous deeds;
the upright shall behold his face.

This is another Psalm where we do not know the threat that David (Psalm 11 is attributed to David) faces, yet the advice to flee like a bird to the mountains because of the strength of those opposing the speaker poetically evokes a mortal threat. Yet there is a defiance in the initial line which sets the tone for the rest of the Psalm, “In the LORD I take refuge.” The Psalmist trusts that, even in the midst of a life threatening situation, the LORD sees and will act. This Psalm, like many of the Psalms, revolves around the active move to take refuge in the LORD and to trust that the LORD will act. It means relinquishing control over one’s future and to stand in the trust that even in the midst of the speaker’s powerlessness that God can indeed act on behalf of the righteous and against the wicked.

This defiant stance, of trusting the LORD in the presence of danger, is a frequent theme of the Psalmist. For the writers of the Psalms they trust that God does see, act and judge. That God sustains the righteous and will in time punish the wicked. The author’s trust in God enables them to place themselves into the position of danger even when they may feel powerless. This poetic approach to faith that trusts in the midst of crisis has been a balm for many of the faithful across the generations. Luther’s ‘A Mighty Fortress’, which is inspired by Psalm 46 is an echo of this type of faith. Yet, the Psalms are poetic and not dogmatic and just because the poet is able to appeal to the LORD in the midst of their situation does not condemn a person who may flee in a different situation.

In 1527, during the early reformation at Wittenberg, a case of Bubonic plague was discovered. The students were sent home but Luther remained in the city and was busy with pastoral and practical care of the sick. Late in the year Luther wrote an open letter on ‘Whether One May Flee From A Deadly Plague’ where Luther can endorse the type of faith that is stated here in the Psalm, because in times of death someone must stay: doctors, nurses, preachers and others necessary to care for the afflicted. But Luther also allows that there will be those whose faith is not at this place and they should be allowed to flee and that those who are unnecessary may be acting on a natural tendency, implanted by God to flee death and save one’s life. (Luther, 1989, pp. 736-755) Luther’s caution was not to condemn those whose walk of faith allowed them to flee like a bird to the mountains nor those who for the sake of the neighbor walked into the place where death seemed to reign.

Reflections From A Year Spent with Deuteronomy

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Torah Scroll, Original image from http://www.nachat-austin.org/weekly-torah/

Deuteronomy is the fourth book, and the second large book that I have worked my way through systematically from beginning to end. It took me a little more than a year (13 months and 1 week) from my first post on Deuteronomy 1 to the final entry on Deuteronomy 34. Deuteronomy is not a book that a lot of Christians spend a lot of time with but for our Jewish brothers and sisters it is one of their most important books. Most Christians don’t spend much time with Deuteronomy, well with the exception of Deuteronomy 6 which has become important to those who want to talk about faith formation in the home or Deuteronomy 5 which re-articulates the ten commandments. Many of the ordinances and commandments of Deuteronomy seemed alien to me and yet, I knew that there was a reason that people had gone back to this work for over 2,500 years. Using Walter Brueggemann’s and Deanna A. Thompson’s commentaries on Deuteronomy as my two primary reading companions I began not knowing how the project would turn out but at least motivated to see what wisdom I would glean from this ancient work. I was motivated by the knowledge that I had made it through Jeremiah, a larger and very challenging work, and that I would be able to eventually reach the point of reflecting back again.

I am a Lutheran pastor who has spent most of my time studying the Gospels and Paul’s letters and who comes from a tradition that is open to reading scripture with a critical eye. Deuteronomy has some sections that in the twenty first century we will not be adopting or advocating and so I have tried to bring the issues of the time into conversation with the events and policies and beliefs of our time. I have tried to use Deuteronomy as a helpful conversation partner-trying to understand how the author of Deuteronomy thought about God and society.

Deuteronomy wants to imagine a society ordered around God’s law and living out of the covenant relationship with the LORD the God of Israel. For the people of Israel and Judah their public life was a reflection of their faith and there was no concept of a separation between church and state. In a world where the people of Israel were surrounded by a plethora of religious alternatives the book of Deuteronomy tries to imagine a society centered around the laws and covenant and ordinances of the God of Israel and a manner both catechetically in the home and liturgically in the worship of the community that would pass on this faith from generation to generation. The great anxiety of the book of Deuteronomy is that in the midst of abundance the generations to come would forget the source of their abundance and become attracted by the practices and the gods of the people around them.

I am very aware of the postmodern, secular, pluralistic world in which we live and I have attempted to bring the questions of that worldview into conversation with the strictly ordered worldview of the Deuteronomist. What has emerged at its best is an opportunity to think ethically about what type of world I as a Lutheran Christian in 21^st Century would imagine in dialogue with Deuteronomy imagining God’s will for their time. Because our hermeneutics and starting points are different there are times where we come to different answers and that is OK. Even when I may diverge from the way Deuteronomy understands God or the meaning of what God desires I still try to find the wisdom of the people who were wondering God’s story had entered their story through the Exodus and through their experiences.

