Deuteronomy 9:(1-3) 4-12 (Episcopal tradition, vv. 4-12; Presbyterian and Lutheran traditions, vv. 1-12)

The Consequences of Rebelling against God (Ex 32.1-35)

9:1 Hear, O Israel! You are about to cross the Jordan today, to go in and dispossess nations larger and mightier than you, great cities, fortified to the heavens, 2 a strong and tall people, the offspring of the Anakim, whom you know. You have heard it said of them, “Who can stand up to the Anakim?” 3 Know then today that the LORD your God is the one who crosses over before you as a devouring fire; he will defeat them and subdue them before you, so that you may dispossess and destroy them quickly, as the LORD has promised you.

4 When the LORD your God thrusts them out before you, do not say to yourself, “It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to occupy this land”; it is rather because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is dispossessing them before you. 5 It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to occupy their land; but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is dispossessing them before you, in order to fulfill the promise that the LORD made on oath to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

6 Know, then, that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to occupy because of your righteousness; for you are a stubborn people. 7 Remember and do not forget how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness; you have been rebellious against the LORD from the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place.

8 Even at Horeb you provoked the LORD to wrath, and the LORD was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you. 9 When I went up the mountain to receive the stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant that the LORD made with you, I remained on the mountain forty days and forty nights; I neither ate bread nor drank water. 10 And the LORD gave me the two stone tablets written with the finger of God; on them were all the words that the LORD had spoken to you at the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly. 11 At the end of forty days and forty nights the LORD gave me the two stone tablets, the tablets of the covenant. 12 Then the LORD said to me, “Get up, go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have been quick to turn from the way that I commanded them; they have cast an image for themselves.” (Deuteronomy 9:(1-3) 4-12, NRSV)

On February 27, 2007 (Tuesday in the week of the First Sunday of Lent, Year One), comments were repeated with revision and supplement from February 15, 2005, (Tuesday in the week of the First Sunday of Lent, Year One); the comments are repeated here with editing and supplement:

For today’s reading, the opening paragraph (Deut. 9:1-3, included in parentheses by the Presbyterian and Lutheran traditions) sets the scene. Moses says, “Hear, O Israel! You are about to cross the Jordan today, to go in and dispossess nations larger and mightier than you, great cities, fortified to the heavens, a strong and tall people, the offspring of the Anakim, whom you know” (Deut. 9:1, 2a). The “Anakim” are “a pre-Israelite Canaanite tribe feared as gigantic (Num. 13:22, 28, 33; Deut. 1:28; 9:2; Josh. 11:21-22; 15:14; 21:11; Judg. 1:20)” (Harper’s Bible Dictionary, rev. ed., 1996, s.v. Anakims). S. Dean McBride, Jr., says, “A new generation of Israelites must face the threats that undid its predecessor. See 1:28, 41-45; 2:10-11; Num. 13:28” (HarperCollins Study Bible, rev. ed., 2006, on Deut. 9:1-2). Moses refers to the reputation of the Anakim, expressed by the question, “Who can stand up to the Anakim?” (v. 2b), but assures the Israelites that God will defeat them. “Know then today that the LORD your God is the one who crosses over before you as a devouring fire; he will defeat them and subdue them before you, so that you may dispossess and destroy them quickly, as the LORD has promised you” (v. 3). The LORD’s victory is compared to “a devouring fire” (cf. 4:24), and later, Moses predicts the rapid defeat of the enemies, “quickly,” in preparation for his commissioning of Joshua (31:3-5, cf. 1-8 and McBride, ibid., on 9:3).

Moses reminds the people that their victories in driving out the Canaanites and occupying the holy land will not be because of their own righteousness. “When the LORD your God thrusts them you before you,” he says, “do not say to yourself, ‘It is because of my righteousness that the LORD has brought me in to occupy this land’; it is rather because of the wickedness of these nations that the LORD is dispossessing them before you” (v. 4). For emphasis, Moses repeats the point: “It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you are going in to occupy their land” (v. 5a); but this time he includes the promise to the patriarchs, “but because of the wickedness of these nations the LORD your God is dispossessing them before you, in order to fulfill the promise that the LORD made on oath to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob” (v. 5b). According to Bernard M. Levinson, “Victory will be given in the holy war because (negatively) Canaan has been irrevocably corrupted by the actions of its present occupants and because (positively) of God’s enduring commitment to the promises made to Israel’s ancestors” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Deut. 9:4-5).

