What does it mean to be faithful to YHWH? #politics

We have finally advanced from the Latter Prophets ("The Latter Prophets consists of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Book of the Twelve. The Book of the Twelve consists of twelve shorter works, Hosea through Malachi, which some call the Minor Prophets" (Bandastra).) to the Former Prophets (Deuteronomy through 2 Kings, but NOT Ruth). These books chronicle the movement of God's people into the land of Canaan and setting up the monarchy.

The Former Prophets is often referred to as the Deuteronomistic History. These books have been edited by the Deuteronomist "to explain why the nation of Israel was destroyed by the Babylonians in the sixth century BCE. The story, he claims, focuses on the idolatry of Israel’s kings and people and explains why Yhwh allowed judgment to come upon them. Written to the Judean refugees of the Babylonian exile, the DH justified God and at least provided the assurance to the exiles that what happened happened for a reason" (Bandastra).

Our task this week is to look through some passages from the DtrH and "[s]ummarize what each passage says or implies about the relationship between a) faithfulness to Y*WH and [the] covenant, and b) the events of social and political history." I will be looking at the following passages:

• Deuteronomy 28:1-68
• Joshua 23:1-16
• 1 Samuel 12:1-25
• 2 Kings 17:5-18
• 2 Chronicles 36:11-21

Deuteronomy 28:1-68

This passage was actually a little creepy. To be faithful to God you must follow all of the instructions given in the scroll of Deuteronomy. 

If you don’t carefully keep all the words of this Instruction that are written in this scroll, by fearing the awesome and glorious name of the Lord your God— the Lord will overwhelm you and your descendants with severe and chronic afflictions, and with terrible and untreatable sicknesses. (28:58-59)

If the people of Israel did not follow the Instruction, they would become cannibals, sick, and live in a place where the sky and earth were metallic.  If they followed every law, the people would be blessed beyond measure.

Now if you really obey the Lord your God’s voice, by carefully keeping all his commandments that I am giving you right now, then the Lord your God will set you high above all nations on earth. (28:1)

This chapter was added by the Deuteronomist during the reign of Josiah as a way of convincing the people to conform to the reform. Josiah was centralizing the religious practices of the people back to Jerusalem by closing any of the rural altars. This chapter seems to scare the people from breaking any part of the covenant with YHWH.


Joshua 23:1-16
This passage serves as a warning for the people. The beloved Joshua is dying. He reminds the people to obey the instructions of the covenant and even sets out some specific reminders:

Carefully obey everything written in the Instruction scroll from Moses. Don’t deviate a bit from it either to the right or to the left. Don’t have anything to do with these nations that remain with you. Don’t invoke the names of their gods or take oaths by them. Don’t serve them or worship them. Hold on to the Lord your God instead, exactly as you’ve done right up to today... For your own sake, be very careful to love the Lord your God.  But if you should turn away and join the rest of these nations that remain with you, intermarry with them, and associate with each other, then know for certain that the Lord your God won’t keep on removing these nations before you. Instead, they will be a snare and a trap for you. If you violate the covenant of the Lord your God, which he commanded you to keep, and go on to serve other gods and worship them, then the Lord will be furious with you. You will quickly vanish from the fertile land that he has given you. (6-8; 11-13; 16)

Again we see the text offering rewards for proper rule following, and curses for the breaking of the commandments.

1 Samuel 12:1-25
This is Samuel's farewell speech. He warns the people about disobeying God and the king. To remain faithful people they must:

If you will fear the Lord, worship him, obey him, and not rebel against theLord’s command, and if both you and the king who rules over you follow the Lord your God—all will be well. But if you don’t obey the Lord and rebel against the Lord’s command, then the Lord’s power will go against you and your king to destroy you. (14-15)

I found it interesting that this passage specifically tells the people to listen to the king. Samuel, who was once very against the idea of a monarchy, is encouraging the people to obey the monarchy.

2 Kings 17:5-18

This passage chronicles the exile of the Israelites to Babylon. "And this occurred because the people of Israel had sinned against the Lord their God" by worshipping false gods, burning their children as offerings, and they abandoned the covenant.  They had been unfaithful, and this resulted in their exile. 

2 Chronicles 36:11-21

This passage of scripture again explains the exile. King Zedekiah ignored the prophet Jeremiah and rebelled against King Nebuchadnezzar, thus ignoring the messengers of God.

Time and time again, the Lord, the God of their ancestors, sent word to them through his messengers because he had compassion on his people and his dwelling. But they made fun of God’s messengers, treating God’s words with contempt and ridiculing God’s prophets to such an extent that there was no hope of warding off theLord’s rising anger against his people. So God brought the Babylonian king against them. The king killed their young men with the sword in their temple’s sanctuary, and showed no pity for young men or for virgins, for the old or for the feeble. (15-17)

The monarchy had broken the covenant and that resulted in an exile. During the midst of reform, Josiah and the priests were "trying to following the covenant." If the monarchy and people do not, well, there will be another exile.

It seems there was a lot of fear mongering used throughout the political history of Israel. Mess up, break a rule, and you will be exiled (or turned into a zombie).