The first thing that comes to mind when encountering the Deuteronomistic Theology is the fact that it could only be found in the Old Testament, in the book of Deuteronomy.
However, the Deuteronomistic Theology is extended all the way to the New Testament.
Prior to the canonization of the Holy Bible, it is possible to add additional books into the scroll, such as the book of Deuteronomy, which ended the Pentateuch. Yet this addition is enriching and does not promote inconsistency.
CONTEXTUALIZATION
Let us first take a look at the term Deuteronomy, which is a rather inaccurate term. This term first emerges from Deuteronomy 17:18: “And when He sits on the throne of His kingdom, He shall write for Himself in a book of a copy of this law, approved by the Levitical priests”.
Deuteronomy literally means "second law": deuteros being "second", and nomos being "law". However, given that it is the "second law", it does not mean that it is a second law, revealed as a replacement of the first, yet it could be understood as an expansion or reiteration of the first law given at Mt. Sinai.
We must also acknowledge that the Bible encourages contextualization, and never promotes untouchable tradition. The book of Deuteronomy is full of repetitions. In fact, the book is entitled Kitab Ulangan in Indonesian, which literally means the Book of Repetitions. Yet these repetitions are not without freshness, therefore it is not a tedious book. The book was written to remind different generations at different time periods of the law. This is contextualization.
The context which Deuteronomy 17:18 was written was after Israel entered the promised land, hence it was written to a different audience than those who were present at Mt. Sinai.
Previously, God exclusively spoke through Moses, now God spoke to the people almost directly.
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| Moses with the Ten Commandments, by Rembrandt van Rijn |
A COVENANTAL LIFE
Speaking of law, we must also speak of the structures of covenantal life. YHWH, the God of Israel is "bound" in a law-structured (torah-structured) covenantal relationship with His people.
The law is often viewed negatively at some parts of the Scripture. The book of Galatia, for instance, suggests that the law proves men’s need for the gospel due to men's incapability of fulfilling the law, according to Martin Luther. Yet in the Old Testament, especially in the book of Deuteronomy, the law is pictured as a beautiful, God-given grace to mankind, for the sake of a well-ordered community.
“More generally, these laws, both individually and in their entirety, are a gracious gift of God for the sake of life, health, and well-being of individuals in the community. This is made especially clear in the book of Deuteronomy. As Deut 5:33 puts it: these laws are given to God’s people “that you may live, and that it may go well with you, and that you may live long on the land that you are to possess.” God gives the law in the service of life. If for no other reason than that, they deserve our close attention” (Patrick Miller).
In Matthew 19, when the young rich man came to see Jesus asking what he must do to inherit eternal life, Jesus’ response was “Torah”. We could view His response from two perspectives. Jesus might intentionally make the young man aware of his incapability so he would be humbled, yet Jesus might have responded like so to make the young man live. Although, we do know the ending to that story and how the young man fell short.
Moreover, we believe in the three uses of the law. The first being pedagogical use, the law reveals the perfect righteousness of God and our own coming short of it (what Martin Luther emphasized on), the second being civil use, the law restrains evil through punishment, and we must never forget the third use of the law, that is as a normative use, the moral standards of the law provide guidance for believers as they seek to live in humble gratitude for the grace God has shown us.
Therefore, we must remember that the law also includes the rules and regulations to perform a sacrifice of atonement. Both the confession of sin and sacrifice of atonement must be done to avoid the pride of self-righteousness. Above all, we must never forget the third use of the law, that is the law as good news for those who have gained a new life in Christ.
THE CANON AND DEUTERONOMY
The book of Deuteronomy is an important part of the Pentateuch. It is located at the end of Pentateuch, being the closure of the five books of the law, and it also precedes the books of the prophets, which begins with the book of Joshua. As a closure to the Pentateuch, Deuteronomy recalls all the promises given to the ancestors of Israel, it retells the grand stories of the exodus and the events experienced by the ancestors at Mt. Sinai. But the book also includes Israel’s entering into the promised land. Deuteronomy does not only recall the previous four books but also anticipates the entering to the promised land in the book of Joshua.