As a modern scholar I have used a lot of different tools in working through Deuteronomy. The first is an ancient tool, I simply forced myself to listen to the text by slowing down and manually writing out the text as I commented on it. As mentioned above, I am a Lutheran pastor so I do come from a perspective where the cannon within the cannon (or the most important key to understanding scripture) is what conveys Christ and so I have listened to where Deuteronomy spoke in concert and contrast to the witness of Christ throughout the New Testament. I have brought my experiences and listened to the ways my time in the military, as a father, as a divorced person, and as a pastor have been brought into conversation and filled out the way I can hear these texts. I have been intentionally intertextual, allowing Deuteronomy to be in conversation with the rest of the Bible. But I come to this as a person who loves the Bible and the God it tries to bear witness to and as a pastor who wants to communicate this story to others who would have the patience to listen. I am not a PhD in the Hebrew Scriptures, just a willing student of Deuteronomy.

Wrestling with books like Deuteronomy is more challenging than the familiar gospels or even Paul’s letters but there is wisdom. It is hard to understand the way the early church leaders talked about Jesus without understanding the scriptures they were reading. There are portions of Deuteronomy that help make sense of who Jesus was and what he was striving for. For example, look at Deuteronomy 17: 14-20 and then think about what it meant for Jesus to have the title Messiah (anointed king) applied to him. Deuteronomy forms the basic frame that the prophets will work out of as they protest the injustices and idolatry of the nations of Israel and Judah. The thought of Deuteronomy will form one of the loudest voices in informing the rest of the Hebrew Scriptures as they evaluate their history and as they imagine their future.

If you have benefited from these reflections I am thankful. They have been beneficial for me to write. The process continues to allow me to grow in my faith and understanding. I hope that in them I have exercised wisdom. I have benefited from the wisdom of others who have passed on the faith and this tradition to me.

As an update on what is next I am returning to the book of Psalms and will work through Psalms 11-20 as I decide which book I will work through next. I have enjoyed this project but I also am ready to work with something new and there is always a sense of relief at the completion of a work like this (even if I am the only person who ever reads it).

Deuteronomy 34- The Death of Moses

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Alexandre Cabanel, The Death of Moses (1850)

Deuteronomy 34

¹ Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab to Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, which is opposite Jericho, and the LORD showed him the whole land: Gilead as far as Dan,² all Naphtali, the land of Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land of Judah as far as the Western Sea,³ the Negeb, and the Plain– that is, the valley of Jericho, the city of palm trees– as far as Zoar.⁴ The LORD said to him, “This is the land of which I swore to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, saying, ‘I will give it to your descendants’; I have let you see it with your eyes, but you shall not cross over there.”⁵ Then Moses, the servant of the LORD, died there in the land of Moab, at the LORD’s command.⁶ He was buried in a valley in the land of Moab, opposite Beth-peor, but no one knows his burial place to this day.⁷ Moses was one hundred twenty years old when he died; his sight was unimpaired and his vigor had not abated.⁸ The Israelites wept for Moses in the plains of Moab thirty days; then the period of mourning for Moses was ended.

⁹ Joshua son of Nun was full of the spirit of wisdom, because Moses had laid his hands on him; and the Israelites obeyed him, doing as the LORD had commanded Moses.

¹⁰ Never since has there arisen a prophet in Israel like Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.¹¹ He was unequaled for all the signs and wonders that the LORD sent him to perform in the land of Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his servants and his entire land,¹² and for all the mighty deeds and all the terrifying displays of power that Moses performed in the sight of all Israel.

Deuteronomy and the Pentateuch end with Moses’ death on Mount Nebo. The five central books to the Jewish understanding of faith traditionally attributed to Moses now have come to an end. Moses’ death has been foreshadowed throughout Deuteronomy and has been attributed to both the disobedience of the people and to Moses and Aaron acting without giving proper praise to God the waters of Meribath-kadesh (see Deuteronomy 32: 48-52). Yet, foreshadowing the death of Moses (even though he is reported to be one hundred twenty years old-which is also a way of referring to people being of a good old age) when he can still see well, is still active and vigorous and not suffering from the illness and impairment of old age is still an unexpected death of one who is so alive. The transition from Moses the teacher and leader has been set in motion through the end of the book but Moses will remain a unique figure for the people of Israel.

Many people focus on the unfairness of Moses being unable to enter the promised land but perhaps there is the possibility of grace here in this moment. George Elliot in his poem “the Death of Moses” can speak of Moses’ death as:

A death was given called the Death of Grace
Which freed them, from the burden of the flesh
But left them rulers of the multitude
And loved companions of the lonely. This
Was God’s last gift to Moses, this the hour
When soul must part from self and be but soul. (Thompson, 2014, p. 195)

From a Christian perspective we, perhaps, too quickly make the jump to resurrection or to Moses being with the God of Israel in heaven, but for the ancient Jewish people resurrection was not a part of their understanding of the blessing and promise of God. Yet, after a life of struggle, of constantly being pulled between the needs of the people and their inability to remain faithful and the dangerous engagement of the LORD with those same people. After Moses again and again would place himself between God and the people and after the people would continually disappoint Moses. Perhaps the ending of a powerful but heavily laden life can truly be laying down one’s burdens to, in the words of an old Vince Gill song, go rest high upon the mountain. Or perhaps from another powerful example that Deanna Thompson lifted up was the example of Martin Luther King, Jr. from his speech to sanitation workers on April 3, 1968-the day before his assassination when King prophetically speaks:

