Commentary on Deuteronomy - Book Report/Review Example

Commentary on Deuteronomy 4:32-401 Deuteronomy 4:32-40 32For ask now about former ages, long before your own, ever since the day that God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of heaven to the other: has anything so great as this ever happened or has its like ever been heard of33Has any people ever heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire, as you have heard, and lived 34Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by terrifying displays of power, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes 35To you it was shown so that you would acknowledge that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. 36From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, while you heard his words coming out of the fire. 37And because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them. He brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, 38driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, giving you their land for a possession, as it is still today. 39So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. 40Keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you today for your own well-being and that of your descendants after you, so that you may long remain in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time"2. Introduction to Deuteronomy Before a portion of a book is analyzed, it is important to first take into consideration the book as a whole, in this case, the entirety of Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Pentateuch. This anglicized Greek word (meaning "five rolls" or "fivefold volume") refers to the first five books of the Bible-Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The Pentateuch is a most important segment of God's written Word, furnishing a solid foundation upon which much that follows firmly rests3. The name "Deuteronomy" comes from the Septuagint Greek title Deuteronomion, literally meaning "Second Law; Repetition of the Law." This comes from the Greek rendering of a Hebrew phrase in Deuteronomy 17:18, mishneh hattohrah, correctly rendered 'copy of the law.' Despite the meaning of the name Deuteronomy, this book is not a second law nor a repetition of the entire Law but, rather, an explanation of it, as Deuteronomy 1:5 says4. Deuteronomy, covers about two months' time (1473B.C.E.); it explains portions of the Law covenant and provides many ordinances necessary for the new generation of Israelites who were poised on the Plains of Moab, ready to invade and occupy the Promised Land5. Doctor Constable said "Deuteronomy is similar to Leviticus in that both books contain a record of instructions and speeches almost exclusively. Deuteronomy is not so much a book of history, as Genesis, Exodus, and Numbers are, as it is a book of law. In contrast to Leviticus, however, Moses addressed Deuteronomy to all the Israelites more than to the priests and Levites"6. The book of Deuteronomy places the emphasis strikingly on knowledge, teaching, and instruction. The words "teach," "teaching," and "taught" occur much more often in Deuteronomy than in the first four books of the Pentateuch7. Historical Background of the Text An understanding of the concerned text is only possible with the knowledge of the context surrounding it. Verse 32 challenges the Israelites, or anyone who might be reading the text, as we are today, to think and present any god who is as great as this God who is described in the succeeding verses. Several verses from it shows allusions from events that happened prior. Verse 33 says: Has any people ever heard the voice of a god speaking out of a fire, as you have heard, and lived. Here, a God is being compared to other gods by highlighting the fact that this particular God spoke out of a fire, and no other god was able to do so as is implied. So it is important to know who this God is and how it happened. Exodus chapter 3 narrates of the incident when Moses as a shepherd of the flock of Jethro saw a burning thornbush at Mount Horeb, yet surprisingly so, the thornbush was not being consumed by the fire despite. Exodus 3:3-4 says: Then Moses said, "I must turn aside and look at this great sight, and see why the bush is not burned up." When the Lord saw that he had turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am". With that, the god had started to talk when he called onto Moses. And in Exodus 3:6, the God introduced his self: He said further, "I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God. So, the book of Exodus reveals the only God who spoke out of the fire, the same God who was further described in the next verses of the concerned text. Moving on to our search for the history of the text, let us now take take at look at Deuteronomy 4:34-35, it says: Or has any god ever attempted to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and by terrifying displays of power, as the Lord your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes To you it was shown so that you would acknowledge that the Lord is God; there is no other besides him. The story of the nation of Israel being salvaged by God from the clutches of the then-mighty Egypt gives meaning to these verses. While the Israelites then were powerless and hopeless, the true God which is depicted in these verses of Deuteronomy, saved them from the cruelty and slavery of the Egyptians. He also showcased his powers by