Chapter 28 | |
Summary: | Moses' speech continues:"It shall come to pass, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God, and obey all of his commandments which I give to this day, that the Lord your God will place you high above all other nations of the earth. |
Notes: | 1.) Another appearance of the mystical number 'seven' in the bible. |
Thoughts: | This rather long chapter can basically be summed up by stating, if you don't follow God's rules he's going to do all sorts of terrible things to you. Moses begins by telling the Israelites a couple of the perks of obeying God's laws - that they'll be the best nation on the earth; that their cities and fields will be blessed; that every person, plant, and animal will be blessed with fertility; that they'll be blessed with plenty of food; and that God will curse the enemies of the Israelites. Moses says that God will also make the Israelites a "holy people" if they simply do what they're told, and states that subsequently, other nations will be afraid of them. Moses even states that if the Israelites obey, then God will open up "his treasure" - his rainwater - to give rain to the crops. He also adds that the Israelites will be rich enough to lend money to other nations and never have to borrow, stating that God will make the Israelites "the head" and not "the tail" - just so long as they obey, and don't worship other gods. Notice that just like in the ten commandments, Moses puts heavy emphasis on stressing the importance of not "go[ing] after other gods to serve them". This is obviously a crucial point toward maintaining power and control over the Israelites. One of the most common defense tactics used by believers is attempting to shift the burden of proof by claiming that "one cannot disprove the existence of God". However, if one "should" believe in God because he cannot be disproven, then by the same flawed logic we could justify the "existence" of other gods as well. Therefore it is vital to villainize other religious beliefs lest Moses and the priests lose control over governing the people. After the mention of going after other gods, Moses launches into a tirade of what will happen if the people disobey God, spending the next 52(!) verses describing all the terrible things God will do to them. First, Moses basically reverses all of the blessings in the previous verses - God will curse your cities and your fields; curse the fertility of people, animals, and crops; curse the amount of food you have; and curses upon when you leave or arrive home. Next Moses states that God will:
While on the surface it may seem to contradict what Moses states in Deuteronomy 24:16 about not punishing a child for the "sins" of his father (or vice versa), if we read that verse carefully we see that Moses meant that strictly for cases of administering capital punishment against the sins of the Israelites. This doesn't apply to God's commands to kill innocent women and children, because they belong to the wrong race, nor does it apply to God accepting Noah's curse of his grandson Canaan due to Noah's son Ham walking in on him drunk and naked, or God's declaration himself that he will visit "the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generations" in Exodus 20:5, Exodus 34:7, Numbers 14:18, and Deuteronomy 5:9. Moses asserts that "choosing" not to serve God with "joyfulness" and "gladness of heart", in spite of the abundance of things he's given you (arguably plagues top that list so far in our story), that therefore you shall serve your enemies instead until God destroys you. Threatening to destroy people and making any survivors suffer in agonizing ways is not how to define "benevolent" ruler at all. Moses continues to list more nasty things that God will do to you if you disobey him, including having a foreign nation - one of whom they have not heard of, and speaks a foreign language - come and conquer the land, and that won't show any regard to the old or favor to the young. This is rather hypocritical for Moses to state in light of his own lack of sympathy for the young and old amongst The Midianites, as well as the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites of whom Moses specifically states " thou shalt save alive nothing that breatheth". Moses is using an emotional appeal, but it only works when you apply it to the Israelites - this "evil nation" won't even show sympathy to the children and the elderly, but it's okay that we slaughter "everything that breathes" in those "heathen nations". This foreign nation that no oone has ever heard of before will eat all of the crops and cattle until the Israelites are destroyed, and will leave nothing behind, forcing the Israelites to resort to cannibalism. Moses claims that even the most kind men will become "evil" and start eating babies, and not share the flesh with his wife and children. He further claims that women will secretly give birth to babies so that they can eat them as well - we've all heard of slow cooking, but growing your "dinner" for nine months? Moses then states that if the people don't observe the laws in "this book", then God will send all sorts of nasty plagues, sicknesses, and the diseases from Egypt and their population loss will be solely to blame for their disobedience. God will scatter the Israelites from one end of the earth to the other, and there they will be "forced" to worship other gods. Moses paints this whole "worshiping other gods" angle up like it should be a terrible thing for the Israelites to endure, but as we've seen, it takes little to get the Israelites to do such a thing, such as with Aaron's golden calf and "committing whoredom with the daughters of Moab". Moses adds that their lives under the rule of this "foreign nation" will be taxing and sorrowful, and that their lives will hang in doubt. Finally Moses ends the chapter by stating that the Israelites will be brought into Egypt on ships - despite that God swore that they would never see the land of Egypt again - where they will be sold into slavery. He adds that the kicker is that no one will want to buy them. |