For good measure, the point is stated a third time. “Know, then,” says Moses, “that the LORD your God is not giving you this good land to occupy because of your righteousness” (v. 6a). As if to prove their unrighteousness, Moses recounts the record of their rebellions: “for you are a stubborn people” (v. 6b). “Remember and do not forget,” says Moses, “how you provoked the LORD your God to wrath in the wilderness; you have been rebellious against the LORD from the day you came out of the land of Egypt until you came to this place” (v. 7).

“Even at Horeb,” says Moses, “you provoked the LORD to wrath, and the LORD was so angry with you that he was ready to destroy you” (v. 8). Moses spent “forty days and forty nights” on the mountain, neither eating bread nor drinking water (v. 9; cf. Jesus’ period of temptation, Mk. 1:13; Mt. 4:2; Lk. 4:2). He was given “the two stone tablets written with the finger of God; on [which] were all the words that the LORD had spoken to you at the mountain out of the fire on the day of the assembly” (v. 10, cf. v. 11).

But at the very time when God gives Moses this gift of the Law, he also has shocking news. “Get up,” says the LORD, “go down quickly from here, for your people whom you have brought from Egypt have acted corruptly. They have been quick to turn from the way that I commanded them; they have cast an image for themselves” (v. 12). The LORD’s anger and Moses’ intercession for the people are recounted in coming lessons. But at this point the LORD sent him back to the people because the people”have acted corruptly” and “cast an image for themselves” (v. 12), that is, the golden calf (Ex. 32). Rabbi J. H. Hertz sums the situation up: “Israel’s victories over the Canaanites are due not to any exceptional merits of Israel, but to the wickedness of those nations and because of the Divine promise to the Patriarchs” (Pentateuch & Haftorahs, 2^nd ed., 24^th printing, 1981, p. 784, on Deut. 9:1-10:11). He explains the phrase, “not because of your righteousness” (v. 5) as “illustrated in v. 8 by the outstanding example of Israel’s sin, the Golden Calf” (on v. 5). Doesn’t that sound rather like a theology of grace, at least for Israel?

Hebrews 3:1-11

Moses a Servant, Christ a Son

3:1 Therefore, brothers and sisters, holy partners in a heavenly calling, consider that Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, 2 was faithful to the one who appointed him, just as Moses also “was faithful in all God’s house.” 3 Yet Jesus is worthy of more glory than Moses, just as the builder of a house has more honor than the house itself. 4 (For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.) 5 Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken later. 6 Christ, however, was faithful over God’s house as a son, and we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope.

Warning against Unbelief (Ps 95.7b-11)

7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,

“Today, if you hear his voice,

8 do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,

as on the day of testing in the wilderness,

9 where your ancestors put me to the test,

though they had seen my works10 for forty years.

Therefore I was angry with that generation,

and I said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts,

and they have not known my ways.’

11 As in my anger I swore,

‘They will not enter my rest.’ “ (Hebrews 3:1-11, NRSV)

On January 17, 2008 (Thursday in the week of the First Sunday after the Epiphany, Year Two), comments were repeated from February 27, 2007 (Tuesday in the week of the First Sunday of Lent, Year One), when comments of February 15, 2005, (Tuesday in the week of the First Sunday of Lent, Year One), which were repeated on January 12, 2006 (Thursday in the week of the First Sunday after the Epiphany, Year Two), were repeated again with revision and supplement. The January 17, 2008, comments are repeated again here.

The writer to the Hebrews finds ways to assert that Jesus the Son is superior to angels through a chain of Old Testament quotations in chapter one and presents an interpretation and application of Psalm 8 in chapter two. In chapter three, Hebrews turns from a comparison of Jesus with angels to a comparison of Jesus with Moses. Although the writer refers to Jesus making purification for sins early (Heb. 1:3b), he is first described as a priest late in chapter two. “Therefore he had to become like his brothers and sisters in every respect, so that he might be a merciful and faithful high priest in the service of God, to make a sacrifice of atonement for the sins of the people” (2:17).

