19 July 2015:  7[th] Trinity

 I don't know about you but I'm  glad that we have retained the custom of reading a passage from the Old Testament.  
Chance to do a bit of homework. 
 I particularly like reading from the Pentateuch, the so called Five Books of Moses of which the Book of Deuteronomy is the last.    We do not often get the chance to read from the Book of Deuteronomy today's lesson gives me the chance to say something no only about the message that it conveys but about the place of Deuteronomy in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Old Testament the so called Moses Books.  
 To summarise the of the first four book, Genesis is the only one that is a continuous historical narrative, give or take a few "begats".   It sets the terms, not scientifically (I'm not a creationist) but symbolically for much of the way we have thought about human nature and culture ever since.  
The legendary sequence moves from the Garden of Eden to the Tower of Babel in 11 chapters. Here is a story told around a camp fire, one can imagine, when someone asked the age old question : what are we all here for and how did we get here ?   Then suddenly people stop living for hundreds of years and serpents stop speaking, and we find ourselves at the beginnings of actual factual history, verifiable by archaeology.  
The so called  Patriarchal tales begin with Abraham in chapter 12 of Genesis and a unique, fascinating, story unfolds.  Nowhere else in ancient literature have the quirkiness and unpredictable nature of individual characters, the tensions of family life, sibling rivalry ( Esau & Jacob) , the jealousy of co-wives and the extravagance of parental favouritism epitomised in  Joseph and his coat of many colours, been described with such subtlety and insight. 
Genesis ends with the death of Joseph and then in Exodus we have the story of the enslavement of the Jews by the Egyptians and the Exodus, the march to the foot of Mount Sinai and the forging of Israel by a series of divine interventions culminating in the revelation of God's imperatives via the Ten Commandments. 
Then the narrative is largely dropped ( except for the arresting story of the Golden Calf)  and a series of codes, civil and criminal, takes over that one tends to skate over.  There is no narrative to speak of in Leviticus either which is a complex set of legal injunctions etc not meaning very much these days to Gentile.  Numbers starts with a roll call of tribes  -  again to be skated over. Then there is a return to narrative with the tribes complaining about Moses and Aaron and battles against hostile peoples who block the approach to Canaan. Excitement, the Israelites are  swimming with the tide of history.

"  Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh / were the only two who ever got through to the land of milk and honey. "

And so we come to Deuteronomy.  The Israelites are commanded to remember four things: God's faithfulness, God's holiness, God's blessings, and God's warnings. The first three chapters recap the trip from Egypt to their current location, Moab. Chapter 4 is a call to obedience, to be faithful to the God Who was faithful to them.

Chapters 5 through 26 are a repetition of the law. The Ten Commandments, the laws concerning sacrifices and specials days, and the rest of the law are given to the new generation. Blessings are promised to those who obey (5:29; 6:17-19; 11:13-15), and famine is promised to those who break the law (11:16-17).

The theme of blessing and cursing is continued in chapters 27-30. This portion of the book ends with a clear choice set before Israel: "I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing." God's desire for His people is found in what He recommends: "choose life" (30:19).

In the final chapters, Moses encourages the people; commissions his replacement, Joshua; records a song; and gives a final blessing to each of the tribes of Israel. Chapter 34 relates the circumstances of Moses' death. He climbed Mt. Pisgah, where the Lord showed him the Promised Land that he could not enter. At 120 years old, but still with good eyesight and the strength of youth, Moses died in the presence of the Lord. The book of Deuteronomy ends with a short obituary on this great prophet.


"  Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh / were the only two who ever got through to the land of milk and honey. "
So what's the message of Moses last words ?   It is one that God forgives.  He will bring you together as a nation and into the land he promised.  That happened after Moses of course and for Many centuries thereafter.  But then Jews became dispersed around the world until the Balfour declaration of 1917  in favour of a Jewish National Home.  The 20[th] century began to bring them together again and that message has brought with it in today's world many of the problems that beset us.
Peter's letter carried this on in the context of the life of Jesus.   Less about stick  ( some carrot.) Stick by your principles: you may suffer but you will be blessed.  " For it is better to suffer for doing right if that should be God's will, than for doing wrong. "
" Jesus died to bring us nearer to God being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit."
No danger today in this country of persecution of the kind that existed in the days of Peter's letter.   Face book and informers.  Police and Travellers. Cameras everywhere: on the road in shops and in every nook and cranny of our national life. 

Stick by principles and however many photos they take, we'll be OK. 

 
