Covenantide

Category: Biblical Commentary

  • The Setting of Deuteronomy

    The Setting of Deuteronomy

    Deuteronomy 1:1-4

    These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 2 (There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh Barnea.) 3 And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel, according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them; 4 After he had slain Sihon the king of the Amorites, which dwelt in Heshbon, and Og the king of Bashan, which dwelt at Astaroth in Edrei:  (Deut. 1:1-4)

    I. On the Plains of Moab (Deut. 1:1-3)

    The Book of Deuteronomy has an inauspicious beginning relative to the grand narrative it encapsulates: “These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness, in the plain over against the Red sea, between Paran, and Tophel, and Laban, and Hazeroth, and Dizahab. 2 (There are eleven days’ journey from Horeb by the way of mount Seir unto Kadesh Barnea.) 3 And it came to pass in the fortieth year, in the eleventh month, on the first day of the month, that Moses spake unto the children of Israel…” Even though modern archaeology has not identified all the locations listed in verse 1, the general vicinity is well-established as just north of the Dead Sea on the plateau of Moab in modern-day Jordan.  It is January 1406 BC, nearly forty years since the Lord their God led His people out of Egypt in the Exodus.  The people were poised to enter the Promised Land and would begin the conquest in a couple of months, on the fortieth anniversary of the Exodus (Josh. 5:10).

    In the Authorized Version (AV), verse two is punctuated as a parenthetical comment, but it brackets the redemptive history of the people of God described in the first four books of the Pentateuch.  According to the covenant He made with Abraham (Gen. 15:13-21), the Lord brought His people out of Egypt in the Exodus, to Horeb.  “Horeb” is an alternative term for Mount Sinai.  Sinai is where the Lord first called Moses to service in the encounter at the burning bush and where He led His people back to after the Exodus from Egypt.  It was at Sinai that the people faced the Lord with fear and trembling, who gave them His covenant for how they should live to reflect Him now that they had been saved.  It was at Sinai where they had almost been destroyed by that same God because of their apostasy with the Golden Calf.  It was at Sinai where Moses mediated for them and the Lord restored His covenantal relationship with after their sin.  And it was at Sinai where they then built the Tabernacle to Him.  The nation was at Sinai for just over a year, before the Lord commanded them to move out to the land which He promised their forefathers (Num. 10:11).

    Mount Seir is in the land of Edom, the descendants of Esau, Israel’s kin, which had already settled in the land which the Lord allotted to them.  The reference here in 1:2 is probably only to describe a common route of travel; the more significant reference is to Kadesh-barnea.  Kadesh-barnea was just south of the Negev, the southern part of the land of Canaan, and was to be the launching point for the conquest of Canaan.  It was from Kadesh-barnea that Moses sent the spies into the land, whose negative report about the people being giants and the land being fortified deterred the Israelites from following the Lord’s command to go up against it.  After Moses pronounced the Lord’s judgment on them for failing to trust Him, the people tried to invade the land in their own strength, only to be miserably routed.  Israel would stay at Kadesh-barnea for most of the next 38 years.  Moses’ sister Miriam would die there, his brother would die not far from there, and because of Moses’ own sin there of presumptuous against the Lord, the Lord declared that Moses himself would not be allowed to go into the land.  Kadesh-barnea and the vicinity around it was Israel’s wilderness wandering.

    II. The Words of the Mediator (1:1-3)

    “These be the words which Moses spake unto all Israel… according unto all that the LORD had given him in commandment unto them” (Deut. 1:1, 3).  Thus begins Deuteronomy.  Like every other book of the Pentateuch except Exodus, Deuteronomy begins with words being spoken, but unlike those other books, Moses for the first time is identified as the one speaking, rather than God.  This fact is noteworthy in light of the structure of Deuteronomy.  Since Deuteronomy is written as a covenant, these opening verses are the preamble to the covenant.  Normally in ancient Near Eastern covenants the preamble is where the suzerain is introduced with his titles and honors.  Moses, however, is not the suzerain nor is he given any titles.  This fact highlights Moses’ role as Mediator of the covenant, the representative of the Lord speaking to the people and the representative of the people standing before God (1:3).

    At 120 years old, Moses was at the end of his life and was personally prohibited from entering the Promised Land (Deut. 1:37, 3:26, 4:21, 34:4) because he failed to honor the Lord before the people: instead of speaking the Lord’s word to give the people water, he assumed to himself the prerogative of the Lord alone, struck the rock and said he was giving them water (Num. 20:9-13).  The Lord’s Mediator was obligated to be obedient to the Lord’s command and speak the Lord’s words alone.  Moses failed to do that, and that cost him.

    No doubt, Moses feared for the Israelites’ future without him as they entered the Promised Land.  He had been with them since the Exodus in all the years of their wandering and knew too well just how stubborn and rebellious they were.  Indeed, the last of the generation which had come out of Egypt in the Exodus as adults had died off a year or two earlier (2:14-16), the result of the Lord’s judgment on them after they refused to trust Him to fight their battles in conquering the Land.  Moses almost certainly knew he was not indispensable, since it was the Lord alone who saved and sustained His people.  Nevertheless, he had been the mediator between the people and the Lord for more than forty years; with his impending death the people still needed a mediator.

