The Law and the Land

A few years ago now there was a popular teaching in Christian circles. It involved thinking about how we live our lives in between the time that we are born and the time we die. And I remember being particularly struck by it because my mentor at seminary had used it as an illustration of a principle in one of his Old Testament classes.

The illustration went like this. Dr. David Lamb,, my instructor in Old Testament at Missio Seminary began by placing a photoshopped image of his tombstone on the PowerPoint. It was quite shocking to us because you often don’t think about a living person having a tombstone already prepared, right? And then he told us, don’t focus so much on the date of birth. And don’t even think too long about the date that I will die (I think he guessed at a date, I don’t remember really). Instead, he said, focus on that dash in between. That small little character between the date you are born and the date you die—that’s all the life that you get. And we never quite know how long that period of the dash will be, so make sure you do well, do as much good as you can, and leave a legacy to the next generation. Ever after that teaching I always tried to remember this idea of “living in the dash”—that time between 1980 when I was born and the time in the (hopefully) distant future when I meet my maker. What kind of legacy do I want to leave to the next generation? What kind of memories do I want to impress upon others? How would I like to be thought of when I’m no longer here?

All of these are really good questions for reflection in our own lives. How might we want to be remembered? Besides our stuff, which most people think of more as a burden than an inheritance, what do we want to leave to future generations.

The Legacy of Israel

This idea of leaving a legacy isn’t a new one though. In fact, I would argue that for the people of Israel, that was precisely a part of their mission in the world. They were to be as Exodus told us last time, “A light to the nations.” They were to be “a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.”

In other words, the story of Israel was intended to be something like “Humanity 2.0” But to make full sense of that we need to first review where we’ve been so far and then tell a bit more of the story. And that is precisely what we’re going to do today, tell more of Israel’s story.

But Israel’s story is just a small part of humanity’s story, right? And humanity’s story begins right at the start of the Biblical narrative. The Lord God created the heaven’s and earth as a grand cosmic Temple for his presence to dwell. He formed the realms of the planet earth and then he filled them with creatures. Finally he created humans in the very image of God, male and female. These humans were to be bearers of the glory of God throughout the world, mediating the presence of God to all creation.

Then in Genesis two the story narrows down to a small patch of land, what was to be the Holy of Holies in this cosmic Temple, the Garden of Eden. There man created an Adam, a human being. But it was not good for this human to be alone, so this human was split into two. The man and the woman, created not from his head so she should rule over him, nor from his feet that she should be subject to him, but from his side so that she would be co-equal with him. And together they were to keep and guard the Garden.

But the serpent, a wily creature and very subtle in his craftiness, he challenged God’s word to them tempting them to become even more like God, as if that were possible. What he actually did was to question the good boundaries that God had set up in the Garden. But for this disobedience a true fall from grace occurred. The image of God was shattered. Shame, guilt, and blame became the consequences of this first sin. And the primal pair were exiled east of Eden never to eat from the tree of life.

But God remained faithful. A little while later as humanity sunk from disobedience to murder and worse God regretted what he had made and flooded the world to purge it of evil and start again. He choose another man and woman, Noah and his wife to be Adam and Eve to a new population of humans in the Middle East. They too were to be fruitful and multiply and fill the land again with people. But Noah soon feel to temptation and humanity descended downward. At Babel the people tired of waiting for God and in their pride they built a tower to heaven to bring God down.

And God did come down, but he proved how futile any efforts of coercing God could be by scattering these people to the four winds and confusing their language so they would fulfill their purpose by multiplying across the world.

But even then, God was not done. From this renewed people God choose one man and one woman to form a people for himself. Abram and Sarai were again to function like Adam and Eve once more. But instead of filling the entire earth, they were going to re-create Eden, the sanctuary of the earth. From Abraham and Sarah, to which God made unbreakable promises of a land, an heir, and abundant blessings was to come a people, the people of Israel. Even when Abraham failed, which he did, God remained faithful to the promises. And from Abraham’s son Isaac came the line of promise. From Isaac’s son Jacob came a family line of twelve sons and many daughters. And from these twelve sons came the people that were called Israel—the people that wrestled with God.

