Plumbing the Riches Deuteronomy for the Preacher

E L I Z A B E Ι H A C H I E M E I E R

Visiting Professor of Bible and Homiletics

Union Theological Seminary in Virginia

Hearing the words of Deuteronomy, the preacher

is called to make clear what it means to be

God's covenant community and to live according

to his will rather than the dictates of the

surrounding culture.

THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY has sometimes been called "The Gospel in the Old Testament," and few Old Testament books are

richer in preaching resources or lend themselves more readily to the proclamation of the Good News than does this book. Yet the preacher needs to be clear, theologically, about why we can preach Christian ser­mons from this book; and he or she needs to be skillful, hermeneutically, in relating it to the congregation's life.

Deuteronomy is a covenant document, the basis of that covenant re­newal celebrated by King Josiah of Judah with his people in 621 B.C. (II Kings 22—23; II Chron. 34—35). It sets forth its teachings as the final instructions of Moses to the Israelites in the plain of Moab in the thirteenth century B.C., shortly before Moses' death and before Israel crossed over the Jordan into the promised land. At Mount Sinai, in Deuteronomy's view, Moses received all of the commandments of the Lord, but gave only the Ten Commandants to the people. Just before his death, however, he preaches to them the rest of God's instructions for their lives, and Deu­teronomy makes up those instructions. The view of the book's authors—

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probably Levitical country priests and reform prophets—is that all the covenant people stand once again before Moses to hear God's Word from his lips (5:3). Nor are those covenant instructions intended only for seventh century B.c.Judah; they are meant for every coming generation of God's people as well (29:10-15).

It is within the framework of the covenant, therefore, that Deu­teronomy becomes a book for Christians, for we have been grafted into the covenant people of God through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ (I Cor. 11:23-25; Rom. 11:17-20; Gal. 6:16; Eph. 2:11-22). Deu­teronomy is the church's book only through Jesus Christ, and that has several implications for preaching.

First, when preaching from Deuteronomy, the homiletician should pair its text with a passage from the New Testament, to acknowledge the mediation of Deuteronomy to us through the work of our Lord and to proclaim the New Testament outcome of Deuteronomy's ancient words. Second, the preacher should keep firmly in mind that Deuteronomy is not general moral law (à la Bultmann) but instruction for a specific covenant people, with a particular history that reaches back to the time of Abraham. Third, while Deuteronomy should be allowed to speak its own Word, as valid canon, fully and apart from Christian bias, the preacher must be aware of the fact that God's act in Jesus Christ was the final re-interpretation of the Old Testament, and that therefore the final shape of the sermon must set forth sound Christian theology that accords with the apostolic witness of the New Testament.

T H E HERMENEUTICAL APPROACH

The preacher is then confronted with the hermeneutical question of how to relate some passage in Deuteronomy to the life of his or her congregation. Parts of Deuteronomy, such as the great commandment in the Shema (Deut. 6:4—9), have been affirmed and handed on to us in the teachings of our Lord, of course, and can be applied to our lives directly. Deuteronomy is one of the four books of the Old Testament quoted most frequently in the New, and tradition mediates many of its texts as instruc­tion for our living (e.g., Deut. 8:3 in Matt. 4:4; Deut. 6:16 in Matt. 4:7; Deut. 6:13 in Matt. 4:10). Even so, the hermeneutical "jump" from the "then" of the Scriptures to the "now" of the present congregation must be made. Most frequently, in preaching from Deuteronomy, that jump is legitimately made on the basis of analogy. The preacher needs to ask, How is my congregation's relation to God analogous to that of the covenant people's relation to God in Deuteronomy? The historical settings of Deuteronomy give three possible answers.

