Neither Adding Nor Subtracting: A Meditation on Deuteronomy 4 for the Season of Pentecost

Now therefore hearken, O Israel,

unto the statutes and unto the judgments,

which I teach you, for to do them,

that ye may live, and go in and possess the land

 which the Lord God of your fathers giveth you.

Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you,

neither shall ye diminish ought from it,

 that ye may keep the commandments

of the Lord your God which I command you

 

The fifth book of Moses, Deuteronomy is a second telling of the Law, or a summary of the events covered in the four prior books.  What God had revealed to Moses about the origins of Creation, the Fall, the nature of God and His relationship with the descending families of mankind, Moses brought again into focus for the children of Israel as he neared his own death.  Moses had lived nearly 120 years (40 years in Pharaoh's house, 40 years in the wilderness with his father-in-law tending sheep with his wife and children, then 40 years in the Exodus and wandering of the Israelites as God led them out of Egypt and toward the promised Land) and was now reminding the people one last time of their covenant with God by His Word.  He knew that he must die and be buried by God without having set foot in the promised land due to his own sin against His Word, and now Moses would call the people once again to remember the Law and the Promises of their Savior.

 

Modern notions of progress, be they sociological, scientific, philosophical, or otherwise, often chafe at the premise of not adding to or subtracting from the Word of God, but those inclinations are not new to our times.  Moses knew, as God revealed to him, that when the people of Israel would grow comfortable in the land, they would eventually forget the Word of the God who saved and put them there.  Indeed, even during the 40 years of the Exodus, there was rebellion against God, and dramatic judgment (imagine seeing with your own eyes, the earth opening up and swallowing thousands of people who flocked to Korah’s banner in rebellion against Moses and God’s Word, or the Red Sea swallowing alive the hosts of Egypt’s pursuing armies,) but the nature of fallen people is to be forgetful and prideful, to presume to themselves a higher knowledge and wisdom than the God who gave them life.  While the Promise of God by grace through faith in His Word is life in this world and the next, to the Hebrews of a Promised Land physically located in ancient Canaan, and to all who would repent and believe, citizenship in an eternal heavenly kingdom that transcends heaven and earth, there is also judgment in that Word, as well.  To reject God and His Word is to abandon the free gift of the Promise, and to embrace the just consequence of His judgment—a type of estranged death in this world from the grace, wisdom, and providence of God, and an eternal, conscious, tortuous death in the infernal prison of hell.

 

But of course, people still like to forget about all that, and presume to teach other doctrines as if they were more enlightening that God Himself.  Who needs Moses when we have Darwin, Nietzsche, Freud, and Marx?  Who needs ethical insights from the ancient Middle East, when we have politicians, lawyers, socialites, and celebrities?  Who needs the books of God’s Wisdom, when we have the books of Dawkins, Sagan, Zuckerberg, and Hawking?  Ah, what a world we have built by forgetting the ancient principles of individual accountability, property rights, protections against theft, and the economy which arises from them, so to institute a Marxist socialism that has brought poverty, death, suffering and destruction everywhere it went.  What a world we have now, forgetting the ancient wisdom of the unique and eternal value of every human soul created in the image of God, so that we might farm the murdered corpses of aborted children to make our medicines, euthanize the elderly to control healthcare costs, and manipulate the genetic code of both our food and ourselves.  What communities we have built, trading the ancient wisdom of physical human communion in truth, dignity, and beauty, for the self-absorbed narcissism of social media, pornographic voyeurism, and the decay of both charitable and civic institutions.  For all our wisdom and progress, we have oceans filled with plastic, air poisoned by chemicals, cities looted and burning, communities wracked with hatred and violence, colleges churning out idiots with debt they cannot repay, and governments of manipulative malevolence seeking the totality of power.

 

For all our modern tools and toys and inventions, we have not improved the human condition, nor have we legitimately added or subtracted one jot or one tittle from the Word of the Living God.  As in Moses’ day, so in our own, the terms of our life in this world and the next are rooted in His Promises and His Commandments.  No one but Jesus has solved the human problem of death, having lived, died, and risen again to open the heavenly kingdom to all who will follow Him.  No one but Jesus can take the guilt and shame of our endless failures in progress, and salve the wounds of our haunted consciences through authentic forgiveness.  No one but Jesus can re-order the mind of fallen man to behold the summit of true human progress, rejoined in full communion to God the Father in the power of His Holy Spirit.  No one but Jesus can teach the world of a selfless, sacrificial love which transcends all time and space, breaking down every barrier of culture and language, so that the glorious diversity of creation is harmonized with the full and beautiful potential of every created being.  Only Jesus can open our eyes to see the enduring and eternal Promised Land, just as He opened Moses’ eyes to see it over 3500 years ago, before gently gathering His servant to Himself.

 

In our times and our places, marked by whatever the winds of popular culture may be in their hurried quest of progress, the Word of the Lord still comes to us as it has in every generation.  There is nothing we can add to it, and there is nothing we can take away from it, because the Word of the Living God is Jesus Christ.  We hear Him as He speaks to us by His Word and Spirit in the ancient Prophets and Apostles, and we hear Him as He calls each of us to daily faith in His Promises and repentance before His Commandments.  We hear Him as He declares to us our desperate need for forgiveness, life, and salvation, even as we hear Him declare to us that we are forgiven, enlivened, and saved for the sake of His sacrifice for us upon His Cross.  Hear Him as He speaks to you this day, adding nothing and subtracting nothing from the life-giving Word He breathes into you, that you might be raised up in Him forevermore, and your eyes be opened to that Promised Land.  Amen.