Deuteronomy 8 - Beware Self-Glorification

Deuteronomy 8 seems to be centered around the idea of thankfulness.  It's been quite the build-up as we get closer and closer to Israel's entrance into the Promised Land.  In Deuteronomy we find God's final words, His last attempt to prepare the Israelites for life in their land of reward.  In Chapter 8 God is essentially saying to His people, don't forget Me, don't forget why you're here, don't credit yourselves for this land that is now your home.  The last statement is what really spoke to me.  Deuteronomy 8:17 says, "Lest thou shouldst say in thy heart: My own might, and the strength of my own hand, have achieved all these things for me."  What a profound and relevant verse!  Pride is the great sin, and the one most difficult to self-diagnose.  It's such a common human weakness to take personal credit for the good things in our life.  Even before the Israelites entered the Promised Land, God knew they would be overcome with pride once there and would forget God and praise only themselves for the good things in their lives.  And so it is today, as we, with society's approval, often give ourselves the most congratulatory praise for "our" achievements.  We disregard God and revel in our own prideful self-contentment.  Forgetting God could very well be one of the worst things we could do, for imagine giving a child everything and having that child not even acknowledge you for an instant and instead praising himself.  Instead, God loves humility.  Just as we would love that child to show us a humble gratitude.  The Israelites would go on to forget how to be humble and it took God Himself in the Person of Jesus Christ to remind all of humanity once again what humility is in the most awe-inspiring way possible.

Deuteronomy 7 - A Plan Divine

In Deuteronomy 7 we read of what's to come.  The Israelites are nearing their inevitable entrance into the Promised Land, which means conflict with the Canaanites, as well as other peoples living in the region.  This historical event is often used by detractors as justification for their unbelief.  How could God allow such slaughter, they ask.  It may seem at first that what is being done by God is nothing more than outright murder and destruction of an innocent people.  Some say that they can't believe in a God that would do such a thing, allowing innocent women and children to perish.  But there are problems with reducing the conflict with the Canaanites to such a simplistic moral judgment.  The situation is much more complicated than that.  For starters, we weren't there to know the details of what transpired.  We are told bits and pieces of how the Canaanites lived, and it wasn't according to either God's Law or Natural Law.  We don't even know what, if any, dealings the Canaanites may have had with God.  All we know is that God was displeased with them.  We also know that God had chosen the Israelites and had hoped they would be as a shining example of His Goodness by their behavior on earth.  Their reward for following His commands was the land of Canaan, the Promised Land.  Lessons abound in both God's dealings with the Canaanites and with the Israelites.  What to do in the latter's case, what not to do in the former's.  And, really, at the end of it all, we can't pretend to know God's Divine Plan.  Why such a horrible thing had to happen is beyond us.  What is true, though, is that the violence and generality of the conflict tends to get talked up a great deal more than the passages that "soften the blow."  There are of course violent passages that describe the slaughter and destruction of the Canaanites, the lack of mercy to be shown them.  It was a thing of violence, no doubt.  And the generalities are always cited.  That all the women and children were to be killed, that no one would be left alive.  Closer examination reveals a different sort of conflict, though.  Below is a sampling of verses that seem to fly in the face of those who would have God declare that everyone be destroyed:

"And when the Lord thy God shall deliver [the Promised Land] into thy hands, thou shalt slay all that are therein of the male sex, with the edge of the sword,
Excepting women and children, cattle and other things, that are in the city." (Deuteronomy 20:13-14)

"If thou go out to fight against thy enemies, and the Lord thy God deliver them into thy hand, and thou lead them away captives,
And seest in the number of the captives a beautiful woman, and lovest her, and wilt have her to wife,
Thou shalt bring her into thy house: and she shall shave her hair, and pare her nails,
And shall put off the raiment, wherein she was taken: and shall remain in thy house, and mourn for her father and mother one month: and after that thou shalt go in unto her, and shalt sleep with her, and she shall be thy wife." (Deuteronomy 21:10-13)

The point being that the real situation was much more nuanced.  An entire people were not totally obliterated.  They were defeated, yes, and their defeat was their punishment, and the reasons for their punishment cannot be fully understood by us, though partially.  In the midst of the carnage were men acting or not acting in accordance with God's Law.  The destruction would be great, which is why we find such hard-to-take passages describing the death that would await the Canaanites.  But mercy could be found in individual circumstances, and it pleased God.  A Canaanite woman could very well find herself in God's favor as a new member of His chosen people.  And mercy could be found in the midst of the carnage.  If the Canaanite culture of idolatry and hedonism were allowed to endure, it would infect the Israelites without a doubt.  The action had to be severe.

Deuteronomy 5-6: "Sleeping and Rising"

"And these words which I command thee this day, shall be in thy heart.
And thou shalt tell them to thy children, and thou shalt meditate upon them, sitting in thy house, and walking on thy journey, sleeping and rising." (Deuteronomy 6:6-7)

I found this particular passage rather profound.  Following Chapter 5 in which the Ten Commandments are reiterated, God actually stresses here that we are to have these "words" (the sacred commands) on our hearts even as we sleep!  Now, the first thought one might have is, that is impossible.  We can't control what we think about in our sleep!  Is God asking for the impossible here?  Or, perhaps we ought to analyze a bit further what this statement could imply.  Most of us believe that, to an extent, we can control what runs through our minds as we slumber.  Usually our dreams consist of interpretations of actions or thoughts we've experienced throughout the day.  What we've been doing, what we've been thinking about, will many times end up in our nocturnal musings.  If we never think about God throughout the day, or never do anything in His honor, chances are pretty slim that He will make an appearance in our dreams.  However, if we constantly pray to Him, constantly do things to honor Him, constantly have Him on our minds, chances are high that our dreams will be divinely turned.  This I believe (as well as most commentators) is what is implied in Deuteronomy 6:7.  God has not issued these sacred Commandments to be ignored or only thought of from time to time.  They are to be at the forefront of our minds always.  The Jews understood this and so would actually go to great lengths to never forget these commands -- they would attach them to their foreheads!  While I don't think such a step is necessary, we can learn from their zeal.  Many Christians think of God only once a week, at church on Sunday.  Six days a week God is far from our minds as we are consumed with work, family, TV, sleep, and other various activities.  Then on Sunday we suddenly turn our minds to God, reunite with Him, act like we've never forgotten Him, when in fact for six days we have.  From this verse in Deuteronomy I have learned my own lesson.  God needs to be placed back in His proper position at the top of my priorities.  A quick word to the original hearers, the Israelites, again echoes through the ages to land upon the ears of an unworthy follower, and its power, its profundity, is no less than on that day thousands of years ago.  It moves, it inspires just the same.

*I have been away for a while, but that is because I've been letting other, less important things run my life.  I hope that God's words in Deuteronomy 6 leave a lasting impression.  If so, I can resume my reading of the Word and plow straight ahead!