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A. From the Thirteenth Century B.C. First, as the book is framed, thirteenth-century B.c. Israel has been

delivered from slavery in Egypt, led through the wilderness, and brought to the eastern shore of the Jordan. Israel is underway, at midpoint between her redemption out of Egypt and her final fulfillment in the gift of the promised land. So, too, is the church. We have been redeemed out of slavery to sin and death, and set on a pilgrimage toward the final fulfill­ment of God's promises to us of eternal life in the kingdom. Israel's journey is ours, and all along the way there are texts from Deuteronomy that tell what God is doing on the journey and how we are to respond to him. For example:

Deuteronomy 5:1—27: Moses recounts to the people the meeting with God at Mount Sinai, when Israel heard God speaking to his prophet out of the midst of fire to give Israel the Ten Commandments. Israel was overwhelmed by the experience, as human beings in the Bible are always overwhelmed by the holiness or complete otherness of God's person. "No man can see God and live." His glory is such that it melts the mountains before him and causes the earth to tremble. Habakkuk 3:2—16, or Psalm 97:1-5, or Ezekiel 1:4—28 give ample theophanic evidence of the over­whelming majesty of his holy person. When God comes to human beings in the Bible, they cry out in fear (cf. Isa. 6:5; Luke 2:9; 5:8), and divine assurance in the form of "Fear not!" must be given.

Not only is it the glory of God which overwhelms us, however, it is also his absolute moral purity. The Lord cannot look on wrong, says Habakkuk (1:13), and he will not countenance evil. Thus none of us can stand before God, for none is righteous in his eyes. Were he to come among us "stiff-necked people," he would consume us (cf. Exod. 33:5). Israel needs her mediator at Mount Sinai, to draw near to the Holy One of Israel and to hear all that he will say and then to speak to her all that the Lord her God has said (Deut. 5:27). Israel needs her Moses, and we of the new covenant need him too. Yet God has condescended to us even more than he stooped to Israel. He has provided a righteous Mediator through whom we our­selves may approach his throne of grace (cf. Heb. 4:14—16). He himself has drawn near to us in his Son and forgiven us our sins against him. Thus we always pray through the mediation of Jesus Christ.

Deuteronomy 7:6—11: Israel was chosen as God's own people and delivered out of Egypt through no deserving on her part. She was not a great and mighty nation, admirable and strong. She was just a rag-tag bunch of wanderers , slave laborers, a "mixed mul t i tude" (Exod. 12:38)—certainly not wise, or powerful, or of noble birth; but "God chose what was foolish in the world," the weak and the low and the despised

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(I Cor. 1:26—27), that the world might see that the Exodus was by his hand and not by that of human might.

Certainly Israel was also not chosen for her great faith. According to the record of Exodus, she did not even know God before the revelation to Moses. Throughout all her wilderness trek, she murmured, and doubted, and rebelled, constructing her own golden calf-god, hungering for the onions and leeks of Egypt, ready to turn her back on her new life of God-given freedom and to return to the mud-pits of slavery. But God loved her! (Deut. 7:8). That made all the difference. God wanted to show his love to the world through her, by fulfilling his promise to Abraham to bless all nations through Abraham's seed (cf. Gen. 12:3). So too with the church. "While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5:8), redeeming us out of our slavery long before we knew God or deserved his love. We did not choose God; he chose us, because he wants to pour out his love on the world through us, in fulfillment of his promise to Father Abraham.

Deuteronomy 8:1—10: As the basis of her obedience to God, Israel was to remember the way she had come—that long forty-year journey through the terrors of the wilderness. Certainly she had experienced the Lord's discipline along the way, like that of a father who teaches his son how7 to walk and live (v. 5; cf. 1:31; Hos. 11:3). She had been punished for disobedience, had been taught patience through suffering, and time and again had been shown that her own willful desires led only to disaster. Yet along with it all, there was that guiding, sustaining hand of the Father, showing his child where to pitch her tent (cf. 1:33), providing clothing for sun-scorched backs and shoes for weary feet. When Israel hungered, she was faithfully given her "daily bread." When she thirsted, she was pro­vided with life-giving water (cf. 2:7; 33:8). Despite her weakness, her doubting, her rebellious ways, underneath were always "the everlasting arms" (33:27), sustaining and guarding her life. Should Israel—or we—be unfaithful to such a faithful God?

Such are just a few of the many possibilities for using this hermeneutical approach.