I don’t know what will happen now. We’ve got some difficult days ahead. But it really doesn’t matter with me now—because I’ve been to the mountaintop. I don’t mind. Like anybody, I would love to live a long life, but I’m not worried about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the promised land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight that we as a people will get to the promised land. So I’m happy tonight. I’m not worried about anything. I’m not fearing any man. Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the LORD. (Thompson, 2014, p. 245)

Moses, the reluctant leader who in the desert tried to avoid the calling of God would indeed be the one who God would work through in ways that no one else would share. The people began to trust in Moses as a mediator of the presence of the almighty God, as one who would know unknown intimacy with the LORD by being able to speak to God face to face and not die. He would be remembered for wielding God’s power in incredible ways in the land of Egypt and in the journey through the wilderness. Yet, perhaps there is grace in a death that is away from the people in an unknown grave. If the grave was known it is possible, perhaps probable, that people would begin to venerate it in ways that worshipped Moses rather than God. There are certainly times in the book of Judges where people begin to worship the things of the Judge rather than the God who worked through the judge.

Throughout Deuteronomy we realize that the people of Israel’s life is contingent upon the God of Israel who has drawn close to them. Here in this final chapter where Moses dies at the command of the LORD we see the contingency of one drawn so close to God even more clearly. Moses’ position and power derive from his proximity to the LORD who called him at Mount Horeb. No one will know the intimacy of the relationship that Moses does and linked to that connection is also the reality that no one will perform the wonders of the LORD in the same way either. Moses becomes the mediator of the presence of the divine to the people, he becomes the vessel through which the LORD’s power for the preservation (and sometimes the punishment) of the people will pour.

Moses will continue to echo throughout the story of Israel and the church. Others will attempt to carry on the legacy that he began, but even Joshua’s power is here lifted up as derivative of Moses laying on of hands. The absence of the grave will lead to speculations about Moses. By the time of the emergence of the Christian church there was speculation about Moses assumption directly into heaven like Elijah or Enoch. In Mark 9, and parallels, Moses will be present with Elijah on the mount of the Transfiguration talking with Jesus and Jude 9 is either a reference to The Assumption of Moses a Jewish Pseudapigraphal document which we only have one existent 6^th century copy of or another tradition of Moses’ assumption which may predate that. Regardless by the first century CE it was common to think of Moses having been assumed bodily into heaven and the absence of a grave becomes evidence to this. Yet for Deuteronomy, this text seems to know of either whispers of a possible gravesite or the search for one and seeks to assure the reader that no one knows of the site to this day.

So we come to the end of this part of the story and to the end of a remarkable life narrated in between the story of the LORD, the God of Israel and the people of Israel. Moses journey with the people has set the stage for the journey they will continue with Joshua.

Deuteronomy 33: A Final Poetic Blessing

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Statue of Moses at the Library of Congress, Washington D.C.

¹ This is the blessing with which Moses, the man of God, blessed the Israelites before his death. ² He said:
The LORD came from Sinai, and dawned from Seir upon us; he shone forth from Mount Paran.
With him were myriads of holy ones; at his right, a host of his own.
³ Indeed, O favorite among peoples, all his holy ones were in your charge;
they marched at your heels, accepted direction from you.
⁴ Moses charged us with the law, as a possession for the assembly of Jacob.
⁵ There arose a king in Jeshurun, when the leaders of the people assembled– the united tribes of Israel.

Now the final words that Moses speaks in Deuteronomy come out as a blessing. For the first time Moses is given the title the man of God, although he will be referred to as the man of God in retrospect as will other prophets. In contrast to the words of the previous song that are to witness against the people when they become unfaithful the blessing on eleven of the tribes (for reasons unknown Simeon is omitted) is much like a father blessing their children. In a sense Moses has been the parent for a generation of Israel that lived as wanderers with Moses as their primary leader and now like Jacob blessing his sons in Genesis 49.

The blessing begins once again with a lyrical retelling of the beginning of the encounter between Moses and God when Moses is called at Sinai. The poetry is not interested in retelling history but instead of reveling in the power of the God of Israel. In mysterious language that probably refers to The LORD as the greatest among the gods (rather than later monotheistic thought which talks about the LORD as the only God) the people are lifted up as the ones chosen by this God among all the nations. Using Jeshurun, a pet name for Israel, the confederation of tribes was brought together under one king (presumably referring to the LORD rather than a later Davidic king). Here the diversity of the tribes is celebrated within their unity and specific aspects are lifted up for blessing.

⁶ May Reuben live, and not die out, even though his numbers are few.

The blessings are given beginning with the oldest but do not strictly follow any birth order, with Simeon omitted as stated above, but rather seem to be grouped by the mothers of the children. Reuben was the firstborn of Israel but fell from favor after he slept with Bilhah, his father’s concubine (and mother of Dan and Naphtali). Here in the narrative Reuben’s tribe is already few in numbers. Even though Reuben’s tribe is already in possession of their land they also form the border with the Moabites and will endure struggle in future generations. Here this short blessing only asks for his perseverance.

⁷ And this he said of Judah: O LORD, give heed to Judah, and bring him to his people;
strengthen his hands for him, and be a help against his adversaries.