So the readers, addressed as “holy partners in a heavenly calling,” are invited to “consider that Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, [who] was faithful (pistovV, pistos) to the one who appointed him, just as Moses also ‘was faithful [pistovV, pistos, understood] in all God’s house’” (3:1-2). Cynthia Briggs Kittredge says the statement that Moses “was faithful in all God’s house alludes to the Septuagint version of Numbers 12:7-8” (NOAB, 3^rd ed., 2001, on Heb. 3:2), which says Moses “was faithful (pistovV ejstin, pistos estin) in the whole of my house” (Num. 12:7 LXX, my translation) where the Hebrew text says Moses “is entrusted (Nm!x$n@, ne’ ^emān) with all my house” (Num. 12:7 NRSV). Hebrews presents both Jesus and Moses as faithful. But Jesus “is worthy of more glory than Moses” (v. 3a) a comparison based on two analogies: “just as the builder [Jesus] of a house has more honor than the house itself” (v. 3b). The writer adds a parenthetical explanation: “(For every house is built by someone, but the builder of all things is God.)” (v. 4 NRSV). The first analogy seems to mix the metaphor, as though Moses is both the house (or part of it, = ‘household’), and a servant within it, for in the second analogy Moses is a “servant” within the house. “Now Moses was faithful in all God’s house as a servant, to testify to the things that would be spoken later” (v. 5). Moses, as a servant within the house is contrasted with Christ, who “was faithful over God’s house as a son” (v. 6a). The “house” (or “household”), which in Moses’ case was the people Israel, becomes here the Christian believers, including the readers of this letter: “and we are his house if we hold firm the confidence and the pride that belong to hope (v. 6b).

At this point the text moves from a comparison of Moses with Christ to a comparison of Moses’ people to the readers as a Christian community, with a clearly implied warning to be faithful and not rebel against the one who “is worthy of more glory than Moses” (v. 3). The section 3:7-4:13 (vv. 7-11 of today’s reading plus the readings of the next two days (Thurs and Fri., Mar. 4, 5, 2009), consist of a quotation of Psalm 95:7-11 (cited in Heb. 3:7-11) and an extended interpretation focused on a series of expressions repeated and explained from the Psalm (Heb. 3:15, 18; 4:3, 5, 10).

The writer to the Hebrews quotes the Psalm as spoken by the Holy Spirit, “Therefore,” he says, “as the Holy Spirit says” (Heb. 3:7a), in order to introduce the quotation, which begins, “Today, if you hear his voice / do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion (parapikrasmovV, parapikrasmos, cf. Heb. Hb!yr9m4, m ^erîbah), / as on the day of testing (peirasmovV, peirasmos, cf. Heb. Hs0!m1, massāh) in the wilderness” (Heb. 3:7b, 8, citing Ps. 95:7d, 8 LXX). According to Kittredge, “rebellion and testing are translations of the Hebrew names Meribah and Massah in Ps. 95:8 (Ex. 17:1-7; Num. 20:1-13; Deut. 33:8)” (op. cit., on v. 8). To anticipate interpretation from tomorrow’s reading, we note that the word “today” is understood and applied as speaking to the writer’s own time and people (v. 13; cf. the repeated lines in v. 15). In the Psalm, the word “today” focuses on the Psalmist’s day, a few centuries after Joshua’s time (cf. 4:8), when the Israelites failed to enter God’s rest (cf. 4:6). Compare Paul’s emphasis when, after citing Isaiah 49:8, he says, “See, now is the acceptable time; see, now is the day of salvation!” (2 Cor. 6:2). In the Psalm, God, speaking through the Psalmist, says that the “ancestors [i.e., the wilderness generation of Israelites under Moses’s leadership] put me to the test, / though they had seen my works10 for forty years. / Therefore I was angry with that generation, / and I said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts, / and they have not known my ways.’ ” (Heb. 3:9-10, citing Ps. 95:9-10). In consequence, says the LORD, “As in my anger I swore, / ‘They will not enter my rest’ ” (Heb. 3:11, citing Ps. 95:11). The second line of Psalm 95:11 is an oath formula, literally “If (-Mx9, ’im; LXX Eij, Ei = Hebrews) they enter into my rest,” correctly represented by the translation, “They will not enter my rest” (Heb. 3:11b NRSV; cf. E. Kautzsch and A. E. Cowley, Gesenius’ Hebrew Grammar, 2^nd English ed., 1910, 18^th impression, 1985, sec. 149).

