BibleProject | One Story That Leads to JesusSample

Peer pressure often feels strongest from friends and family. In today’s reading, Moses warns the Israelites to guard against insider threats to covenant faithfulness. It doesn’t matter if it’s coming from their best friend, brother, or even spouse—they are to resist any voice tempting them to trust someone or something other than Yahweh.

Like a cancerous tumor, the choice to trust idols threatens to metastasize into national ruin, threatening the survival of Israel’s entire community. To kill the tumor, Israel’s law prescribes aggressive treatment for defiant towns. Any Israelite city that chooses to follow Canaan’s idols will receive the same consequences that Canaan experienced—de-creation and death.

These laws also include critical safeguards. Accusations of citywide idolatry are to be followed by careful investigation. If proven true, the town’s property becomes a burnt offering to Yahweh. Safeguarding regulations like these prevent the greedy and powerful from lying to take their neighbors’ possessions.

Faithfulness to Yahweh means more than avoiding idolatry. Trusting and following God also involves caring for the poor. Every year, Israelite families were to bring a tenth of their income, a tithe, to Yahweh’s temple for the priests and the Levites. Every third year, the tithe would go to the poor. Yahweh’s generosity is supposed to form the foundation of Israel’s economic and religious system. Rich or poor, God’s blessing overflows to everyone.

Reflection Questions

• The collection of laws in Deuteronomy 12-26 is arranged following the Ten Commandments. How might the laws in today’s reading help you understand what it means for Israel to “have no other gods before Yahweh,” to avoid idols, and to uphold Yahweh’s name and reputation in their community?
• Israelite towns are not exempt from God’s judgment against idolatry. What does this tell you about the nature of God’s justice?