B. From the Seventh Century B.c. The second possibility of relating Deuteronomy to the life of a Chi istian

congregation stems from the purpose of the actual historical formation of the book. Deuteronomy was assembled by Levitical priests and reform prophets in the seventh century B.C. in order to call Judah back to loyalty to her God. The nation had just emerged from the long reign of Manasseh (687/6-642 B.C.) and of his son Anion (642-640 B.C.), a period character-

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ized by widespread syncretism, idolatry, imitation of Assyrian ways, child sacrifice, witchcraft and superstition, persecution of the prophets, in­justice, and ruthless murder of the innocent (I Kings 21). The people had forgotten who God was and the history that revealed him. The Lord had become a nameless nonentity who did and required nothing (cf. Zeph. 1:12), lost midst a multitude of other gods and powers. Deuteronomy was therefore the reformers' attempt to recite Israel's history once again, thereby revealing who God was and what he required, and calling J udah to love him in return for his love.

Though seventh-century B.C. Judah is far removed from twentieth-century AD. society, the attitude of the covenant people toward their Lord in their century was not far different from ours. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ has also been lost to many midst a multitude of deified powers and ideologies, supposedly making no demands upon them, and forgiving whatever they do. And the ways of the church have become very often indistinguishable from those of the society that sur­rounds it. If such is the case with the preacher's congregation, he or she has ample material in Deuteronomy from which to work to correct the situa­tion. For example:

Deuteronomy 10:12—22: This passage probably summarizes the message of Deuteronomy as well as does any. It follows a long section (9:1—10:11) that details Israel's sin and God's constant forgiveness of it. In response to such love from God, Israel is called to love God in return, by obeying (fearing) him, walking in his ways, and serving him with all her being. The pericope itself emphasizes God's mercy toward his people: He is the Creater and Owner of the universe, and yet he has set his love upon Israel's forebears and chosen them (v. 15). He made a promise to the fathers to make them a great nation, and he has fulfilled that promise (v. 22). He delivered Israel out of Egyptian slavery and gave her the ne­cessities of life (vs. 18-19). Thus, he should be Israel's praise, her only God, for she has seen all these things that he has done (v. 21).

More than that, however, the Lord has shown himself worthy of praise and love. He is God of gods and Lord of lords, sovereign over every earthly power (v. 17); but in the exercise of his might, he is both just and merciful (vs. 17—18). The implied question is, who can help but love and serve such a God?

The love that Deuteronomy asks from Judah, however, is a love from circumcised hearts (v. 16)—that inner love and obedience for which the prophets also called (cf. Jer. 4:4; Ezek. 18:31-32)—the love of a son for his father, or of a faithful wife for her husband (cf. Hos. 11:1-9; Jer. 3:19-20; Isa. 1:2-3). Such love "cleaves" to God and does not turn away from him

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(cf. v. 20). Such love knows its beloved and his desires and serves him. The task of the Christian preacher is marked out by this passage: Tell

what God has done and therefore who he is, according to both Old Testament and New Testament story, in order that the congregation may be prompted and empowered to love and serve the Lord.

The same task is mandated by the pericope which we take up next, but here we can enter into a fuller explanation.

Deuteronomy 6:4—9: This passage makes up part of the famous Shema, which is still recited by the Jews; it contains the first and greatest commandment given us by our Lord; and it forms the central requirement given in Deuteronomy's sermons to the people of God. No fewer than eleven times is this commandment to love God found in this book. It is the central command of the covenant relationship, old and new alike.

The basis for the command is the same as that in the pericope just discussed. We are to love God in return for his love. Most of the material in the first four chapters of Deuteronomy recites the history of God's doings with his people, and it is in response to those loving actions of God that we are to love him in return. Love for God, in other words, grows out of gratitude and thanksgiving for what he has done. It is a response of the heart and whole being to "all his benefits" (cf. Ps. 103:1—14). No preacher can expect that response without telling part of the biblical story, without specifically and vividly recounting some of the mighty and merciful acts of the Lord.

The opening of the pericope is significant, however, in this regard, for it makes the affirmation that the God who is to be loved is one (v. 4). That is deliberate polemic against identifying this God of the Bible's holy history with some diffuse soul of nature, or with a power permeating all, or with any "ground" of all being—a tendency seen most clearly today in radical feminist and process theologies. No, this God who calls for our love is one—one specific God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, one specific God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has revealed himself through his words and actions in a specific history that has taken place in specific times and places. The Old Testament always sums up the thought by identifying God as the one who delivered Israel out of the house of bondage in Egypt. That is who God is—the one who did that act—just as the God of the New Testament is identified by his action in Jesus Christ. Only the diety connected with the Bible's holy history is truly God. Deuteronomy is adamant on the point.