But a time came when the Pharaoh who let Joseph rule Egypt died. And then generations later, a new Pharaoh, alarmed by just how well Israel had been fruitful and multiplied, oppressed the people by enslaving them and trying to kill all the male children. But God heard the cries of his people and led them out of slavery.

God worked judgment against all the petty gods of Egypt in the plagues and then against Pharaoh himself in the plague of the firstborn. Yet this plague passed over the Jewish people, a feat still remembered by Jews to this day. But even then Pharaoh was not done pursuing Israel. So God worked the great wonder of the Exodus at the Red Sea. The Israelites crossed over on dry land but the pursuing Egyptians were drowned as the waters crashed against them.

Immediately following this great miracle of deliverance, God made a covenant with all of Israel. And this covenant was, in essence, a Royal Marriage between God and God’s people. And the boundaries of that marriage was laid out in the Law of Moses summarized in the Ten Commandments.

From Law to Land

And that is where we will pick up our story for today. Israel now seemed poised for success. They had fulfilled their potential by being fruitful and multiplying, going from 70 souls to hundreds of thousands of women and men in just a few generations. And what’s more, they now had God in their midst. God commanded that a tabernacle be built so that God’s very presence could once again go with the people in their new portable Garden of Eden.

What could go wrong, right? Well, everything it seems. For what happens next in the story is that spies are sent in to go and view the land that God had promised to give to the Israelites. Twelve men are sent in and they are to report back. But most of these men give a bad report. In short, they are scared witless by the inhabitants of the land. Now granted, the land is wonderful and abundant, but the people who live there are massive and mighty.

And between that and grumbling, grumbling, grumbling, the people of Israel don’t get to go right into the land. Why? Disobedience is the primary reason, but secondly, it’s obvious that they just aren’t ready. They don’t trust God enough to give them the victory. And so, a forty year period of preparation must occur before they are ready.

During this forty year period they learn from God through Moses and the elders. They get practice obeying God’s Law. They see God’s miracles as daily they are provided the Bread of Heaven in the form of Manna and they have their fill of quail and water, even in dry land.

And that brings us to the Book of Deuteronomy, the last book of the Torah, or the Law of Moses (Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, the Pentateuch or Five Books of Moses).

And what is Deuteronomy? Well, it is a Greek word actually. In Hebrew the books really don’t have names per se. In fact they are simply called by the first word of the book. Because in most forms these separate books actually form one scroll, the Torah scroll which you might have seen if you’ve ever been to a synagogue.

But we get our title from the Greek version of the Old Testament, the Septuagint produced much later when Hebrew was not a very commonly spoken language and the majority of the world spoke Greek as a common universal language. And the Greek translators gave this book the title Deuteros Nomos which means “Second Law.”

Second Law, that kind of makes sense, because what the book of Deuteronomy is, in essence, is an extended sermon in which Moses is challenging the people of Israel to keep the Law that they were given at Sinai. The entire book is just one huge attempt by Moses to get Israel to keep the main thing the main thing.

And at the center of this book is something called the Shema, the chief prayer of the Jewish people all down through history and continuing to this day. At it’s core it goes like this: Deut 6:4-9

Deuteronomy 6:4–9 NASB 2020

“Hear, Israel! The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These words, which I am commanding you today, shall be on your heart. And you shall repeat them diligently to your sons and speak of them when you sit in your house, when you walk on the road, when you lie down, and when you get up. You shall also tie them as a sign to your hand, and they shall be as frontlets on your forehead. You shall also write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.

We know part of this right? We know the Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. Why? Because Jesus quotes this passage as a part of what he calls the Greatest Commandment (the other part being love your neighbor as yourself from Leviticus 19:18. )

But what is this other stuff surrounding it? What is this about binding up the testimony?