    III. The Covenant and the Transition

    It is in this setting that Moses wrote the Book of Deuteronomy.  He wrote it, curiously enough, in the form of a covenant.  In the ancient Near East, a covenant was a treaty.  It bound two sovereigns together by oaths of mutual loyalty, with stipulations of obligation on one or both parties, was incentivized by blessings and curses, sealed by a formal ratification ceremony and enforced by the gods.  In most cases, a covenant was between a suzerain overlord and a vassal king and was the legal means by which the suzerain bound the vassal to himself and regulated their relationship.  At the time Moses wrote Deuteronomy, the ancient Near East was experiencing a heyday of diplomacy, yet interestingly, the biblical covenants were unique in that they are the only examples from antiquity in which a god made a covenant with his people.  There is a genuine basis then for the rhetorical question Moses asks in Deut. 4:8, “And what nation is there so great, that hath statutes and judgments so righteous as all this law, which I set before you this day?”

    That the Lord would make a covenant with His people seems strange in light of the fact that covenants were basically treaties.  Making a treaty seems on first glance to be too formal, too distancing.  At the same time, it was on the basis of the God’s covenant with Abraham that He brought His people out from Egypt with great judgments, sustained them in the wilderness and, at this point in biblical revelation, was about to bring them into the Promised Land.  The formality of the covenant was the very basis for the people’s assurance that the Lord would indeed follow through on his promises in light of their sins.

    Covenants typically were made whenever there was a significant development in the relationship between the two parties; Moses’ approaching death and Israel’s pending entry into the Promised Land constituted just such developments.  Ancient kings would often use covenants with other kings—and even with their own people—to secure legal recognition for their heir apparent.  That is true in the case of Deuteronomy, insofar as Moses is transitioning leadership of the nation to Joshua, son of Nun.  Joshua had been one of the men who spied out the land forty years earlier, but unlike all the others (save Caleb), he faithfully trusted God to deliver the land to Israel.  In Deuteronomy, however, this is leadership succession with a twist:  the covenant is not focused on Joshua per se, but on God.  While Joshua would lead the people into the Land, Moses was pointing the people to their true leader, namely the Lord Himself.  It is the Lord who promised them the land, the Lord who delivered them from Egypt, the Lord who sustained them in the wilderness, and the Lord who was already fighting their battles in conquering the land.  This was Moses’ last act as Mediator.  Note that this does not diminish Joshua’s (subordinate) authority but establishes it: ancient Near Eastern covenants typically presumed the vassal would be exclusively loyal to his suzerain and if the people were loyal to the Lord, then they were to be loyal to Joshua as well.

    Although Moses transferred his leadership to Joshua, he transferred his mediatorial responsibilities to the covenant itself.  It is the covenant that would be the standard to which God’s people would be held, and in adhering to the covenant the people would be reflecting their Lord.  This was the second time in the Israel’s history the nation was poised to enter the land the Lord promised to their forefathers.  The first time was when the nation was at Sinai, and the Lord made a covenant with them there, that He would be their God and they would be His people (Exod. 6:7 cf. Exod. 19:3-6).  The covenant on the plateau of Moab reflected the evolution in the relationship between Lord and His people.  At Sinai, the Lord had just delivered His people from Egypt, and they had not yet sinned against Him.  Shortly thereafter, they sinned in disbelief and were condemned to judgment in the wilderness.  The covenant, then, was one of renewal, now with the succeeding generation and reflective of the need for the Lord to be direct with His people because of their past experience sins against Him.  It is this covenant, which extends and builds on Sinai, that was to become the constitutional foundation for God’s relationship with His people.

    IV. The Defeater of Sihon and Og (1:4)

    The Lord is not absent from this passage, and verse four describes Him as the defeater of Sihon and Og.  “Defeater of Sihon and Og” does not seem like a terribly impressive title, but it was significant for God’s people at that time.  While in the broad schema of things these were relatively minor kings, in the context of God’s relationship with His people the defeat of these kings showed the Israelites that God was fulfilling His covenants with their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to fight their battles and bring His people into the land He promised them.  This title alone would have been sufficient basis for them to trust Him and be obedient to Him.  It would have been a source of confidence and a token that He would fulfill His covenantal promises.  He who made the heavens and the earth and all that is in them could also completely defeat their enemies and overcome the challenges immediately before them.  They needed to know that.

