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... and to glorify Him. (Polzin, 78) Another theme of Deuteronomy is offerings, sacrificed and tithes to the Lord. (Polzin, 22)... You shall bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices and your tithes... and your freewill offerings... (12: 6) The Israelites tithed of all they possessed. They did not tithe of what they were paid, but of all that they possessed: the first tenth and the best tenth.
It is important to realize the difference between offerings, sacrifices and tithes. They offered and sacrificed from the herds and the fields in recognition that it is God who is the source of all blessings. Israelites honored the Lord by making Him an offering from the best of all that their land produces. Those who did that would be blessed with the barns full with grain (Proverbs 3: 9, 10).
The tithes and gifts were an essential part of worship, and served as a safeguard against idolatry. You shall truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the fields bring forth year by year. (14: 22) The Law commanded the Israelites to present their tithes to God, but no legal penalty was stated for those who failed to do so. The giving of the tithe was a test of the peoples love for their God, not a juridical demand with an automatic punishment. The actual punishment would be that the people who failed to present their tithes would have to live with the consequences of their lack of faith, their lack of love for their God and their own lack of generosity and gratitude in their own lives. No further punishment would need to be extracted.
The giving of the tithe was a test of love and an acknowledgment that god is truly the owner of all things. It was to be a voluntary expression of love - one, however, which was one of the only acceptable expressions of Love the Lord would recognize or accept. (Nickolson, 42) However, the Israelites were warned that by failing to tithe, they would be robbing God, which would result in many losses: crop failures, insects and plagues. They had no right to special blessings from God if they ignored their voluntary expressions of love and acknowledgment of His sovereignty, and were back to relying on their own capabilities of coping with the vagaries of the laws of this universe. The principle of tithing was first made known to Abraham, the Father of All the Faithful, five hundred years before the laws of giving were revealed to Moses. Jacob also tithed to acknowledge his gratitude to God, the Provider of all his blessings (Genesis 28: 20 - 22).
The theme of rivalry between Israel and other nations is one of central throughout the Old Testament. Deuteronomy also mentions how God loves His people, but even despite of that He can put other nations ahead if Israel comes back to the sinful ways. Anyone who does these things is detestable to the Lord, and because of these detestable practices the Lord you God will drive out those nations before you. (Deuteronomy 18: 12) The Canaanites were old enemies of Israel. They were idolaters, enchanters, witches, charmers, consulter's with familiar spirits, and worshippers of false gods. To enhance Israels righteousness Moses announced to the Israelites...
because of these detestable practices the Lord you God will drive out those nations before you. Even though the gods of idolatry in pleasure, sensual and psychic gratification, simple comfort and ease, were considered different from those worshipped by the Canaanites, they still were counted as idols nonetheless. The Israelites were not motivated by evil aggression in conquering Canaan, nor by greed, to enter and possess the land. God had already pronounced judgment against these people, against their sins and their sinfulness. The Israelites were only the instruments God used to execute His judgment against them. The children of Israel had been without a home for over 400 years.
They were driven by famine to Egypt, and kept there as slaves. They had nearly forgotten the place to which God had led Abram, that place described as a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey. Even when they were led to freedom through the sea, they wandered for forty years in the wilderness, kept from entering the land because they had turned from God. The generation of the exodus was dead. A new generation had arisen, and a new leader, Joshua, had replaced Moses to lead Israel back to Canaan. Deuteronomy takes the form of a series of Mosaic sermons reinterpreting the Torah to Israelites who were one generation removed from the covenant-making ceremony at Sinai.
