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OATH, SANCTIONS, AND INHERITANCE Thou shalt fear the LORD thy God; him shalt thou serve, and to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name. He is thy praise, and he is thy God, that hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen. Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons; and now the LORD thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude (Deut. 10:20-22).
This theocentric focus of this passage is the fear of God. God is sovereign over history, as Israel's history had demonstrated. Such fear should lead to covenantal swearing, Moses said: "to him shalt thou cleave, and swear by his name." Because of the presence of a covenantal oath, this law is a universal law. It was not a seed law or land law, although it had to do with the inheritance of Canaan. It has to do with inheritance in general because the passage assumes the presence of a covenantal oath.
Fulfilled Promises Israel's oath-bound covenantal subordination had resulted in the fulfillment of two of God's three promises to Abraham. First, the promise of numerous descendants: "And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be" (Gen. 15:5). The second promise had also been fulfilled: collecting the inheritances of Egypt's firstborn. "And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them; and they shall afflict them four hundred years; And also that nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and afterward shall they come out with great substance" (vv. 13-14). The third prophetic promise had not yet been fulfilled when Moses spoke to the elders of Israel, but it soon would be: the inheritance of Canaan. "But in the fourth generation they shall come hither again: for the iniquity of the Amorites is not yet full" (v. 16).
The fulfillment of the first two promises was supposed to produce confidence in the fulfillment of the third: national inheritance. The fulfillment of all three promises was supposed to motivate the nation to even greater covenantal faithfulness. "Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway" (Deut. 11:1). Joshua and the older members of his generation as children had seen God's historical sanctions on Egypt; the younger members and their children had not. "And know ye this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his stretched out arm, And his miracles, and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land" (vv. 2-3). God had destroyed Egypt's army by burying them all in the Red Sea (v. 4); He destroyed Dathan and Abiram by having the earth swallow them (v. 6). The older members had seen all this with their own eyes (v. 7). This was supposed to make the conquest generation obedient. "Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it" (v. 8). The sight of God's sanctions in history is to become a means of covenantal reinforcement.
Eschatological Inheritance The exodus generation would have to inherit, just as Abraham had inherited: through their heirs. They had been told this a generation earlier. "But your little ones, which ye said should be a prey, them will I bring in, and they shall know the land which ye have despised" (Num. 14:31). The exodus generation had to content itself with inheriting eschatologically. Their victorious heirs would represent them. They would achieve their victory through their heirs, just as God had promised mankind in His curse on the serpent (Gen. 3:15).
Eschatological inheritance is worth very little for men without saving faith, especially present-oriented men without faith in the future. Israel was about to become a nation of immigrants. The immigrant's future-oriented ideal of making a better life for his children and his grandchildren makes him a thrifty, hard-working, uncomplaining servant in society. Rarely do his grandchildren sustain either his eschatological vision or his savings rate. They assume that what they possess is normal and almost cost-free rather than the unique inheritance of two generations of thrift and hard work. They become historically forgetful. They become forgetful regarding the way to wealth: a high savings rate, and service to the consumer. Covenantal forgetfulness was the crucial economic threat to Israel, which was about to become a nation of newly arrived immigrants. Beware, Moses warned, that "thou say in thine heart, My power and the might of mine hand hath gotten me this wealth" (Deut. 8:17).
The older generation's weakness had been present-orientation: a refusal to be content with eschatological inheritance. As soon as Moses told them that they would not be allowed to conquer Canaan, they rushed into a forbidden war with Amalek (Num. 14:44-45). They immediately became overconfident when they should have been humble before pagan covenant-breakers for a generation. Previously, they had lacked confidence when they should have been humble before God and therefore confident regarding their imminent victory over covenant-breakers. In both cases, they did not have confidence in the predictability of God's historical sanctions: 1) negative corporate sanctions on Canaanites through Israel inside the land; 2) negative corporate sanctions on Israel through Amalekites outside the land.
These decisive events had been uniquely covenantal. First, the Israelites had not believed in the historical relevance of point one of the biblical covenant model: 1) the sovereignty of God over the events of history; 2) His unique judicial presence with them as a nation. Second, they had not accepted their national office as God's representative agent in bringing negative corporate sanctions against Canaan. Third, they had not obeyed God's revelation to them: imminent victory over Canaan, said Joshua and Caleb; imminent defeat by Amalek, said Moses. Fourth, they had initially sought to avoid imposing God's sanctions and then had sought to impose sanctions on their own. Fifth, they had no patience with the doctrine of eschatological inheritance. They were present-oriented.
Promise and Continuity Moses pointed to the growth of Israel's population. They had arrived in Egypt as a handful; now they were a multitude. He cited the words of God to Abram: the stars of heaven. God's promise to childless Abram had been fulfilled. The change in name to Abraham -- father of nations or multitudes, had been fulfilled.
God's revelation to Abram four centuries earlier had been reliable. The Israelites could see with their own eyes that God's promise had been fulfilled. But this had been equally true of the preceding generation. They had not believed their own eyes. They had not acknowledged that they were living proof of the reliability of the covenantal promise to Abram.(1) They had not understood that God's oath in history had come true in history. They had not looked to their own history, including their immediate history, with the eyes of faith. The fulfillment of God's oath to Abram had been ignored by the exodus generation. It had made no impact on their thinking, their words, or their actions.