One of the more surprising blessings for its brevity goes to Judah. Judah will be the line that David and the Davidic kings come out of and will also become one of the largest and most powerful tribes. In contrast in Genesis 49 he receives a much longer blessing. The blessing is simple: that the tribe of Judah would be heard, strengthened and helped in conflict.

⁸ And of Levi he said: Give to Levi your Thummim, and your Urim to your loyal one,
whom you tested at Massah, with whom you contended at the waters of Meribah;
⁹ who said of his father and mother, “I regard them not”;
he ignored his kin, and did not acknowledge his children.
For they observed your word, and kept your covenant.
¹⁰ They teach Jacob your ordinances, and Israel your law;
they place incense before you, and whole burnt offerings on your altar.
¹¹ Bless, O LORD, his substance, and accept the work of his hands;
crush the loins of his adversaries, of those that hate him, so that they do not rise again.

If the blessings were simply birth order Levi would come prior to Judah, yet Levi receives a much larger and more developed blessing, which also reflects the emphasis of Deuteronomy on the role of the Levites. The Urim and Thummim are the stones to be placed in the breastplate of the high priest, first mentioned in Exodus 28: 31 which are to be used as a manner of casting lots and discerning God’s will. The ignoring of kin probably refers to the incident of the golden calf in Exodus 32, where the sons of Levi rally to Moses and kill the people who are running wild through the camp. This is the defining part of the tribe’s story where they are set apart to serve the LORD. As we have seen throughout Deuteronomy, with Moses no longer there to be the teacher of the law now that duty will fall to the Levites.

¹² Of Benjamin he said: The beloved of the LORD rests in safety—
the High God surrounds him all day long—
the beloved rests between his shoulders.

Benjamin’s blessing while short reflects a closeness of the LORD with the title of beloved of the LORD. The parental image of the God of Israel allowing the youngest child to rest in safety between the LORD’s shoulders is a peaceful one.

¹³ And of Joseph he said: Blessed by the LORD be his land,
with the choice gifts of heaven above, and of the deep that lies beneath;
¹⁴ with the choice fruits of the sun, and the rich yield of the months;
¹⁵ with the finest produce of the ancient mountains, and the abundance of the everlasting hills;
¹⁶ with the choice gifts of the earth and its fullness, and the favor of the one who dwells on Sinai.
Let these come on the head of Joseph, on the brow of the prince among his brothers.
¹⁷ A firstborn bull– majesty is his! His horns are the horns of a wild ox;
with them he gores the peoples, driving them to the ends of the earth;
such are the myriads of Ephraim, such the thousands of Manasseh.

Joseph also receives a longer and fuller blessing, like Levi. Although the tribes of Joseph are larger and are frequently referred to by the names of his sons: Ephraim and Manasseh. The blessing called upon the half tribes of Manasseh and Ephraim (or the tribe of Joseph) are for abundance and strength. The image of the bull that gores and the illustration of the size (myriads and thousands) probably reflect the size of the host that Manasseh and Ephraim would contribute to the upcoming battles due to the size of their people.

¹⁸ And of Zebulun he said: Rejoice, Zebulun, in your going out; and Issachar, in your tents.
¹⁹ They call peoples to the mountain; there they offer the right sacrifices;
for they suck the affluence of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand.

Zebulun and Issachar share a blessing. Their blessing is for wealth. They will share territory next to one another and here they share a common blessing in their going out and tents.

²⁰ And of Gad he said: Blessed be the enlargement of Gad! Gad lives like a lion;
he tears at arm and scalp.
²¹ He chose the best for himself, for there a commander’s allotment was reserved;
he came at the head of the people, he executed the justice of the LORD, and his ordinances for Israel.

A simile is used to compare Gad to a lion. Gad seems to be lifted up as a dangerous enemy and one who chooses the best spoils of war. As a leader he is also lifted up as an executor of the justice of the LORD and the LORD’s ordinances.

²² And of Dan he said: Dan is a lion’s whelp that leaps forth from Bashan.

Here the metaphorical image of a lion’s cub extends to Dan. Dangerous and violent, but perhaps not as dangerous as Gad.

²³ And of Naphtali he said: O Naphtali, sated with favor, full of the blessing of the LORD, possess the west and the south.

Naphtali is blessed with the full blessing of the LORD. The blessing of the LORD is linked to the land they will possess which is consistent with the understanding of land in Deuteronomy.

²⁴ And of Asher he said: Most blessed of sons be Asher; may he be the favorite of his brothers, and may he dip his foot in oil.
²⁵ Your bars are iron and bronze; and as your days, so is your strength.

Finally, the blessing for Asher where his position as a favorite among the tribes is combined with a blessing upon his strength metaphorically referred to as iron and bronze.

²⁶ There is none like God, O Jeshurun, who rides through the heavens to your help,
majestic through the skies.
²⁷ He subdues the ancient gods, shatters the forces of old;
he drove out the enemy before you, and said, “Destroy!”
²⁸ So Israel lives in safety, untroubled is Jacob’s abode in a land of grain and wine,
where the heavens drop down dew.
²⁹ Happy are you, O Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD,
the shield of your help, and the sword of your triumph!
Your enemies shall come fawning to you, and you shall tread on their backs.

