Deuteronomy - Lesson 28

We want to move now to the end, almost the end of the second address. It’s the end of the instructional part of the second address. There will be chapter 27 after chapter 26, and then the curses, the blessings and the curses in 28. But we’re going to chapter 26 now, which presents us with a very interesting ritual scenario in the central sanctuary. This is a text on celebrating Yahweh’s faithfulness and grace, The Goodness of Yahweh in the Land. And in so doing, it has created what Gerhard von Rad called Israel’s Creed, Das Deuteronimisch Kredo, The Deuteronomic Creed. Deuteronomy 26:1 to 15. 

This text divides into two parts. There’s a celebration of the Lord’s faithfulness and grace, verses 1 to 11, and then the worshipers’ affirmation of fidelity to Yahweh and His covenant. So, the first says, “Thank you to God,” and the second declares, “I have reciprocated as the covenant calls on me to do.” So, let’s look at the first part. 

“When you come into the land that Yahweh your God is giving you.” You notice how often this refrain appears? We’re looking forward to tomorrow; we’re coming into the land. But always that Yahweh is giving, it’s gift. All is gift. And in this context, it is more obviously gift than in most. 

“That Yahweh is giving as your grant.” Again, this is that Hebrew word, naḥălâ, usually interpreted inheritance, which doesn’t quite work. Yahweh, who gives it, hasn’t died, and now He’s passing it on to you. No, it’s a feudal picture. 

“As your grant of land and you’ve taken possession of it and you live in it, then you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground that you harvest from your land that Yahweh your God, is giving you, and you shall put it in a basket.” That’s a long opening sentence. It’s like Paul’s beginning to the book of Romans. 

“Then you shall go to the place that Yahweh your God, will choose.” We could say, Then you may go, inviting. “That Yahweh your God will choose to establish His name there. And you shall go to the priest who is in office at that time and say to him, ‘I declare today to Yahweh your God.’” Why not Yahweh my God? He’s in the presence of the house of God. This is the headquarters. This is the capitol, and the priest is the one who is ultimately in direct contact. “‘Yahweh your God that I’ve come into to the land that Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us.’ Then the priest shall take the basket from your hand, set it down before the altar of Yahweh your God. And you shall respond and recite before Yahweh your God.” 

And now you have the text. He prescribes what you say. It’s like chapter six, where he said, “When your son asks you, then you shall say…” And there we had what I call the domestic little creed. Here it’s the official one to be recited not at home, but at the sanctuary. 

“A wandering Aramean was my father. He went down into Egypt and sojourned there, few in number, there he became a nation great, mighty and populous. But the Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us, imposing on us hard labor. Then we cried to Yahweh, the God of our fathers, and Yahweh heard our voice and saw our affliction, our toil, and our oppression. And Yahweh brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, and with great deeds of terror, with signs and wonders. And he brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. ‘Now look! I am bringing the first of the produce of the ground which you, O, Yahweh,” (second person, I/you kind of relationship) “‘which You O Yahweh have given me.’” It’s an amazing text. “But then you shall set it down before Yahweh your God and worship, before Yahweh your God.” It’s all Yahweh your God, isn’t it? And you may celebrate in all the good that Yahweh your God has given to you and your house, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you.” 

That’s verses 1 to 11. What are we going to do with that? This is a great thanksgiving celebration text, harvest thanksgiving celebration. So, if you are asked to give an address in that context, this one works really, really well. 

But let’s set the context. In our passage, we have now reached the end, virtual end, of Moses’ instructional part of the last address. 27 will then be inserted and then 28, which is actually the conclusion, the blessings and curses, will bring this long address to a close. But we are at the end. At the beginning of chapter 26, there’s just one little ritual in 26, verses 16 to 19 that concludes the covenant verbal ritual. But we are verses 1 to 15 in this text. 

When we read this text, we should notice the links with chapter 12. Remember, we talked about worshiping the Lord at the central sanctuary; 26:1-15 has lots of connections. 

