Deuteronomy 4: The Crap Continues

Deuteronomy: Part 4 of 34
Obedience Commanded

1 Now, Israel, hear the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land the LORD, the God of your ancestors, is giving you.

Why laws?  Why didn’t God just make us in such a way so that we would just live in this manner naturally?  Why all the hype and drama?

2 Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you.

He gives us freewill, but doesn’t allow us to use it without the penalty of death etc.  Very repressive I must say.

3 You saw with your own eyes what the LORD did at Baal Peor. The LORD your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor,

Not one of his best moments.

4 but all of you who held fast to the LORD your God are still alive today.

Veiled threat.

5 See, I have taught you decrees and laws as the LORD my God commanded me, so that you may follow them in the land you are entering to take possession of it.

Become the slaughterers of women and children and I will give you land.  Very nice.  NOT!

6 Observe them carefully, for this will show your wisdom and understanding to the nations, who will hear about all these decrees and say, “Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.”

Slaughtering millions of men, women and children does not make someone wise and understanding.   It makes them God’s evil minions.

7 What other nation is so great as to have their gods near them the way the LORD our God is near us whenever we pray to him?

So you are admitting there are other gods?  Don’t let the boss hear that.

8 And what other nation is so great as to have such righteous decrees and laws as this body of laws I am setting before you today?

Probably most.  Everybody was making laws that allowed their citizenry to live comfortably with each other.  It just takes a while of trial and error.  All God did was take laws that others had already made anyway and call them his own.  Not to mention that they aren’t all that great.

9 Only be careful, and watch yourselves closely so that you do not forget the things your eyes have seen or let them fade from your heart as long as you live. Teach them to your children and to their children after them.

We remember what we are taught, not the lessons learnt by the previous generations.  We know from history that we have to relearn many things ourselves, so this is not a great help.

10 Remember the day you stood before the LORD your God at Horeb, when he said to me, “Assemble the people before me to hear my words so that they may learn to revere me as long as they live in the land and may teach them to their children.”

Here Moses states that the people were standing there when God said, “Assemble the people”.  Why would an all knowing God say such a stupid thing?  Dumb book.

11 You came near and stood at the foot of the mountain while it blazed with fire to the very heavens, with black clouds and deep darkness.

12 Then the LORD spoke to you out of the fire. You heard the sound of words but saw no form; there was only a voice.

Why did he feel the need to be such a drama queen?

13 He declared to you his covenant, the Ten Commandments, which he commanded you to follow and then wrote them on two stone tablets.

Where are these tablets?

14 And the LORD directed me at that time to teach you the decrees and laws you are to follow in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

So why haven’t you done so?

Idolatry Forbidden

15 You saw no form of any kind the day the LORD spoke to you at Horeb out of the fire. Therefore watch yourselves very carefully,

16 so that you do not become corrupt and make for yourselves an idol, an image of any shape, whether formed like a man or a woman,

17 or like any animal on earth or any bird that flies in the air,

18 or like any creature that moves along the ground or any fish in the waters below.

But God has already stated that he made us in his image.  Why do that and then say this rubbish?

19 And when you look up to the sky and see the sun, the moon and the stars—all the heavenly array—do not be enticed into bowing down to them and worshiping things the LORD your God has apportioned to all the nations under heaven.

At least the sun and stars can be seen, unlike this God of yours.

20 But as for you, the LORD took you and brought you out of the iron-smelting furnace, out of Egypt, to be the people of his inheritance, as you now are.

If Egypt is so bad, why make it in the first place?  Why not bring the Egyptians out as well?  Why choose the Israelites over the Egyptians or anyone else for that matter?

21 The LORD was angry with me because of you, and he solemnly swore that I would not cross the Jordan and enter the good land the LORD your God is giving you as your inheritance.

Yet another attempt by Moses to apportion blame where it does not belong.

I will die in this land; I will not cross the Jordan; but you are about to cross over and take possession of that good land.

23 Be careful not to forget the covenant of the LORD your God that he made with you; do not make for yourselves an idol in the form of anything the LORD your God has forbidden.

24 For the LORD your God is a consuming fire, a jealous God.

Jealousy is a bad thing in itself, so why is God, who is supposed to be perfect himself, capable of jealousy?

25 After you have had children and grandchildren and have lived in the land a long time—if you then become corrupt and make any kind of idol, doing evil in the eyes of the LORD your God and arousing his anger,

Anger.  Yet another bad emotion.