    V. Anticipating Christ

    Moses was a Mediator between the Lord and His People.  What does this mean and why is it important?  We often think of a mediator as a middleman trying to broker a deal between two parties.  That is not what Moses did.  Rather, he sought to represent God to the people and to intercede with God on behalf of the people.  In this he spoke the Lord’s words to the people of Israel and lifted up their needs and cries to the Lord Himself.  At times, Moses interposed himself between God and Israel, mostly to protect the people from the fullness of God’s wrath toward their sins.  With Moses’s pending death, the mediatorial role that he had played in making God and His standard known to Israel was transferred, not to Joshua, but to the testimony of the Law.  In that regard, the one can say that Deuteronomy really is a kind of last will and testament of Moses.  The intercessory role Moses had during his life would be assumed in the remainder of the Old Testament by judges (in the Judges period) and later by the prophets.

    Moses foreshadowed the mediatorial role that Christ Jesus would ultimately assume.  The Father would send His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ, the very Word of God (John 1:1), to make God known to men and intercede on behalf of His people.  His intercession, however, goes beyond what Moses ever did: Christ actually died in place of His people on the cross of Calvary.  That is the only thing that would once and for all turn away—propitiate—the Father’s wrath toward His people’s sin.  With His resurrection from the dead, Christ’s intercessory work continues, as He lifts up the prayers of God’s people to the Father continually, because He is seated at the right hand of the Father.  It is important for us to understand that because Christ Himself is our Mediator, we do not need some other intermediary to intercede for us with God, whether deceased saints, angels, or even the Church; we can approach Christ directly.  In fact, to set any of these things up as a mediator between us and God would be to turn to them for that which only Christ Jesus can provide.  If Moses’s mediatorial role points to Christ, then His words in Deuteronomy also find their fulfillment in Christ.  In this light, reading Deuteronomy is not a mere historical exercise of looking at rules from God.  Rather it is in understanding the heart of our Lord, who has saved a people for Himself and expects this people to honor Him in how they are to live.   Moses’s readers were poised to enter the Promised Land, where they would find their rest in the God who would dwell among them.  For us, we are looking for a heavenly Promised Land, where we will find our rest in union with Christ and eternal communion with Him.

  • Deuteronomy as a Covenant

    Deuteronomy as a Covenant

    Many scholars would describe the Book of Deuteronomy as a series of orations that Moses gave the people, but Meredith Kline in his book, Treaty of the Great King,[1] astutely observed that the entire book closely follows the pattern of ancient Near Eastern covenants, particularly Hittite covenants of the second millennium BC.  Reformed theologians talk much about covenants, and indeed, it is a particular distinction of Reformed theology, but the simple question needs to asked, “What is a covenant?”

    Reformed writers often describe a covenant as a solemn oath, promise, agreement, or contract.  A covenant—berith in Hebrew and diatheke in Greek—does have elements of these things but it is more than any of them.  In the ancient world from which the Bible came, a covenant was more than just a contract.  It was not a business arrangement but a political one, typically not between equals but between a suzerain and a vassal king, regulating the relationship between the two.  It was sealed by blessings pronounced to induce obedience and curses for disobedience, witnessed by the gods who would enforce it.  A king would also use a covenant as the legal mechanism by which to secure with his people or nobles the dynastic succession to his heir apparent.  A covenant was one of the most formal legal arrangements one could enter into, and biblically speaking, it was how the LORD bonded His people to Himself.

    Much of our modern understanding of ancient Near Eastern covenants comes from archaeological finds in Boghazköy, Turkey (where Hattusa, the capital of the Hittite Empire was located), and Tell al-Amarna (the capital of the 19th Dynasty Egyptian heretic king Akhenaten).  The second millennium BC, when these dynasties existed and when Israel’s Exodus from Egypt took place, was a period of active international engagement which saw the flourishing of diplomacy.  In such an environment, covenant-making was commonplace, and Moses, having grown up in the court of Pharaoh (Exod. 2:10-11), no doubt was familiar with how covenants were written and made.  It therefore should not be surprising that Moses used the covenant form to convey God’s revelation to His people.  Indeed, this would be (in the words of the Westminster Confession of Faith) a “voluntary condescension” on God’s part.

    George Mendenhall’s research into ancient Hittite treaties[2] shows that covenants generally had the following parts, with some variation:

    Preamble.  Almost all ancient covenants are between a suzerain (an overlord) and a vassal king, with the former imposing the covenant on the latter.  The preamble gives the titles and attributes of this covenant-making suzerain, highlighting his glory and honors.  Often this is folded into the historical prologue.

    Historical prologue.  This section describes the historical relationship between the suzerain and the vassal which has brought them to make a covenant.  This may highlight the historical rebelliousness of the vassal, the strength and superiority of the suzerain, and thus how the suzerain extends undeserved grace toward the vassal.  This prologue is the basis for the vassal to now pledge his loyalty to the suzerain in gratitude.

    Stipulations.  The vassal is expected to be exclusively loyal to the suzerain, and this section outlines the obligations he is taking on, which often include:
    (1) aligning oneself fully with the suzerain’s interests; (2) answering any call to arms from the suzerain; (3) holding lasting trust in the suzerain and defending his name and reputation; (4) turning over any rebels against the suzerain; (5) submitting all judgments in controversies to the suzerain; and (6) providing regular tribute.

