Posts

Blessings & Curses - Deuteronomy 28

Chapter 28 is VERY long and honestly I was dreading it, but after reading it, I really like it. In this chapter, Moses spells out again how Israel will be blessed by God if they are obedient and how they will be “cursed” if they are disobedient. Before getting into it, TB pointed out a couple of key points that I thought were interesting and that I didn’t even realize until he said it. This contrast is between the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic Covenant. He said that with the Abrahamic covenant, it was only one way, a promised made by God to Abraham where the only condition was that Abraham accept it, he didn’t have to do anything else, these were all promised blessings that came with no strings attached. I hadn’t realized that before. Conversely, the Mosaic covenant was a two way promise between God and the Israelite people, and there were strings attached. Additionally, it wasn’t the kind of contract where if Israel breached it by being disobedient, they were just let out of the c...
Post a Comment
Read more

Uncut Stones - Deuteronomy 26 & 27

Chapter 26 is basically just Moses telling Israel that they are to sacrifice their first fruits when they settle in the land of Canaan and then to pay their tithing and they covenant with God to do all the things that He commanded them. The covenant that Moses puts them under is “this day the Lord thy God hath commanded thee to do these statutes and judgments: thou shalt therefore keep and do them with all thine heart, and with all thy soul. Thou hast avouch the Lord this day to be thy God, and to walk in his ways, and to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and to hearken unto his voice: And the Lord hath avouch thee this day to be his peculiar people, as he hath promised thee, and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments; and to make thee high above all nations which he hath made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and that thou mayest be an holy people unto the Lord thy God,.” That was long, but the IM explains, “After briefly reminding Israel of God...
Post a Comment
Read more

Dragging - Deuteronomy 25

I’m not going to lie, Deuteronomy is starting to drag and we still have 9 chapters to go but if I keep on trucking, I should be done with the Torah in the next two weeks. I started the Old Testament in January 2022, meaning that I’ve been in the Torah for over 4 years. Granted I’ve had some serious set backs and taken time off but that’s a long time and I’m excited to move on. Anyway, the first 3 verses of chapter 25 talks about punishment for a criminal which was “forty stripes.” TB says that this is in contrast to the usual 100 stripes that the surrounding pagan communities were doing demonstrating that the God of Israel was more merciful than those other surrounding gods. TB also notes that this was because God wanted to ensure correction, not punishment and this was the amount of whipping that was deemed adequate for that. He said that any more than that would more likely permanently harm the person thus limiting his ability to support himself, and at that level of physical punishm...
Post a Comment
Read more

Coats - Deuteronomy 24

The first 5 verses of chapter 24 pertain to divorce. TB said that while there is no law allowing for divorce in the Torah, it’s mentioned so frequently that it’s clear that it was common enough in Hebrew society. First is says that if a man is displeased with his wife, he can give her a ‘bill of divorcement” and let her leave and marry another man. I have mixed feelings on this, especially considering that I am divorced myself. Back then, I’m sure that it was devastating to have your husband divorce you, just like it is today. But there was probably the added difficulty of shame and limited options of remarriage, but then again maybe not, I really don’t know. But on the other hand, if a man is tired of his wife and doesn’t want her anymore, it seems more likely that he’ll abuse her if he can’t divorce her, so in that case it’s best that she be allowed to leave and marry someone else. I don’t know it’s complicated, but I know for sure that having your husband throw you away is devastati...
Post a Comment
Read more

Citizenry - Deuteronomy 23

The first several verses of chapter 23 have to do with the “congregation of the Lord” which according to the IM and TB, has to do with who can participate in which levels of government. There was extensive lecture and a big section in the IM that goes through who exactly is allowed to do what and participate in which levels of government, but I’m not going to go through all that because frankly I don’t understand it all and don’t really care that much. There are a few points that I think are worth pointing out though. First is that there didn’t seem to be any prohibition on who could become a believer and accepted as an Israelite by belief and there were even levels of participation depending on how involved the person who wasn’t born an Israelite wants to be. For instance, if a man wants to be a believer but doesn’t want to get circumcised, then there was a level to which that man could participate, etc. The second point that I think is important to bring up is that Ruth was a Moabi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Women - Deuteronomy 22:13-30

Now we get into relationship issues and what I think is important to remember is that at this time in the ancient world, as far as I know, women were considered property of their husbands and fathers and had limited rights and considerations legally, so when we get into the laws given here, even though they are abhorrent to us now, they were pretty progressively pro-woman for the time. First, if a man marries a woman “and hate her” one of the options he had was to go to the council and accuse her of not being a virgin when they got married. It seems to me that this happened probably pretty soon after the wedding so not like 15 years into the marriage, but I’m not sure about that. So the man who decides he doesn’t like the wife that he chose accuses her of not being a virgin on their wedding night. The wife’s father will counter saying that he gave this man his daughter to marry and now he doesn’t like her and is making up lies about her. They way that this dispute gets solved is the sa...
Post a Comment
Read more

Misc Commands - Deuteronomy 22: 1-12

Chapter 22 covers a lot of different topics, the first 4 verses have to do with finding your “brother’s” animal outside of where they are meant to be kept. The word “brother” here is probably meant as “kinsman” which would make sense because Israel was usually grouped together by tribes and clans. If the animal was to be found outside of the pen or enclosure, the person who found it couldn’t pretend they didn’t see it, they were obligated to take the animal back to the person it belonged to and if they didn’t know, they were supposed to keep the animal and take care of it until the owner came around looking for it. I would imagine that after a certain amount of time, that animal could just be counted as theirs but that’s not expressly written. Finally, if an animal is injured or hurt, whoever finds it is supposed to help it. There was a significant discussion about the next topic in both the IM and by TB but it only is one verse, verse 5 which says, “the woman shall not wear that whi...
Post a Comment
Read more