This implies that the revelation of the law is not a once-and-for-all matter, but integral. The events that had happened, happened prior to Mt. Sinai, but the stories were retold according to the contextualization of the newer generations, time and places.
THE CENTER OF DEUTERONOMY
The main theological points of the book of Deuteronomy are:
- The suppression of idolatry
- Centralization of a worship place/cult centralization
- Renewal of the covenant
Furthermore, Deuteronomy focuses on the renewal of the covenant.
The covenantal formula is: “YHWH is Israel's God, and Israel is God’s people”.
This covenantal formula is resounded in Deut 7:7-8, “It was not because you were more in number than any other people that the LORD set His love on you and chose you, for you were the fewest of all peoples, but it is because the LORD loves you and is keeping the oath that He swore to your fathers, that the LORD has brought you out with a mighty hand and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt”.
There is a distinct difference between election and predestination in the systematic theology. Predestination, much connotated with God’s sovereignty, consists of double predestination (election and probation). While the election is God’s gracious act of choosing His elected, without touching on the aspect of probation. Alike, Deut 7:7-8 refers to God’s election towards Israel and the verses do not mention the gentiles’ probation. There was absolutely no reason to why God chose Israel (unconditional election), but the fact that YHWH so loved Israel. In law lies the Theology of Grace, election, and covenantal relationship. And more specifically, the covenantal relationship acts as God’s gracious act of election.
Changing gears briefly, in God’s predestination, He was not being discriminative. He loved Jacob, but not Esau (Malachi 1:3; Romans 9:13). God let Hitler and Auschwitz happened. If I were God, I would not have let Hitler existed at the first place. But He let Hitler came into existence for a divine reason, which we could never fathom nor question. The fact that God loved the insolent and weak only shows His indiscriminateness. Esau was way cooler than Jacob, he was a great hunter with a great stature, yet God chose Jacob unconditionally. The reason for His election was love, unlike us who base our love on like and dislike. We heed the rich and not the poor, which proves that at times we confirm the belief of the crooked Armenian thought.
Back on track, despite God’s unconditional love, YHWH stated His demand and requirement from Israel in Deut 7:9-11, “Know therefore that the LORD your God is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love Him and keep His commandments, to a thousand generations, and repays to their face those who hate him, by destroying them. He will not be slack with one who hates Him. He will repay him to his face. You shall, therefore, be careful to do the commandment and the statutes and the rules that I command you today”.
Verse 11 highlights the focus of the Deuteronomistic Theology (aside from other aspects such as the cult centralization, covenantal relationship, etc that we have previously discussed).
Verses 9-10 are called deed-consequence. The equivalent phrase in Indonesian is hukum tabur tuai (the law of sowing and harvesting). The shift of focus and the modern distortion of doing good deeds for the sake of harvesting blessings have begun since the ancient time.
When Job was at his lowest, Job’s friends held on firmly onto the static Deuteronomistic Theology. Their logic was that Job must have hated God because Job had an unfortunate life. We too often consider this a formula to read people’s lives: "richness if God-given, so God must have loved you because you are rich. But if you are living in poverty, God must have hated you or you must have been lacking in faith. Your unfortunate life is how God repays your bad deeds".
The problem of why the righteous suffer is mentioned and explained several times in the book of Ecclesiastes. It shows that you can, in fact, be poor and love God! A short answer to the question why the righteous suffer is that we have to hold on to God's promise that God will repay sooner or later. He does not have to do it here and now, He could repay you with a crown in heaven. Blessed are they whom God repay with a crown in heaven, unlike the Pharisees who have gained all their reward on earth here and now,
Above all, it’s important to take note that the main emphasis and focus of the Deuteronomic Theology is not in introducing a formula that may bring us blessings. But the center of the Deuteronomistic Theology is as mentioned in verse 11.
We are taught to be faithful to God at all cost because God has first been faithful to us. Yet we often focus on the promise of well-being, a good living condition, and blessings to a thousand generations, instead of focusing on the relationship. In this way, we have made our living condition a false idol. Ironically, this is the very idolatry that Deuteronomy is emphasizing for us not to do.