The blessing concludes with a final bit of poetic reference to the strength of the LORD using the imagery of the divine warrior. Again this is poetic imagery that comes from a world where the LORD is the greatest among the pantheon of the gods of the nations and is able to conquer these other gods (and by extension their people). The LORD is sword and shield, a common image of the Psalms, and Israel will stand victorious over the other peoples because of the strength of their LORD.

Deuteronomy 32- The Last Song of Moses

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Moses by Victorvictori, permission granted by author through WikiCommons

Deuteronomy 32: 1-14: The Faithful Rock Provides

¹ Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; let the earth hear the words of my mouth.
² May my teaching drop like the rain, my speech condense like the dew;
   like gentle rain on grass, like showers on new growth.
³ For I will proclaim the name of the LORD;
    ascribe greatness to our God!
⁴ The Rock, his work is perfect, and all his ways are just.
    A faithful God, without deceit, just and upright is he;
⁵ yet his degenerate children have dealt falsely with him,
   a perverse and crooked generation.
⁶ Do you thus repay the LORD, O foolish and senseless people?
   Is not he your father, who created you, who made you and established you?
⁷ Remember the days of old, consider the years long past;
    ask your father, and he will inform you; your elders, and they will tell you.
⁸ When the Most High apportioned the nations, when he divided humankind,
    he fixed the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the gods;
⁹ the LORD’s own portion was his people, Jacob his allotted share.
¹⁰ He sustained him in a desert land, in a howling wilderness waste;
    he shielded him, cared for him, guarded him as the apple of his eye.
¹¹ As an eagle stirs up its nest, and hovers over its young;
    as it spreads its wings, takes them up, and bears them aloft on its pinions,
¹² the LORD alone guided him; no foreign god was with him.
¹³ He set him atop the heights of the land, and fed him with produce of the field;
   he nursed him with honey from the crags, with oil from flinty rock;
¹⁴ curds from the herd, and milk from the flock, with fat of lambs and rams;
    Bashan bulls and goats, together with the choicest wheat—
   you drank fine wine from the blood of grapes.

This poem of Moses could fit in the book of Jeremiah as easily as the book of Deuteronomy. It in poetic form foreshadows the sweep of the Deuteronomic history which runs from Joshua to 1 and 2 Kings. This is a difficult song to write out and let the words seep out of the pen onto the paper as you hear them. It is dark, and as we heard in Deuteronomy 31:19 the purpose of the song is to be another witness against the people of Israel when they turn to be unfaithful. When they trust in other gods and the LORD abandons them (or actively brings about) the consequences the people are to know and understand. If the song looks forward, peering into the darkness of the future, the poet speaks the darkness in the hope that the words (for those are the only weapons the poet and songsmith have) might alter the path of the future. While the author of Deuteronomy has a dim view of the potential for the people of Israel to remain faithful, it is still their hope. Their anxiety over the disaster they foresee is matched by the intensity of the words they use to try to wake up the people to change the course they seem to be marching upon.

The song begins in praise of the God of Israel and the faithfulness of that God. Throughout this song the Rock will become the metaphorical name for God and be a contrast between the unbending faithfulness of the LORD the God of Israel and the degenerate children of a perverse and crooked generation. Yet, even this generation is called back to their ancestors who still remember and the elders who still trust in the LORD. Just as throughout the book of Deuteronomy it is the responsibility of the previous generation to ensure the fidelity of the upcoming generations, to remind them over and over of the way in which their God has provided for them and the special relationship they have with their God.

One of the reasons that many scholars think this is an early poem (or at a minimum this first section) is that it is not strictly monotheistic. The LORD allots to the other nations other gods, and what make Israel unique is that the Most High God has chosen them and therefore they are to have no other gods before the LORD their God. In beautiful poetic language it expresses that the people are God’s beloved and the ways in which God has sheltered and provided for them. God is an eagle hovering over its nest or bearing its young into the air on its wings. The LORD has provided all the best things: crops of the field, milk and curds from the cows and goats, the best meat from the sheep and bulls and goats, fine wine and bread. Yet, the fear of Deuteronomy is that in the midst of abundance that the people will forget who provided for them. That is where the poem takes its dark turning.

Deuteronomy 32: 15-25 The Fattened People Forgets

¹⁵ Jacob ate his fill; Jeshurun grew fat, and kicked. You grew fat, bloated, and gorged!
    He abandoned God who made him, and scoffed at the Rock of his salvation.
¹⁶ They made him jealous with strange gods, with abhorrent things they provoked him.
¹⁷ They sacrificed to demons, not God, to deities they had never known,
     to new ones recently arrived, whom your ancestors had not feared.
¹⁸ You were unmindful of the Rock that bore you; you forgot the God who gave you birth.
¹⁹ The LORD saw it, and was jealous he spurned his sons and daughters.
²⁰ He said: I will hide my face from them, I will see what their end will be;
    for they are a perverse generation, children in whom there is no faithfulness.
²¹ They made me jealous with what is no god, provoked me with their idols.
    So I will make them jealous with what is no people, provoke them with a foolish nation.
²² For a fire is kindled by my anger, and burns to the depths of Sheol;
    it devours the earth and its increase, and sets on fire the foundations of the mountains.
²³ I will heap disasters upon them, spend my arrows against them:
²⁴ wasting hunger, burning consumption, bitter pestilence.
    The teeth of beasts I will send against them, with venom of things crawling in the dust.
²⁵ In the street the sword shall bereave, and in the chambers terror,
    for young man and woman alike, nursing child and old gray head.

