Commandment: God Speaks to Us

In continuing thinking on the psalms, I read a chapter of Bruggemann this morning. He reminded me of something that others have written about as well ... that the God of Israel (who is the God of the NT as well) is interested in morality. There is a powerful statement in Deuteronomy 6:20-25

20When your children ask you in time to come, “What is the meaning of the decrees and the statutes and the ordinances that the Lord our God has commanded you?” 21then you shall say to your children, “We were Pharaoh’s slaves in Egypt, but the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand. 22The Lord displayed before our eyes great and awesome signs and wonders against Egypt, against Pharaoh and all his household. 23He brought us out from there in order to bring us in, to give us the land that he promised on oath to our ancestors. 24Then the Lord commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the Lord our God, for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive, as is now the case. 25If we diligently observe this entire commandment before the Lord our God, as he has commanded us, we will be in the right.”

The God of the Bible is particular. He is love as John tells us, but part of that definition of his character is concern for justice and righteousness. And so we and the world around us are constantly addressed by this particular, the true God's, "summons to obedience" as the ultimate way of knowing Him (in Walter's words).

And he quoted from another book I really like (and happen to have a summery of on my computer). "Who Is Man?" by Abraham Heschel. Heschel says that central to understanding man (humankind) is his sense of personal indebtedness, that God is not only a power we depend on, but "He is a God who demands." He even uses Decartisian language to define man "I am commanded -- therefore I am."

While we like to think of salvation and redemption being wrought by God alone (and in some sense, rightly so), we forget that his saving deeds (saving Israel out of Egypt or the world out of perishing in sin and death) is a summons to obedience. And there is a profound dignity here if we can see past our modern disdain for words like command, duty, even righteousness. As Moses preaches to those children on the eve of entering the promised land "The Lord commanded us ... for our lasting good, so as to keep us alive."