At that time the LORD said to me, “Chisel out two stone tablets like the first ones and come up to me on the mountain. Also make a wooden ark.” – Deuteronomy 10:1

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 27, 2015): Deuteronomy 10

Rudyard Kipling wrote “The Ballad of King’s Mercy” about the Afghanistan Emir Abdur Rahman Khan. Abdur Rahman ruled over Afghanistan in the closing years of the nineteenth century and the Emir’s legacy is mixed. In his favor, Abdur Rahman brought elements of modernization to Aghan people. He also succeeded in unifying the nation and kept Afghanistan unoccupied during the geopolitical period known as the Great Game – a rivalry between the Russian Empire and the British Empire for supremacy in Central Asia. But his detractors also note that he was brought to power by Britain and concentrated his war efforts on the tribes within his own nation rather than on removing himself from the British sphere of influence. Abdur Rahman was weak geopolitically and he appeared to just allow Britain to decide Afghan foreign policy. But maybe worst of all, Abdur Rahman was violent, and the object of his violence was often his own people.

And this violence was the subject on which Rudyard Kipling centered his poem. The “Ballad of the King’s Mercy” is about the execution of a foolish young man who cries out for mercy from the King – Abdur Rahman. The king bestows his mercy only to snatch it away again and orders the captain of the bodyguard in demeaning terms to execute him. The Captain capitulates to the King’s command, but later is subjected to ridicule over the incident. He decides to kill the king, but fails. His punishment, given to him by the king, is that he is to be stoned, but not killed. For three days the Captain is kept alive while being stoned, an image of unbelievable torture, until finally the king gives the Captain his mercy and decrees that he should be allowed to die. The poem captures the cruelty of Abdur Rahman in his relationship with the people under his rule.

Moses is given the Ten Commandments and then on his way down the mountain he sees the Golden Calf that has been formed as an object of worship in his absence. To say that Moses is upset at the actions of the people is probably an understatement. The actions of the people may have been one of the clearest violations of the Second Commandment in scripture – the people had built an idol and declared that the idol was Yahweh – the God of Israel who had brought them out of Egypt. Essentially, they were murdering God in the memory of the people and attempting to replace him with something else. In Moses anger, he breaks the tablets that he holds in his hands listing these Ten Commandments of God. But the breaking of the tablets was also symbolic of the actions of the people – they had already broken the covenant God had made with them.

It would have been well within the rights of God to have destroyed Israel on the spot. But instead God decides to do something else – he chooses to restore them. And the symbol of the restoration of Israel and of the mercy of God was found in these two new tablets. In a moment when the people could have been tortured by their own disobedience, God gives them an example of a different way. He knits the commandment that they had broken back together and offers his people just what they needed – real mercy in the form of a clean start.  

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 11