Author: Stephen Craven

The Bible in a Year – 5 March

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

5 March. Deuteronomy chapters 17-20

There are laws in these passages governing the structures of civil society that would be needed as the nomadic tribes became settled communities: kings, a legal system and private property.  Each of them makes provisions for fairness that even today are not honoured everywhere.  Rulers still often amass vast armies (represented here by Egyptian horses, the arms trade of the time), or large amounts of personal wealth, or trophy wives; justice is tainted by corruption, vigilante mobs or the evidence of false witnesses; and boundaries are not merely disputed but transgressed, as in Ukraine and Palestine to name but two.

 

Along with these laws for a fair society are the repeated warnings not to turn to the practices of pagan peoples, whether in idolatry, divination (seeking spiritual guidance through occult practices) or child sacrifice. For it is in worshipping false gods that we become desensitised to the calling of the true God to a life of peace; in divination that we overlook the connection between personal fulfilment and the needs of others; and in child abuse – the worst crime of all in current thinking – that we lose all sense of human worth.

 

It’s easy to condemn the Old Testament for being barbaric in the way that God told his chosen people to inflict violence on their ‘enemies’, but we also need to recognise that in the more positive commandments there is much practical wisdom that needs to be re-stated for our own society if we are to live as God intended.

 

 

The Bible in a Year – 4 March

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

4 March. Deuteronomy chapters 14-16.

We move now into specific regulations, most of which are a repeat of what was given at Sinai or during the desert wanderings.  For it is one thing to have a load of instructions given to you, another to remember them, especially without practice (and many of these instructions, such as sacrificing at the central shrine or appointing circuit judges, would not make sense or start to be practised, until battles had been won and towns settled).  If the tribes arrayed before Moses by the Jordan can be compared with students, this is the revision crammer before the exam.

 

The exam would take the form of a very extended practical experiment – in theory, says Moses, if you can keep all these laws precisely, and avoid all the distractions of other faiths and cultures, then you will have a peaceful and harmonious society.  But it would take a real effort for the people to follow these laws.  It does not come naturally to any of us to forgive our debtors (15:1-3), to follow strict dietary rules (14:3-21), to keep money from sale of our possessions “secure in hand” (14:25) in order to travel to a central shrine and purchase  replacements for sacrificial offering, to share our food with people of other cultures (14:29), or as a slave about to be freed to offer oneself voluntarily and out of love as a permanent employee of the master’s household (15:16-17).

 

It’s no wonder that some of these laws were probably never kept in practice, and that many times in the coming centuries God’s people would have to be reminded of them.  Which is why people of all faiths gather regularly together to hear their sacred scriptures read aloud to them, or to study them in groups. The Bible is the ‘word of God’ – although exactly what we mean by that may differ – but we need to constantly be reminded of its counter-cultural truths.

 

The Bible in a Year – 3 March

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

3 March. Deuteronomy chapters 11-13

I get the impression that Moses, as he gave the series of long speeches that make up most of Deuteronomy, was getting more and more worked up.  He frequently repeats sections of the speech, and lays it on with more and more verbal force.  I imagine his preaching style as more like that of an African pentecostal pastor, or Southern Baptist minister, than an English vicar.   But there is a real concern behind it of the people he is addressing because he knows he will not go with them.

 

To change the metaphor, he is in the position of a father whose son or daughter is about to emigrate, maybe going abroad to study or work. Until quite recently with the advent of cheap flights, such a move would mean they would not see each other for maybe several years, if at all.    The parent is naturally anxious to pass on his worldy wisdom to his offspring.  Unfortunately, a young man hearing his father laying down the law like this is likely to say “yes Dad” outwardly while inwardly thinking “no, I’m going to have a good time and do as I like”.  We only see the wisdom in our parents’ strictures when we have got several more years experience of life under our belt.  And maybe that is how the young generation of Israelites, who had not experienced the Exodus for themselves, saw Moses – old Dad telling young people how to live. A natural tension, as old as human life, but always poignant when they know they will not meet again.

 

In all this, Moses has three particular concerns for his young charges as they make their own way in life.  They can be summed up as – “live virtuously, follow our religion not anyone else’s”, and (this is the one you might not expect) “make a distinction between eating meat as food, and a ritual slaughter for sacrifice”.  The first of these is a universal principle, the second a natural human tendency (whatever religion you follow, you want your children to share it), and young people leaving home have to decide how much of their parent’s ethical values and religions heritage they will take on board.  The third is another of those cultural principles that does not translate easily to modern British society, where meat is only seen as food (or to be shunned altogether if you are vegetarian).  But perhaps a wider principle is that on the one hand we all need to eat, to make enough money to live, to provide for our families, but there should be a place in our lives for sacrifice in its widest sense, whether of time spent volunteering, money given to church and charity, or setting aside a space in our lives for worship.

 

OK, I don’t have children myself. But if I did (and many of my contemporaries have offspring at university or beyond now) I would say to them, “live for others as well as yourself; find a form of religion that suits you but does not cut you off from your family; and find a balance between work, play and worship”.

