“A true (theologically) conservative position, one that preserves the values of our heritage, is a position that stands between the extremes and preserves the tension between them. It is not enough to maintain that religion itself has changed constantly since the time of the wilderness experience of ancient Israel. Older practices may be outdated; but […]

Another revolutionary principle we’re introduced to here in Deuteronomy is that our God is knowable. This was a laughable notion and literally flew in the face of everything universally understood about the spiritual world in the Biblical era. This was the first time in history that a God had come down from heaven (metaphorically speaking […]

Concerning God’s covenant with Israel, one of the foundational principles we learned in Deuteronomy 12 is that when the Lord offers a covenant to a nation (or a person), it is perfectly okay to decline that offer. That’s right. Whether a nation or an individual decides to accept God’s invitation to enter into a relationship […]

God doesn’t give us a clear reason why there was to be only ONE PLACE for all of Israel to sacrifice. Possibly one of the reasons is that the Lord wanted His People to do things in complete opposite fashion of what the pagans did. And here’s the thing. We do know that the Wilderness […]

“Break down their altars, smash their standing-stones to pieces, burn up their sacred poles completely and cut down the carved images of their gods. Exterminate their name from that place.  “But you are not to treat Adonai your God this way.  Rather, you are to come to the place where Adonai your God will put […]