So, the quotation from Psalm 95 is a reminder that the generation of Israelites who followed Moses from Egypt to the border of the promised land was rebellious and did not “enter my rest” (v. 11, cf. Ps. 95:11). This reminder is presented as a warning and a preparation for the admonition that follows in tomorrow’s reading, “Take care, brothers and sisters . . .” (v. 12)

John 2:13-22

Jesus Cleanses the Temple (Mt 21.12-17; Mk 11.15-19; Lk 19.45-48)

13 The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem. 14 In the temple he found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables. 15 Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle. He also poured out the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. 16 He told those who were selling the doves, “Take these things out of here! Stop making my Father’s house a marketplace!” 17 His disciples remembered that it was written, “Zeal for your house will consume me.” 18 The Jews then said to him, “What sign can you show us for doing this?” 19 Jesus answered them, “Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” 20 The Jews then said, “This temple has been under construction for forty-six years, and will you raise it up in three days?” 21 But he was speaking of the temple of his body. 22 After he was raised from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken. (John 2:13-22, NRSV)

On August 9, 2008 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 3, Year Two), comments were repeated from January 19, 2008 (Saturday in the week of the First Sunday after the Epiphany, Year Two), when comments for John 2:13-22 were repeated from February 27, 2007 (Tuesday in the week of the First Sunday of Lent, Year One), when comments were repeated from February 15, 2005 (Tuesday of the week of the First Sunday in Lent, Year One) that were repeated on January 14, 2006 (Saturday in the week of the First Sunday after the Epiphany, Year Two), and again on August 12, 2006 (Saturday in the week of the Sunday closest to August 3, Year Two). The comments are repeated again here with editing and supplement:

The separate file, Jesus Cleanses the Temple, John’s Version shows parallel passages in the Synoptic Gospels for John’s version of the Cleansing of the Temple. Many who read the Gospels are surprised to find an account of the Cleansing of the Temple so early in John’s Gospel, but near the end of the other three Gospels, early in Holy Week. Could there have been two cleansings? Perhaps, but Raymond E. Brown doesn’t think so. “Not only do the two traditions describe basically the same actions, but also it is not likely that such a serious public affront to the Temple would be permitted twice” (The Gospel according to John, Anchor Bible, vol. 29, 1966, p. 117, on Jn. 2:13-22). Brown suggests that “the editing of the Gospel led to the transposition of the scene from the original sequence which related it to the last days before Jesus’ arrest” because “the story of Lazarus . . . has become in John the chief motive for Jesus’ arrest” (ibid., p. 118). I have recently noted that only sixteen per cent (16%) of John’s Gospel is located in Galilee, including chapter twenty-one. (Count the verses!) Jesus’ encounter with the woman of Samaria is in Samaria, of course (4:1-42), but the remainder is all in Judea and, for the most part, in Jerusalem (e.g. chaps. 3, 5, 7-20). Practically all of this “Jerusalem material” in John’s Gospel has to do with Jesus’ encounter with the Jewish authorities which, from the human point of view, led to the crucifixion. There is no obvious reason why we must assume that John intended a strict chronological sequence. He does apparently focus on Jewish festivals in the order of the calendar: The “Feast” of Jn. 5:1 has been identified with Tabernacles or Passover by some, but “an early tradition in the Greek church identifies this unnamed feast as Pentecost,” which “would explain the references to Moses in the discourse (vv 46-47)” since this feast “was identified with the celebration of Moses’ receiving the Law of Moses on Mount Sinai” (ibid., p. 206, on Jn. 5:1-15). Chapter seven features the Festival of Booths (Tabernacles, 7:2), and chapter ten features the Festival of Dedication (Hanukkah, 10:22), leading up to the Festival of Passover (12:1; 13:1; 19:14, 31, 42).

