Today we begin Deuteronomy Chapter 29
For the Complete Jewish Bible, click here.
For the King James version, click here.
Bible academics refer to Deuteronomy Chapter 29 as Moses’ Third Discourse.
Why?
Because the Book of Deuteronomy is a 3-part sermon.
In each part of his message, Moses is repeating, expanding and explaining in depth the principles, instructions and teachings of the Torah while Israel is still situated at the border state of Moab
Up to this point in time, Moses had been delivering the Law to the 2nd Exodus generation.
However, here in Deuteronomy 29, he will ask them to ratify the covenant just as their parents did (the 1st generation who died out in the wilderness 38 years earlier).
What’s quite interesting is we’re going to see Israel hold three covenant ratification ceremonies at three different locations.
They are…
Midian, Moab and Canaan.
Do you recall why?
The reason is because folks in those days believed each designated territory had its own unique and different set of Gods.
That’s right.
This is actually a perfect example of the Lord working within the ancient beliefs of the Hebrews even if those beliefs weren’t necessarily correct.
The Hebrews believed the area of Midian had its own set of gods, Moab had its own deities, and Canaan also had their own group of gods.
In fact, the underlying religious system of Japan (where I’m living now) still holds to this pagan belief.
There’s a different temple in every section of Tokyo that pays homage to a different set of gods.
Onward.
The Hebrews were well aware their God HASHEM was not indigenous to any of these territories.
So playing to their primitive belief system and in order to instill confidence in His People, the Lord held covenant ceremonies at each different location to establish Himself as the highest God in each of the territories the Israelites entered as they entered them.
Since Israel had never possessed any territory of their own, in their minds their God had no territory to rule over.
Thus, according to their way of thinking at the time, their God would have to take a piece of territory away from the other gods and make it His own.
That’s why every time a covenant ceremony was held, the Hebrews saw this as their God establishing Himself as the EL or the highest god of that territory.
However, they did NOT view this act as the Lord as establishing Himself as the only God in that territory.
I’ve said this before but the Hebrews at this time in history still held to a polytheistic belief system.
They absolutely believed in the existence of other gods.
The idea of monotheism had yet to take full root in their minds.
Remember, it was the norm for ancient Middle Eastern cultures to believe in a sort of god hierarchy with one of their gods being the chief god and the rest of the other gods being under the authority of that one chief god.
In fact, the Hebrew word for God EL came from the Canaanite term for God IL.
That’s right.
The Hebrews borrowed the word IL from the Canaanites and adapted it into their religion.
Over time IL morphed into EL and now we have terms like “El Shaddai”, “El Roi”, “El Elyon” etcetera.
But understand that IL (or EL) still held the same meaning or mental picture for the Hebrews as it did for the Canaanites.
They still held to the idea of there being one highest god among several gods of a specific territory.
It’s just that for Israel, HASHEM was their IL (or EL).
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