Immersion Bible Studies: Deuteronomy
96
Immersion Bible Studies: Deuteronomy
96Paperback
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Overview
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781426716331 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Abingdon Press |
| Publication date: | 05/01/2012 |
| Series: | Immersion Bible Studies Series |
| Pages: | 96 |
| Product dimensions: | 5.50(w) x 8.30(h) x 0.40(d) |
About the Author
Stan Purdum served as a full-time parish minister in Ohio for a number of years and retired recently after serving part-time as a pastor. He also works as a freelance writer and editor. He holds an education degree from Youngstown State University, a master of divinity from Methodist Theological School in Ohio, and a doctorate in ministry from Drew University. Long an avid bicycle tourist, Stan has ridden several long-distance bike trips, including a cross-nation ride recounted in his book Roll Around Heaven All Day and a trek that covered the entire length of US Route 62 (from Niagara Falls, New York, to El Paso, Texas), the subject of his book Playing in Traffic. Stan is also the author of New Mercies I See, which is a collection of stories about God’s grace, and He Walked in Galilee, a study book on the ministry of Jesus. He writes regularly for Adult B
Read an Excerpt
Immersion Bible Studies: Deuteronomy
By Jack A. Keller Jr., Stan Purdum
Abingdon Press
Copyright © 2012 Abingdon PressAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-4267-1633-1
CHAPTER 1
God Is on Your Side!
Deuteronomy 1–4
Claim Your Story
How do you know whether someone is trustworthy? If he or she says, "trust me," do you? If someone asks to borrow a sizeable amount of money and says, "I'll pay you back—honest," do you get out your checkbook? If a salesperson says, "I'm giving you a great deal," do you sign on the dotted line? How far do you trust the people you work with? If you hear, "I'll stick with you through thick and thin," is the speaker a fair-weather or all weather friend? If someone whispers, "I love you," do you give him or her the key to your heart? If your spouse says, "I won't drink anymore," how confident do you feel that his or her behavior is going to change for the better? If your child insists that he or she is not using illegal drugs, do you feel reassured? If someone says, "I'm doing the best I can," do you cut him or her a little slack? If you hear, "I'm sorry," can you ever trust that person again?
Most of us are cautious about letting down our guard when we first meet someone, regardless of what that person says or promises. Trust grows incrementally as we develop a relationship and a "track record" with others. If we see evidence that someone can be trusted, we normally venture more. At some point, we see enough evidence that we stop looking for evidence and simply assume that promises will be kept, that a person can be trusted with the tender places in our lives. Until a promise is broken. Until we are wounded. And then, if the damage is not too great and the chasm not too wide, the process starts over again. We watch carefully to see if someone has changed enough in a positive way to be worthy of our trust.
In short, we decide whom to trust and how much to trust by observing past behavior. If someone consistently does what he or she promises to do, we learn to expect that and to count on it. If someone is consistently in our corner, we have reason to believe she will be there in the future. If someone consistently acts as if he has our best interest at heart, we tend to believe he will act that way tomorrow and next year and the year after that.
Do you trust God? Maybe a better question would be, "How much do you trust God?" What evidence do you have that God is trustworthy? Looking back over your life, when and where have you seen or felt God at work? What evidence has there been to suggest that God is on your side? Do you have good reason to trust that God will continue to be on your side?
That was the crux of the matter for ancient Israel. In this opening chapter, we'll take a closer look at that, along with some other matters important to the writer of the Book of Deuteronomy.
Enter the Bible Story
The name of the fifth book of the Bible provides two clues to what the book is about. The Hebrew title is taken from the opening words: "These are the words." More than the four preceding books in the Torah/ Pentateuch and more than the historical books that follow, Deuteronomy is a book of crucial words. It consists almost entirely of the words of Moses, but Moses often conveys the words of the Lord.
The name of this book familiar to English readers, Deuteronomy— meaning "the second law" or a "copy of the law"—is taken from the Greek translation of Deuteronomy 17:18. The book is a collection of law and teaching that builds on the first law, the Ten Commandments given at Mount Sinai (or, as Deuteronomy prefers to call it, Mount Horeb).
