Day 5 – Monday -- The Book of Deuteronomy

[We skip Sundays because they are not counted as part of the Forty Days]


Day 5 – Monday

The Book of Deuteronomy

The word Deuteronomy means “second law.” The Ten Commandments are given to the people by Moses a second time in chapter five. (Remember, the first time was in Exodus 20.) There is a new generation since the first giving of the Law. So, Moses presents it again, with only a slight change. The fourth commandment, about keeping the Sabbath, is given a different rationale.

In Exodus the reason for the Sabbath goes back to the creation story where God rests on the seventh day. But in Deuteronomy the reason given is based in Israel’s experience of enslavement and freedom. Just as God showed compassion for you and set you free, you should be compassionate and allow your servants/slaves, animals, and foreigners to rest just as you do on the Sabbath.

Notice that as the Bible progresses the laws, codes, and customs change. Different reasons are given for what is expected or no longer expected. There is an evolution of ethics and morality in our Scriptures.

Jesus says that the most important verse in the Bible is found in Deuteronomy:

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. (6.4-5)

Still today, when Jews gather to worship on the Sabbath, they repeat this verse. (And every day if they pray the daily prayers.)

Yet, in the same book which speaks of our love for God and God’s compassion for us, the herem is set forth—the instructions to destroy and slaughter the indigenous peoples of Canaan. This violent exclusivity in certain parts of the Bible is an embarrassment to many of us. We sometimes forget that our spiritual heritage is just as violent as other religious traditions such as Islam. Both of our sacred Books (Bible and Qur’an) contain holy war traditions as well as commandments to take care of the poor and needy and to love each other.

Even Gandhi, the great proponent of non-violence, treated women as inferior to men and had other inconsistencies in his life and teachings.

All religions are mixtures of good and less than good. It could be because religions go through a process of maturation just as individuals do. Each religious tradition has to grow up over time. We should remember that Islam is a much younger religion than Christianity or Judaism.

A beautiful passage is found in chapter 32:

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,

the Lord alone guided him;

God is compared to a mother eagle that will “bear you up” on her wings. Have you ever experienced God that way? Has she (mother eagle) ever borne you up on her wings?

And there is the well-known challenge in chapter thirty: Today I set before you life and death…Choose life.

Finish this: Today I choose life by….