Nathan E. Lewis

“The Covenant: Just Government ” Deuteronomy 16:18–17:20

The law of God promotes justice. This is good news. In
preparing the second generation of Israel to live in the Promised Land, Moses sets up a system of appeals. The first court of appeals is located in each town of every tribe. The people are to appoint judges and officers who will hear cases. They are to “judge with righteous judgment.� This means that the judges and officers are to hear and decide cases according to God’s law. They are not free to judge according to what they personally believe to be true and fair. Such decisions would pervert justice. They are not free to judge according to some other national law. God’s people are to be ruled by God’s law. A judge is not to favor those he knows and loves. He is not to accept a bribe. To do so would pervert justice. The only path to justice is to judge according to God’s law. The only assurance of fruitful life in the Promised Land, generation after generation is to be governed by God’s law.
In Deuteronomy, we have discovered that the greatest threat to justice, in God’s view, is idolatry. In our pluralistic world, this may strike us as odd. What would you consider to be the biggest threat to justice? Think of the order of the Ten Commandments. The first and second commands promote the worship of God alone. The first four commands teach us how to love God first and then the final six instruct us to love one another. God’s law promotes justice by instilling in us a reverence of the one, true and holy God, the Lord of the Covenant. Justice flows from God and this justice is realized when we fear God.
As the people appoint local judges and officials, the first laws Moses mentions are prohibitions of idolatry. The Canaanites worshipped Baal the rain god as well as his sister, Asherah. The idol symbolizing her fertility was a living tree or a carved wooden pole. Idolatry is not merely replacing the one, true God with a false god. Idolatry can also be adding a false god to the true God. In the world of religion we call such idolatry syncretism, “the attempted combination of different systems of philosophical or religious belief or practice.� The Church has been guilty of syncretism throughout history. Priests in Mexico proclaimed the Aztec’s “Virgin of Guadalupe� to be none other than the Virgin Mary. The result of this syncretism was a mass conversion of Aztecs to the Roman Catholic Church. Moses prohibits the planting of an Asherah tree alongside the altar of the Lord God.
Dr. Elaine Pagels, Professor of Religion at Princeton Theological Seminary, a Presbyterian institution, advocates the dismantling of the ecumenical creeds, like the Apostles’ Creed and The Nicene Creed, so that those who believe that God is each person’s inner Self might be received as members of the Church alongside those who believe that God is distinct from ourselves. Pagels advocates the dismantling of distinctions and barriers between Christians and Buddhists. She is promoting syncretism. Moses, the great prophet of Judaism, the giver of God’s law, prohibits the planting of an Asherah tree alongside the altar of the one and only God.
Syncretism is one form of idolatry threatening justice. Syncretism introduces and establishes more than one system of justice. If one corpus of law is applied to one individual, but entirely different corpus of law is applied to another individual, justice is threatened. If one day one corpus of law is used but the following day it is replaced with an alternative corpus of law, justice is a joke. If one book of law is amalgamated with another, the possibility of conflicting laws and views of justice exist.
Another idolatry, namely, greed, also threatens justice. In (17:1) Moses prohibits the sacrificing of blemished animals to God. The firstborn and the best of the flock are to be chosen. We are to give our first and best to God. Greed would move us to given damaged goods to God. We will keep and sell for our own profit the best of our labors. But we will give the defects to God. Such a low view of God threatens justice. If we are willing to cheat God then we would be ready to cheat our neighbor. We would care very little about justice in court. Greed works against justice. A greedy person only cares about himself. But justice moves us to care for everyone one. We might have bread to eat, but justice demands that we care about the poor who do not have bread to eat. Justice requires that we remove the oppressor who prevents the poor from eating bread. You may think, “Aren’t we confusing justice with mercy?� In God’s law justice and mercy meet.
In God’s law idolatry is punishable by death. Such a deterrent promotes justice. But you may think, “Such a harsh and irreversible penalty may also pervert justice. What if a person is wrongfully accused?� To prevent wrongful accusation, the court is to administer the death penalty only when two or three witnesses supply proof of the idolatry. One witness supplying proof is not sufficient to ensure justice. The two or three witnesses must cast the first stones. This is also a safeguard for justice served. The law of God views idolaters to be the greatest threat to justice. Death removes the idolater from the community and thus justice maintains order, peace, and purity.