Because the command to love this God is understood as a response to his prior saving actions, the commandment is obviously not legalistic, that is, obedience to the commandment does not establish the relationship with

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God. The Lord himself has already entered into fellowship with his people and made them his own possession, his "peculiar treasure," his elected folk. The command, then, is understood as guide in the new life and relationship which God has established; and in Deuteronomy, such guides serve as the way to abundant life. Perhaps this last point is clearest in the next pericope we discuss.

Deuteronomy 5:28—33: The people have vowed at Mount Sinai that they will hear and do the will of God, as mediated to them by Moses (v. 27). In verse 29, we read the response of the Lord to this vow: "Oh that they had such a mind as this always, to fear me and to keep all my com­mandments, that it might go well with them and with their children for ever!" God asks that we love him in return for his love, because he wants it to go well with us always! One hears in the statement the yearning desire of a God who wants only good for us, the burning love of a God who sent his Son that we might have life and have it more abundantly, the aching heart of a Lord who speaks his word to us that we may have joy and that our joy may be complete.

Yet obedience to his commands, love in return for his love—these are the fingerpointings in the Torah toward that good, that life, that joy. Deuteronomy emphasizes the point by stating that "all these statutes" are "for our good always" (6:24; cf. 10:13), the way to life and blessing (cf. 30:15—20), the opening of God's "good treasury" (cf. 28:12). These com­mandments are "no trifle" for us but our "life" (32:47), and always that "life" is symbolized throughout Deuteronomy by life in the good land that God is giving Israel (5:33). That it is abundant life is clear from the description of the promised land (8:7-10). God wants to give Israel a life in which she will "lack nothing" (8:9).

If the modern preacher can get across to the congregation this burning desire of the Lord to give us good, and the love involved in his guidance of us in his commandments, much of the spirit of Deuteronomy will be conveyed. The teachings of this book come across not as legalistic stric­tures, not as restrictive ordinances of a sovereign Commander intended to bring us to heel, but as the merciful, patient, specific instructions of God who works in all things for good for those who love him. For example, when God says, "You shall not commit adultery," such a commandment is "for (our) good always." God knows that there can be no marital joy if that command is not obeyed, and he wants us to have that joy more than anything else in the world. How great is the love and attention of our Lord to our well-being in all things! Indeed, that love extends beyond our generation to our children and our children's children, as we see in the next passage.

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Deuteronomy 6:20—25: No book of the Bible is more concerned for the religious education of children than is the Book of Deuteronomy. Not only here, but in 4:9; 6:7; 11:19; and 31:12—13, Israel is instructed to teach God's statutes and ordinances to the next generations. But as we can see in this passage, that instruction is to encompass the heart of the message of Deuteronomy: the history of God's saving actions toward the people in the past, which is to prompt the grateful response of love and obedience; and the commandments themselves and their nature as the loving guidance of God "for our good always" and as the way to abundant life. God so loves our children that he wants good and life for them also! And the way to that good life lies in thankful obedience to his will.

This is a marvelous pattern for the educational program of the church. It shows that finally all religious education must begin with the story of God's saving acts, out of which all commitment, all transformation of life, all obedience and good fruit grow.

In using this passage, the preacher must be careful not to read verse 25 in a legalistic fashion. That verse says that obedience to the com­mandments is righteousness; but in interpreting the verse, the homi-letician should not see it as an expression of justification by works. Rather, he or she must remember that the central commandment is for love toward God—love prompted by the recounting of what God has done. Deuteronomy never abandons its context of grace. All comes from the initiative and the love of God for his people.