The Theology of the Land
The land, says Deuteronomy repeatedly, is a gift from God to Israel. In fifteen explicit references, Deuteronomy tells us the land was promised to the patriarchs as a gift. A promise to our ancestors, says Deuteronomy to the people of his time, is a promise to us.
But the promise requires a response. God has given the land but the Israelites are told many times that they must go into the land and possess it (Deuteronomy 3:18; 4:1, 5, 14; 6:18; 8:1; 9:1; 11:8, 10-11; 30:16). God is in charge completely, according to Deuteronomy, but the people have to participate in what God is doing.
The Promised Land is filled with abundance (Deuteronomy 1:25, 35; 3:25; 4:21, 22; 6:18; 8:7-10; 9:6; 11:17), "full of milk and honey" (6:3; 11:9; 26:9,15; 27:3; 31:20). It offers all that is necessary for a life of prosperity. The land even comes with God's provision of cities, houses, cisterns, vineyards, and olive trees (6:10-11). The land is a place to rest after the weariness of wandering, a place of peace for a people plagued by enemies and conflict, a place to live comfortably in covenant with God.
But rest and peace and comfort are contingent, according to Deuteronomy, upon Israel's response to a generous God. Israel will flourish if it loves and obeys the Lord; but the land will be lost if Israel does not. There could be no more terrible punishment.
The land is closely related to the law. As Moses announces in Deuteronomy 12:1, "These are the regulations and the case laws that you must carefully keep in the fertile land the LORD, your ancestors' God, has given to you to possess for as long as you live on that land" (NRSV, "all the days that you live on the earth"). Many of the regulations and case laws in Deuteronomy are explicitly associated with the land and Israel's life in it. Obedience is not simply a matter of doing whatever it takes to avoid divine retribution. Rather, the commandments are a necessity for both (1) a right relationship with God; and (2) a healthy, harmonious community. The commandments are guidelines for living happily in community under God.
Christians properly think of the land not as geographically specific but as the place—any place—where God has put us. Our use of land and property affects our neighbors and our posterity and so has theological and moral importance. We understand the Deuteronomic claim that home, family, work and the rewards it brings, all are desirable and part of God's intention. But we sometimes forget Deuteronomy's insistence that ultimately the land and all that it represents comes to us as a divine gift, not by legal right, not by family inheritance, not from our physical labor and mental exertion. We participate in what God is doing; we don't do it by ourselves. Whatever we have, we use at the pleasure of the Lord who owns it all.
The Four "Israels" of Deuteronomy
A careful reader will discover that there are four different "Israels" in the Book of Deuteronomy. One Israel mentioned in Deuteronomy is the first generation of Hebrews who crossed the Red Sea and received the Ten Commandments at Mount Sinai. This is the generation that balked at the prospect of actually entering the Promised Land and consequently wandered in the wilderness for the rest of their lives. Another Israel in Deuteronomy's story is the generation to which Moses was ostensibly speaking just east of the Jordan River. This Israel is the second generation of the Hebrews who fled from Egypt, which is no longer wandering in the wilderness but is poised to enter the land of Canaan. Yet a third Israel is the audience(s) that the writers of Deuteronomy addressed in their own time, which likely spanned the eighth to sixth centuries B.C. This third Israel lived long, long after the Exodus generation and the generation on the boundary between the wilderness and the land of milk and honey. This third Israel was the Southern Kingdom of Judah during its last one hundred to two hundred years as an independent nation and after Judah fell to the Babylonians and the people were dragged off into exile.
Deuteronomy presumes a profound continuity across all three Israels. The promises to the Patriarchs are promises to every Israel. The story of liberation from Egypt and receiving the gift of the law is the story of "all Israel" across generations and centuries. Trusting and doubting God in the wilderness and alternately obeying and disobeying God is the pattern repeated in every "Israel." Even after the land is claimed and settled, the pattern continues. The norm, the standard of expectation, is loving God and doing justice. The reality repeatedly falls short—eventually with very serious consequences. So for Deuteronomy the basic message to all three "Israels" is the same: Trust and obey the Lord.