Moses supplies a court of appeals to maintain justice. In (8-12) we read of the Levitical priests acting as judges in the court of appeals. Local judges and officers must pass to this central court any difficult cases. If the local judges find it difficult to determine which kind of homicide a certain case involves, they must send the case to the central court. If the case involves conflicting rights of property or liberty, the case is sent to the central court. Was the assault accidental or intentional? The central court must decide.
Anyone who disobeys or deviates in the smallest way from the decision of this central court is to receive the death penalty. This person is obstructing justice. The highest penalty is to be administered to maintain and promote justice. Moses teaches that “presumption� is an enemy to justice. When an individual presumes to know what is right and does what is right in his own eyes, justice is obstructed.
Prior to Israel crowning a king, the central court was advised by a judge. One of the Levitical priests was set aside to master the law and to guide in its administration. Some of you know from your study of the Bible that God viewed Israel’s request for a king to be rejection of himself as King, the ultimate Judge of his people. Nevertheless, God told Samuel to anoint a king, to fulfill the people’s request. God’s law gives detailed instruction to the king, to assure that the king serves justice. In Deuteronomy 17, we discover that God reserves the right to choose the king for Israel. He does so through his prophet. The king is to be a member of Israel, not a foreigner. The King must not use his office for the amassing of his personal estate. He must not acquire many horses, wives, silver, and gold. Such greed in such a high office threatens justice.
Not only the people, but the king himself must submit to the law. The Levitical priests must supply the king with the law of God. The king must write out his own copy. He must keep this hand-written copy with him and read it all the days of his life. By doing so he will learn to fear God and his fear of God will be manifest in obedience to the law of God. Such submission to the law of God will humble the king, reminding him that he is one among his brothers, fellow Israelites. He is to obey the law all the days of his life. Such a humble and obedient king, submissive to the law of God, shall promote justice.
What does justice have to do with the gospel? God reveals himself to us as a just God. His law and the penalties of the law reveal to us God’s demand for justice. The death penalty assigned to the crime of idolatry condemns every single one of us to die. This is the nature and purpose of the law. We need the law. It is good for us. Without it we would wink at our sin and understate our need for God’s mercy.
The gospel is not the message of God slapping our hands and chuckling at our little rebellions. The gospel is the message of God freeing us from the death penalty we deserve for committing high crimes against his holy law. We are guilty of syncretism, greed, and presumption. God has every right to maintain his justice by condemning us to death. To our surprise and relief, the apostle Paul writes to the church at Ephesus, “You were dead in your trespasses and sins….you were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ – by grace you have been saved….� Jesus Christ suffered our death penalty in his death upon the cross.
The king of Israel with the law of God daily before him is a beautiful picture of our Lord Jesus Christ, the true Son of David, the true King of Israel. The apostle Paul writes to the church at Galatia: “In the fullness of time, God sent his Son, born of a virgin, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that we might receive adoption as sons.� Jesus is the only king who has humbly submitted to the law all the days of his life. He is the king who humbly became one of us, to serve us. Jesus did not turn to the left or to the right, but rather he perfectly obeyed God’s holy law. In doing so, his reign as King of Kings and Lord of Lords is eternal. Moses writes in (20) that the king obeys the law “so that he may continue long in his kingdom, he and his children, in Israel.� Paul echoes these words claiming Christ to be the fulfillment. We are all sons of God through Jesus Christ.
As we read the addresses of Moses reminding Israel of the covenant, we are reminded that Jesus Christ is the fulfillment of the covenant. He has come as the human party receiving upon himself the death penalty the law assigns to us in our sins. But he has also come as the one and perfectly righteous man who has obeyed every line of God’s law. He is the perfect King, who keeps the law ever before him, applying it not merely for his own good, but for the good of all of us. The heavenly Father, as the divine party rewards his Son with every spiritual blessing. He receives his Son into the heavenly courts and makes him Judge of the nations. All of these blessings including the perfect and final justice of the last day flow to us from Jesus Christ. And so, as we remember the covenant, we discover that God fulfills the entire covenant for us so that we might receive his loving kindness all the days of our lives and live in the house of the Lord forever. In Christ, justice and mercy meet and are applied to all of us who are united to him.