    Provision for safe deposit and regular remembrance of the treaty text.  Two copies of the treaty text were usually made, one for each of the parties, and held in safekeeping in the temples of the gods of the respective parties.  Oftentimes, this section would stipulate the vassal was to have the covenant read publicly on a regular basis so as to continually be reminded of the covenantal obligations and promises.

    Ratification provisions.  This would include a list of the gods called upon as witnesses who would be responsible for enforcing the covenant.  It would involve a formal oath, on the part of the vassal (and even the suzerain) and possibly a symbolic ceremony.

    Blessings and curses formula to keep the covenant.  Blessings and curses would be provided for either violating the covenant or keeping obedience to it.  These were positive and negative incentives to induce fidelity to the covenant.

    Structurally, Deuteronomy follows this treaty pattern closely, as the following abbreviated outline shows.

    I. Preamble: The Setting of the Covenant (1:4)

    II. Historical Relations Between God and His People (chs. 1-4)

    1. Sinai (Horeb) to Kadesh Barnea (1:5-46)
    2. Kadesh Barnea to the Transjordanian Conquests (chs. 2-3)
    3. Call of Obedience to the Lord (ch. 4)

    III. General Stipulations of the Covenant (chs. 5-11)

    1. Renewal of the Covenant (ch. 5)
    2. The Great Commandment (ch. 6)
    3. You Are a Holy People and Are to Trust in the LORD (ch. 7)
    4. Be Humble and Remember How the LORD Led You (ch. 8)
    5. Be Not Prideful for You Have Sinned (9:1-10:11)
    6. What the LORD Requires and Promises (10:12-11:32)

    IV. Stipulations for Life Under the Covenant (chs. 12-26)

    1. Worship and Ceremonial Stipulations (12:1-16:17)
    2. Stipulations Regarding Kingdom Officials (16:18-18:22)
    3. Stipulations of Civil Law (chs. 19-25)

    V.  Sanctions and Covenant Ratification (chs. 27-30)

    1. Instructions for the Ratification Ceremony in Canaan (ch. 27)
    2. Ratificatory Blessings and Curses (ch. 28)
    3. Summons to the Covenant Oath (chs. 29-30)

    VI. Dynastic Disposition and Covenant Continuity (chs. 31-34)

    1. Final Arrangements (31:1-29)
    2. The Song of Covenant Witness (31:30-32:47)
    3. God’s Final Command to Moses (32:48-52)
    4. Moses’ Last Testament to the Tribes of Israel (ch. 33)
    5. Dynastic Succession (ch. 34)

    A detailed outline can be found here:

    Outline of DeuteronomyDownload

    In thinking about how Deuteronomy is structured, it needs to be acknowledged up front that beyond this high-level overview, the Book is difficult to outline, especially chapters 12-26.  This is for several reasons.  First, there is not a narrative thread to the Book that would assist in showing progression through it.  Second, Moses did not provide much in the way of verbal markers to clearly differentiate one section for another.  Lastly, it is not always clear to us today how some of these laws relate to each other, which would facilitate identifying pericopes in the text.  This difficulty has led some commentators to label certain sections “miscellaneous laws.”  That suggests a randomness to God’s word, and it was precisely such a perception which fueled critical theories in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries that posited the book was not written by Moses in the mid-second millennium BC but instead was written centuries later by unknown sources as an imagined foundation for the religious reforms that King Josiah was trying to push through.  Such theories have no independent corroborating evidence to attest to their veracity, and, moreover, are not needed.  If we accept that God’s word is inerrant and infallible, then we need to humbly acknowledge that the organization is not clear to us and work to look at the text more closely.  Just because we cannot easily discern the structure does not mean that one does not exist or that the organization is random.  As the Detailed Outline on the following pages suggests and the remainder of this commentary will elaborate, there is both a cohesive structure to Deuteronomy and a logical progression in how the material in it unfolds.  This will be our working map in our exploration of Deuteronomy.

    SJ Hatch's avatar

    SJ Hatch

    [1] Meredith Kline, Treaty of the Great King; The Covenant Structure of Deuteronomy: Studies and Commentary (Grand Rapids MI: William B. Eerdmans, 1963).

    [2] George Mendenhall, Law and Covenant in Israel and the Ancient Near East, (Pittsburgh PA: The Presbyterian Board of Colportage, 1955), 31-34.

  • Deuteronomy: The Pivotal Book

    Deuteronomy: The Pivotal Book

    In the last two posts I started a series on Reading Scripture Covenantally to help people better understand how Scripture fits together and should be understood as whole. In the first post, I described what covenants were in the ancient Near East and how the covenantal motif provides unity to Scripture across all the different books and genres. I also noted how, using conservative dating assumptions, there are seven revelatory dispensations in which God’s revelation was produced over time. In the second post, I focused on the first revelatory dispensation, the period of Covenantal Foundations from 1450-1365 BC, in which Moses wrote Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, and Joshua wrote the book bearing his name. In both posts, I highlighted the importance of the Book of Deuteronomy. In the Scripture lectionary that is integral to this site, one reads through Deuteronomy once every year because it is so important to understanding the rest of Scripture. What I want to do now, starting with this post, is blog through the Book of Deuteronomy, since while the Book is vitally important, it is admittedly not easy to read. I will come back to the Reading Scripture Covenantally series at a later point. My goal is to be more regular in posting, having a posting every two weeks, and Lord willing, weekly.