The Israelites of the exodus did not acknowledge the importance of continuity in history. The judicial basis of Israel's continuity was God's oath to Abram. That which followed this oath had confirmed the terms of the oath. The oath had not been mere words; it had been a prophecy. This prophecy had come true in their generation. But the fathers of the conquest generation had refused to acknowledge that the fulfillment of God's oath in history had transferred to them a heavy degree of responsibility. They no doubt understood that this was the case, but they refused to acknowledge it. They were determined not to enter the Promised Land. They had no desire to transfer leadership to their sons under Joshua, even though Joshua's generation had been identified prophetically by God as the inheriting generation (Gen. 15:16). They preferred not to inherit. They clung to their authority in the wilderness rather than transfer it to their sons and march into Canaan. They preferred to allow death to transfer this authority four decades later. They preferred wandering in the wilderness to seeing the fulfillment of God's covenant oath to Abram in their lifetimes.
God's oath to Abram was the basis of their covenantal inheritance as sons of Abraham. Their very self-definition was tied to God's oath. This meant that it was tied to everything that had happened since then, for the events since the days of Abraham had confirmed the oath. It was a true oath because it had been fulfilled as promised. Moses reminded the conquest generation: the handful had become a multitude, as promised.
The God of Israel could foresee the future because He shaped the future. The decree of God is sovereign over history. Faith in this principle would enable the conquest generation to fulfill the promise regarding the fourth generation. The inheritance was assured, Moses told them. Why was he so sure? Because he understood the history of Israel from the days of Abram to his own day. He understood that continuity in history is covenantal. The continuity of history rests on God's covenant oath and His sanctions in history. These historical sanctions confirm the original oath and bring it to pass in history.
This means that inheritance in history is covenantal. It rests on God's oath. But God's oath is tied to God's law. This is why men are required to obey God. The fear of God produces obedience to God's law. Obedience brings God's positive sanctions. Positive sanctions bring the inheritance.
Continuity and Conquest Point five of the biblical covenant model is continuity. But this implies succession in history. The Book of Deuteronomy makes it plain that covenantal continuity involves inheritance. It is not merely that Israel persevered as a nation. Israel inherited the Promised Land. Israel's perseverance was not supposed to be merely biological; it was to be cultural and economic. Israel was to take possession of wells that others had dug, vineyards that others had planted. Israel was not to wander in circles in the wilderness. God's promise to Abram had been more than mere national survival; it had involved the promise of inheritance.
The promise had been numerical: from no sons at all to sons like the stars of heaven. That is, the fulfillment of the promise could be visibly measured in history. Obviously, that promise had been figurative. Moses knew from the numbering how many people constituted Israel. The symbolic language of the measureless stars of heaven had pointed to a future census. The language of immeasurability had pointed to measurability, i.e., confirmation. The impossible would come true. Abraham's new name would in fact be confirmed in history. He was not merely to be the father of a handful; he was to become the father of nations. God asked him to believe this, which he did. Then it came true.
Covenantal continuity is the continuity of growth. It is not the continuity of mere survival; it is the continuity of conquest. It is not the continuity of life in the historical shadows; it is the continuity of dominion. It is not the continuity of mere confession; it is the continuity of kingdom extension. Whenever God's people refuse to acknowledge that the continuity promised to God's people in history is a continuity of expansion, dominion, and conquest, they begin to act like the exodus generation. Their lack of faith produces timidity. Timidity produces half-hearted measures. The lack of success of half-hearted measures reinforces their lack of faith. They dwell in the wilderness and call it the Promised Land in history. They spiritualize the language of victory. They call a stalemate in the wilderness a triumph of the kingdom.
Moses was preparing them for conquest. He did this by telling them again and again to fear God. Why should they? Because God is the God of the oath. He is the God of oath-bound sanctions in history. These historical sanctions confirm His oath by bringing expansion and victory to His people. Moses was rallying the troops of the fourth generation by calling to their attention the history of God's dealings with earlier generations. He was calling them to military conquest in history; so, he reminded them of their demographic expansion in the past.
Moses told them to swear by God's name. This was a call to covenant renewal. They were to swear their oath to the God who had sworn an oath to Abram. The promises attached to that oath had been fulfilled. This oath-bound God "hath done for thee these great and terrible things, which thine eyes have seen." What they had seen was preliminary to what they would soon see: the defeat of Canaan. The defeat of Canaan had been part of the original oath (Gen. 15:16). There was no legitimate reason to hold back any longer. The inheritance was at hand.
Conclusion Moses told them to fear God and swear allegiance to Him. He offered as evidence the fulfillment of the seemingly impossible promise to Abraham: the multiplication of his heirs. Israel had grown from 70 people to a multitude. Moses appealed to a positive corporate sanction -- multiplication -- as a justification of the requirement to fear God and swear allegiance to Him. Moses could also have mentioned the prophesied capitalization of Israel through the disinheritance of Egypt's firstborn, which was God's second promise to Abraham.
The third promise to Abraham, as yet unfulfilled, was Israel's inheritance of the land. This had been an eschatological inheritance for the exodus generation, just as Abraham's inheritance had been eschatological: multiplication of his heirs, their spoiling of the Egyptians, and the conquest of Canaan. The fulfillment of this third aspect of the inheritance was as sure as the first two had been. What had seemed impossible to Abraham had already come true. Now the third stage of the inheritance was about to come true. Moses was arguing from the oath-bound covenant to the inheritance by way of historically fulfilled prophecy. The Abrahamic covenant's oath had invoked positive sanctions in history. These were sanctions of inheritance: heirs, capital, and land. Although Moses here mentioned only the multiplication of Abraham's seed, the other two sanctions were part of the original promise. The Israelites were therefore required to obey God's law (Deut. 11:1). Moses made it clear that all three aspects of the covenant are linked judicially: obedience to God's law, predictable oath-bound corporate sanctions in history, and corporate inheritance in history.
Footnote:
1. He had not yet been re-named in Genesis 15.
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