Deuteronomy means to fix the relationship between God and men. It is not because of men’s doing that God loves them. But by knowing God’s unconditional love, you would automatically long to love Him. This is a true relationship.
Remember when the disciples asked Jesus whether the blind was blind because of his sins or because of his parents’ sins? Jesus’ answer was for us to see the things ahead of us, and not of the past, “It was not that this man sinned, or his parents, but that the works of God might be displayed in him” (John 9:3).
Here is an example of how Jesus relativized the Deuteronomistic Theology. On the other hand, Jesus rebuked Pilate for mixing the blood of the Galileans on whom the tower of Siloam fell with the blood of animals. Jesus has also relativized the Deuteronomistic Theology by saying, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners than all the other Galileans because they suffered in this way? No, I tell you; but unless you repent, you will all likewise perish” (Luke 13:2-3).
Those men were killed by the Siloam tower and their blood mixed with those of animals. In the Bible, dying a tragic death like this is believed to be a curse.
Jesus did not deny the fact that those Galileans sinned too, because He said, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners […]”. But Jesus was revealing a progressive revelation that completes and adds richness and beauty to the Deuteronomic Theology.
Jesus did not deny the fact that those Galileans sinned too, because He said, “Do you think that these Galileans were worse sinners […]”. But Jesus was revealing a progressive revelation that completes and adds richness and beauty to the Deuteronomic Theology.
What the Deuteronomic Theology is after is the covenantal relationship between God and me, it is not interested in merely taking care of men’s living condition.
God loves us unconditionally, and the comfort is that you may love Him back and by doing so, you would harvest His blessings. So, His blessings are not the main goal.
The first to shake the Deuteronomic Theology was Satan. Satan said, “Does Job fear God for no reason? Have You not put a hedge around him and his house and all that he has, on every side? You have blessed the work of his hands, and his possessions have increased in the land. But stretch out Your hand and touch all that he has, and he will curse You to Your face” (Job 1:9-11).
Here, Satan actually held on to the correct theology, for God’s responded in agreement to Satan’s Deuteronomistic Theology, and took away Job's belongings as Satan suggested.
Immanuel Kant introduced the term “disinterested love” on aesthetics, the notion that suggests one’s love and obedience despite the removal of protection, provision, and pleasure. God agreed to put Job at stake (not in a gambling sense, because God does not gamble), He allowed the possibility of Job’s unfaithfulness to occur. Yet, Job remained faithful despite all things taken away from him.
Above all, the core of the Deuteronomistic Theology is the covenantal relationship, which asserts Deut 7:11. This could be perfectly examined from Job’s love and fear towards God at all cost.
THE DEUTERONOMIC SCHOOL
The agenda of the Deuteronomic school is catechism: the law is taught repetitively, as written on Deut 6:6-9, Deut 11:18-20, and Isaiah 57:8. The Deuteronomic school is not a physical school or college but is a movement, equivalent to the Reformed movement. What they do is to write, teach and preach about cult centralization and anti-idolatry. And they emphasize on exile as the consequence to disobeying them.
The Northern Kingdom of Israel fell first because they disobeyed cult centralization because they had Dan. The Deuteronomic school also connects this further to the golden calf event. By making the golden calf, the Israelites, like the Northern Kingdom, made their own cult centralization.
The Bible does not merely emphasize the Mosaic law, but also the covenantal relationship, election, and cult centralization, and all of these emerge in the book of Job. This is one of the reasons why the Bible is so colorful. And it is interesting in rereading the Old and New Testaments from this perspective. It is important to remember that the Deuteronomic Theology is the theology of both the Old and the New Testaments.
In 721 BC the Northern Kingdom separated themselves from the Southern Kingdom. The Southern Kingdom was involved in the reformation mentioned in 2 Kings 18:1-8. They continued to make a move during the reign of King Manasseh (687–643 BC) until the reign of King Josiah (640 to 609 BC). Then a military pressure from Babylon arose and destroyed Jerusalem, a city believed the cult center by the Zionist Theology believers (Zech 8:22; Zech 14:17). They were greatly surprised when they hear about the collapse of Jerusalem. Then, Hosea wrote that they were in exile because although they keep cult centralization, yet their hearts were far from the LORD.
