Today’s Scripture Reading
(November 27, 2018): Deuteronomy 4
I have admitted that I often
struggle with the way that we treat the Law of Moses. Some Laws we find to be
more important than others. The prohibition against homosexuality, found twice within the Holiness Code of Leviticus
(Leviticus 18:22 and Leviticus 20:13), is a law
on which we feel we need to make a stand. The prohibition against a man shaving
the edges of his beard, also found within the Holiness Code (Leviticus 19:27),
we feel free to ignore. Why? Part of the answer is, at least to me,
unrewarding. From a cultural perspective, there is no comparison in the
importance of the two issues. We are in a heated discussion over homosexuality
in our culture, so this portion of the Law is important. We are not in a heated
debate over the morality of shaving, so this portion of the Law we ignore (and just to be transparent, I did shave this
morning, violating Leviticus 19:27). But that would also mean that it is our
cultural experience that informs our understanding of the Bible, which violates
the way that I have been taught to understand the Bible.
I am hesitant to make this
argument, but I am increasingly questioning the possibility that my cultural
understanding is more important in the way that I interpret the Bible than I
might want to admit, and that this might have
been true even in the Bible. And it is this cultural understanding, I
believe, at which this verse might be pointing.
The first thing that we need to
understand is that our conception of the stone tablets containing the Ten
Commandments is likely wrong. We often think of these tablets as dividing the
Ten Commandments, with five Commandments written on each tablet. Or maybe even better,
the first four Commandments, dealing with our responsibility to God, written on
the first tablet and the other six Commandments, dealing with our responsibility
to each other, written on the second tablet. But a better understanding might
be that this was a treaty document between God and man. And treaty documents
traditionally were produced with two copies; one copy held by the ruler and the
one copy given to the people who make up the other side of the treaty. That
would mean that God’s Stone Tablets were essentially carbon copies of the
other, both containing all of the commandments.
The fact that these tablets
were both placed in the Ark of the Covenant reinforces the idea that the
Tabernacle was a place where the two parties of the treaty would meet, and that
God intended to live among his people.
But this is where our
understanding might become a little more radical. It seems from this verse that
the only Law that God gave to Moses on the mountain was the Ten Commandments. This makes the other 603 laws (the Rabbinic
teaching is that the number of Laws contained with Torah numbers 613, including
the Ten Commandments) are notes of explanation on how to keep the Ten
Commandments from a cultural perspective, understanding that God was walking
with them. That also might mean that the 603 explanations might be held less
firmly than the Ten given to Moses on the mountain (which would partially
explain my shaving habits.) Or to say it another way, the Ten Commandments are
standards that are not going to change over time. The 603 cultural explanations
might change as our cultural understanding changes – or they might not. These
are the things with which we need to be willing to wrestle.
Jesus would take this even a
step further.
“‘Love
the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your
mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All
the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments” (Matthew 22:37-40).
If we are willing to Love God with everything that we are and love each other without limit, then we
don’t need to worry about the Ten or the 613, because all of the Law will all be fulfilled in our midst.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Deuteronomy 5
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