The Bible in a Year – 2 March

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

2 March. Deuteronomy chapters 8-10

Again (see yesterday’s reading ) we see the origins of the discipline of Lent, both in the reminder that “one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (8:3, as quoted by Jesus to the Devil) and also in Moses’ reminder that the twice spent forty days and nights fasting and praying, first to reach a level of enlightenment in which he could know God ‘face to face’ and receive the commandments, and again in prayer for God’s people in their disobedience.  Jesus likewise spent 40 days and nights fasting in the desert as he wrestled with temptation before starting his ministry of teaching and healing.

 

It is a biblical pattern that God calls, people hear, but before they can fully and effectively do God’s work they must receive what the Church calls ‘ministerial and spiritual formation’ – reaching a deeper understanding of God, his teaching through the Bible, and one’s relationships with other people.  Most of us though, take a lifetime of training and experience to achieve this, if at all, rather than the ”crash course” that Moses, Jesus and also St Paul took.

 

 

 

The Bible in a Year – 1 March (Ash Wednesday)

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

1 March. Deuteronomy chapters 5-7

It may be no coincidence that the Bible reading plan I am following includes Deuteronomy 5 today, for it is a reprise (in slightly different words) of the Ten Commandments. Today is Ash Wednesday when Christians particularly focus on confessing sins in order that we may make a new start with God and make new resolutions to be more holy, whether that is by giving up something that takes us away from God, or doing more of something that brings us closer to him such as prayer, volunteering in the community or charitable giving.

 

Note what Moses says to the people – “Not with our ancestors did the Lord make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today” (5:3). These commandments are for all people at all time, universal rules for living in harmony with our creator and the creation. Whereas the more detailed rules and regulations already given through the books of Leviticus and Numbers were, as Moses says in chapter 6, for this specific nation at the time they were settling that particular country, so not all of them will be applicable to us today.

 

Chapter 7 stresses again the importance of keeping the commandments. Why?  “God maintains covenant loyalty with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations, and repays in their own person those who reject him.” (7:9-10)  The results of sin can be seen in someone’s own life very quickly, but the fruits of good works may not be evident until future generations.  That’s a lesson within families as intended – a bad parent creates a dysfunctional family easily, but good parenting only really shows itself as one generation succeeds another.  But it’s also true when it comes to something like tackling climate change (something that many Christian charities now ask us to think about in Lent as well) – cutting my energy use now will not make much difference to me in my lifetime, but it’s a small contribution to preventing changes that will massively impact billions of people in the future.

The Bible in a Year – 28 February (Shrove Tuesday / mardi gras)

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

28 February. Deuteronomy chapter 4

We are about to enter the season of Lent, which traditionally starts with thinking about the temptations faced by those who serve God, as Jesus faced temptation in his 40-day desert retreat.  In this chapter Moses warns his people of the temptations they will face in Canaan.

 

He lays much stress on the fact that unlike the so-called gods of other nations, the one true God is not visible, at least not in human or animal form although they had experienced God’s presence as cloud and fire and a voice.  This true God is also always present, very close when we call on him, and the laws that he gave were not arbitrary but for “wisdom and discernment”, so Moses warns the people not to ignore the teaching or to forget their experience of the divine presence.

 

People still face the same temptations now when thinking about faith, though they may take different forms: idolatry (which nowadays might take the form of astrology, the false belief that the planets represent spirits that influence our lives); discounting the reality of God because we can’t see him (although many people testify to encountering God in one way or another); being led astray from devotion to God by the wealth and fertility of the land around us ( we call this consumerism); and treating religious teaching as irrelevant, when in fact there is much wisdom in it if we take it seriously.

 

May you have a holy Lent.

 

The Bible in a Year – 27 February

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

27 February. Deuteronomy chapters 1-3

This is a short post because much of these chapters (indeed, much of Deuteronomy) covers old ground.  It represents a recapitulation of both the history of the Exodus period, and the teachings that Moses received at Horeb, before moving on to Moses’ farewell speech.  This was necessary because a whole generation had passed, and only two of the men who had left Egypt with Moses (Joshua and Caleb) would take the new generation across the Jordan into a new land. So the new generation had to be reminded of what had gone before, in order to inspire them to continue in the same faith and not assimilate themselves to a new host culture.

 

The church today finds itself in an increasingly post-religious world where fewer people attend church (very few, if the older generations are left out of the count).  Our task therefore is to inspire those few younger people who are with us to take a distinctive faith forward in their generation, as well as seeking new converts by appropriate means. They need to understand the whole history of the Jewish-Christian tradition in order to see their own challenges in context, just as Moses’ hearers had to understand the sacrificial effort (in every sense) that had gone into getting them to where they were.

 

The Bible in a Year – 24-26 February

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

February 24-26. Numbers 31-36

I have grouped together this weekend’s readings, being the last six chapters of this book. Each tackles a different aspect of the run-up to the crossing of the Jordan.

