Deuteronomy contains issues that are difficult to understand when viewed through the narrow lens of our 21st century Western culture. However, when cast in the context of the entirety of Scripture, these topics provide unique insight into the perfect balance of God's love, patience and the one thing our society is currently clamoring for - justice. Below is a brief summary of some of the ways to deal with these difficutlies. Join us this Sunday after our Gathering for an informal discussion on this topic as well.

Will Parker

Our common enemies (Eph 6:12[1]) effectively exploit misunderstandings in scripture to build stumbling blocks, making some people question God. When taken out of the centuries long context in which it was written, it’s tough to understand why certain commands are given to the Israelites, specifically the war time commands in Deuteronomy 20 and the commands regarding sexual purity in Deuteronomy 22. Richard Dawkins, the famous atheist and evolutionary biologist wrote, “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant characters in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” [2] This comes from his book The God Delusion which was on the New York Times best sellers list for 22 weeks, selling 3.3 million copies. The odds that someone you know has read this book are high, more likely you know an atheist who holds similar views.

These are tough issues and at times we gloss over them, chalking them up to just being something weird in the Old Testament. What we fail to understand is that our neighbors question these very things and we need to be prepared to engage in dialogue. More importantly though, understanding why God dealt with these issues as He did will help us to better understand and worship Him rightly. To understand these issues we must look first at the nature of sin, Israel’s unique relationship with God, as well as the historical and cultural context the Israelites were in [3]. As we look at these areas and study God’s word, we will come closer to understanding why this happened, equipping ourselves to engage the culture around us in a loving, gentle manner that is rooted in the truth of God.

The Nature of Sin

When taken out of context, certain aspects of God's justice are viewed as barbaric by some in 21st Century Western culture. Postmodern culture posits that human nature is fundamentally good and, while people have some character flaws, it’s nothing that serious. God does not see it that way. In Romans Paul writes about the seriousness of sin, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth.” Romans 1:18. “They are without excuse.” Romans 1:20. “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator.” Romans 1:25. “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Romans 3:23. “For the wages of sin is death.” Romans 6:23.

The consequences of sin are death. We all deserve nothing more than the consequences of our offenses against God. “Rather than being surprised God will finally judge people for their sins (even in great numbers), perhaps we should be shocked that he waits so long to do it. Every one of us is alive and breathing solely because of God’s incredible patience and grace.” [4] Michael Kruger.

Israel’s Relationship with God

“I will dwell among the people of Israel and will be their God.” Exodus 29:45. God was living with Israel. His presence was among them. He would not allow them to worship other gods or idols and remain in relationship with Him. Imagine if your spouse was cheating on you but said, “You can stay. You don’t have to go. It’s all good there’s room for both of you.” That is effectively what Israel would be saying to God by worshipping something other than God. See Romans 1:25 [5]. This is why in Deuteronomy 7:2 and 20:17 God orders Israel, in the context of war, to wipe out the people of the Hittites, Amorites, Canaanites, Perizzites, Hivites, and the Jebusites. Had Israel allowed them to live, Israel would have begun to worship their gods. God would not tolerate this sin if he were to dwell with Israel and maintain them as His people. Israel’s sin would have meant that God’s presence would leave them and He would allow them to be conquered by other nations [6]. God did this to protect his chosen people through whom he was going to redeem the world and to demonstrate the seriousness of the sin of worshipping false gods.

God, at times, used Israel to execute judgment on the sins of the people of that day. Israel definitely was not without fault and God punished them as well, as is seen throughout Biblical history. God is the only one who is able to justly punish. Often we get upset because it seems unfair, but we have to remember that the reason it seems unfair is that human life has value. This value comes from being imago dei, made in the image of God. This is why it is wrong for one person to take another’s life and why we are offended by death. God, being our creator, sustainer, and our source of value has the right to take life and is just in doing so.

The Cultural Context

In America, we base our concept of rights upon the individual. “We hold these truths to be self evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights.” [7] This comes directly from our founding document, and these words ring familiar to us. This concept of individual rights was not the case for Biblical Israel. Iron age Israel based societal standing on the family unit [8]. As such, whatever maintained the family was essential. Ancient Israel was primarily a subsistence farming society. Societal standing for both women and men came through their family. For a woman her standing came through her father, her husband, or her son [9]. It was a primary duty of a father to ensure that his daughter was married to a husband who could support her and take care of her. Back then resources were scarce, famine was common and there were, “hungry months” [10] where there wasn’t enough food to go around. People were barely scraping together enough food for their family. It was essential then to be a part of a family to take care of you.

