Biblical Theology V: Deuteronomy

Theology: Deuteronomy is set up as a suzerain treaty, where a greater power/king makes an agreement to adopt a lesser power/nation under his protection if they will agree to give tribute to him. God makes this deal with His people, agreeing to bless them, if they pay tribute to Him by worshiping Him.

The book emphasizes in its introduction that God is not visible, and therefore, cannot be worshiped through that which is visible. He, instead, is worshiped through the words He has spoken. They function as His “idol” through which He must be worshiped. Deuteronomy takes the Sinai theology from Exodus, therefore, and treats it as an introduction to the law. YHWH will be worshiped by His people by their close adherence to His commands in all aspects of their lives. This is how He will be loved.

If His people betray their vow to follow Him by disobeying the law, they will be cursed, and no longer under His protection. They will be given over to the demons of the nations to be trampled down by them and their kingdoms.

Ethics: To do what is unjust is to betray the covenant made with YHWH. Justice must be restored by bringing about judgment according to the lex talionis (law of reciprocation). The law is not one that simply seeks vengeance, but rather functions off of the creational principle, and therefore, asks what can be done to ensure that the victim will survive the unjust attack on his or her livelihood.

Some of the laws are meant to be deterrents, but others simply mean to restore a possible loss so that further life is not lost. When the betrayal is not one that can be rectified, either because it threatens God’s people in general, and therefore is not a specific injustice committed against a particular person, or because the victim him or herself was killed, the just penalty is death. The laws function off of the creational principle, and are not, therefore, merely legal prescriptions, but instead the trajectory the nation must take to worship God as their suzerain. It is to take upon the role of the image in seeking a justice for the victims within the covenant community that will either ensure that they survive, or to deter an injustice from occurring frequently. Those who worship YHWH by doing what is right to one another will remain blessed in the land. Those who do not do what is right to one another will be kicked out of the land as those who have been cursed. This is because breaking the law is to break the covenant made with God, and to say that one no longer wishes to be under His care. To obey the law, giving God His tribute (i.e., obedience as worship) is to continue to affirm the covenant that was made with Him, expressing that one wished to remain under His care. The covenant and obedience, therefore, are linked together in this way. This means that God’s people cannot worship Him without doing what is right to one another; and doing what is right to God’s people is the principle idea of worshiping YHWH in the Bible.