Contemporary believers comprise the fourth "Israel." We are the "you" to whom God speaks through Moses and the biblical record. We are the ones alternately fearful and faithful. We are the ones who vacillate between joyful obedience and stubborn rebellion. So the basic message of Deuteronomy applies to us as well: Trust and obey God.
Qualifications of Leaders
Moses needs help. The demands of leadership are too heavy for him to bear alone. Deuteronomy 1:9-18 reiterates what appeared earlier in Exodus 18:13-23 and Numbers 11:14-17. Those individuals who would function as judges should be "wise, discerning, and well-regarded" (Deuteronomy 1:13).
Moses gives them four basic instructions. First, they are to "judge fairly" (1:16, CEB and NIV; NRSV, "judge rightly"). Second, judges are not to show partiality but are to "hear both small and great alike" (Deuteronomy 1:17a, NIV). The "small" are the weak and the poor, the supposedly unimportant. The "great" are the rich and powerful, who think of themselves as important and are regarded that way by many.
Third, those charged with administering justice must not be susceptible to intimidation by anyone; otherwise, justice is compromised (Deuteronomy 1:17b). This particular danger is as real today as it was when Moses spoke and when Deuteronomy was written. Remember the financial crisis of the late 2000s, which plunged the United States into the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s. It was not a natural disaster, but a consequence of greed on Wall Street and elsewhere. Millions of ordinary citizens paid a hefty price for that fiasco. But how many elite business leaders who engineered the financial disaster en route to enormous corporate and personal gain have been brought to justice in either criminal or civil courts? Petty thieves are easy to bring to justice; not so, movers and shakers. No wonder Martin Luther said of the need for leaders to avoid intimidation, "This is the highest and most difficult virtue of rulers, namely, justice and integrity of judgment. For it is easy to pronounce judgment on poor and common people; but to condemn the powerful, the wealthy, and the friendly, to disregard blood, honor, fear, favor, and gain and simply to consider the issue—this is a divine virtue."
Finally, when matters are too complicated for a judge to handle, Moses is available as a kind of Supreme Court that renders justice (Deuteronomy 1:17c).
Israel's Initial Refusal to Enter the Land
When the people of Israel are first told that the land is theirs for the taking, they suffer a collective case of the jitters. They think the good news is too good to be true—and they head back toward the Red Sea.
Almost hidden in this rehearsal of doubt and disobedience (Deuteronomy 1:1946) is a little gem, a juxtaposition of two images of God. Moses tries to reassure the Israelites by speaking of the Lord as both warrior and parent. "The LORD your God ... will fight for you" (1:30). Throughout the entire journey "the LORD your God has carried you just as a parent carries a child" (1:31).
The Exodus generation was not reassured. But some among later generations were reassured, as we are, at least when focusing on this twofold picture of God. God stretches over us a mighty arm, like a warrior, and a tender protecting arm, like a parent. Whatever threatening situation we may face, as individuals or as a community, God is with us, watching over us, and working ("fighting") for our well-being. Come what may, God cares about us, supports us, and, so far as we will allow, guides and nurtures us.
God Is on Your Side
Israel positioned at the boundary between the wilderness and the new land was only one nation among many—and a puny one at that. Not sharing Israel's privileged understanding of God, those other nations were intimidating. So Moses reminds Israel of God's mighty acts of salvation on its behalf. He begins at the beginning. The Lord whom Israel worships is the creator of all human beings, whether they know it or not. "Has anything this amazing ever happened? Has anything like it ever been heard of
before?" (4:32). Not only is God the Creator, but God has spoken to them from fire. God liberated the Hebrew slaves from Egypt with "tests, miracles, wonders, war" and "awesome power" (4:33-34). The Lord has established a covenant with Israel, providing both a place to live and instruction about how to flourish as a community. All of this has demonstrated that God loves the people of Israel and can be trusted to care for them. They have good reasons to trust God and to do their part to honor the covenant.