    Why should you read Deuteronomy?  The book is not exactly on the top of most lists for Bible study although it probably should be.  In the arc of biblical redemptive history, Deuteronomy plays a pivotal role.  It is the capstone of the Pentateuch; it is the foundation of the rest of the Old Testament, and it, along with the Psalms, is one of the most quoted Old Testament books in the New Testament.  This alone should earn for the book more attention than it usually receives.

    The importance of the book is vividly illustrated in an incident late in Judah’s history, near the end of its existence as an independent country.  King Josiah, the last of Judah’s good kings, began a restoration of true worship in the eighth year of his reign, purging the high places scattered around the country, destroying the images and altars devoted to other gods, and even killing false priests.  This religious restoration also included repairing the Temple in Jerusalem.  Ten years into this restoration Josiah sent his servant Shaphan to the Temple for what should have been a fairly routine mission to disburse the monies collected for Temple repairs and do an accounting of the money already provided.  While there, however, the high priest Hilkiah informs him of a discovery he made in the course of repairs and cleaning up the Temple:

    8 And Hilkiah the high priest said unto Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in the house of the Lord. And Hilkiah gave the book to Shaphan, and he read it. 9 And Shaphan the scribe came to the king, and brought the king word again, and said, Thy servants have gathered the money that was found in the house, and have delivered it into the hand of them that do the work, that have the oversight of the house of the Lord. 10 And Shaphan the scribe shewed the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a book. And Shaphan read it before the king. 11 And it came to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of the law, that he rent his clothes. 12 And the king commanded Hilkiah the priest, and Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Achbor the son of Michaiah, and Shaphan the scribe, and Asahiah a servant of the king’s, saying, 13 Go ye, inquire of the Lord for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning the words of this book that is found: for great is the wrath of the Lord that is kindled against us, because our fathers have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do according unto all that which is written concerning us. (2 Kings 22:8-13)

    The “Book of the Law” Hilkiah found, of course, was Deuteronomy, which functioned as the constitution for God’s people.  The tragedy of this scene is that the book that was foundational to the theocracy and should have been at the center of national life had been forgotten in the very place where it should have been most prominent, that is, in the Temple.  Deuteronomy itself prescribed that kings, upon their ascension to the throne, were themselves to copy the book by hand and read it throughout their lives (Deut. 17:18-20).  Deuteronomy also stipulated that the book was to be read every Sabbath year to the people during the Feast of Tabernacles, that they may know what they had been tasked to uphold being in covenant with the LORD God (Deut. 31:10-13).  There is no evidence from Scripture, however, that that was ever done.  Therefore, as Josiah realized to his horror, the nation was liable to the extensive curses of God’s judgment stipulated in Deuteronomy because of their unfaithfulness.

    We tend to look at Deuteronomy as the close of the Pentateuch, that is, the first five books of the Bible, all ascribed to Moses.  It may be more accurate, however, to see the other four books of the Pentateuch as a narrative and legal prologue to Deuteronomy.  Deuteronomy was written at the end of Moses’ life, as he facilitated the transition of leadership from himself to Joshua.  In this transition, Moses pointed the people back to their true leader, God Himself, who delivered them from Egypt, sustained them in the Wilderness and was about to bring them into the Promised Land.  Written in a covenantal format, Deuteronomy underscores God’s Lordship over His People.  These legal parts of the Pentateuch are foundational to God’s relationship with His people, but needed to be situated in historical context, which is supplied by the narrative parts of the Pentateuch—i.e., Genesis and parts of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers.  Because Deuteronomy is the definitive articulation of the Mosaic Covenant, it is the prism through which the other books of the Pentateuch are to be read.

    More than that, Deuteronomy provides the hinge for linking the Pentateuch with the Old Testament narrative histories (Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel and 1 & 2 Kings) and the prophetic books.  While Josiah rent his clothes because the nation had largely forgotten its constitution, God’s People in truth had not completely lost the covenant: the prophets were essentially God’s covenantal lawyers prosecuting His covenantal lawsuit against His unfaithful people.  The basis for understanding how God’s people were expected to live and what they were expected to do is rooted in Deuteronomy.  Having been freed from bondage, it was how the people were to live as they entered the Promise Land.  It codified the relationship between Israel and her LORD, and it anticipated the apostasy that was to come.  It thus set the stage for Israel’s true king to come, Christ Jesus.

    Our age, like Josiah’s is one of unraveling and moral chaos, and so, we too as Christians would benefit from rediscovering our constitution as God’s people by exploring Deuteronomy.  It is to that exploration that I invite the reader to now turn.