As I’ve been listening to this song of Moses throughout this week I’ve also been reflecting upon the way other popular songs work to try to bring about change and yet may feel overwhelmed by the social forces that seem to be giving rise to the undesired reality. For example, when the punk band Green Day released their American Idiot CD they weren’t desiring the character of the American Idiot to be the reality, they were mocking the emerging culture controlled by a conservative media. Countless songs from numerous genres could be lifted up as attempting to be a voice calling upon the future to change and yet the poets may feel powerless as in the classic Simon and Garfunkel song, The Sound of Silence:

“Fools” said I, “you do not know
Silence like a cancer grows
Hear my words that I might teach you
Take my arms that I might reach you”
But my words like silent raindrops fell
And echoed in the wells of silence

Here the words of the song are placed in Moses’ mouth and just as in the previous chapter the hope is that the words will turn the direction that the people are moving in even when the anxiety is that the words will echo in the wells of silence. The words may bear witness but the people are hearing without listening. Moses prophetically chimes against when the people will bow and pray to the gods of stone and iron and gold they will make. In their fatness and wealth, they will forget the source of their blessings and attribute it to themselves and other things. Later prophets, like Jeremiah, who will attempt to be an echo of the words of this song will be treated as traitors, as woe bringers and will be resisted throughout their life. In the poetry of the song and of the later prophets sometimes the LORD will passively hide God’s face and surrender people to their fate, at other times God will actively bring upon the people their destruction, famine, and illness. In exchanging their Rock for idols of stone they have turned away from their foundation and reason for being. The song desperately rages to try to call the people to return to the LORD their God, and yet it knows people are likely to craft images of other gods rather than accept the God whom they cannot make an image of.

Deuteronomy 32: 26-30 A Remnant but Not for Your Sake

²⁶ I thought to scatter them and blot out the memory of them from humankind;
²⁷ but I feared provocation by the enemy, for their adversaries might misunderstand and say,
“Our hand is triumphant; it was not the LORD who did all this.”
²⁸ They are a nation void of sense; there is no understanding in them.
²⁹ If they were wise, they would understand this; they would discern what the end would be.
³⁰ How could one have routed a thousand, and two put a myriad to flight,
unless their Rock had sold them, the LORD had given them up?

As in the book of Jeremiah, much of the language here is of a wounded God, a God who is contemplating the betrayal of the people of God. Woven into this song is the appeal of Moses in Exodus 32: 11-14 where he appeals to God on behalf of the people after the incident with the golden calf.

¹¹ But Moses implored the LORD his God, and said, “O LORD, why does your wrath burn hot against your people, whom you brought out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? ¹² Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out to kill them in the mountains, and to consume them from the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce wrath; change your mind and do not bring disaster on your people. ¹³ Remember Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, your servants, how you swore to them by your own self, saying to them, ‘I will multiply your descendants like the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have promised I will give to your descendants, and they shall inherit it forever.'” ¹⁴ And the LORD changed his mind about the disaster that he planned to bring on his people.

Here the logic of Moses now becomes woven into the logic of God and the logic of the song. It is so other nations do not become puffed up in their own accomplishment that a remnant is allowed to remain. In a set of brokenhearted lyrics where the LORD no longer appears to love the people and yet feels obligated to save them yet again we find a reason for that remnant to remain.

Deuteronomy 32: 31-43 There is No Rock Like our Rock

³¹ Indeed their rock is not like our Rock; our enemies are fools.
³² Their vine comes from the vinestock of Sodom, from the vineyards of Gomorrah;
      their grapes are grapes of poison, their clusters are bitter;
³³ their wine is the poison of serpents, the cruel venom of asps.
³⁴ Is not this laid up in store with me, sealed up in my treasuries?
³⁵ Vengeance is mine, and recompense, for the time when their foot shall slip;
     because the day of their calamity is at hand, their doom comes swiftly.
³⁶ Indeed the LORD will vindicate his people, have compassion on his servants,
    when he sees that their power is gone, neither bond nor free remaining.
³⁷ Then he will say: Where are their gods, the rock in which they took refuge,
³⁸ who ate the fat of their sacrifices, and drank the wine of their libations?
    Let them rise up and help you, let them be your protection!
³⁹ See now that I, even I, am he; there is no god besides me.
     I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; and no one can deliver from my hand.
⁴⁰ For I lift up my hand to heaven, and swear: As I live forever,
⁴¹ when I whet my flashing sword, and my hand takes hold on judgment;
    I will take vengeance on my adversaries, and will repay those who hate me.
⁴² I will make my arrows drunk with blood, and my sword shall devour flesh—
     with the blood of the slain and the captives, from the long-haired enemy.
⁴³ Praise, O heavens, his people, worship him, all you gods!
    For he will avenge the blood of his children, and take vengeance on his adversaries;
    he will repay those who hate him, and cleanse the land for his people.