Jesus’ cleansing of the temple is related to the Feast of the Passover, the first of three Passovers mentioned by John. “The Passover of the Jews was near, and Jesus went up to Jerusalem” (Jn. 2:13; cf. 6:4; 11:55). In the Synoptic Gospels too, the cleansing of the temple is in the week of Passover, the only Passover to which they refer. “In the temple,” says John, “he [Jesus] found people selling cattle, sheep, and doves, and the money changers seated at their tables” (Jn. 2:14). Mark reports that Jesus found selling and buying in the temple, but specifically mentions only the selling of “doves” (Mk. 11:15; cf. Mt. 21:12). On this point Luke is very brief. “Then he entered the temple and began to drive out those who were selling things there” (Lk. 19:45). While all of the Gospels report that Jesus “drove out” (all using the same verb, ejxevbalen, exebalen, aorist [past] tense, Jn. 2:15; Mt. 21:12; ejkbavllein, ekballein, present tense infinitive, Mk. 11:15; Lk. 19:45) these offenders, only John mentions the “whip” (fragevllion, phragellion): “Making a whip of cords, he drove all of them out of the temple, both the sheep and the cattle” (Jn. 2:15a). Luke omits the reference to overturning “the tables of the money changers and the seats of those who sold doves” (Mk. 11:15b; Mt. 21:12b; cf. Lk. 19:45). John follows the reference to the whip by saying, “he [Jesus] also poured out the coins of the money changers and over turned their tables. He told those who were selling the doves, ‘Take these things out of here!” (Jn. 2:15b, 16a). In the Synoptic accounts Jesus explains his action by quoting Isaiah 56:7, “Is it not written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations’?” (Mk. 11:17a). Matthew and Luke use a statement for Mark’s rhetorical question. “It is written, ‘My house shall be called a house of prayer’ ” (Mt. 21:13a; Lk. 19:46a). Jesus’ concluding indictment reflects Jeremiah 7:11, “But you have made (pepoihvkate, pepoiēkate, perfect tense, Mk.; ejpoihvsate, epoiēsate, aorist [past] tense, Lk.) it a den of robbers” (Mk. 11:17b; Lk. 19:45b; cf. Mt. 21:13b with “are making (poiei:te, poieite, present tense)” for “have made”). The appearance of the same verb in three different tenses in the Synoptic Gospels here is of interest. One might credit it to separate translation of an “original” Aramaic form of the saying, or to independent “correction” of Mark by Matthew and Luke. The Jeremiah text is translated as a question: “Has this house, which is called by my name, become (hy!h!, hāyāh Heb., verb understood, LXX) a den of robbers in your sight?” (Jer. 7:11a NRSV).

Brown comments on the meaning of the “cleansing” of the temple:

Jesus’ action . . . seems to mean roughly the same thing to the Synoptics [i.e. Mt., Mk., Lk.] and to John, namely, a protest like that of the prophets of old against the profanation of God’s house and a sign that the messianic purification of the Temple was at hand. In John this fits in with motifs already seen at Cana: replacement of Jewish institutions, and an abundance of wine heralding the messianic times. In the Synoptics the cleansing is set amid a group of scenes that warn of the rejection of Israel; for instance, Luke xix 41-44, which immediately precedes the cleansing, predicts Jerusalem’s destruction; in Matt. xxi 18-22 the cleansing is followed by the curse on the fig tree and the Parable of the Wicked Tenants (xxi 33-41). (ibid., p.121, on Jn. 2:13-22)

Brown cites the insight of Van den Bussche about “the contrast between the Cana scene where the disciples react with belief and the Jerusalem scene where ‘the Jews’ react to Jesus with incomprehension and hostility” (ibid., p. 125). When Jesus spoke of raising up the temple “in three days” (Jn. 2:19), “he was speaking of the temple of his body” (v. 21). How far is that from a recognition of the church as his “body” (cf. Eph. 1:23 and other passages)? “After he was raised from the dead,” says John the Evangelist, “his disciples remembered that he had said this; and they believed the scripture and the word that Jesus had spoken” (Jn. 2:22).

Ronald D. Worden, Ph.D.

rdworden@hgst.edu

deanworden@comcast.net