Live the Story
What would it take to persuade you that God is on your side—not only yours, but truly yours? Do you claim for yourself, as the Christian church claims, the legacy of the people of Israel: freedom from bondage and freedom for a covenantal relationship with the Lord God?
Do the mighty acts of God in the New Testament persuade you that God cares deeply about you? After all, has the Creator of heaven and earth, the King of the universe, ever stooped so low to enter the world as a helpless baby? Has any people ever seen and heard as clearly what God is like as you have in Christ Jesus? Has any people known a Savior who loved us enough to die for us while we were still sinners? Has any people ever been baptized by water and the Spirit of God? Has any people ever been invited to the table of the Lord? Has any people ever been made a new creation? What more would it take to persuade you?
CHAPTER 2A Relationship and a Way of Living
Deuteronomy 5:1–6:19
Claim Your Story
In recent years, "smartphones" have taken the telephone market by storm. They have tremendous customer appeal. Each new model makes it easier to access everything that can be converted to digital format. People don't merely talk and text with their phones; they carry their offices and their entertainment with them. Hundreds of "apps" make it possible to hold the world in the palm of one's hand.
The level of enthusiasm for this particular technology was captured in an iconic photo, beamed around the world, of four young men with smiles on their faces who were waiting outside a store on launch day for the latest and best smartphone. Each of the young men was wearing a black band around his head. Attached to the band in the center of his forehead was a full-color, full-size mock-up of the new phone. It was obvious, to say the least, that this new gizmo represented something very important to all four.
If you were going to announce what you care about most by wearing a symbol of it on your forehead, what would it be? Would you wear the same symbol every day and everywhere you went? Or would you need a different symbol at work, at home, at church, and at the ball game?
Deuteronomy 5–6 tells about what ancient Israelites wore to remind themselves and to announce to others what is most important. At the top of that pyramid of value, says Deuteronomy, is a relationship and a way of living. The bedrock of that relationship and that way of life is found in the Ten Commandments and the Shema.
Enter the Bible Story
The Ten Commandments
The prologue to the Ten Commandments in Deuteronomy 5:6 reminds us that the people who are given the commandments are already God's people. The law is not a means of salvation; rather, the law is instruction about how persons who are already loved by God should live. God's love precedes God's demands.
The first commandment, "You must have no other gods before me" (5:7), has multiple meanings. The basic meaning, applicable to the age in which the commandments were first given, was to prohibit the worship of any deity except the Lord. The common assumption in that time was that other gods exist. This commandment, however, declares that Israel was not to worship them. No deity is to be given priority over the Lord in terms of worship and obedience.
Another possible meaning is "You shall have no other gods over against me." That is, the Israelites were not to worship or obey gods in hostile conflict with the Lord. The story of Elijah's contest with the Canaanite deity Baal (see 1 Kings 18) is illustrative. The Lord and Baal are rival deities and the people of Israel have to choose between them. Deuteronomy 5:7 can also be read as "You must have no gods in addition to me, in preference to me, or in place of me." The kernel of meaning here is that there simplyis no deity anywhere besides the Lord. Israel's God is also Lord of everything! There is only one God of the universe, to whom all nature and all nations and all people are subject.
The common ground shared by these several interpretations of verse 7 is the conviction that a relationship of worship, loyalty, and trust is appropriate only with the Lord. One nuance of meaning or another may have carried more weight at different times in Israel's history.
Interpretations of the second commandment (5:8-10) fall into two broad categories. One interpretation reads the commandment as prohibiting the making or worshiping of physical representations of other gods besides the Lord. But many scholars favor a different interpretation, concluding that this commandment prohibits making or worshiping of a physical representation of the Lord. Why the prohibition against making images of God?
(Continues...)
Excerpted from Immersion Bible Studies: Deuteronomy by Jack A. Keller Jr., Stan Purdum. Copyright © 2012 Abingdon Press. Excerpted by permission of Abingdon Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents
Contents
Immersion Bible Studies,1. God Is on Your Side!,
2. A Relationship and a Way of Living,
3. Remembering the Lord's Provision,
4. Open Heart and Open Hand,
5. Grand Central Story,
6. Choose Life!,
Leader Guide,
