Saturday, December 06, 2003
Deuteronomy Chapter 12
Deuteronomy 12:8-9 (8) You shall not act as we are acting here today, all of us according to our own desires, (9) for you have not yet come into the rest and the possession that the LORD your God is giving you.
when we come into our "rest" -- the possession that the Lord is giving -- then we will no longer act according to our own desires. In modern American civil society, that is a strange thought for the highest good is to be able for each one to act according to his or her own desires in so far as that acting does not impinge on the other's ability to act on their desires. But this anarchy of selfishness will be replaced by something else when we enter our rest. Perhaps that something else will be an ability to act more according to the goodness which God intended for us from the beginning of creation. Perhaps we will act more like mutually loving people who care for one another and for the weakest among us.
In fact, this passage has in mind a central place to worship God. see v. 11. To my modern individualistic ear that sounds oppressive: the control of the priests over the worship of God; the money changers in the Temple. But that is not what Moses has in mind:
Deuteronomy 12:17b-18 the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, the firstlings of your herds and your flocks, any of your votive gifts that you vow, your freewill offerings, or your donations; (18) these you shall eat in the presence of the LORD your God at the place that the LORD your God will choose, you together with your son and your daughter, your male and female slaves, and the Levites resident in your towns, rejoicing in the presence of the LORD your God in all your undertakings.
What Moses has in mind is the great communal festival of the tithe-feast. See chapter 14. As a concession, Moses says that we can feast in our own towns as well (Deuteronomy 12:15 according to the blessing that the LORD your God has given you). But the great feast where we bring a tenth of all our produce in an enormous party, that we are to do together as a whole people. Not "all of us according to our own desires," but together when we have entered into our "rest." It is abhorrent that we should think only of our own pleasure or only of the wellbeing of our immediate family.
click on "comments" below to discuss this. Thanks!
when we come into our "rest" -- the possession that the Lord is giving -- then we will no longer act according to our own desires. In modern American civil society, that is a strange thought for the highest good is to be able for each one to act according to his or her own desires in so far as that acting does not impinge on the other's ability to act on their desires. But this anarchy of selfishness will be replaced by something else when we enter our rest. Perhaps that something else will be an ability to act more according to the goodness which God intended for us from the beginning of creation. Perhaps we will act more like mutually loving people who care for one another and for the weakest among us.
In fact, this passage has in mind a central place to worship God. see v. 11. To my modern individualistic ear that sounds oppressive: the control of the priests over the worship of God; the money changers in the Temple. But that is not what Moses has in mind:
Deuteronomy 12:17b-18 the tithe of your grain, your wine, and your oil, the firstlings of your herds and your flocks, any of your votive gifts that you vow, your freewill offerings, or your donations; (18) these you shall eat in the presence of the LORD your God at the place that the LORD your God will choose, you together with your son and your daughter, your male and female slaves, and the Levites resident in your towns, rejoicing in the presence of the LORD your God in all your undertakings.
What Moses has in mind is the great communal festival of the tithe-feast. See chapter 14. As a concession, Moses says that we can feast in our own towns as well (Deuteronomy 12:15 according to the blessing that the LORD your God has given you). But the great feast where we bring a tenth of all our produce in an enormous party, that we are to do together as a whole people. Not "all of us according to our own desires," but together when we have entered into our "rest." It is abhorrent that we should think only of our own pleasure or only of the wellbeing of our immediate family.
click on "comments" below to discuss this. Thanks!