The context of worship: in the land that Yahweh has given to Israel. 
The location of worship: at the place that Yahweh, Israel’s God, would choose to establish His name. 
The host before whom the worship is performed: before Yahweh your God. 
There are participants in the cultic actions: the entire household and the Levites. “Y’all come.” It’s a family affair. 
The nature of the cultic service: the presentation of offerings. 
The atmosphere of the cultic service: celebrating, śāmaḥ, before Yahweh; rejoice, if you want to use the old English. 
The foundation of the cultic service: the blessing of Yahweh, and then 
The human prerequisite to acceptable cultic service: obedience to all that Yahweh has commanded. 

If you don’t have a life of worship, your exercise of liturgical worship is not acceptable to God. 

So, let’s begin with the context. 

The time: when Yahweh has fulfilled his promise to the ancestors, 
The location: when Israel is in the land, 
The significance: the triangle is complete. 

This is the context. “We haven’t done any of this along the way. We’ve been marching now for 40 years. Looking forward to the day when we can do this, and finally we will all be together.” I think actually that’s why he inserts chapter 27 right next, because we got to finish that picture by attaching the land to the whole enterprise. 

So, the nature of the celebration. It’s actually a very complicated process. Notice it starts and ends with the worshiper’s actions. There is a chiasm again. Worshiper’s actions at the beginning: you take, you put, you go, you shall come. Then at the end, you set it down, you prostrate yourself, you celebrate. (I got to change that word.) 

Then you’ve got the worshiper’s speech: and you shall say. And then the insertion of the creed. And then the priest’s action. And then the worshiper’s speech: and you shall respond and you shall say. And then the second speech. So, it. But notice the priest’s action. He takes it, he sets it down. And then it’s left to you to become the spokesperson, the spokesman of the message that’s about to be performed. The Levite, the priest, doesn’t preach the sermon. The worshiper preaches the sermon. 

This is what life is like in a covenant community where everybody is just saturated with Torah and the mindset of the Torah. It’s a colorful way of doing stuff. 

Let’s look at the nature of the celebration. The worshiper’s first set of actions, verses 2 to 3. Of course, the addressee here is the head of the household. You shall. When he talks about you, the head of the household comes, but he doesn’t come alone. We’ll learn later that there are others. But the instructions are, When you enter the land which the Lord your God gives you as an inheritance and you possess it and you live in it, and you take some of the first fruit, first of all, the produce of the ground. The you here is the worshiper, the head of the household. 

The occasion, it’s the harvest thanksgiving. Bringing the first fruits of the ground. It’s at the beginning. You haven’t harvested everything. But what you do? The first of everything, you take it to the central sanctuary and you say, “Praise God from whom all blessings flow.” And you haven’t even harvested yet. You haven’t harvested. This is just the beginning. You take it to the Lord and you say thank you. It is an offering, a gift. The first harvest. Elsewhere, we’ll have first sheaves. 

But of course, now you remember the Ode to the Land. And in this category, we would see the grain, a land of wheat and of barley and wheat and vines and fig trees and pomegranates. It’s a productive land. It is doing what it is supposed to do. And you are bringing this all and presenting it to the Lord at this festival. And you can hardly wait to get to the sanctuary to say thank you to God. We are in the land that He has given us. Here is proof that God has kept His promise. It’s an exciting moment. 

The first set of actions, the worshiper’s first declaration. (Well, this is simply giving you the outline of this.) The first declaration, the priest’s actions as we saw it here. “Select some first fruits from the harvest, put it in a basket, take it to the central sanctuary.” Don’t bring a truckload. It’s a token. It’s a sign. It’s symbolic. “Appear before the priest.” Then you have the worshipers’ first declaration, “With this gift I acknowledge to Yahweh your God, that I have entered the land He swore to our ancestors He would give us.” 

Notice the first-person singulars. This is not one of the three required festivals. It is not the community gathering. It is the household declaring to God individually, and they come on their own. We don’t know where everybody else is. It could be that the harvest in one part of the country is two weeks later than the other. You know, where it’s cooler, it doesn’t ripen as quickly. And so, and it depends on what your crops are. In some places they grow olives, and some places it’s grapes or whatever. It depends on what your crops are. So, this is not a scheduled (or you say scheduled) this is not a scheduled celebration. It’s at the moment you harvest the first stuff, be sure to give the Lord the first as your expression.