26 I call the heavens and the earth as witnesses against you this day that you will quickly perish from the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess. You will not live there long but will certainly be destroyed.

And even though they have committed these ‘sins’, they still live there.  Oh my.  I wonder what happened?

27 The LORD will scatter you among the peoples, and only a few of you will survive among the nations to which the LORD will drive you.

Hey, we all scatter.  It’s what we do as humans.

28 There you will worship man-made gods of wood and stone, which cannot see or hear or eat or smell.

Or kill you for forgetting to chop off your son’s foreskin.

29 But if from there you seek the LORD your God, you will find him if you seek him with all your heart and with all your soul.

After all the things he has done to people, I’d think they would want to forget him and let him fade away as is the proper thing to do as you grow up and leave childish beliefs behind.

30 When you are in distress and all these things have happened to you, then in later days you will return to the LORD your God and obey him.

At least the Tooth Fairy left money.

31 For the LORD your God is a merciful God; he will not abandon or destroy you or forget the covenant with your ancestors, which he confirmed to them by oath.

Being kind to people who are only a bunch of sock puppets obeying even the most base of your wishes is not being merciful.  Merciful is being able to forgive them and forgo punishing them when they stray.  So far I haven’t seen mercy from this vengeful bastard.

The LORD Is God

32 Ask now about the former days, long before your time, from the day God created human beings on the earth; ask from one end of the heavens to the other. Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of?

I suppose in South America in the time of the Aztecs, when they sacrificed virgins and the crops were good the next season, they thought things were great.  I expect when the American Indians talked to their Sky Spirits and the Buffalo were plentiful they also thought things were great.

33 Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived?

Considering this lot had never left the small part of the world in which they lived, it is doubtful they’d have heard of many of the miraculous things happening around the globe.

34 Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation, by testings, by signs and wonders, by war, by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm, or by great and awesome deeds, like all the things the LORD your God did for you in Egypt before your very eyes?

Every army that ever went to war and won and prayed beforehand to their gods thought that it was because they prayed and obeyed.  Religions always blame the bad on the sins of the followers and the good on their god.  How can you argue against that kind of stupidity?  Morons.

35 You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD is God; besides him there is no other.

36 From heaven he made you hear his voice to discipline you. On earth he showed you his great fire, and you heard his words from out of the fire.

Nobody heard anything whatsoever.  This is just storybook tale.  It could as easily be about dragons riding fairies into the evil abyss and overcoming the evil and ugly goblins that lived there.  Then you’d have idiots running around in skirts believing that rubbish.  Grow up and put away childish things.

37 Because he loved your ancestors and chose their descendants after them, he brought you out of Egypt by his Presence and his great strength,

But why did he love them and not all beings on this planet?

38 to drive out before you nations greater and stronger than you and to bring you into their land to give it to you for your inheritance, as it is today.

But those nations tamed the land.  They owned it and cherished it.  They looked after it and made it as good as it is so that you could covet it yourself.  Also, coveting is another problem.  Why is it that he teaches you to kill, rape, own slaves, covet, be jealous etc?

39 Acknowledge and take to heart this day that the LORD is God in heaven above and on the earth below. There is no other.

You already admitted there is other gods.  Make up your mind.

40 Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you and that you may live long in the land the LORD your God gives you for all time.

They aren’t really doing a good job of looking after it though.

Cities of Refuge

41 Then Moses set aside three cities east of the Jordan,

42 to which anyone who had killed a person could flee if they had unintentionally killed a neighbor without malice aforethought. They could flee into one of these cities and save their life.

43 The cities were these: Bezer in the wilderness plateau, for the Reubenites; Ramoth in Gilead, for the Gadites; and Golan in Bashan, for the Manassites.

Yes, but then they’d have to stay there.  Even innocent people aren’t free under your laws.

Introduction to the Law

44 This is the law Moses set before the Israelites.

45 These are the stipulations, decrees and laws Moses gave them when they came out of Egypt

46 and were in the valley near Beth Peor east of the Jordan, in the land of Sihon king of the Amorites, who reigned in Heshbon and was defeated by Moses and the Israelites as they came out of Egypt.

47 They took possession of his land and the land of Og king of Bashan, the two Amorite kings east of the Jordan.

48 This land extended from Aroer on the rim of the Arnon Gorge to Mount Sirion (that is, Hermon),

49 and included all the Arabah east of the Jordan, as far as the Dead Sea, below the slopes of Pisgah.

More geography lessons.

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