  • Descent into Ungodliness (Lesson 16)

    Descent into Ungodliness (Lesson 16)

    Struggles within the House of Judah

    I. The Revolt of Edom (2 Kings 8:16-24)

    16 And in the fifth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel, Jehoshaphat being then king of Judah, Jehoram the son of Jehoshaphat king of Judah began to reign. 17 Thirty and two years old was he when he began to reign; and he reigned eight years in Jerusalem. 18 And he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, as did the house of Ahab: for the daughter of Ahab was his wife: and he did evil in the sight of the Lord. 19Yet the Lord would not destroy Judah for David his servant’s sake, as he promised him to give him alway a light, and to his children. 20 In his days Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah, and made a king over themselves. 21So Joram went over to Zair, and all the chariots with him: and he rose by night, and smote the Edomites which compassed him about, and the captains of the chariots: and the people fled into their tents. 22Yet Edom revolted from under the hand of Judah unto this day. Then Libnah revolted at the same time. 23 And the rest of the acts of Joram, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah? 24 And Joram slept with his fathers, and was buried with his fathers in the city of David: and Ahaziah his son reigned in his stead.

    Jehoram of Judah and Jehoram/Joram of Israel were almost exact contemporaries, the start of their respective reigns differing only by four years.  Recall that at the beginning of Joram’s reign he sought to punish his vassal state, Moab, for refusing to pay tribute, and that his allies in that expedition included Judah and Edom.  The expedition was initially successful but ultimately failed and Moab became independent of Israel’s influence.  Here we see that Edom, similarly, rebels against the overlordship of Judah, beginning a process of continual revolt against Judah’s influence.  This revolt is also noted in 2 Chronicles 21:16-17:

    16 Moreover the Lord stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines, and of the Arabians, that were near the Ethiopians: 17 And they came up into Judah, and brake into it, and carried away all the substance that was found in the king’s house, and his sons also, and his wives; so that there was never a son left him, save Jehoahaz, the youngest of his sons.

    Edom’s revolt was part of a multi-front war that resulted in Jerusalem getting sacked as well, probably around 848 BC, shortly after the accession of Jehoram to the throne.  This is more than an incidental development and is addressed more explicitly in the prophetic book of Obadiah.

    A few things are worth noting about Obadiah, which is the shortest book in the Old Testament. To begin with, scholars are divided about when to date the prophecy, with the majority (all critical and even most conservative scholars) favoring a late date around the time of the collapse of Judah, and a minority favoring an early date.  In this instance, the minority may well have the better case.  The majority case hinges on wording in Obadiah that is similar to that found in the later prophets, so the assumption is that Obadiah borrows from them.  But that same argument could work in the other direction as well, in that it would be the later prophets who are borrowing from Obadiah.  Several arguments favor an early date.   First, there is the vagueness of the inscription.  All of the prophetic books except Obadiah and Joel have an inscription that gives the prophet’s name, a bit about his family lineage, and what kings were reigning during his ministry.  By the time of the latter prophets, that inscription becomes so formulaic that we can at time date the prophecy to the exact day it is given.  If Obadiah and Joel were written late, then their departure from that formula is strikingly unusual.  On the other hand, if Obadiah and Joel were written early it would make sense that the inscriptions be more general, since they were pioneering the practice of written prophecies.  Second, there is a clear undercurrent in Obadiah’s prophecy of shock at Edom’s revolt.  Edom had been a tributary state to the house of David since David’s time, more than a hundred years earlier, so Obadiah’s shock at Edom revolt would only be natural; by the time of the Exile, however, the unfaithfulness of Edom would have been well-established.

    If we accept an early date for Obadiah as pertaining to this incident during Jehoram (of Judah)’s reign, then that enables us to better understand the significance of Obadiah’s prophecy.  The prophecy, short as it is, is entirely an imprecation against Edom, calling for God’s judgment on the nation.  Whatever one may think about the legitimacy of Edom being reduced to tributary status, the fact that it revolted did make it a covenantal violator and was thus legitimately to be judged.  Obadiah is right to call for judgment in that regard.  Moreover, it is clear that Judah itself cannot bring Edom back into covenantal conformity.  Hence, the prophet has no other recourse but to call upon the LORD to enact justice.  What God is doing through this incident and this prophecy, then, is an intrusion to begin lifting the eyes of His people from their narrow focus on their situation and help them to see the need for and reality of an eschatological judgment.  We can see this in verse 15 in Obadiah, which speaks of a “Day of the LORD.”  If we understand Obadiah to be the first of the writing prophets, then this would be the first reference to that motif and subsequent prophets will build on this over time.  Here, the Day of the LORD is in a very narrow context, but the nation will come to understand in time that the Day of the LORD will apply to Israel and Judah, and eventually to all peoples of the world.  In light of Christ, we understand the Day of the LORD as referring to the return of Christ and the Final Judgment on all unrepentant mankind.  In the work that He did on the cross, Christ has spared His people the terrors of the Day of the LORD by taking the judgment due on them upon Himself; unrepentant mankind will not be so spared in the Final Judgment.  Thus, this passage has eschatological significance.

