Dt. 32: The Ballad of Moses

Deuteronomy 32:31 "For their rock is not like our Rock, as even our enemies concede."

Deuteronomy 32 is an epic song. It is God's Stairway to Heaven. It's got it all really...imagery, metaphor...curses, challenges. There's a lot going on.

Moses begins by acknowledging how just God is. Which would be hard for me if I all I did was screw up and hit the rock, while Israel parties like it's 1999 BC. Nevertheless, Moses says that the LORD is "a faithful God who does no wrong." Not "who can do no wrong." Does no wrong. Big difference.

How does Israel repay? Corruption. Foolishness.

Then Moses gives a musical history lesson about how God guided Israel through the desert, shielding them, guarding them, feeding them.

Through Leviticus and Numbers I've read about how the Levites don't inherit land. Instead, their portion is God. Very interesting here in verse 9, where it states "For the LORD's portion is his people, Jacob his allotted inheritance." It's a ponderous verse to me with a lot of meaning. I thought it would be lame for Levites to watch all these other nations receive land and amass wealth, and their lot is ... a whole lot of responsibility. Their lot is to be a mediator between God and men. I never thought about God having an inheritance. And it is Israel. Who treats Him as a non-entity. Hard to believe that men, God's children are His inheritance. Do you see yourself as an inheritance to God? What kind of inheritance are you? And it makes me wonder...

Verses 15-18 appear to be a description of how Israel, fat on the blessings of God, grow lazy in their faith. Is that possible? Can God bless someone too much? O, that God would bless me too much indeed. Then, presumably, the choice is up to me if I grow in my own self-satisfaction and self-confidence, and turn away, and to "gods that recently appeared" (v. 17).

Then up until around verse 35, its more curses. The calamaties that God will "heap upon them." Too much? Would God withhold the ultimate judgment, blotting their name out from the memory of mankind? Yes. As God says in verse 27, "I dreaded the taunt of the enemy, lest the adversary misunderstand and say, 'Our hand has triumphed; the LORD has not done all this.'" Basically, their enemies would proclaim themselves the victor over God. God would not be strong enough to preserve His own people. Nothing tries the omnipotent's patience like the free will of his underlings. This would serve to legitimize false gods.

In reading through the song of Moses, you get the idea that you definitely want to be on God's side.

Then God tells Moses to go up a hill and die. Pshhh...read it, he does!

Dt. 21: Hang 'Em High

Deuteronomy 21:8 "Accept this atonement for your people Israel, whom you have redeemed, O LORD, and do not hold your people guilty of the blood of an innocent man." And the bloodshed will be atoned for."

What do you do when you find a body of a slain man lying in a field? In Israel's day they went to the town nearest the body (they measured it) and broke a heifer's neck to atone for the shedding of blood. Assuming God knew who killed who at all times, I wonder how He dealt with the person? Was this neck-breaking of this heifer enough for atonement? The way I read it, it serves to absolve a certain city of the crime, not the murderer himself...or herself. I guess chicks could murder dudes.

What happens to the women taken in plunder? I thought orgies, but I was wrong. Verses 10-14 explain that marriage is the deal. Sexual slavery was not recommended. The wife had to go through a purification process, and was actually given a month to mourn mom and dad, but eventually, she was a total wife.

So...you marry a chick, have a son, stop loving the chick, and marry another chick. Chick two bares you a son. Who gets the inheritance? This practice wasn't condoned, but kids had to deal with their parents' screw ups. The first son, the symbol of strength, gets the inheritance.

Parents can stone a rebellious son! They can punish and punish, but if he's that naughty, he can be stoned at the city gate, upon approval of the elders. This was a deterrent to strike fear into the hearts of rebellious sons everywhere. I'd sit up and take notice if this happened to a drin...to a buddy of mine.

If a man does something dastardly enough to warrant a hanging from a tree, he is not to be left there overnight. God's curse is on him. Is this law to protect the tree? Again we see trees/creation subject to man's actions. A tree is a life giving thing. I think this is a lot like the law to not boil a lamb in its mother's milk.

Nu. 36: Zelophehad's Daughers...In Law

Numbers 36:7 "No inheritance in Israel is to pass from tribe to tribe, for every Israelite shall keep the tribal land inherited from his forefathers."

And the loose end is tied up in the final chapter of Numbers. What becomes of the land inherited by Zelophehad's daughters? recap

Of course they were able to inherit land, but now their kinsmen from Gilead wanted to know just what was going to happen to this land, their tribal land, when the Fab Five got married. If they married outside their clan, the land would tribal inheritance of whichever clan one the single sister lottery at the Year of Jubilee.

I remember suggesting that these women marry some dude, and just inherit his land, but God prepares a way from women to be able to own land. Which is just unheard of. How can women own land? They're women. I speak tongue-in-cheek, of course, but at this point, women aren't exactly held up as bastions of responsibility and legal status. If women wanted to keep their land in their tribe, they had to marry someone from their own tribal clan.

Additionally, no inheritance was able to pass from tribe to tribe. It was already tried with Jacob and Esau, and that was unpleasant.