They were gathered on the eastern side of the Jordan waiting to go in and possess the land promised to their ancestors more than four centuries earlier (Gen 15: 7 - 16; Exodus 12: 40 - 41). Deuteronomy was designed to teach them what they must do as the people of God in order to find prosperity, security, and longevity in the land they were about to enter (Deuteronomy 5: 33; 11: 9; 22: 7; 32: 47). Because of its strong exhortations to obedience to God, Deuteronomy has been called the Law preached. (Miller, 5) Deuteronomy stresses the distinctiveness of Israels religion and warns against compromising alliances with Canaanites and other foreigners (Deuteronomy 7: 1 - 6; 20: 16 - 18). Purity of worship in Israel is to be safeguarded by limiting the offering of sacrifices to one central sanctuary (Deut 12: 2 - 7), unlike the earlier practice of allowing the offering of sacrifices wherever the Lords name was remembered (Exodus 20: 24). The rule was one holy God, one separated people, and one central sanctuary. (Nickolson, 99) Book of Deuteronomy is the account of Israels crossing the Jordan River into the land of promise. Their generation of wandering was over.
They were going home again. The account of the crossing is strikingly familiar. The raging Jordan River, flush with spring runoff, kept them from entering the land. However, just as God parted the sea to bring Israel to freedom, so God hold back the waters of the Jordan to bring Israel home.
The message is obvious: as God was with Moses, so God is with Joshua. (Miller, 48) The same God who led them to freedom is the God who will lead them into the land. This is a true confirmation that God was indeed with Israel, that God would not only lead them home, but also bring them victory in conquest. This book was a powerful encouragement for the nation to go forth in Gods name. God told Moses in Deuteronomy 7, not only to possess the land, but utterly to destroy the seven nations that dwell in it. God had said the land was to be cherry, that is to say, consecrated to the Lord. They were to show the nations no mercy, until even the survivors and the fugitives were destroyed.
Israel was a chosen nation, Gods people. If the God of the Exodus could destroy the army of Egypt, the most powerful nation on earth, then surely God would lead Israel to destroy the nations of Canaan, too. The Book of Deuteronomy has been the center of attack by the critics. The authorship of the book was first challenged.
The original criticism was that Moses could not have written it because there was no writing in existence in Moses days: That has subsequently been soundly refuted. The critic stated that the purpose of the book was to glorify the priesthood at Jerusalem, but neither the priesthood nor Jerusalem is mentioned in Deuteronomy. The probable reason for the satanic attack upon the Book of Deuteronomy is that the Lord Jesus Christ quoted exclusively from this book in beating back Satan's temptation. When it is stated that the Pentateuchal sources have been woven together, there is one important exception. Deuteronomy was not combined with the others but has always been allowed to stand apart at the end of the Pentateuch. In this respect, it resembles the Gospel of John, which scholars have found difficult to harmonize with the synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark, and Luke).
The resemblance goes even deeper than this, for both Deuteronomy and Johns Gospel are more theological in character than the books with which they are grouped. For instance, each gives a profound interpretation of Gods presence with Gods people (Deuteronomy 12: 5 - 7; John 1: 14). It seems probable that the priestly writer (or writers) put the finishing touches on the Pentateuch sometime around 400 B. C. (Ackland, 55).
In so doing, they hoped to restore the authority of the Law of Moses and to kindle in the Jewish exiles still left in Babylon the hope of a fresh purging from sin and a triumphal return to Jerusalem. It was evidently this newly completed Pentateuch that Ezra the scribe brought with him from Babylon (Ezra 7: 6, 10, 14). Called the book of the law of Moses, it became an instrument of spiritual renewal when Ezra read it aloud to all the tribes assembled in Jerusalem (Nehemiah 8: 1). These books then became the canonical core around which the remainder of the Hebrew Scriptures took shape.
Works cited: Donald F. Ackland, Studies in Deuteronomy, 1998 Bible, The New International Version, International Bible Society, 1984 R. E. Clements, Gods Chosen People: A Theological Interpretation of the Book of Deuteronomy, London: 1968. P.
D. Miller, Deuteronomy, (Interpretation) Louisville: John Knox, 1990. E. W.
Nickolson, Deuteronomy and Tradition, Philadelphia: 1967 R. Polzin, Moses and the Deuteronomist, A Literary Study of the Deuteronomy History, Seabury, New York: 1980 Christopher Wright, Deuteronomy, New International Biblical Commentary, 1990 web
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Research essay sample on Drive Out Those Nations Present Their Tithes God
