God Gave the Land

Although no foes can willfully take away the land from Israel, if Israel fails to keep up its covenant relationship with Yhwh and, instead, serves other gods, Yhwh can take away the land.  Making images will have that result (Deuteronomy 4.23-26), but the whole of Moses’ final sermon needs implementing in their lives if they are to live long in this land (Deuteronomy 5.31-33; 11.8-25).  They may take over the cities, houses, and orchards in the land, but they must destroy its religious life (Deuteronomy 7.5; 12.2-3).  They must pursue “sedeq,” do absolutely the right thing by Yhwh, if they are to possess the land (Deuteronomy 16.20).  If Yhwh is to bless them in the land, they must not charge interest on loans to a fellow Israelite in need (Deuteronomy 23.19-20 [MT 20-21]).  If they are to avoid bringing sin or guilt or punishment on the land (“hata,” hiphil), they must not allow a man to remarry his former wife (Deuteronomy 24.4).  Putting Yhwh out of their minds and serving other gods in Yhwh’s place will mean forfeiting the land that is Yhwh’s gift (see, e.g., Deuteronomy 6.10-12; Joshua 23.15-16).  Or, it will mean that they do not see the rain and, thus, the crops that the land is capable of, and they will die in the land (Deuteronomy 11.13-17).  Or, they will share the fate of their predecessors and build houses but not live in them and plant vineyards but not enjoy their fruit (Deuteronomy 28.30; see Deuteronomy as a whole).  Or, they will see the good and fruitful land turned into one devastated and burnt out, like Sodom and Gomorrah (Deuteronomy 29.23).

Yet, that will not be the end.  If they turn to Yhwh when they have been cast off the land, Yhwh will restore them to possession of it (Deuteronomy 30.1-5).  Precisely because the land remains Yhwh’s and Yhwh remains theirs, there can, again, be hope.

From: Old Testament Theology: Volume One: Israel’s Gospel by John Goldingay (Downers Grove: IVP Academic/Bletchley: Paternoster, 2003), p. 521.

 

On Ezekiel’s Temple

The Book of Ezekiel closes with a gargantuan vision of a new temple in Jerusalem, which reads like architectural plans for contractors to follow (though with a lot of detail for them to work out).  Indeed, the people are “to observe the entire plan and all its statutes, and do them” (Ezekiel 43.11).  Yet, it is, actually, a vision of something that could not literally exist.  The plans would require a geophysical transformation of the setting, as do later elements in the vision, in order to make Jerusalem the source of a wondrous supply of fresh water.  The nature of the vision, with all its practical detail (like those of the wilderness dwelling) is to imply that we are talking about something real.  It is real, in the mind of YHWH, and that makes it very real.  Yet, its impracticality means it is not simply a project for the community to implement.  It is a concrete imaginative realization of what God intends, promising something YHWH will implement.  It “combines both dream and reality.”  [quoting Paul M. Joyce]  “No word is said of any human participation in the construction; what is said concerns the freely willed event of the coming glory of Yahweh to a dwelling in the midst of His people.”  [quoting Walther Zimmerli]

Yet, it also stands as a stimulus and a measure for the temple restoration project that the community will eventually undertake.  Perhaps the observance of YHWH’s instructions more likely refers to the community’s keeping YHWH’s instructions about the way the temple worship is to be conducted.  In the meantime, however, for a community in no position to do anything toward such a project, it stands as a stimulus to hope.

From: Old Testament Theology: Volume Two: Israel’s Faith by John Goldingay (Downers Grove: IVP Academic/Bletchley: Paternoster, 2006), pp. 374-375.