Deuteronomy: At Journey's EndSample

Only one loyalty

In this middle section of Moses’ third speech it is clear that he is focusing on the first and second commandments as the core of covenant law and life. Israel had indeed seen the worship of other nations (v. 16). Their brush with Moabite religion (Num. 25), for example, must have left a sore memory, and itself constituted a clarion call to sole devotion to Yahweh. We need to remind ourselves that the ancient ‘god’ Baal is by no means a dead letter today. The ‘god’ of prosperity – of how to succeed, be productive and get rich, with its pursuit of a high Gross National Product and personal bank balance – is fully active and well cultivated in the world! 

Notice, though, how coolly Moses consigns all other religions to the realm of the ‘detestable’ (Deut. 29:17), a root bearing ‘bitter poison’ (v. 18). They are not a second source of truth, not a teacher to learn from and not a philosophy with its own quota to contribute to the universal pool of learning. They are ‘abominations’ (v. 17, NKJV). Far from finding accommodation alongside the God of Israel in a homely syncretism, they cause turning ‘away from the Lord’ (v. 18). The call to sole loyalty and exclusive devotion to God, in religious exclusivism, is total. 

This theme is taken a stage further in verses 22–29. Defection from the Lord is in every sense a killer (vv. 22– 23) – not something met with divine understanding, tolerance, leniency and acceptance, but by ‘fierce, burning anger’ (v. 24), reminiscent of the insistence of the second commandment that the Lord is ‘a jealous God’ (Ex. 20:4). Defection is all the more inexcusable in that the life of loyalty is not a matter of guesswork or speculation. The Lord has written a book (Deut. 29:20–21, 27), making his truth readily available (cf. 30:14), and he summons his people to be people of that book. This is the meaning of the great verse 29. It is easy to imagine some clever clogs in Israel being attracted to this or that pagan ‘truth’ and even congratulating himself (v. 19) – that he has penetrated deeper into things than his contemporaries, which is the attraction of a secret, esoteric religion. No, says verse 29. Leave secrets to God; your obligation is to what has been revealed. Make that enough for you.

Reflection

Treasure God’s word, as this hymn does: 

‘The Church from her dear Master received the gift divine, and still that light she lifteth o’er all the earth to shine ... It is the chart and compass that o’er life’s surging sea, mid mists and rocks and quicksands, still guides, O Christ, to Thee.’

(William Walsham How, ‘O Word of God incarnate’.)