Notice, this is a formal declaration. “I declare this day before Yahweh.” That’s part of what he says. and then he embeds the actual quotation. This declaration repudiates at least three other interpretations of why Israel occupies the land. 

First, we possess the land because of our superior size and significance. Remember when we were in 7:7-16? Moses said, “It’s not because you are so great or so numerous that the Lord is giving you this land.” This is a reward. I mean, we are special. No, no, no, no. 

Second, it’s not: “We possess the land because of our superior talent.” Chapter eight, “See what my hands have done.” “Hey, we earned it. We done it.” 

And third, we possess the land because of our superior righteousness. It’s none of these. 

“I declare this day before Yahweh your God.” It’s something quite different from that which we would write ourselves. “That I have entered the land that Yahweh swore to our fathers to give us.” 

This is like the fruit that the scouts brought back. This is a symbolic gesture of what the land is like, and it’s proof that God has fulfilled His promise to us. It’s not about us. “I have entered the land that He swore to our fathers. God has kept His promise to the ancestors.” Which is really important, and we’ll come back and talk about this later again. 

This is not merely fertility religion. Think about it. This is the opposite of fertility religion. In fertility, religion, it’s all about the harvest. The big crops, big herds, big flocks, big families. But this is not about that. He starts the story way back. It’s about history, who we are as the people of God. 

And then the priest’s actions, verse four, “Then the priest will take the basket from your hand and set it before the altar of Yahweh your God.” Of course, Moses is talking to the Israelites, the altar of your God, 

As God’s representative, the priests receive it. As the Levitical priest’s representative, he then performs the rest of the actions. 

But what does the worshiper then say? The worshipers’ second declaration. The first one is short, “I declare this day to the Lord my God, Yahweh my God, I’ve entered the land which the Lord.” I didn’t get this from Egypt. I didn’t get this from Moab or Edom. We needed food when we were down there and we had to buy it. No, I didn’t get it from there. I got it from the land He gave me. 

And after the priest receives it, then you shall answer and say before God; this is to the face of God. It’s a one-on-one conversation. And look at what he says. This is gospel. “A wandering Aramean was my father.” Now, right off the bat, we have a problem. What does that mean? “A wandering Aramean.” And who is this Aramean? 

The word ‘wandering’—well, Aramean, the word is clear. ’Ǎrammî, a person from Aram up there. But is he talking about Abraham? Or is he talking about Jacob? Isaac’s wife is from Aram, Rebecca. Remember when they go to get his wife from Haran? Isaac’s wife, Isaac, wasn’t from there, but Abraham came from up there at Haran, And Jacob went for a while up there. And when he came back, the first thing he did, his first stopping point, was Shechem, just like Abraham’s had been.

So, I think it’s actually he is merging the two ancestors into a single figure. But wandering. This is ’Ǎrammî ’ōḇēḏ. Actually, it looks like this word comes from the root “to perish.” ’Ǎḇaḏ means to perish with an aleph at the beginning, to perish. So, some translations have a perishing Aramean he was. It doesn’t really make much sense in the context. Wandering, there is another similar kind of word that can mean this. 

I think it actually in context, actually means insecure, migratory. Until you have land, you’re at the mercy of your hosts. You’re never anything more than a ger, an alien, resident alien. Abraham didn’t have a place to bury his wife. And so, the long process in Genesis 23 of getting this cave. And as for Isaac, he never settled down anywhere. And Jacob himself, I mean, he spent 20 years up there, and then finally he came down after he got shafted by his father-in-law. That’s not a pleasant story up there. This is a precarious existence they had. 

And of course, it didn’t end when they came to the Promised Land. They come to the promised land and the Lord says, “This is all yours,” except they never get it. In fact, they went down to Egypt and sojourned there. That’s the verb, gerim, they were. And they were just a handful, 70. 