Once again, these are just a few of the riches, among the many, which can be gathered from this hermeneutical approach. C. From the Sixth Century Β C

About 550 B.c , the Book of Deuteronomy was added to and incor­porated into the Deuteronomic History, which makes up our present books of Deuteronomy through Second Kings. There may have been an earlier edition of the Deuteronomic History, but certainly the final edition was formed by early postexilic times; and the work apparently had the purpose of showing why Israel and Judah had been sent into exile. It recounted the long history of the people's sin, in order to show that God was justified in his judgment and true to his words of blessing and curse, recorded in Deuteronomy 27 and 28, as well as to the words spoken by the various nonwriting prophets portrayed for us in the Samuel books and Kings. In this setting, Deuteronomy can serve as a warning to the church, for it forms the introduction to a history in which God's warnings of judgment come to pass.

"Warning" and "judgment" are not, of course, words fancied by our generation. Views of God have been so distorted in our time that many in

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our congregations believe that God does nothing but forgive. The result has been the loss of any meaningful Christian ethic. But the God of the Bible does judge sin; not every lifestyle is acceptable in his eyes; and the New Testament picks up and carries on the Old's warnings of judgment. "Harden not your hearts as in the wilderness," admonishes the Epistle to the Hebrews (chaps. 3—4). "God is not mocked," writes Paul, "for what­ever a man sows, that he will also reap" (Gal. 6:7). "When the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth?" asks our Lord (Luke 18:8). Deuteronomy's warnings are consonant with all that follow after in the canon. Thus, in this setting, the preacher might preach from the following:

Deuteronomy 30:15—20: Israel's time in the land is understood in the Deuteronomic History as a time of testing. Will she love and serve the Lord in grateful response to his love shown toward her, or will she go after other gods and thus lose her life and good? She is set before the choice of life or death, blessing or curse, and her response is a matter of whether she will live or die. The people of God can fail to possess their final inheritance. Having been redeemed and now finding themselves at midpoint on their pilgrimage, they can yet fail, by their lack of love and trust, to enter into the promised fulfillment. The passage recalls Jesus' words about the narrow way that leads to life and the broad way that leads to destruction (Matt. 7:13-14), or his repeated teachings about those who do or do not obey his words (cf. Matt. 8:21-22, 24-27). Perhaps the church in our time needs to hear that the Christian faith is a matter of life and death. In this respect, the following pericopes are also pertinent.

Deuteronomy 12:1—14: One of the primary effects of the religious reform instigated by King Josiah of Judah in 621 B.c. on the basis of Deuteronomy was the centralization of all worship in Jerusalem, and in the Deuteronomic History that centralization then became one of the tests by which every ruler of Israel and Judah was judged. If the monarch fostered the centralization of worship, he or she was counted righteous; if the monarch did not do so, he or she was wicked. The law was designed to abolish the "high places" throughout the land—those worship sites where the gods and goddesses of the Canaanites were revered, or where the Lord of Israel had been confused with the deities of other peoples. It effected a thorough transformation of Israel's worship practices; from 621 Β c. on, Israel's three great festivals of Passover, Weeks, and Booths, as well as all occasions of sacrifice, had to take place in Jerusalem, although un­fortunately syncretism and idolatry continued, even within the confines of the Jerusalem temple (cf. Ezek. 8).

Yet this law of centralization emphasizes that God is Lord, even over the

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manner of his worship. He is not to be found everywhere and at all times—whether in and through the processes and scenes of nature, as the Canaanites believed, or mirrored in the actions of any human state or person, as the Mesopotamians and Egyptians with their divine kings and vicars professed. No, says our passage, God is to be found and worshiped only at that place where he chooses to put his name (vs. 5, 11, 13-14). Only there will he make himself available to his people. Only when he draws near to that site, can he be found (cf. Isa. 55:6). The law gives the lie to every absolutizing of human and natural structures, and prevents every thought that God can be summoned at human will.

In the light of such law, it seems significant, then, that the New Tes­tament emphasizes that Jesus Christ alone is the bearer of God's name (cf. John 17:6, 26; 5:43; 10:25; 12:28; 14:13-14; 20:31), that he alone is the way to the Father (14:6), and that "there is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved" (Acts 4:12; cf. 2:21; 3:16; 9:21; 10:43; etc.). God is still to be found only at that place—become a person, in the New Testament—where he puts his name. Jesus has re­placed Jerusalem, with its temple, as the one through whom God is to be worshiped. (Cf. in this connection our Lord's claim to replace the temple in John 2:19; also Mark 14:58 and par.).