The song ends with a move towards hope, much like in Deuteronomy 30 where now the LORD will turn on behalf of the remnant of the people once they have undergone the judgment. In a poetic turning the vanquished people now mock their former conquerors in their weakness after the LORD’s vengeance. For the people of Israel, the LORD is the primary actor and the gods of the nations are unable to stand in the presence of the LORD. Much like Isaiah 44: 9-20 which mocks the idols of the nations or Jeremiah 50-51 which speaks of the destruction of Babylon, these words can speak for the hopeless people with the hope of the LORD’s actions on the idols and the nations. The poem closes with warrior imagery for God (flashing sword, arrows drunk with blood, etc.) where God’s vengeance is acted out in a bloody fashion. I have talked about the warrior imagery of God in other place, but here for the people of Israel it is a reminder that there is no Rock like their rock. Even in their apparent weakness their God is a mighty God.

Deuteronomy 32: 44-52 Preparing for Moses Death

⁴⁴ Moses came and recited all the words of this song in the hearing of the people, he and Joshua son of Nun. ⁴⁵ When Moses had finished reciting all these words to all Israel, ⁴⁶ he said to them: “Take to heart all the words that I am giving in witness against you today; give them as a command to your children, so that they may diligently observe all the words of this law. ⁴⁷ This is no trifling matter for you, but rather your very life; through it you may live long in the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.” ⁴⁸ On that very day the LORD addressed Moses as follows: ⁴⁹ “Ascend this mountain of the Abarim, Mount Nebo, which is in the land of Moab, across from Jericho, and view the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the Israelites for a possession; ⁵⁰ you shall die there on the mountain that you ascend and shall be gathered to your kin, as your brother Aaron died on Mount Hor and was gathered to his kin; ⁵¹ because both of you broke faith with me among the Israelites at the waters of Meribath-kadesh in the wilderness of Zin, by failing to maintain my holiness among the Israelites. ⁵² Although you may view the land from a distance, you shall not enter it– the land that I am giving to the Israelites.”

As the song ends we are reminded once again that we are approaching the end of Moses’ story. Here, in contrast to the earlier narrative of Deuteronomy where the LORD is angry with Moses because of the people (see Deuteronomy 1: 37, 3: 26, 4:21), now we are linked back to the narrative of Numbers 20: 10-12 as the reason for Moses’ upcoming death. The stage is set for the final chapter of Deuteronomy where Moses ascends the mountain never to return, yet Moses still has a final blessing to declare upon the people prior to the ending of his journey. One final benediction to come from the teacher, leader, mediator, judge and bringer of the law to sustain the people on their journey into the promised land.

I Thirst

Deuteronomy 31 Preparing for Life after Moses

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Moses Delivers a Charge to Joshua from th Philip Medhurst Collection of Bible Illustrations

Deuteronomy 31

¹ When Moses had finished speaking all these words to all Israel, ² he said to them: “I am now one hundred twenty years old. I am no longer able to get about, and the LORD has told me, ‘You shall not cross over this Jordan.’ ³ The LORD your God himself will cross over before you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you shall dispossess them. Joshua also will cross over before you, as the LORD promised. ⁴ The LORD will do to them as he did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, and to their land, when he destroyed them. ⁵ The LORD will give them over to you and you shall deal with them in full accord with the command that I have given to you. ⁶ Be strong and bold; have no fear or dread of them, because it is the LORD your God who goes with you; he will not fail you or forsake you.”

⁷ Then Moses summoned Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel: “Be strong and bold, for you are the one who will go with this people into the land that the LORD has sworn to their ancestors to give them; and you will put them in possession of it. ⁸ It is the LORD who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed.”

⁹ Then Moses wrote down this law, and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel. ¹⁰ Moses commanded them: “Every seventh year, in the scheduled year of remission, during the festival of booths, ¹¹ when all Israel comes to appear before the LORD your God at the place that he will choose, you shall read this law before all Israel in their hearing. ¹² Assemble the people– men, women, and children, as well as the aliens residing in your towns– so that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God and to observe diligently all the words of this law, ¹³ and so that their children, who have not known it, may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing over the Jordan to possess.”

¹⁴ The LORD said to Moses, “Your time to die is near; call Joshua and present yourselves in the tent of meeting, so that I may commission him.” So Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves in the tent of meeting, ¹⁵ and the LORD appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud; the pillar of cloud stood at the entrance to the tent.

¹⁶ The LORD said to Moses, “Soon you will lie down with your ancestors. Then this people will begin to prostitute themselves to the foreign gods in their midst, the gods of the land into which they are going; they will forsake me, breaking my covenant that I have made with them. ¹⁷ My anger will be kindled against them in that day. I will forsake them and hide my face from them; they will become easy prey, and many terrible troubles will come upon them. In that day they will say, ‘Have not these troubles come upon us because our God is not in our midst?’ ¹⁸ On that day I will surely hide my face on account of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods. ¹⁹ Now therefore write this song, and teach it to the Israelites; put it in their mouths, in order that this song may be a witness for me against the Israelites. ²⁰ For when I have brought them into the land flowing with milk and honey, which I promised on oath to their ancestors, and they have eaten their fill and grown fat, they will turn to other gods and serve them, despising me and breaking my covenant. ²¹ And when many terrible troubles come upon them, this song will confront them as a witness, because it will not be lost from the mouths of their descendants. For I know what they are inclined to do even now, before I have brought them into the land that I promised them on oath.” ²² That very day Moses wrote this song and taught it to the Israelites.