    II. The Usurpation of Athaliah (2 Kings 8:25-29, 11:1-3)

    25 In the twelfth year of Joram the son of Ahab king of Israel did Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah begin to reign. 26 Two and twenty years old was Ahaziah when he began to reign; and he reigned one year in Jerusalem. And his mother’s name was Athaliah, the daughter of Omri king of Israel. 27 And he walked in the way of the house of Ahab, and did evil in the sight of the Lord, as did the house of Ahab: for he was the son in law of the house of Ahab. 28 And he went with Joram the son of Ahab to the war against Hazael king of Syria in Ramoth-gilead; and the Syrians wounded Joram. 29 And king Joram went back to be healed in Jezreel of the wounds which the Syrians had given him at Ramah, when he fought against Hazael king of Syria. And Ahaziah the son of Jehoram king of Judah went down to see Joram the son of Ahab in Jezreel, because he was sick.

    And shortly thereafter in 2 Kings 11:

    11 And when Athaliah the mother of Ahaziah saw that her son was dead, she arose and destroyed all the seed royal. 2 But Jehosheba, the daughter of king Joram, sister of Ahaziah, took Joash the son of Ahaziah, and stole him from among the king’s sons which were slain; and they hid him, even him and his nurse, in the bedchamber from Athaliah, so that he was not slain. 3 And he was with her hid in the house of the Lord six years. And Athaliah did reign over the land.

    One of the confusing things about this particular period in the history is the similarity of the names, so some review of the dynastic lines will be useful here.  As we have noted in previous lessons, Jehoshaphat of Judah (873-848 BC) and Ahab of Israel (874-853) were contemporaries, and it seems that there emerged an ideology in both royal houses to bring the two kingdoms back together through intermarriage.  This was disastrous for Judah, because it meant that the idolatry of Israel was now finding its way into the house of David.  Ahab was succeeded briefly by his son Ahaziah and then Jehoram (or Joram).  Jehoshaphat of Judah was succeeded by his son, also named Jehoram.  As noted, the two Jehorams were almost exact contemporaries.  Jehoram of Judah married, Athaliah, a daughter of Ahab and a sister to Ahaziah of Israel (2 Kings 8:12).  We know from 2 Chronicles 21:4 that upon his accession to the throne, he killed all his male siblings to eliminate any possible claimants to the throne.  Jehoram of Judah had a son, also named Ahaziah, after his uncle on his mother’s side.  When Jehu carried out his purge in Israel, he killed Ahaziah of Judah, along with 42 members of the royal house of Judah (2 Kings 10:12-14 cf. 2 Chronicles 22:8-9).  So, the royal house of David was significantly depopulated.  Athaliah, upon learning that her son Ahaziah had been killed by Jehu, then goes on a rampage to finish off the house of David entirely, killing her grandchildren and others, and assuming unchecked absolute power for herself.  Unbeknownst to her, Ahaziah of Judah’s sister, Jehosheba, saves his infant son, along with his nursemaid.  In doing so, she preserves the royal line of David from complete destruction and that infant, Jehoash, is kept safe in the Temple precincts by Jehosheba’s husband, the high priest Jehoiada.  Remember that in 2 Samuel 7:16 God promised David he would have someone on the royal throne forever.  To the country, it would seem that God’s promise had failed and the house of David had been extinguished.

    This brings us to the prophecy of Joel.  Like with Obadiah, the majority of scholars are inclined to date the prophecy of Joel late in the nation’s history, toward the end of Judah, again because of similarities of language between Joel and the later prophets.  For the same reason as with Obadiah, the vagueness of the inscription suggests an earlier date, rather than a later one.  The prophecy of Joel also assumes that there is no king on the throne of Judah.  This period, during Athaliah’s reign (841-835 BC) is the only one that fits that particular circumstance prior to the Exile.  During this time there was a drought and a locust plague, which were understood in the ancient world to be judgments of God.  Listen to the words of Joel, especially for the references to the Day of the LORD. It is beyond the scope of this lesson and even this course to do a detailed examination of this prophecy, rich as it is.  The picture it gives, however, is painted in stark contrasts: the corruption of the people; the desolation and destruction of God’s judgement, contrasted with the notes of the blessedness of His restoration that the prophecy ends on.  This picture informs the later prophets in Judah’s history, and 2:28-32a is quoted directly by the Apostle Peter in his sermon on Pentecost.  Pentecost, in fact, is the fulfillment of Joel’s prophecy, the initiation of God’s eschatological kingdom, albeit the complete fulfillment awaits our Lord’s return in His Second Advent.

    III. The Restoration the True King (2 Kings 8:25-29, 11:4-21)

    So, how did Athaliah’s reign end?

