"Justice, only justice" is Deuteronomy's terse summary of what Yahweh requires of the people of God. What Deuteronomy reveals is that the competence to be God's people, to know God, and to do God's will comes only through hearing the transforming Word of God in Scripture. Deuteronomy sets the scene for hearing God's Word in the wilderness as Moses addresses a new, in-between generation of "all Israel." The people of God are no longer in Egypt, nor yet in Canaan. Moses warns them against allowing the past to control them and attempts to equip them to live faithfully in the new situation in which they find themselves. Deuteronomy's core theology, expressed in the Shema ("Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord alone"), forms the structure of the book: What does it mean to "hear"? Who is "all Israel"? And how does the identity of the one Lord shape ethics? To hear the biblical text does not mean passive listening. Hearing means engaging the story of God's Word with our own story. The book explores the three levels of hearing in Deuteronomy: hearing the story in the text--its narrative world; hearing the story behind the text--what really happened; and hearing the story of the text--how the original preaching and teaching became a canonical book that comes to us already translated with a rich history of interpretation in which contemporary readers stand. Deuteronomy for the Church reminds us that Christian believers are included in "all Israel," that in reading Deuteronomy we are not merely spectators overhearing what was once said to other people, but that we are addressed as on-stage participants in the story, with the responsibility to discern and improvise what God requires of us in our time and place. Discerning the will of God means deepening our understanding of God's own revelation of the divine character and purpose in history. This responsibility is illuminated by New Testament examples that interpret Deuteronomyin light of God's definitive self-revelation in Christ.
M. Eugene Boring (PhD, Vanderbilt) served as pastor for congregations in Kentucky, Indiana, and Tennessee, and as professor at Phillips University (1967-1986), Texas Christian University (1987-1992), and Brite Divinity School (1992-2003). He is author or translator of several books and preaches and lectures often for church and clergy groups.
I. Deuteronomy: Theology that Laughs and Sings 1. The First Commandment and Sarah's Laughter 2. Deuteronomy: A Strange but True Story II. The Shema: Core Theology 3. The Shema: Confession, Testimony, Command III. Hear: The Story 4. Hearing the Story 5. The Story in the Text: Narrative World and "What the BibleSays" 6. The Story behind the Text: "Quest of the Historical Israel?" 7. The Story of the Text: The living voice became a Book 8. The Story of the Text: The Book became Canonical Scripture 9. The Story of the Text: Canonical Scripture became a translation 10. TheStory of the Text: Preachers and teachers interpret the book in the life of the Church IV. Israel: The People 11. 'All Israel': Who Is Included? 12. Israel's Story as My Story: Ecclesial Hermeneutics 13. A Difficulty Test Case -- Divine and Human Violence V. The Lord our God: The Torah 14. The Torah for All Israel -- "It's About God" 15. Where We Are--Between the Times, Between Two Cultures 16. Who We Are -- "AllIsrael" What God Requires of Us -- "Do Justice, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly" Concluding Unparabolic Postscript "Places in the Heart--Sally Field and the Promised Land"