sending ten plagues to Egypt: turning Nile and all the waters of Egypt into blood, the plague of frogs, the turning of the dusts into gnats, swarms of gadflies invading the homes of the Egyptians, the pestilence upon the livestock, the plague of boils, the severe hailstorm, the locust plague, the plague of darkness, and the death of the firstborns. All these proved that the numerous gods and goddesses of the land of Egypt proved powerless with the one true God. But that is not all, another manifestation of God's might is the splitting of the Red Sea to save his chosen nation from the Egyptian army and in the process destroying that army. And as was said in verse 35 of the text we are analyzing here, all these were shown right before the eyes of the Israelites, for them to know that, He is the only true God, and no one else is. So far, we have seen how uniquely this God is from the other gods man believed as existing. Another description of the one true God is exemplified in Deuteronomy 4:36 as stating: From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, while you heard his words coming out of the fire. When God gave the Ten Commandments to Moses at Mount Sinai, it presented an awesome spectacle. He had just effected a great deliverance of his people. Probably over two million of them, men, women and children, had been brought out of Egypt now into the wilderness. He was going to lead them on to the Promised Land. They were his chosen ones. And he showed them his power from the heavens8. This can be read at Exodus 19:16, it says: On the morning of the third day there was thunder and lightning, as well as a thick cloud on the mountain, and a blast of a trumpet so loud that all the people who were in the camp trembled. And then, in the 18th verse, we read: Now Mount Sinai was wrapped in smoke, because the Lord had descended upon it in fire; the smoke went up like the smoke of a kiln, while the whole mountain shook violently. We have so far seen how God showed his chosen nation that there is no other God like Him. But one would wonder why it came to be that Israel was the nation that the true God chose. Now, we see a brief explanation of that in Deuteronomy 4:37-38 as it says: And because he loved your ancestors, he chose their descendants after them. He brought you out of Egypt with his own presence, by his great power, driving out before you nations greater and mightier than yourselves, to bring you in, giving you their land for a possession, as it is still today. This goes back to the covenant made by God with his "friend" Abraham, thus it was called the "Abrahamic Covenant". God appeared to Abraham after he had traveled from Ur into Canaan as far as Shechem and enlarged on the promise, saying at Genesis 15:18: On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, "To your descendants I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates". That covenant went into effect in 1943B.C.E. when Abraham complied with God's covenant requirements and crossed the Euphrates on his way to the Promised Land. In that year God came under obligation to bless childlessAbrahamwith "seed." The Law that belonged to the covenant made with the nation of Israel at MountSinai came into being 430 years later, in1513B.C.E9. Literary Features "From a literary point of view, these verses are among the most beautiful in Deuteronomy. They are prosaic in form, but poetic in their evocation of the marvelous acts of God.10" By using three rhetorical questions from verses 32 to 34, it is shown how the magnificence and power of God as the sovereign ruler is highlighted. The one true God shows how there is no other god like him in any part of this world from the earliest of times until now. The development of the text, from showing how powerful a God he is, to showing how the Israel is such a privileged nation as to have been chosen as God's own, gave the final verse of the text justification as to why the nation should keep obeying God's rules. The purpose of the way the text was developed was to make the Israel know what kind of God he is, then it progresses to show how Israel is so blessed to have been chosen, and then it ends to how it is imperative to follow God's commandments for their own benefit. Theological Message The central message of the text lies towards the end of it. Although the allusions mentioned prior to the last two verses gradually builds up to create an image of God, what kind of God he is, and what He can do, and a sense of owing to God, Deuteronomy 4:39-40 shows the entire point of the sermon. It said: So acknowledge today and take to heart that the Lord is God in heaven above and on the earth beneath; there is no other. Keep his statutes and his commandments, which I am commanding you today for your own well-being and that of your descendants after you, so that you may long remain in the land that the Lord your God is giving you for all time. Because it has already been made clear to the Israelites what God is capable of doing, what he's done for Israel so far, it appears as common sensical that following God's commandments should be a must. And that by in doing so, the Israel secures for themselves their "well-being and that of" their "descendants" after them. What Moses did here is to motivate the people to obey God, as it has been shown in their nature to rebel, by expounding on God's character and conduct towards them despite their misgivings. Read More