Decalogue 2.0

Posted by on December 9, 2007 under Sermons

Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5 – A comparison

“You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (Exodus 20)   “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife. You shall not set your desire on your neighbor’s house or land, his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor.” (Deuteronomy 5)

What are the different situations that may account for the change in order?

  1. Ownership of land?
  2. Social status of wife?

Deuteronomy

  • The second (giving of the) law
    • Deuteros = second; Nomos = Law
      – Decalogue 2.0
  • Moses’ last words to Israel
      – Three Speeches
  • Bridges the Past Tradition and Current Situation
  • Deuteronomy is for each generation (see Deuteronomy 6)

Deuteronomy 17:18
[The King] is to write for himself on a scroll a copy of this law, taken from that of the Levitical priests. It is to be with him, and he is to read it all the days of his life so that he may learn to revere the LORD his God and follow carefully all the words of this law and these decrees and not consider himself better than his fellow Israelites and turn from the law to the right or to the left.

Deuteronomy 5:1-3
Hear, Israel, the decrees and laws I declare in your hearing today. Learn them and be sure to follow them. The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb. It was not with our ancestors that the LORD made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today.

Deuteronomy 29:12-15
You are standing here in order to enter into a covenant with the LORD your God, … that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I am making this covenant, with its oath, not only with you who are standing here with us today in the presence of the LORD our God but also with those who are not here today.

Three Settings – One Book

  1. Before entering the land
  2. Living the good life on the land
  3. After losing the land in exile

Living Interpretation – A Process