Wednesday, July 10, 2024

Today's Scripture
Deuteronomy 1:1–18

These are the words that Moses spoke to all Israel beyond the Jordan — in the wilderness, on the plain opposite Suph, between Paran and Tophel, Laban, Hazeroth, and Di-zahab. (By the way of Mount Seir it takes eleven days to reach Kadesh-barnea from Horeb.) In the fortieth year, on the first day of the eleventh month, Moses spoke to the Israelites just as the Lord had commanded him to speak to them. This was after he had defeated King Sihon of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon, and King Og of Bashan, who reigned in Ashtaroth and in Edrei. Beyond the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law as follows: The Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb, saying, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Resume your journey, and go into the hill country of the Amorites as well as into the neighboring regions — the Arabah, the hill country, the Shephelah, the Negeb, and the seacoast — the land of the Canaanites and the Lebanon, as far as the great river, the river Euphrates. See, I have set the land before you; go in and take possession of the land that I swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give to them and to their descendants after them.”

At that time I said to you, “I am unable by myself to bear you. The Lord your God has multiplied you, so that today you are as numerous as the stars of heaven. May the Lord, the God of your ancestors, increase you a thousand times more and bless you, as he has promised you! But how can I bear the heavy burden of your disputes all by myself? Choose for each of your tribes individuals who are wise, discerning, and reputable to be your leaders.” You answered me, “The plan you have proposed is a good one.” So I took the leaders of your tribes, wise and reputable individuals, and installed them as leaders over you, commanders of thousands, commanders of hundreds, commanders of fifties, commanders of tens, and officials, throughout your tribes. I charged your judges at that time: “Give the members of your community a fair hearing, and judge rightly between one person and another, whether citizen or resident alien. You must not be partial in judging: hear out the small and the great alike; you shall not be intimidated by anyone, for the judgment is God’s. Any case that is too hard for you, bring to me, and I will hear it.” So I charged you at that time with all the things that you should do. (NRSV)

Reflection

Deuteronomy is the fifth book of the Bible, the last of the collection called The Pentateuch, traditionally understood to be the five Books of Moses. Yet its name is tied to the Greek word for “second,” drawn from the translation of a phrase in verse 18 of chapter 17 — “a copy of this law.”

Deuteronomy repeats, retells, and restates things we’ve heard before, almost entirely in the form of direct speeches by Moses, the first one of which starts here in verse 6. It won’t end until chapter four, verse 40.

Even here in these first verses, we hear some of the bedrock promises of faith, one of which hits more like a jagged rock than anything we’d want to rest our heads on.

Moses reminds his hearers about the establishment of judges and his charge to them to give all the people a fair hearing, “whether kin or resident alien,” to judge impartially between small and great alike. This is what Walter Brueggemann calls “the very raison d’etre of this community, which is the practice of justice for all, without privilege or preference.” We’ve heard it before. We cannot hear it enough.

The promise of a land to distant ancestors is bound up with the memory Moses shares in verse 8, the memory of God’s instruction to now take possession of it. Promise and land are inextricably connected in the biblical story, and yet so are possession and dispossession of that same land. The biblical story is not shy about this: we are told the peoples whose land it was and who were to be “driven out” (Numbers 33:52). The conquest that follows is devastating, though it is not total. Israel will have these peoples for neighbors for generations yet to come, and the Bible’s vision of their relationship to Moses’ descendants will evolve to see them, too, streaming to the mountain of the Lord’s house (Isaiah 2).

Memory looks backward in the service of moving us forward into a future we trust is helped by God’s gracious designs for all.

Prayer
We pray to you from beyond the Jordan, O Lord, on the other side of everything you have brought us through and come through with us. Stoke our memory of your faithfulness, that we may carry faith forward for the sake of all who are to come after us. Amen.

Written by Rocky Supinger, Associate Pastor for Youth and Worship

Reflection and Prayer © Fourth Presbyterian Church

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