Thursday, January 26, 2012

Daily Bible Reading: Deuteronomy 11 and Matthew 26:47-75

Deuteronomy 11 – The people must remember that these memories are theirs - the knowledge of the Lord’s “discipline” (Schocken 11:2 – what he did to the sons of Reuben during the rebellion of Korah) is theirs, not their children’s). I will add more about this rebellion, which for early Quakers, especially George Fox, had an importance that many do not understand.  So this is the challenge to the Jewish people is how to pass down the memory of what happened in the exodus and the devotion to the covenant that grew out of that.

From age to age, the love of the Lord’s precepts must be passed from parent to child, from one generation to another  (11:18-21). How can this be done?  The author suggests that they “take these words of [Moses] into [their] heart and soul.  Bind them on [their] wrist as a sign . . .”etc (11:18).

The living touch you cannot give to your children – alas, though it is our greatest treasure; but the rudiments and the example we can give by the depth of devotion we show.  We can pass along the memory passed down to us, the memory of men and women without number who did find their lives in the Lord. I recently read another writer who said this even better. God has no grandchildren; I read it in Richard Rohr, but I think the sentence has been out there for a while. I don’t know who first said it.

It is interesting to compare the passages here to the promise of the new covenant in Jeremiah 31:31.  The depth of knowledge alluded to here is not really different from what is described there.  Both are talking about a knowledge that is “written on the heart;” the circumcision is meant to be a circumcision of the heart.  But the outward signs adopted for these inward realities (the outward circumcision, the outward tefillim and tablets, come over time to supplant the inward devotion that Moses is encouraging here.  So is the new covenant so new and different? Or is really—like most of the prophetic calls—mostly a cry from the heart to return to the reality intended from the beginning.

Moses sets before the people “a blessing and a curse,” a blessing if they obey and a curse if they do not.  The blessing is to be pronounced on Mt. Gerizim and the curse of Mt. Ebal, both in Samaria—there was a deep ravine between these mountains.  They “frame the important political and cultic center of Shechem (today Nablus).”

Matthew 26:47-75 - Judas arrives with a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent by the chief priests.  He kisses Jesus (49), and someone steps forward, laying hands on Jesus to arrest him.  One of Jesus’ disciples draws a sword and cuts off the man’s ear.  Jesus scolds him, saying “Put your sword back. . .for all who take the sword will perish by the sword.”  Then he says he could escape through the Father’s power, but “then how would the scriptures be fulfilled which say that it must come to pass in this way?”(54).

·      Is this an absolute rule on use of the sword for self-defense, or is it not more complex than that.  Jesus seems to be renouncing violence to permit his own destiny to be fulfilled, not making a rule for everyone.  Twice here Jesus refers people (first his disciple, then the people around them) to the writings of the prophets, to their fulfillment (54 and 56).

He is taken to Caiaphas (high priest) where many leaders are assembled to try him (even though it is night).  Peter follows. Two witnesses come forward to recount some of Jesus’ words—that he said he would destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days. Caiaphas directly asks him if he is the messiah, but unlike the response he gives in Mark, Jesus gives an indirect response (64)

·      There are aspects of the procedure here, which run against the rules followed by Jewish law—trial on a feast day, a night session, a verdict in the same session as when testimony is heard; but we’re not sure these rules were in force at this time.  Or the author could be combining elements of several sessions.
·      Also see Jer 7:14 where that prophet has God threaten destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem and reminds them how He destroyed the sanctuary at Shiloh. In Jer 26:1-7, these words are repeated and it is clear they think Jeremiah is deserving of death for having said them.

They mock and slap Jesus (68).  Then we turn to Peter, who does just what Jesus predicted he would and denies his friend three times.

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