Similarly, in this passage in Deuteronomy, the promised land is de­scribed as the place of "rest" (vs. 9-10), which is a prominent motif throughout the Deuteronomic History. The Epistle to the Hebrews catches up this motif, in chapters 3 and 4, to identify Jesus with the promised "rest" (cf. Heb. 3:14). The promised land also, like its temple, has become incarnate in our Lord—a thought of the utmost significance, incidentally, for evaluations of the modern Zionist movement. Israel and the new Israel in Christ find their fulfillment, not in the land of Palestine, but in Jesus Christ.

Such are some of the possibilities that grow out of this hermeneutical approach.

PREACHING T H E COMMANDMENTS

Ultimately, in preaching from Deuteronomy, the question arises, What does it mean to love God? Love, as we have seen from this book, is acted out in obedience to God's commandments. Love in Deuteronomy is always a verb, an action, never simply an inner emotion. God's love toward Israel consisted in his deliverance of her out of Egypt, his guidance of her through the wilderness, and his gift to her of the promised land (cf. 26:5-9). So too Israel's love toward God was to be active obedience in response to his love. But what is the content ofthat obedience? Concretely,

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what does God command? All of the laws in Deuteronomy are intended to spell out the answer. They are explications of what it means to love God; and in preaching from them, the homiletician has a wealth of subjects with which to deal and can select from among the commandments materials to fit the situation of the congregation.

Once again let it be emphasized that these are commandments designed as guides in the life of the already-redeemed—to be used in the manner of Calvin's third use of the law, if you will. They do not establish the relationship with God but give guidance about how to live in the relation­ship which has already been effected by God.

Many of the commandments of Deuteronomy are no longer relevant to our lives, of course. For example, we no longer have Lévites (18:1-8), or wear robes with tassels (22:12), or lack modern plumbing (23:12—13). Some of the laws have been directly countermanded or transformed and deepened by our Lord (Mark 10:2-12 vs. Deut. 24:1-4; Matt. 5:21 vs. Deut. 5:17; Matt. 5:27 vs. Deut. 5:18; Matt. 5:38 vs. Deut. 19:21). Yet it is amazing how often the intention of the commandments remains fully valid for Christians and is confirmed by the teachings of Jesus. If we ask, What does it mean to love God? Deuteronomy replies:

It means to show liberality and kindness toward the poor (Deut. 15:1-18; 23:19-20; 24:14-15, 19-22).

It means to respect your neighbor's property (19:14; 23:24-25) and his dignity as a human being (24:10-11), even if he is a criminal being punished (25:1-3).

It means to protect your neighbor against accidents (22:8) and to help him out when he has suffered loss (22:1-4).

It means to practice justice in a court of law (16:18—20; 19:15-21; 24:17-18) and in all business and commerce (25:13-16).

It means to recognize that there is a sphere of justice belonging to God, beyond human justice (19:1-10).

It means to protect the realm of nature, as stewards of God's good creation (20:19-20; 22:6-7; 25:4; 5:14).

It means to foster the well-being of the family (24:5; 22:13-21, 22, 30), and to protect the chastity of the unmarried (22:23—29).

In short, it means to construct a society which reflects the justice, the love, and the mercy of God (cf. 5:15; 15:15; 16:12; 24:18, 22)—surely a new phenomenon in the history of humankind! "We love because he first loved us." That affirmation from I John 4:19 characterizes most of Deuteronomy's laws.

Yet to love God, in the view of this book, is also to worship him in sincerity and truth. It means to offer him worthy and costly sacrifices

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(17:1 ; 23:18), and to intend sincerely in one's heart what one says and vows to him (23:21-23). It means to acknowledge with one's gifts his ownership of creation (15:19—20; 26:1 — 11), and to thank him with grateful hearts for his bounty bestowed.