Oh, but there something happened. In Exodus chapter 1:7-8, where you have the actual narrative of this, there are seven expressions for what I call the “birthquake.” The last time the name Israel means the family of Israel is in the first verses of Exodus 1:8. Something happens by the time we get to the second paragraph in that chapter. We are now a nation, a great and mighty and populous nation. So great, in fact, that we are threatening Pharaoh. They’re going to take over, these people. Something is happening here that’s extraordinary. There we became a great mighty nation, a gôy, which is interesting. 

I said before, a gôy is typically a significant politically identifiable entity with a king at the head. We don’t have a king yet, but he uses the word here. 

When is Israel called a gôy? It’s fascinating. Very rarely. Often when they’re behaving like the goyim then. But here, in a strange context. But they are great. They were mighty. They were populous, of course. In what sense were they mighty? Well, mighty enough to threaten Pharaoh’s security. And he says, We’ve got to take action against them. 

So, what did the Egyptians do? They attacked the fertility issue. The population is just exploding. And that’s what God had predicted in Genesis 15. The Egyptians treated us harshly and humiliated us, imposing labor on us. When they saw that they were bursting out all over, they tried, first of all, to work the men harder, so that when they got home from the fields and the brick work, they’d have no energy left for the women and you’d have no conception. And no, it’s to cut off the birth rate. But of course, that didn’t help because the text tells us the harder they made them work, the more kids they had. Something is happening here. 

And so, he said, “Well, if attacking the men won’t work, will attack the women.” And so, the decree is out to go and kill the first, kill any boys that are born, we’re going to kill them. And so that’s what they were doing. It was a harsh time imposing on us. 

But he remembers not the schemes against the birthrate. He remembers the schemes against the laborers. We were slaves in Egypt. And we cried to Yahweh the God of our fathers. Well, I’d like to see that in the narratives. If you look, this is an optimistic picture. But if you look at Exodus 2, the end of the chapter, it’s fascinating. “Now, in the course of many days, the sons of Israel sighed because of the bondage, they cried out and their cry for help because of their bondage rose up to God. When God heard their groaning and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God saw the sons of Israel, and God knew.” That’s the end of the sentence, “And God knew.” 

Now, my translation is, “God took notice of them.” That’s not in the Hebrew. Some of your translations, “God knew”—what? What did He know? Any variations of the theme? 

Student: That He was concerned about them. 

Dr. Block: Oh, that He was concerned about them? Well, I mean, really. That’s all. “And God remembered.” Remembered what? Yeah. All right. Yeah. At the end of the verse. It ends with, “And God knew.” 

I have a completely different interpretation. Knew what? The time has come. The time has come. We’ve got the coincidence of the things He predicted to Abraham in Genesis 15, where He said, “Your descendants will be slaves in a foreign land and when the cup of the Amorites is full, I will bring them out and they’ll come out a rich people.” 

Now we have the coincidence of the two things that had to happen. The time has come. God knew this is the moment, we’re going forward. 

But the other thing to notice here in our text, “We cried to Yahweh.” The narrator doesn’t say that. He says, simply, “They cried out and God heard.” There isn’t a hint they were crying out to Yahweh. In fact, I am so pessimistic about their spiritual condition at this point, that’s why they fall so easily into the golden calf. That’s why when Abraham [recte Moses] says they’re going to say, “Who sent you?” What’s your God, what’s His name, What do you what can you tell us? They know nothing. That’s why none of the names except Jochebed, Moses’ mother. Amram and Jochebed Her name has Jo at the front. That looks like Yahweh. There are no personal names other than that one that have Yahweh as a feature of the name. And in the Bible, you can tell people’s faith by what they call the kids. If anything, they’re using only Elohim, “Here is your God who brought you out of Egypt.” Not “Here is Yahweh.” They don’t know and they don’t have a clue. 

So, when God rescues them from Israel [recte Egypt], He rescues a people who have zero qualification for redemption. There’s nothing within them that warrants His gracious attention other than the plan of redemption. God knew. God knew they were pious and ready to go. No, He didn’t, that’s not what He saw. But here of course, he’s prescribing this as a ritual. “We cried out to God.” And so, he gives it a positive spin, “The God of our fathers.” And Yahweh, they don’t even know His name. Moses didn’t know His name. “What’s Your name?” Yahweh heard our voice, our affliction, our toil. And this is what separates Yahweh from all the other gods. He hears. He sees. He acts. It’s an amazing text. 