    4 And the seventh year Jehoiada sent and fetched the rulers over hundreds, with the captains and the guard, and brought them to him into the house of the Lord, and made a covenant with them, and took an oath of them in the house of the Lord, and shewed them the king’s son. 5 And he commanded them, saying, This is the thing that ye shall do; A third part of you that enter in on the sabbath shall even be keepers of the watch of the king’s house; 6 And a third part shall be at the gate of Sur; and a third part at the gate behind the guard: so shall ye keep the watch of the house, that it be not broken down. 7 And two parts of all you that go forth on the sabbath, even they shall keep the watch of the house of the Lord about the king. 8 And ye shall compass the king round about, every man with his weapons in his hand: and he that cometh within the ranges, let him be slain: and be ye with the king as he goeth out and as he cometh in. 9 And the captains over the hundreds did according to all things that Jehoiada the priest commanded: and they took every man his men that were to come in on the sabbath, with them that should go out on the sabbath, and came to Jehoiada the priest. 10 And to the captains over hundreds did the priest give king David’s spears and shields, that were in the temple of the Lord. 11 And the guard stood, every man with his weapons in his hand, round about the king, from the right corner of the temple to the left corner of the temple, along by the altar and the temple. 12 And he brought forth the king’s son, and put the crown upon him, and gave him the testimony; and they made him king, and anointed him; and they clapped their hands, and said, God save the king.

    13 And when Athaliah heard the noise of the guard and of the people, she came to the people into the temple of the Lord. 14 And when she looked, behold, the king stood by a pillar, as the manner was, and the princes and the trumpeters by the king, and all the people of the land rejoiced, and blew with trumpets: and Athaliah rent her clothes, and cried, Treason, Treason. 15 But Jehoiada the priest commanded the captains of the hundreds, the officers of the host, and said unto them, Have her forth without the ranges: and him that followeth her kill with the sword. For the priest had said, Let her not be slain in the house of the Lord. 16 And they laid hands on her; and she went by the way by the which the horses came into the king’s house: and there was she slain.

    17 And Jehoiada made a covenant between the Lord and the king and the people, that they should be the Lord’s people; between the king also and the people. 18 And all the people of the land went into the house of Baal, and brake it down; his altars and his images brake they in pieces thoroughly, and slew Mattan the priest of Baal before the altars. And the priest appointed officers over the house of the Lord. 19 And he took the rulers over hundreds, and the captains, and the guard, and all the people of the land; and they brought down the king from the house of the Lord, and came by the way of the gate of the guard to the king’s house. And he sat on the throne of the kings. 20 And all the people of the land rejoiced, and the city was in quiet: and they slew Athaliah with the sword beside the king’s house. 21 Seven years old was Jehoash when he began to reign.

    The restoration and coronation of Jehoash (Joash) as king at the age of seven was a key inflection point for Judah just as Jehu’s purge was for the northern kingdom of Israel.  Still, there are important differences between the two, namely that in Judah there was a recommitment to God’s covenant; in Israel, Jehu only tried to restore things back to the way they were under Jeroboam, which itself was an apostasy from the true worship of God.  In Judah, the high priest Jehoiada facilitated a covenant of rededication between the military leaders and the LORD (2 Kings 11:4) and between the king, the people and the LORD (2 Kings 11:16).  The latter, in particular, was accompanied by works of repentance.  For Judah, Athaliah’s execution really did hold out the promise of a new beginning.  As we will see in the next lesson and following, that new promise was not realized and Judah, in its own way, returned to the sins that had so nearly cost it its life.

    What are some implications of this narrative?

    One of the challenges in identifying political implications of these episodes is the fact that Israel was established as a theocratic state, and that brings with it a unique dynamic that does not easily translate into the 21st century American context.  With that caveat, one implication is to be wary of anyone seeking unchecked power.  Athaliah’s desire to wipe out the Davidic line is a prima facie example of this; such ambition can only end badly for God’s people.  There is also the example of Jehosheba and Jehoiada, taking risks to ensure the preservation of David’s house in protecting Joash.  As Christians, we may be called upon to take risks of our own and we need to prepare ourselves for that.  We may also need to exercise patience in working things through.  In this case, it was six years before Jehoiada had built up the necessary support within the society to make the restoration of Joash successful.

    Let me turn now to some of the redemptive historical implications.  First, the loss of Edom as a tributary state, Athaliah’s purge and subsequent tyranny, and the signs of judgment present in Joel’s prophecy served as a wake up call for Judah to return to covenantal faithfulness to the LORD.  Moreover, these events and God’s prophetic word in the midst of them constituted an eschatological intrusion into Judah’s life, planting the seed that the nation needed to take seriously the prospect of covenantal judgment, but also prodding it realize that God’s covenantal plan was more ultimately significant than the day-to-day.  From this point onward, the prophets would be developing the nation’s eschatological expectations so that it would be looking for a greater King and a greater Kingdom.  These expectations would culminate of course in Christ, but they are also part of our expectations even today.  We need to live in anticipation of God’s judgment, while appreciating that because of Christ the penalty on us has been removed.  As with Judah, we need to be in repentance for our sins.