²³ Then the LORD commissioned Joshua son of Nun and said, “Be strong and bold, for you shall bring the Israelites into the land that I promised them; I will be with you.”

²⁴ When Moses had finished writing down in a book the words of this law to the very end, ²⁵ Moses commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying, ²⁶ “Take this book of the law and put it beside the ark of the covenant of the LORD your God; let it remain there as a witness against you. ²⁷ For I know well how rebellious and stubborn you are. If you already have been so rebellious toward the LORD while I am still alive among you, how much more after my death! ²⁸ Assemble to me all the elders of your tribes and your officials, so that I may recite these words in their hearing and call heaven and earth to witness against them. ²⁹ For I know that after my death you will surely act corruptly, turning aside from the way that I have commanded you. In time to come trouble will befall you, because you will do what is evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking him to anger through the work of your hands.”

³⁰ Then Moses recited the words of this song, to the very end, in the hearing of the whole assembly of Israel:

The final chapters of Deuteronomy use the transitions (chapter 31), song (chapter 32) and final blessing (chapter 33) to prepare for the death of Moses in chapter 34 and the transition to the narrative of Joshua. Moses carried enormous power and importance for the generations that left Egypt, wandered in the desert and now stand at the precipice of the promised land. Future leaders will lead differently than Moses did, they will not have the same relationship with the LORD the God of Israel. They will not be called to be the teacher of the law, the political leader, the final judge, and the faithful mouthpiece of God in their midst. Even with Moses’ stature, he would struggle to bring the people out of Egypt, through the wilderness and to this point. Frequently he would find himself between God and the people, pleading for the people who seemed to be unwilling or unable to live up to the ideals of the covenant. The anxiety of the book of Deuteronomy that the people will not remain faithful in the comfort of the promised land is heightened by the knowledge that Moses will not be there to ease their transition from a wandering people into a settled confederation of tribes that will make up the nation of Israel.

Moses’ role becomes divided into three parts in this chapter: as the leader (both politically and militarily), as the witness to the people, and as the teacher of the law. Now Moses will be replaced by a man, a song and a book. Joshua son of Nun first enters the story in Exodus 17 in the battle between the Israelites and Amalek. Joshua is the leader of the people of Israel in the battle in the valley while Moses, Aaron and Hur are on top of the hill with Aaron and Hur supporting Moses’ arms in the battle (for while Moses’ hand is held up the Israelites prevail). Shortly afterwards Joshua becomes Moses’ assistant and he is one of the two Israelite spies who advocate courage and invading the promised land the first time the people arrive. The choice of Joshua as the leader to succeed Moses is not a surprise, but Joshua has some large shoes to fill and a daunting task ahead of him. Joshua is commissioned twice, first by Moses with words that are not identical to, but foreshadow the central command in the book of Joshua, “Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed, for the LORD you God is with you wherever you go.” (Joshua 1:9) Then Joshua is commissioned a second time in the tent of the meeting by the LORD. Publically now the mantle of leadership is passed to Joshua for a new task in a new time.

The song, which will come in chapter 32, is to become a witness for the people when they are unfaithful. Deuteronomy does not have an optimistic view of the potential faithfulness of the people of Israel, and the people will not have written copies of the law in their homes, but the song is to become the reminder of who they are called to be. Music does have the power to become the bearer of memory in powerful ways and the Hebrew people, as well as early Christians, dedicate significant portions of their scriptures to songs. The book of Psalms may be the best known example, but there are songs throughout the narrative, the prophets and the other documents that form the scriptures. For example, both Moses and Miriam have songs recorded in Exodus 15, and these songs probably formed a part of the storytelling and worship of the ancient Hebrew people.

Finally, the law is physically written down and place with the priests and the elders. The reading of the law is to be read as a part of the ritual of the festival of booths every seven years as a way of continually reinforcing the law to the people. I have said several times throughout the book of Deuteronomy that this is primarily an aural document meant to be heard instead of read. Most of the people would not have been able to read or write and depended on the scribes and priests to read the law and other holy words to them. Deuteronomy is concerned with passing on the law from generation to generation and here is one more attempt to create the possibility for future generations to know the LORD their God.

Moses is preparing to utter his final two messages to the people, the last song of Moses and the final blessing. Joshua is now to be the leader that will carry the people from the edge of the promised land to become the occupants of that land. The songs they sing will now become witnesses that call them back to faithfulness and the law is entrusted to the Levites and the elders so that they may order the society in accordance with them. Moses will, for the Jewish people, occupy a place that no one else will. He has been the faithful teacher, visionary leader, righteous judge, and the one stood face to face with God. The best that leaders who follow Moses will be able to do is to be ‘strong and courageous’ and to hear and learn the law of the LORD their God.

Moses Delivers the Law to the Priests, Phillip Medhurst Collection of Biblical images

Sign of the Rose

Searchings: Sacred and Secular