But it doesn’t end here. “And Yahweh brought us out of Egypt.” The word is ‘exodus.’ We exited from Egypt. “He brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm and great deeds of terror with signs and wonders.” We’ve heard all this before, half a dozen times in the book. “And He has brought us into this place and gave us this land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Now look! I am bringing the first of the produce of the ground which you, O Yahweh, have given me.” This is a formal declaration. 

“You shall answer and say in the presence of Yahweh your God.” This is a narrative declaration. It tells a story. It’s like the answer to the child’s question in chapter six, What’s the point of these laws? And you don’t go and compare them with Hammurabi or anybody else, or structure or style. The point is the story, the Gospel. This is the gospel. Celebrating the gospel. 

And of course, we’ve heard this story before in Numbers chapter 20 you have a recitation of this. “Our fathers went down to Egypt and we lived in Egypt a long time. The Egyptians treated us and our fathers harshly. We cried to the Lord, He heard our voice. He sent an angel and He brought us out.” We’ve heard that before in Numbers. But now it’s built into the ritual. 

Well, the question we already addressed is who is the ancestor? I think it’s a conflation of Abraham and Isaac. 

What is the problem? They are wandering, they are vulnerable. It’s a precarious existence.

Uh, what else can we say? Here’s a map reminding us where we came. Except I’m not convinced of this map. We got a problem. There are two Ur’s in the Bible. This one is always identified as Chaldean Ur. We almost automatically associate it with Ur which is very prominent in ancient Near Eastern texts. It was a sacred city. And so, we always think Abraham came from here. A very prominent city down in Sumer, a Sumerian city at that time. And so, we have Abraham going all the way up here.

But then why does it say Ur of the Chaldees? Chaldea, Chaldea is a region way up here. On this map, Ur of Chaldeans. I mean, it’s a guess where that is. I actually think it was probably in this area rather than there, but it ain’t down there. 

So that when Abraham traveled from Ur, Chaldean Ur to Haran, which is right here. It’s right next door. It’s in the same general region. And he buries his father and whatever else and he stays with his father. It’s not like they made this long journey and they got stuck up there. No. Until his father dies, he has family responsibilities. But as soon as his father has been buried and taken care of - honor your father and your mother - then he’s free to go and he sets off down here. But it’s a journey. He comes down here and then he goes to Egypt and then he comes back. 

And if we’re thinking in terms of Jacob’s travels, this is a slightly different map. You have Jacob going up there to Haran. He comes back from Haran. He ends his life in Egypt, and you wonder what is going to happen to these guys. All the promises are gone. I mean, we have no home. This world is not my home; I’m just a-passing through. But the Lord has promised us. 

You know, at first Abraham is frustrated with the first anchor promise, “You shall have many kids.” “Well, you can’t even give me one.” Chapter 15, well, he never had the land, and then he comes back and is buried, given a royal Egyptian funeral, which is really interesting. 

So, what are the essential elements of Israel’s story? 

The vulnerable, marginalized ancestor. 
The Israelites’ sojourn and growth in Egypt. 
The Israelites’ oppression and slavery. 
The Israelites cry for attention, oy vey, we hurt! 
The Israelites’ rescue by Yahweh. 
Their present security and well-being. 

God has kept His promise, every one of them. Every one of them. He said this would happen, and it’s exactly according to script. 

And I am here now bringing this food not as a matter of a fertility cult, to get more food. No. It gives me an occasion to tell the story of where we came from. This is not cyclical religion. Fertility religion is all about the four seasons, and every year you go through the same motions. No. The harvest is an occasion to praise God for our salvation. “Thank you, Lord, for saving my soul.” It’s not, “Thank you only for giving me this food.” It’s a magnificent story. 

What’s missing in this statement? This is the gospel according to Moses. But remarkably, there’s no reference here to the Torah. And on those grounds, critical scholars will argue, von Rad and others, that the Sinai episodes are late insertions into the story. The original creed knew nothing about Sinai. Later authors invented that and inserted it. This is the problem. 

But absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. This is shorthand. He’s telling a personal story. By the time they came out of Egypt, there’s no longer a wandering Aramean. He’s talking about the origin of the journey and the goal of the journey, because when they left Egypt, they were headed for home. From Egypt to home. 

And of course, he’s been, Moses has been preaching all the way through, and the Torah is implied everywhere. In fact, we will see how this author affirms his fidelity to the Torah as he is worshiping. 

Well, the triangle is fully functional. That’s the worshipers’ second declaration. This is Israel’s creed. Whenever they come with the first fruits, you don’t have to make up a new sermon. It’s, “Tell me the old, old story.” 

You know, we think we have to be creative. We get bored with repetition. But that’s why we forget. That’s why the anchor truths are lost. And it becomes more about showing people how creative we can make worship rather than how substantively true. 

The worshiper’s final set of actions, 10 to 11. “Look, I brought the produce of the ground, which you, O Lord, have given me. And you shall set it down before the Lord and worship before.” This is prostrate. This is physical homage. 

Incidentally, something we never do in church. We never worship. At least not in our church. If by worship we mean what the Hebrew and the Greek words represent. We do not have to bow down and adoration and submission and homage. 

“And you and the Levite who is with you, you may celebrate the good that the Lord your God has granted you.” We are there. We’ve arrived. This land is your land. This land is my land. And it’s a gift from God.

Well, lots of lessons on worship here. 

True worship focuses on Yahweh. 
True worship presupposes daily practical righteousness. 
Truly worshipful people are thankful people. 
The nature of true worship is not determined by the culture in which we live or our own imagination, but by the object of worship and the storied drama he creates. 

That’s it. 

Well, then we come to the last few verses. There’s an addendum to it. “When you finished paying that tithe, the title of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing.” This is no longer first fruits; it’s a tithing celebration. “When you finish paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, the widow so they may eat within your towns, then you shall say before Yahweh your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, the widow, according to all Your command that You have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of Your commands, nor have I forgotten them.’” 

Now, of course, to forget doesn’t mean amnesia. Again, I have not excluded, intentionally excluded, any of them. I have taken them all into account in my life. 

“I haven’t eaten any of the tithe while I was in mourning, I haven’t removed any of it while I was unclean,” I haven’t defiled it, “I haven’t offered any of it to the dead.” This is the big seduction. Canaanite religion is ancestor worship and you can get sucked into it. This is a private thing. This is not one of those annual festivals which are not about ancestor worship. This one is a response to ancestor worship. It is to remind us that we are not dependent on the spirits of our ancestors for our well-being. Yahweh alone. “I have obeyed the voice of my God,” Or we should say, listened to, “I have done according to all that you’ve commanded me.” 

And then he ends with a beautiful prayer. He recognizes, “Yes, this is the sanctuary, the house of God.” But “look down from your holy habitation from heaven, bless your people Israel and the ground that you have given us, as you swore to our fathers, a land flowing with money, with milk and honey.” The combination is money - milk and honey. 

Well, this is another ritual about offering the products of the land. Structurally, there’s a temporal protasis when, followed by the apodosis, what. Stylistically it’s dominated by a prescribed direct speech, “Then you shall say, this is what you shall say.” 

Functionally, it challenges the worshiper to demonstrate concern for Levites and aliens. “The tithe you give to them.” And I think we should imagine that not necessarily everybody is this third-year tithe for the Levites that you put into the local warehouse, not everybody’s having the same third year because there’s no beginning or a starting point. Presumably, it is based on the year when you start farming. When you establish your household, every third year. That means that over time those warehouses are stocked all the time. If you’re doing what you’re supposed. It’s not like in one year you put enough in there for three years; it would perish. But let’s be a little bit more realistic 

Theologically, it celebrates Israel occupation of the land Yahweh gave them in fulfillment of the oath, “flowing with milk and honey.”

Geographically, it’s performed before Yahweh in the presence of the Lord. 

