Deuteronomy 30:15-20 (New International Version, ©2010)
15 See, I set before you today life and prosperity, death and destruction. 16 For I command you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in obedience to him, and to keep his commands, decrees and laws; then you will live and increase, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land you are entering to possess.
17 But if your heart turns away and you are not obedient, and if you are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, 18 I declare to you this day that you will certainly be destroyed. You will not live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to enter and possess.
19 This day I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live 20 and that you may love the LORD your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
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Life and prosperity, death and destruction v15
Life and death, blessings and curses v19
It is these two doublets which make this passage familiar to many Bible readers. Structurally, a doublet is intended to be read as a whole. That is, we only comprehend the fullness of the meaning intended by holding both parts together. The repetition adds to the meaning, nuances it.
Life is presented here as more than the simple act of breathing. It includes prosperity and blessings.
Death is more than the cessation of a heart beat; it includes destruction and curses.
Therefore in the midst of life, we can be shadowed by death in the destruction and curses we experience in our living. We can taste death, experience death long before we are six feet under. While we are dying, we can experience blessings in our relationships with God.
At this point in Deuteronomy (the name means the Second -deutero- giving of the Law - nomos.) In this book Moses recaps all that YHWH has taught before Israel enters the promised land. Moses is summing things up for the people and possibly for himself. (His death occurs in chapter 34).
This passage is one of those summaries. Choose life - be obedient to your God, walk in the commandments - and you will continue to experience the prosperity of your land. Choose death - turn away from your God, live in unrighteousness - and you will lose your land. Thus, Moses connects the possession of the land with the behavior of the people.
TECHNICAL NOTES: Skip this if you have no interest.
It is believed by biblical scholars that Deuteronomy was edited to its final form after Israels return from exile in about 450 BC. You can imagine that the people of Israel when they were sitting in Babylon and other countries in exile would raise the question of why they had lost the land that God had promised to them and their ancestors. This promise is key. Did they lose the land because YHWH was a weak God and unable to deliver on the promise, or did they lose the land because of their behavior. (there may have been other options but we'll keep it simple). This passage clearly points to a consensus answer that Israel lost the land because of their failure to choose YHWH - to choose life. It was Israel's fault, not YHWH's.
Here are some thoughts for pondering.
Choosing God: Are humans able to do this on their own, or are we only able to choose for God because God first chose for us? Remember YHWH telling Moses, "You will be my people and I will be your God" Is 'human choosing' really only choosing to walk away from this relationship with God?
Are we able to choose life? Are we able always and faithfully to choose the righteous way, to turn away from the path of destruction? Is it possible that humans want to choose life, but can't all the time? Think about Adam and Eve in the garden.
God has gifted us with life. Does God desire that we live in that life......or demand that we live in that life? Could it be both?
Are humans able to do this on their own, or are we only able to choose for God because God first chose for us?
ReplyDeleteThis is an important question... While I don't have the answer I beleive that because God has already chosen us that no, we can not do this on our own... Choosing to walk away from this relationship with God is in our hands though. I think that we are not able to choose life faithfully, always. We are sinners, we will sin again and again... but we have the choice after we sin to choose life, to "get right" with God and move forward in our relationship with the Lord. We have been given free will and our own minds and the ability to think... and to doubt. It is in our nature as human beings (in my opinion) to doubt, to question things. It's how we learn and progress but it's also the way we learn to move away from the Lord. Rene Descartes (philospher)says the reason we doubt the truth is that we are incomplete in our ability to recognize the truth. I would agree with that because we can not fully comprehend the perfection that is the Lord we have a tendency to stray i suppose, and that ability to doubt and to try to reason logically will ultimately tug at our FAITH.
God has gifted us with life. Does God desire that we live in that life......or demand that we live in that life? Could it be both?
BOTH... :)
Certainly the Lutheran answer to the question of who chooses is God chooses first. Or, we would say, God comes down (to Abraham, Moses, and of course in Jesus). Theologian Karl Barth called God the 'totally other' - so beyond our comprehension that if God had not revealed Godself to humankind we would never have figured it all out.
ReplyDeleteNot that we have it all figured out by any stretch. Ergo the call to 'humble yourself before God.'
Luther argues in "Bondage of the Will" that we in fact do not have free will to choose God. Our only choice is to walk away from the gift of life that God offers. I will have to re-read Luther's argument to say more about that, but this perspective has lead Lutherans to speak of faith as a gift, not an act of will. Look at the Small Catechism and the article on the Holy Spirit. "I believe that I cannot by my own understanding or strength believe in Jesus Christ...but the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true faith....." I always picture God as reaching out to us, again and again, inviting us in to his embrace.
We use our ability to think to engage this wonderful God who created us. Of course it leads us down some wayward paths, although I think it is more our desires (lusts, greed, etc) that drive us away from God. So our faith journey is a drunkard's path - weaving left and right as we obey and fall away, follow and then go our own way. Often we think we are faithfully following only to find ourselves at a dead end.
Which, for me leads to Luther's other helpful insight: "that in which you put your trust is your God." (Luther's Large Catechism,1st commandment) Belief is primarily trust, not knowing, and that trust is most tested when things are least clear.