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The Book of Deuteronomy Is an Easily Overlooked Book of the Bible. It Has a Funny Name and It Is Filled with Complicated Legal Formulas

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The Book of Deuteronomy Is an Easily Overlooked Book of the Bible. It Has a Funny Name and It Is Filled with Complicated Legal Formulas The book of Deuteronomy is an easily overlooked book of the bible. It has a funny name and it is filled with complicated legal formulas. But Deuteronomy is about nothing less than the laws of history that dictate the rising and falling of great nations. Deuteronomy is about how the world works. Let me explain. Deuteronomy is situated at a pivot point of the history of the people of God. Everything is about to change for them. God delivered them from slavery in Egypt, where work was exalted and workers were degraded. As a liberated people they were traveling by stages toward a promised land, a place where they might build for themselves something new, a society where they could be free, where they could prosper, where there might be abundance. And just as they were poised to enter that land, just before they begin the task of building a society—that is where the events of the book of Deuteronomy occur. The book of Exodus spans 1,000 years or more, the book of numbers covers 40 years—the book of Deuteronomy, it recounts a single day. Deuteronomy occurs on one single day during which God forms a contract with the people of Israel. That’s what the book of Deuteronomy is—the forming of a contract between the people and God. The parties are defined, the terms are laid out, and the parties agree. A covenant is formed as the people prepare to form a new society. A binding agreement is made, in force for all time, over how that society is to function. Every aspect of social life is covered in minute detail, but the overall force of the contract is clear—if the nation does good, then good things will come to them. But if the nation does bad things, then bad things will come to them. The good that comes to those who do good, it will be beyond what is expected, beyond what can be accounted for with cold reason. And the bad that comes to those who do bad, it will be beyond what is expected, beyond what can be accounted for with cold reason. That is the perspective of the book of Deuteronomy; and it is so important that the Ten Commandments are even changed in order to reflect it. As a small aside, the Ten Commandments appear in two places in the Bible: once in the book of Exodus, and again here in the book of Deuteronomy. And they are not the same. They’re very similar, but they are not the same. The Fourth commandment: honor the sabbath and keep it holy. In the book of Exodus, it says we are to honor the Sabbath because God created the heavens and the earth in six days and rested on the seventh day. This is the Fourth Commandment in the book of Deuteronomy: Observe the sabbath day and keep it holy, as the Lord your God commanded you. For six days you shall labour and do all your work. But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, or your son or your daughter, or your male or female servants, or your ox or your donkey, or any of your livestock, or the resident alien in your towns, so that your male and female servants may rest as well as you. Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and the Lord your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm; therefore the Lord your God commanded you to keep the sabbath day. That is not what it says in the book of Exodus. There is no mention of the seven days of creation. No, in the book of Deuteronomy, the people are to honor the sabbath, in order to build a nation of justice. God delivered the people from slavery in order that they might build a just nation. And no nation so founded can have any place for slavery. None of the people of Israel can be forced to work ceaselessly; after all, God didn’t free them from Egyptian chains just to watch them slap chains on one another. The people would be truly free, and that freedom was codified in an absolute right to rest. But that protection from ceaseless toil didn’t stop with just the people of Israel. This contract between God and the people stipulates that neither foreigners nor anyone else can be forced to work endlessly either. Because God did not free the people from slavery to watch them turn around and build their nation through oppression. Even animals were protected. That was what the new nation was to be like, a place free from the horrors of slavery, where workers are considered more important that the work they do. It’s a matter of justice. The book of Deuteronomy, it is an agreement, a contract, a covenant. If the people built a nation where the lost and least could find refuge, where foreigners and refugees could find rest and decent treatment, where even the animals would be given dignity, then God would bless them and they would prosper. But if they did not, if they fell into exploitative practices, then the well would run dry. God would withdraw God’s blessings from them and the good times they had come to enjoy would turn bad. That is justice. If they did good things, good things would come to them. If they did bad things, bad things would come to them. It will be beyond what is expected, beyond what can be accounted for by cold reason. That is the law of the living God. It is a law of history, revealed just as the people began the task of building a new nation. And this law of history, the justice of God, this is not limited only to the people of Israel thousands of years ago. This applies to us as Christians, too. In the ministry of Jesus, when Jesus was quoting the law of God, he was almost always quoting from Deuteronomy. Almost always he was quoting from the law that stipulates that the blessings of God for a society are contingent upon that society being just. And as Jesus himself said, he didn’t come to abolish the law but to fulfill it; indeed not one letter, not one stroke of one letter of the law of God will ever change. The Law of God was revealed for all time, irrevocable, just as the law of gravity is irrevocable. That’s just how things work. If a society is just, it will prosper. If a society is unjust, it will fall apart. That’s just how it works. Justice, beyond what is expected, beyond what can be accounted for by cold reason. The basic contract laid out in the book of Deuteronomy holds force today for Christians as well. It holds force on this nation as it does on every nation. In a nation like ours, that has long known prosperity, God will not long abide the fact that people must work two, three, or four jobs simply to be able to afford to live; never able to take a day’s rest. A so-called Christian nation making a mockery of the sabbath. It is wrong. God did not bless this nation with liberty to watch us turn around and bind the poor in economic chains. In a nation like ours, that has always been a nation of immigrants, God will not long abide the fact that refugees and asylum seekers and people plain old seeking a better life are treated as criminals. God did not bless the immigrants of one generation just to watch them turn around and slam the door in the face of the next generation. That is the Law of God was revealed for all time, irrevocable, just as the law of gravity is irrevocable. If a society is unjust, it will fall apart. That’s just how things work. But the opposite is true, too. If a society is just, it if shares bread with the hungry, and brings the homeless poor into housing, then it shall prosper. If a society is just, if it breaks the yoke of bondage for those who must toil without end to survive, if it honors the sabbath and glorifies the God of liberation by ensuring that all people have dignified rest, then that nation shall prosper. It can be easy to feel despair in these days; easy to feel that there is too much to do on too many fronts. Easy to feel overwhelmed. But remember, as you seek to do good in the world: those who do good, and seek to do good, they will find their work will prosper beyond what is expected, beyond what can be accounted for with cold reason. That is a law of God. And from the very mouth of Christ, hear this. Not one letter, not one stroke of one letter of the law of God will ever change. The Law of God was revealed for all time, irrevocable, just as the law of gravity is irrevocable. That’s just how it works. Thank God. .
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