But the shift is in focus is interesting. Whereas the speech is verses 3 and 5 to 10, celebrated the Lord’s fidelity to Israel, in this case, it’s the worshipers’ testimony to fidelity to Yahweh. The covenant is working both ways. And he’s not bragging. If he were bragging, you wouldn’t have the sudden shift in the last one. The prayer is not about himself. 

Together, these rituals represent two sides of the coin of covenant relationship, expressing verbally the appropriate response of the vassal to the blessings given by the suzerain: thanksgiving for the privilege and scrupulous fulfillment of his obligations. 

His Code of Honor 

I’ve removed the sacred portion from my house, set it apart for God.
I’ve given it away to the Levite. 
I’ve not transgressed. 
I’ve not forgotten them. 
I have not eaten while in mourning. 
I’ve not removed any of it while unclean. 

How many of you got? One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Eight, there’s an extra. A comprehensive one: I’ve listened to God. 

And I think again, let’s not just have obeyed here. You cut and paste. This is what happens. “I’ve listened to the voice of God. I’ve heard His reminders of the Gospel. And I’ve heard His charges of what my obligations; I have done according to all you’ve commanded.” 

But in the prayer, what’s really amazing to me is not only he recognizes that God is in heaven, but his prayer is for the community. Did you see this? “Look down from heaven.” He is by himself, but he doesn’t say, “And bless me and bless the ground that you have given me as you swore to our fathers.”

No, “…bless your people Israel.” He’s looking beyond himself to the community. It’s not about him. His identity is found in the group, and in their well-being. That’s his joy. It’s a magnificent lesson. 

Devotion to God is demonstrated not by lip service, but by concrete acts of obedience. 

(Here’s a lesson on worship.) 

God’s people are distinguished by the care they take of the marginalized. 
Although for believers, all life is sacred, in particular sense, the boundaries between sacred and the profane must be scrupulously. I’ve set apart that which is dedicated to God.
The liturgy recognizes a proper balance between the individual and the community, and 
It recognizes the symbiotic relationship between faith and obedience. Faith without works is dead. Works without faith is legalism, and it doesn’t get you anywhere. You cannot earn the favor of God. 

I love this passage. I love this passage. It’s a magnificent text for a Thanksgiving harvest festival. And those of you who are involved in churches. We did this once in Singapore. Was it Singapore or Hong Kong? It was Singapore. We did this at a harvest festival. And the whole harvest scenario, we try to make this come alive for us and give opportunities for people to express their faith and their generosity and their charity. That’s a very moving service. Why can’t we do that? 

Let’s translate this into Christian terms. I’ve done this a couple of times with the creedal statements. I think we can do that here, too. Make this an occasion, a liturgy, to add interest and spice, and I think a smile to God’s face as He sees us celebrate. What a gift. The land, everything we are and have is a gift. 

What’s the name of the guy who wrote The Gift? I read it when I was doing Galatians, I read it, and all the way through he talks about the gift as a unique contribution of Pauline theology. It will come to me. You can Google it. 

And as I was reading this, I was hearing Deuteronomy. He was writing about the New Testament; I was hearing Deuteronomy everywhere. But then you go to his index at the back of the book, and there’s a long index of pages of Second Temple Judaism texts. One page of First Testament texts. He knows Judaism well but he doesn’t catch the echoes of Moses. His ears are deaf to the voice of Moses. I was so sad all the way through The Gift. This is the Torah. 

Student: John Barclay?

Dr. Block: John Barclay, that’s it. It’s a great book. It’ll warm your heart and nourish your soul. But it disappointed me because it reminded me that Paul is so Mosaic, and he doesn’t get it. 

We’ve dug these ditches between the Testaments so wide and so deep, we don’t see it when there are bridges. We don’t allow bridges. Our point is—so often people ask me, “Well, then what’s new in the New Testament?” And I say, “Less than you think.” Why does it have to be all new? It’s all one story. That is the climax of this. And this provides the vocabulary, the theological vocabulary to interpret that. But we’ve lost it. That’s tragic. 

But with that, I’m done. You’re done. We’re all done. Thanks be to the Lord for sustaining us, for sustaining us. It’s been a magnificent day with you again. I hope there is a measure of that in your heart as well.