Friday, March 5, 2010
DEUTERONOMY: Chapter 28
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Wednesday, March 3, 2010
DEUTERONOMY: Chapter 27
Chapter 27 | |
Summary: | Moses along with the elders of Israel, commanded the Israelites, saying:"Obey all of the commandments that I give to you today. When you pass over the Jordan River and into the land which the Lord your God has given you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them together with mortar. Upon these stones you shall write the words of this law, when you have crossed the Jordan River, that you may enter the land which the Lord your God has given you - a land that flows with milk and honey, just as the God of your forefathers had promised you. Therefore it shall be when you have crossed the Jordan River, that you shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with mortar.Moses and the Levite priests spoke to all of the Israelites, saying: "Take heed, and listen, O Israel. This day you will become the people of the Lord your God. You shall therefore obey the voice of the Lord your God, and obey his commandments and statutes, which I command you this day."Moses ordered the people the same day, saying: "The tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin are to stand upon Mount Gerizim to bless the people. The tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali are to stand upon Mount Ebal and proclaim a curse. The Levites shall then speak loudly unto all the men of Israel saying: |
Thoughts: | Moses begins the chapter by instructing the Israelites to construct a monument out of uncut stones plastered together once they enter the "promised land". The Israelites are to write God's laws upon these stones and they are to be set upon Mount Ebal along with an altar where the people are to offer animal sacrifices and eat beside the stone altar. However, Moses states that no iron tools are to be used in shaping these stones. Next Moses revisits a strange command that he first touched upon in Deuteronomy: Chapter 11, concerning offering a blessing off of one mountain and a curse off of another. Here, he orders the tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin to stand upon Mount Gerizim to give a blessing to the people, and the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali to stand upon Mount Ebal to proclaim curses. Moses doesn't say anything about what the tribes upon Mount Gerizim should say in their blessing, but he has a lot to say about the curses that the Levite priests have to say on behalf of the tribes upon Mount Ebal. They are to curse the following:
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Tuesday, March 2, 2010
DEUTERONOMY: Chapter 26
Chapter 26 | |
Summary: | Moses' speech continues:"When you arrive in the land which the Lord your God has given you for an inheritance, after you possess the land you shall take the first of all the fruit you grow in the land, put it in a basket, and bring it to the sanctuary which the Lord your God will choose. You shall give this basket to the priest on duty and say to him that you profess this day that you have come into the country which the Lord promised to our forefathers. The priest shall then take the basket from your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. |
Notes: | 1.) Meaning in the use of forefather. |
Thoughts: | Moses begins the chapter by commanding the Israelites to bring the first of their crops down to the sanctuary in a basket. He tells the Israelites that the basket is to be given to the priest on duty, who is to place the basket before the altar, and then gives them a long rambling speech to recite before God in the sanctuary. The speech basically states how the Israelites grew into a great nation in Egypt, and that the Egyptians mistreated and enslaved them, which I find rather disturbing in light of how the Israelites treat people of other cultures. Afterward, the food in the basket is to be dined upon by the person's entire household, as well as the Levites and foreigners in town. Next Moses declares the tithes (which are basically a religious tax upon a person's crops) of every third year to be the "Year of Tithing", and the tithes of this year are to be given to feed the Levites, foreigners, the orphaned, and the widowed. Again, Moses gives the Israelites another long winded speech to recite to God which basically states that the person hasn't eaten any portion of the crops for the tithe, used them for anything 'unclean', or given any to the dead(!) Moses once again tells the Israelites that they are to obey all of God's laws and commandments, and that they are to "walk in his ways". Moses claims that God in return has deemed the Israelites his "special people" (the KJV uses the phrase "peculiar people") that God views as better than any other nation of people on the earth. Anytime you place a higher value upon a single race or culture above all others you create elitism which encourages and breeds racism, intolerance, bigotry, and it devalues of all human life. When you place a higher value upon someone's race or birthplace than their moral character you can no longer judge fairly. Yet the bible is littered with instances of these types of elitism:
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