This is why there was such a focus on the sanctity and importance of sex. If there were to be additional mouths to feed, it was important that they were of your family, and back then the only way to know that children were legitimate was if the woman was a virgin on her wedding night [11]. All of this seems backwards to us but for their society it was how they took care of each person because to not be part of a family meant that you would not survive. These families would live in small villages of only a few hundred people. As such, there would be close observation of other family members.

In Deuteronomy 22:28 [12], the woman who marries her rapist would have societal standing, be taken care of, and have a safety net. Not only was her new husband commanded not to divorce her, he had to pay the full bride price to her father so if anything happened to her, there was a safety net for her to go back to. Additionally, her father could refuse to allow the marriage to happen, continuing to take care of her and provide for her with the offender paying the bride price [13]. The dowery acted as a form of insurance such that she would be able to go back to her old family if things went wrong [14]. In Israel, society was valued more than individual rights, but protections were put in place to ensure individuals were not left out of society with no social standing and no ability to provide for themselves.

One other key thing to recognize is that God entered into Israel’s pre-existing culture from when they were in Egypt and met them where they were. We can see this when Moses allowed men to divorce their wives by issuing them a certificate of divorce. Jesus was asked about this and in Matthew 19:8 replied, “Because of your hardness of heart Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so.” We can see here that what was permitted in Deuteronomy was not God’s ultimate purpose for his creation. It was his final word on the matter due to their stiffness of heart in order to establish a covenant and maintain them as a people. In the end, God was using Israel’s imperfections and sin to show how he loves us and is faithful to us no matter what we have done. God’s enduring faithfulness to Israel is a testament to his love and points us to the cross where he put sin to death once and for all.

Conclusion

To understand Deuteronomy we need to look at the implications of sin, Israel’s unique position with God, and Israel’s culture to correctly interpret what is written. This is important as we look at God’s word to rightly understand it, and as we engage with the culture and our neighbors around us. In no way is this discussion the final answer on these topics, and there are many other difficult topics not discussed, but when we approach them from a humble heart we will be best prepared to both engage our culture and to learn from God’s word.

Footnotes

[1] Ephesians 6:12 “12 For we are not fighting against flesh-and-blood enemies, but against evil rulers and authorities of the unseen world, against mighty powers in this dark world, and against evil spirits in the heavenly places.”

[2] Dawkins, Richard. The God Delusion. Black Swan, 2016.

[3] Historical context in a nutshell: The Israelites were well aware of the 400 year history of willful rebellion and sin against God (Genesis 15:13-16#), and the longstanding hatred these peoples wittingly bore towards Yahweh (Deut 7:10). His instructions for their destruction were just the final sentences closing out a very long chapter.

[4] Kruger, Michael J, et al. “Is God Guilty of Genocide?” The Gospel Coalition, The Gospel Coalition, 18 Nov. 2019, www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/god-guilty-genocide/.

[5] Romans 1:25 “they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator.”

[6] Deuteronomy 28:36, “The Lord will bring you and your king whom you set over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone.”

[7] “Declaration of Independence: A Transcription.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcript.

[8] Richter, Sandra. “Sexual Violence against Women and the Ot Law.” Think Biblically - Biola University Blogs, 16 Aug. 2021, www.biola.edu/blogs/think-biblically/2020/sexual-violence-against-women.

[9] Richter, Sandra

[10] Richter, Sandra

[11] Richter, Sandra

[12] Deuteronomy 22:28-29 “If a man meets a virgin who is not betrothed, and seizes her and lies with her, and they are found, then the man who lay with her shall give to the father of the young woman fifty shekels of silver, and she shall be his wife, because he has violated her. He may not divorce her all his days.”

[13] Exodus 22:16-17 “If a man seduces a virgin who is not betrothed and lies with her, he shall give the bride-price for her and make her his wife. If her father utterly refuses to give her to him, he shall pay money equal to the bride-price for virgins.”

[14] Richter, Sandra