The Deuteronomic school also explains why at the end of the story both the Northern and Southern Kingdoms of Israel went into exile.
The book of Joshua until the two books of Kings were historical books, yet they too contain the Deuteronomic Theology. They are not merely historical books, but they also explain how the initially victorious Israel would go into exile. In both the first and second books of Kings, it is written numerous times, “And he did what was evil in the sight of the LORD”, this too is under the Deuteronomic Theology.
Before we dig in further deeper, it is important to not relate all pericopes in the Bible to the Deuteronomic Theology, despite its significance in both the Old and New Testaments. Out of the four books of the gospel, the book of Matthew most emphasized on the Deuteronomic Theology and its law of reward and punishment. On the contrary, Paul and John emphasized not in men’s good deeds, but in God’s grace. Of course, Matthew mentioned the importance of acknowledging God’s grace, the same way Paul mentioned the importance of good deeds.
According to Matthew, what differentiates between a sheep and a lamb are good deeds, charity, serving the sick, and so on. He believed that the arch of sin is bad deeds. Matthew wrote what Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven” (Matt 7:21).
The entire Deuteronomy is very personalized, “you”, “us”, “we”, similar to the Heidelberg Catechism. The Heidelberg Catechism is very personalized as compared to the Westminster Catechism.
Heidelberg Catechism: “What is your only comfort in life and death?”
Westminster Catechism: “What is the chief end of men?”
The Calvin Institute is also very personalized and subjective by introducing the “knowledge of ourselves”, instead of the knowledge of self, which would otherwise be influenced by the enlightenment / modern culture. Nowadays, we are forbidden to write official journals in first person, as we are expected to write in a modern and academic method, and not that of a renaissance.
Lastly, I would like to address shema, Hebrew for hear. It is resounded in Deut 6:4-5, “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might”.
The emphasis is on your love towards God, not the love of chasing after a certain living condition. This Deuteronomic movement ends and acts as a climax to the four Pentateuch books, and anticipates the following books up until the New Testament. Such is the agenda of the Deuteronomic school.
CONCLUSION
Above all, the Deuteronomic Theology is not free from the love of God, nor it is free from the love of strangers (not in the sense of alien). Aliens to the rich are the poor, aliens to the men are women. Jesus rebuked the Pharisees when they said, “What you would have gained from me is given to God” because the Pharisees were against the Deuteronomic Theology.
Yet, “vertical people” (those who love God) are not always without compassion and not down-to-earth. In the gospel, Jesus’ main purpose was to go to Jerusalem, yet on His way there, He came across the poor and sick and He was moved with pity. But His disciples kept on asking Jesus to move on for they consider anything but Jerusalem to be inconsequential.
Jesus’ focus was Jerusalem, He was never distracted, but it does not mean He did not look at the situation and people around Him. You come to the Bible Study and Prayer Meeting every week, but you refuse to love others and strangers! Torah, in general, is full of regulations for those who are less unfortunate and oppressed. The rich do not need to be regulated for they already have their resources.
One of the emphases of the Deuteronomic Theology, as I mentioned, was well-being and to avoid chaos. Paul said that the church, as one body of Christ, must heed more the weak and uninteresting. As a self-reflection, if we are only willing to speak to those who are strong, beautiful and interesting, then we are a part of a worldly community and not the Kingdom of God.
Lastly, in all that we have discussed, there is a sense of urgency (it must be done right now, today, in this Kairos/moment). And thus, this must be dear to all our hearts, and not just as a cognitive understanding in our minds.
There is also a sense of subjective direction (to you), which could be both in an individual or communal level of understanding.
There is also a sense of subjective direction (to you), which could be both in an individual or communal level of understanding.
January 16th, 2019
By Rev. Billy Kristanto Ph.D., Th.D., GRII Kelapa Gading
Written by Alicia Angie Wiranata
This sermon note has not been revised by the preacher.
Alice
Alice
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