Decalogue, part 2 (Deuteronomy 12)

Scripture: Deuteronomy 12 (especially verses 1-7)

If you missed the previous post, you missed the explanation of what we're doing in the middle of Deuteronomy. But it's pretty simple: in the heart of the book, as Moses gives Isreal the Law again to prepare them for the promised land, he gives commands that develop and clarify each of the Ten Commandments, in order. So we'll read through a section at a time, a Commandment at a time. Today, the second:

You shall not make for yourself an image in the form of anything in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the waters below.

Decalogue, part 1 (Deuteronomy 6-11)

Scripture: Deuteronomy 11 (especially verses 13-17, and also chapters 6-10)

If you've been reading through Deuteronomy with me, you'll notice something's different. As the title suggests, we're changing up the structure of working through the book. This simply reflects the change in the text itself; we're transitioning from Moses' introductory exhortations to his recapitulation of God's law. 

One fascinating observation, made by Walton and Hill in their textbook Old Testament Today, is that Moses' entire presentation, covering chapters 6 to 26, is a detailed exposition of the Ten Commandments (also called the Decalogue)! That all of the law really serves to further these ten core instructions.

Deuteronomy 10-- The Lord is his inheritance

Scripture: Deuteronomy 10:1-9 (especially verses 6-9)

Returning from our reflection on God's command to destroy, let's recap where we are in Deuteronomy: 

Moses is giving his final discourse to Israel before he dies and they enter the promised land. In chapters 1-3, Moses recounted Israel's recent history in the wilderness. Now, in chapters 4-11, he gives warnings and exhortations for them once they've entered the land. Next time we'll look at the second half of chapter ten and at chapter 11, and we'll see some beautiful summaries of all these final encouragements. 

But first, an interesting aside on the tribe of Levi...

Deuteronomy 9-- The wickedness of these nations

Scripture: Deuteronomy 9 (especially verses 4-6)

Two chapters ago, we were confronted with God's command for Israel to destroy all the inhabitants of the promised land. I explained one half of "why this is okay," which was that God issued the command, it was in a unique way that is not common to history and thus not setting a precedent for religious violence, and that God can do whatever He wants. But this still seems to leave one glaring question... why did God command Israel to wipe out whole towns and tribes?