Well, here is where legacy comes in. The legacy of an Israelite to his or her children was to be not just the family land, but the Law of the Lord as well. It was the parents’ responsibility to inculcate to the children a godly legacy by teaching them to obey everything that God had commanded. Israel is to be one big school in which the lessons are about life and love of God and neighbor.

And at the end of the book, in our second Scripture for the day, Moses gives them one last challenge before he himself dies. He presents to them a stark choice: Obey the Law and leave a godly legacy for your future and things will go well. You will be blessed and you will dwell for a long time in the good land. Or, if you disobey, if you fail to teach your daughters and sons, you will choose death instead. You will be cursed and the land will vomit you out and cleanse itself. And finally Moses commands them to choose life and live in the land.

And immediately after, Moses dies and the mantle of leadership is passed down to Joshua, one of the faithful spies who brought back a good report about the land and one Moses himself had been mentoring for some time to take over his role. Between Joshua and the Elders of Israel, the people seemed now poised to take the land of promise. Their forty years of wandering had come to and end and they were strong and obedient enough to take possession of Canaan.

And the rest of the book of Joshua is the story of just how they did it. This is not a very pleasant book at times, if I’m honest. And the story of forcing people out of their land is not a comfortable one. But know this. It was God who was in charge of this. God had seen the wickedness of the people. God knew that they were idol worshippers. God knew that as a regular part of their worship they engaged in sacred prostitution and orgiastic festivals of sexual sin. They also knew that the children born at these festivals were more often than not sacrificed—murdered to please their fertility gods and godesses. And God knew that this had to be stopped. This had to be cleansed so that Israel would not follow in this horrid path themselves and be tempted by this pagan practice. A lot more could be said about the so-called conquest, but time does not allow it right now. But if you want more information and a nuanced view, I can recommend some resources I have that you can borrow.

Now, for the most part it seems that Israel was successful at God’s hand. But then we flip over to Judges and we get a more nuanced picture. Israel drove out some of the inhabitants, it is true. Some even were wiped out. But there was this one group in Gibeon in which they were tricked to make a treaty with. And there was Rahab who was grafted in to God’s family as she converted. And what was her profession? Prostitute and Inn Keeper. And where else do we find her? That’s right, in Jesus’ own genealogy.

Judges though tells us that Israel was a bit less than successful. That not all the people were put out of the land. And that maybe Joshua was a little optimistic in its take on Israel’s so-called success. In fact, it seems that quite a few of the people groups had been left in the land. And indeed, it seems that God meant it that way.

You see, God knew that Israel was hanging on by a thread. That you could take the people out of Egypt but it took a whole lot to get the Egypt out of the people. These people at heart were fearful, disobedient, and didn’t trust God. And the story of Judges is something of a downward spiral.

Sure there are some popular Bible heroes in this book. There is Ehud the left-handed Judge who slays the enemy of Israel. And then there is Deborah, the Judge who rules Israel and gives her success. And of course Samson.

But lets’ be real, right? Samson is an entertaining story precisely because he is such a boneheaded failure. He sells his soul for the sake of romance and lust, over and over again. He violates the law, his vows, and sells out his people to the Philistines. And it is only at his death that he sees the light and works revenge by basically committing suicide and taking his captors with him.

In fact, this chapter in the story of God is haunted by a stunning refrain: “At this time there was no king in Israel and everyone did what was right in their own eyes.” over and over again.

The people would sin, God would sell them into the hands of enemies as punishment. The people would cry out, God would raise up a judge to deliver them. And then the people would fall into sin again, but this time worse than the last.

Judges, friends, is not a book for children. It is violent. It is raunchy, It is a tragic farce of a book that gives the lie to the bravado of the so-called conquest found in Joshua. And these books are meant to be read together.

But also, it is a lesson for us. How do we want to be remembered? As people of God or people who served self? As people who did what was right in their own eyes or people who did what was right in God’s eyes?

Friends, we get to choose our legacy. We get to choose how we live between the dash of our birth and death.

Today I present before you the choice between life and death, blessing and curse, sin or self. Choose life. Amen.

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