 

They start with gruesome reading, the near-destruction in chapter 31 of the Midianites. Only unmarried girls and women are allowed to live (and even then, only to become ‘brides’ for the invading soldiers, and all the animals and precious metals taken as spoils of war.  Nothing could be further from a ‘modern’ understanding of religion, and yet it invites comparison to the way that Daesh is still carrying on its jihad in nearby Syria today.  The belief that God would not only select one nation as special (which is the foundational principle of the Old Testament), but order them to destroy all rival civilisations they encounter, still persists and must be resisted.   Yet this was only the beginning of the long campaign of Israelite terror in Canaan that we will return to in the Book of Judges.

 

The story then moves on to the intended division of land after further conquests have been achieved.  Two and a half of the twelve tribes, being pastoralists, will settle in the (destroyed but to be re-built) Midianite towns but only after their men have done their share of fighting. The remainder will settle in the more fertile land west of the Jordan – the promised ‘land of milk and honey’.   It’s a reminder that where we live influences what we do, though often in less obvious ways than this.

 

Chapter 33 recaps the story of the Exodus wanderings with a full list of the places they camped, most of which were not mentioned earlier, presumably because nothing special happened there.  But that’s the story of most of our lives – in between the moments of glory and shame, the places that we remember for better or worse, are the many days and years when life went by much as normal.  But they are all part of our life’s story, and a full account of the life of a person or group should not overlook them.

 

Then comes a detailed description of boundaries.  This I familiar language to me. Part of my work involves dealing with Church of England parish boundaries, many of which in rural areas are untouched since medieval times.  This leaves us wondering at the reasons for many quirks – one parish boundary I spotted up in the hills above Teesdale goes up and down the mountainside three times like a castle battlement, yet there are now no buildings or even walls that correspond to this line.  One can only presume it represented the land holdings of different ancestral families.  On the other hand, reading the descriptions of boundaries of new urban parishes created in Victorian times is like this Bible passage – “from the junction of High Street and Market Street, in a south-westerly directions for about 450 yards to a point on Station Road thirty yards west of the police station” (I made that one up, but that’s the kind of thing).  And boundaries do still matter, though less so in the church than in past times, except when it comes to weddings.

 

Chapter 35 includes provision for cities of refuges for murderers who could stay there safe from revenge attacks until they could receive a fair trial – although the penalty for both murder and manslaughter if witnesses could be found to prove it, was death. And finally there is provision for the descendants of Noah and her sisters (as mentioned a few days ago, these being the only women who inherited land in their own name).  Thus ends this collection of stories and laws from desert times.

 

 

 

 

 

The Bible in a Year – 23 February

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

23 February. Numbers chapters 28-30

Taking this further detailed account of the requirements for worship (chapters 28-29), if we omit  all the details of animal, grain and wine sacrifices (as no longer being part of Jewish or Christian worship) then we are left with the principle of the church leaders and servants offering prayer to God every morning and evening, plus twice on the Sabbath, and “holy convocations” (larger gatherings of people) on festivals through the year.

 

The pattern continues with Catholic and Anglican clergy being expected to say the ‘daily office’ of morning and evening prayer, whether in church or alone, and holding public services on Sundays, while putting extra effort into special occasions.  Those special occasions should stand out either as joyful (Christmas, Easter, Pentecost) or more reflective and penitential (Holy Week, and Advent).

 

Chapter 30 is a totally different theme, and again reflects the patriarchal culture: a single adult woman or widow was expected to honour her word as much as a man, but an unmarried woman still under her father’s authority, or a married woman, was only bound by her own word if her father/husband did not contradict it.  The reason given was to ‘protect’ such women from making foolish vows, but to us it seems like unnecessary control.  However there is still value in married people – husbands as well as wives – checking out their plans with their spouse before making any commitments, to ensure harmony in the marriage.

 

The Bible in a Year – 22 February

If this is your first viewing, please see my Introduction before reading this.

22 February. Numbers 26-27

The first of these chapters is the Old Testament as those who have not really read it might imagine it all to be – a detailed list of tribes and clans and descendants. But this is the military census of the people (or rather, the fighting men) before they cross the Jordan to start conquering its existing inhabitants.  With God’s blessing pronounced by Balaam, these 601,730 men (and their families, and the non-combatant Levites – at least 2 million in total) were camping on one side of the river getting ready to fight, as the armies of William of Normandy, or of Napoleon or of Hitler, had threatened England across the Channel down the centuries (with varying degrees of success).   The Canaanites cannot have been unaware of them coming. History, they say, is written by winners, so it’s sometimes good to take the view of the losers – one man’ “share of the promised land” is someone else’s long-standing family home raided by foreign invaders (with the inevitable rape and pillaging).  In our own time, remember those who suffer a similar fate at the hands of religiously-inspired armies in Nigeria, Syria and elsewhere.

 

One verse stands out – Zelophehad was the only tribal elder listed who had no sons, but five daughters (including one called Noah – now there’s a trick quiz question, was Noah in the Bible a man or a woman?). They appear again in the following chapter where they challenge the patriarchal culture that would have denied them an inheritance, and God tells Moses to let them (and others in the same position in future) have their family share of the promised land.  Maybe not full equality, as sons will still take precedence, but then we still see sexism at work even in our own supposedly equal society.