Indeed, worship in Deuteronomy is above all ajoyful occasion. Whether the occasion is one of the three great, yearly, pilgrimage feasts (16:1-17), the payment of a vow, a tithe, or a freewill offering (12:1-19; 14:22-29), a special day of commemoration (27:1-8), or the offering of the first fruits (26:1 — 11), the thought always is that Israel shall "rejoice before the Lord" (12:7, 12, 18; 14:26; 16:11, 14; 26:11; 27:7), because she is worshiping a God who has first loved her.

The preacher has ample opportunity to spell out from these passages what it means to be the covenant community and to live according to the will of God and not the will of human beings or the will of the culture surrounding the church.

SOME LECTIONARY T E X T S

Deuteronomy 8:11—20 is one of the stated texts for the yearly celebra­tion of Thanksgiving Day, and as such, it is often used to remind the congregation that material blessings stem ultimately from God's hand and not from our own. Yet the text has to do with much more than material goods. Verse 17 is its heart: "Beware lest you say in your heart, 'My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.' " The passage has to do with reliance on God for all life and all power for salvation. It reminds that the goods of creation come from God, to be sure. But it also recalls that it was God alone who redeemed us out of slavery (v. 14), who has sustained our life in the face of every danger and need (vs. 15—16), who has corrected us with his fatherly discipline (v. 16), who leads us toward the fulfillment of our lives in his promised land or kingdom (implied by the context of vs. 8—10), who empowers us for our daily tasks (v. 18), who keeps all his promises to us (v. 18), and who guides us by his living Word (v. 11). By recounting the history of what God has done for us, the text gives enormous cause for thanksgiving!

Deuteronomy 18:15-22 is a stated text for the Epiphany season in some lectionaries. It contains the promise that God will raise up for his covenant people a prophet like Moses, whom they are to "heed" or listen to. Probably every prophet in Israel was understood to stand in this Mosaic line—certainly the call of Jeremiah (1:4—10) reflects such an under­standing. Yet by New Testament times there had arisen the expectation of a special, eschatological prophet like Moses, and this expectation is re­flected in John 1:21, 25; 6:14; 7:40. In Acts 3:22-23 and 7:37, then, Jesus

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Plumbing the Riches Interpretation

is specifically indentified as this Mosaic prophet. Such a comparison with Moses is also made in Matthew, where so many incidents in Jesus' life parallel those in Moses' and where Jesus becomes the new Moses, giving the new law on the new mount for the new people of God (Matt. 5—7).

If one looks at the figure of Moses in Deuteronomy, it is not hard to see why our Lord is compared with him. Moses is the covenant mediator in Deuteronomy, who speaks God's commandments to his people (5:22-33), as we have seen. Yet Moses is far more than that in Deuteronomy. There is none like him, says Deuteronomy 34:10—12, "whom the Lord knew face to face." He is the intercessor for his people, spending forty days and forty nights in prayer on the mountain, that God may forgive Israel for their sin of the golden calf (9:15-21) and again undergoing the same strenuous asceticism for the people's sin in the wilderness (9:22-29). Moses is a suffering intercessor, whose final act on behalf of his people is to die outside of the promised land for the sin of Israel, in order that she may enter into her fulfillment (3:23-26; 1:37). In Numbers 20:12 and 27:15-16, as well as in a later insertion into Deuteronomy (32:48-52), Moses cannot enter the land because of his own sin. But in Deuteronomy, he dies outside of the land for Israel's sin. It is not hard to draw parallels with the sacrifice of our Lord. Moses is not the Son of God, to be sure, but this towering figure was borrowed by the gospel writers to help explain who Jesus Christ is.

Finally, Deuteronomy 34:1 —12 is a stated lesson for Transfiguration, the last Sunday in the Epiphany season. In the passage, Moses goes to the top of Pisgah's ridge to view the promised land from afar. He sees the final fulfillment of God's promise to the fathers stretching out before him, just as Peter, James, and John sec the final outcome of Jesus' life and death in the transfigured Christ—risen, glorious, Lord triumphant, God's purpose fulfilled—with the Law and the Prophets, symbolized by Moses and Elijah, sharing in his kingdom come (Luke 9:28—36). Significantly, in Luke's account, a voice from heaven borrows a phrase from Deuteronomy 18:15: "This is my Chosen; Listen to Him y

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