May 3, 2014 (Saturday)
I’m adding this Saturday blog today to supplement the previous five days’ blogs. We call those first five books of the Old Testament the Pentateuch, Greek for “Five scrolls.” Jews call them the “Torah,” Hebrew for “the Teaching.” We call those books “Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy.” The Hebrew names the books by the first Hebrew words that appear in each of them.
It would be difficult to overestimate the value of the Torah to the Jews. When you enter a synagogue, you will see it prominently displayed as a scroll before you, usually in a special cabinet (called an “ark”) on the wall in front of you as you take your place for worship. At some point during the service, the Rabbi will reverently remove it, kiss it, and walk amidst the congregation, giving them the opportunity of kissing it also. Many copies of the Torah include additional sacred teachings along with the five scrolls.
In spite of the many methods available today to reproduce documents, the Torah you see in the synagogue will likely have been copied by hand by scribes, as in olden times, on parchment. If, during the lengthy copying experience (at least 1 1/2 years), the scribe makes an error, that copy of the Torah is discarded and he starts over at the beginning.
One of my favorite movies is, “The Frisco Kid,” in which a Rabbi from the old country is assigned to San Francisco. He arrives on the east coast around 1850 and must travel to the west coast. Along the way in the Old West he has all sorts of adventures, assisted by a rough and tumble cowboy who becomes his friend. Towards the end of their journey, they are attacked by outlaws and the Rabbi’s Torah becomes the target for the bullets. He risks his life to retrieve the Torah, almost at the expense of his cowboy friend’s life. Afterwards he is dismayed that he valued the Torah above the life of his friend, and deems himself unworthy of being a Rabbi. The movie is true to life in presenting the Torah as more important to a devout Jew than anything else, other than God Himself. Thankfully, it also mirrors the teaching of Jesus that loving and helping people is far more important than religion and ritual, no matter how valuable they may be.
The teachings of Deuteronomy seem to be more closely related to a personal walk with God in daily life than the other four books of the Pentateuch (or, Torah, if you prefer).
Many years later faith in God nearly died in Judah and Israel when a copy of Deuteronomy was found amidst the rubble that had accumulated in the Temple. The king was alarmed that they had neglected its teachings, and called the nation back to God.
Many of the quotations from the Old Testament by Jesus are from the Book of Deuteronomy.
My prayer is that you and I, as we journey through the Bible in this series of devotional thoughts on each book, will be enabled to say with even more conviction, “Thy word is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path” (Psalm 119:105 KJV).