Introduction to the Big Ten

Notes:

1st Law: Exodus 19, Leviticus, Numbers 10

2nd Law: Speeches of Moses

- Some of Law is Divine Speech (5:6-21), “the majority of it consists of instructions and teachings about the divine Will in the voice of Moses.” Arnold

Deut 5-11: Paraenesis: “Mosaic speech as exhortatory communication… maintain the covenant by observing the law.” Arnold

Deut 12-26: “Detailed collection of the teachings themselves…by a few central themes, principally the centralization of the religious cult.” Arnold

“Deuteronomic law moves from general sermonaic appeals for Torah faithfulness (Deut 5-11) to the particularization of that Torah in fastidious detail (Deut 12-26).” Arnold

These verses mark another introduction, like, now’s the time to get to work!

“The long historical discourse and sermon of Deut 1-4 are so needed for a proper understanding and reception of this Torah that they are in some senses actually a part of the Torah itself.” Arnold

Introduction to Torah comes after Interlude of the Book

Many of the verses, phrases, and places are repeats from the first 4 chapters.

1-3=Historical Summary

4=Sermon against Idolatry

v. 44: And this is the Torah

Torah=commandments, rituals, ordinances, testimonies, decrees. “It is not simply legislation or ‘legal’ but is instead the fullest form of divine revelation, bestowed to Israel as redeeming and life-giving grace, and as a means of Israel’s transformation into YHWH’s covenant partner… This text’s this is the Torah is an important turning point in the book…” Arnold

“Moses set before…” “Moses is presenting the Torah to Israel, as one depositing life-giving words for their benefit.” Arnold

v. 46: Three Prepositional Phrases: “in the Transjordan, in the valley…, in the land of Sihon…” Personal names and geographic names return to the themes of Deut 1-3, in the elaborate ‘repetitive resumption.” Arnold

5:1: “Hearing today”

Emphasis of today and making a decision to commit to covenant TODAY.

5:2: The Lord our God made a covenant with us…” US? “Deut portrays the covenant as transcending its own chronology and geography in a process of dissolving the generational boundaries. And this rhetoric is also theological, showing how YHWH’s covenant is renewable in each generation.” Arnold

5:3: How do we understand “not with our fathers.” “You are dead to me.” “Deut’s discourse has been clear that the exodus generation was destined to die in the desert because of rebellion. Yet the book also uses a transgenerational rhetoric to weave three generations together in solidarity (patriarchal, exodus, and Moabite generations), so that ideologically the children were present with their fathers at Horeb. All subsequent genrations can be said to have experienced the salvation God provided them and to have entered into relationship with YHWH and into solidarity with their ancestors in faith. And in a similar way, every generation of Christian identifies with the earliest Church as the body of Christ…. Deuteronomy, then, is the “second episode,” which providentially demonstrates how permanent and constitutive the Torah is for God’s people.” Arnold

Intimacy of the Covenant: but with us. “made a new ‘with’ each generation.” Arnold

Immediacy of the Covenant: “Here today,” versus plains of Moab. Focus on the ‘hear’ and ‘now.’

Inclusivity of the Covenant: “with us, all of us.”

v. 4: Face to face=Intimacy through the source of the voice.

v. 5: Moses as Mediator “I stood between the Lord and you at that time, to declare to you the word of the Lord… “At that time” versus “Here and now.”

IN ORDER TO ANNOUNCE… Purpose of Mediation=Sharing of the Word

Christ Purpose of Mediation=To BE the Word

Second Law=New Beginnings