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Prayer Time

When do we pray for God to show us new obligations? Perhaps it is time to make such a request to God. Let us pray daily with George Matheson, “Make me a captive, Lord, / and then I shall be free.”

How the Drama Develops NUMBERS 22—DEUTERONOMY 5

We need at times to stop long enough to remember where we have come from, what promises we have made (whether to ourselves, to others, or to God), and to see where we are now. The Book of Deuteronomy fulfills that function for the people of Israel.

Deuteronomy comes to us as a series of addresses by Moses to the nation as they camp in Moab before entering the land toward which they have been headed for a whole generation. It is a farewell address for Moses; he knows he will not be able to accompany the people into their divine inheritance. Now he speaks to the new generation. He recognizes they may not know all that has transpired, or even if they do, they may not recognize the gravity of the decisions made by their parents’ generation.

So he recalls all that happened after the people left Sinai, after the giving of the Law. It’s interesting to see that, whereas Numbers says God instructed Moses to select leaders from each of the twelve tribes to serve as an exploration committee (Numbers 13:1-16), Moses is reported here as saying the people came to him and suggested that men be sent ahead to spy out the land (Deuteronomy 1:22). Perhaps it is that the people made such a request, and that the specific methodology of twelve persons, one from each tribe, came as insight from God.

In any event, the bad news is the committee voted, ten to two, to retreat from their day of opportunity. As a result, the children who at that time did not know right from wrong (1:39) are the ones who will now enter the land.

But the marvel is this: God continued to watch over the recalcitrant people who had, for all practical purposes, rejected their inheritance. Moses recalls victories over King Sihon and King Og and how he urged Joshua to move on without fear. Then Moses becomes an evangelist as he pleads with his people to be obedient to God’s Law. It is this obedience that will cause the other nations to see their wisdom and to acknowledge the wonder of God’s Law (4:6-8). This reminds us that the Israelites were a chosen people—not in the sense of enjoying special favors, though surely they were promised the blessing of God, but particularly in that they were to be a witness to the other nations of humankind.

And because their role is so crucial, God is severely demanding of them. “For the LORD your God is a devouring fire, a jealous God” (4:24). This is the quality of high love—jealous not because of a lack in the one who is jealous but because that one despises anything that might frustrate the fulfillment of the one who is beloved. Tough love indeed!

I think it is this mood that provides the setting, then, for the restating of the Ten Commandments. The commandments are to be a way of life for people in pilgrimage. If they are restrictive, it is only so that life can be made more fulfilling. And as in the presentation in Exodus, these are commandments from the One who has brought the people “out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery” (5:6). It is on this basis that they “shall have no other gods” (5:7) and that the moral structure of their society is ordered.