In the introductory portion of Deuteronomy, Moses’ last sermons to the people of Israel — people that he regarded as his own beloved children — there is a statement that may seem paradoxical to a modern reader. It invites questions and maybe even creates problems in our understanding.
Here are the words of Moses:
Surely I have taught you statutes and judgments, just as Yahweh my God commanded me, that you should act according to them in the land which you go to possess. Therefore be careful to observe them; for this is your wisdom and your understanding in the sight of the peoples who will hear all these statutes, and say, ‘Surely this great nation is a wise and understanding people.’ For what great nation is there that has God so near to it, as Yahweh our God is to us, for whatever reason we may call upon Him? And what great nation is there that has such statutes and righteous judgments as are in all this law which I set before you this day? – Deuteronomy 4:5-8
What questions does this invite? First question: How are the peoples going to hear of Israel’s statutes? Second related question: What would stand out to them to provoke interest in Israel’s statutes. Third question: Why should they regard these statutes as wisdom?
The first question is relatively easy to answer, though modern American Christians may not immediately notice, for it is a matter of geography — not our forte. It was no accident that Yahweh gave Abraham and his descendants a land that was at the center of the world. Egypt, one of the greatest empires in all history, traded with the great cities and kingdoms of Mesopotamia. I assume that Indian and China, the other two most ancient world empires also traded with Mesopotamia and Egypt.1
If an Egyptian merchant around the year 1300 BC wished to trade with cities in Mesopotamia he was virtually compelled to travel through the land of Israel. The major world trade routes that united Africa with Mesopotamia, Europe, and the East — India and China — went right through Israel, though there were trade routes East of Israel as well. God planted His people in the center of a global trade route, so that the world would have to see them and how they lived.
Caravans could travel only 10 to 25 miles per day. Assuming that traders would want to make money along the way, 10 to 15 miles a day seems like a good rough estimate. Since Israel from Dan to Beersheba is about 170 miles in length, that would mean that a caravan traveling through Israel could take as long as 17 days, though a caravan traveling quickly, taking no time to trade and minimum rest, might make it through the promised land in a single week.
This means that foreign traders with goods from Egypt bound for Mesopotamian and Eastward, or foreign traders from Europe, India, China or Mesopotamia — we should not count any of these peoples out — bound for Egypt would spend a minimum of one week and a maximum of about 20 days in the land of Israel — depending on business, weather, and unforeseeable problems of various sorts.
To the descendants of Abraham, God gifted a land that was central to world trade and international relations. Merchants from many lands would travel through and therefore have contact with the people of Israel. In the New Covenant, Jesus sends His disciples out to all the nations, but in the Old Covenant with a geographically designated promised land, Yahweh brought the nations to His people. Why? Because the whole purpose of the Abrahamic covenant was world salvation: “in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:3).
Therefore, testimony to the nations was an essential aspect of the Mosaic Torah.
Second question we have to ask: what would an Egyptian or Mesopotamian trader note when traveling a week or perhaps 20 days in the land of Israel? Actually, that is not quite the right question. We should ask: What did God intend for them to notice? The differences in the two questions is based in the tragic fact that Israel often, or even usually, compromised her covenant calling, so that God’s design and Israel’s performance did not match.
But we are concerned here with the wonderful plan God had for the life of ancient Israel, not with what they actually did with the plan.
Keeping in mind that we are considering the ideal that Moses commanded, what would the Egyptian or Mesopotamian traveler notice? First and foremost would be the lack of idols and their shrines and temples. In an idolatrous culture, the “gods” and their statues are virtually omnipresent. When the trader travels through Israel, he was supposed to observe the absence of the “gods” and their shrines.
Closely associates with the “gods” and their shrines were various and sundry soothsayers who were equally omnipresent in the ancient world, offering insight into the future for a price (in our day the men who pretend to have secret insight into the future based upon esoteric methods are the secular/atheist scientists).
The foreign merchant traveling though Israel could not but notice the absence of what was inescapable in the cultures and kingdoms he usually traveled through. This was Moses’ “argument from silence” and it would have shouted loudly to any ancient traveler — as anyone who has lived in an idolatrous land should know.2
The traveling merchant looks for idols and finds none. He needs a soothsayer to consult about his business, but there are none. What kind of land is this, he wonders? The strangeness of Israel would create an inquisitive mentality, a mind ready for testimony.
Of course, the merchant also has to eat. Though we might not immediately think of it, food laws would be relevant for Israel’s testimony. Travelers from either Egypt or Mesopotamia would not be surprised that Israel had food laws — food taboos — because almost everyone did. But Israel forbade pork, which both the peoples of Egypt and Mesopotamia ate — not to mention the occasional Chinese traveler. It would be most natural for a merchant lusting for a piece of pig meat to ask the Israelite why pork was forbidden. Of course, there were many other luscious items on Israel’s list of forbidden foods that might provoke a travel’s curiosity: What, no shrimp? What, no rodents?
The merchant, out of mere curiosity, might ask, “why?” When asked about a “taboo,” the intelligent and Biblically informed Israelite would not simply say, “It is Yahweh’s command.” He would answer with the story behind the command — the story of the fall and the serpent/dragon who tempted humanity to sin. From there he would explain that the laws of forbidden food all related to the serpent/dragon. He would also go on to tell his Gentile merchant acquaintance of the promise of world redemption through the seed of the woman who would crush the seed of the serpent/dragon and how that promise would be realized through through Abraham. The story is the testimony.
Another law would stand out even more: the Sabbath, which would have been nothing less than astonishing to merchants from other lands.3 Who ever heard of a day of rest like Israel’s? One day in seven: no trade, no work. Instead of trade, there was to be local assembly and worship of Yahweh (Leviticus 23:3). Such a law — though extreme in a way and unique in the ancient world as far as we know — was perhaps not entirely shocking. So where would the astonishment come from?
Two unbelievable aspects of the Sabbath law would have left a foreign merchant in utter wonder.
First, not only did the citizen of Israel rest one day in seven, but so did the servants, the slaves who would normally take care of all the mundane daily chores. Who ever imagined giving slaves a day off?
Second, animals were not allowed to work on the Sabbath! Israel had a day of rest for donkeys!
The merchant might be angry or frustrated that he was not allowed to work on the Sabbath day, after all, it meant loss of income. But if he were new to the land of Israel and confronted a Sabbath day, he would almost be sure to ask why the people of Israel are so crazy that they not only refuse good income on one day in. seven, but even let their slaves and animals rest, too?
Again, the godly, Biblically educated Israelite would answer with a story. Or perhaps two stories. The story of Yahweh’s creating the world in six days and resting one stands behind the Sabbath command in the book of Exodus. The second, and in some ways the more relevant story, was the story of Israel’s redemption from Egypt. Telling the Exodus story — something the Israelites were supposed to rehearse at the beginning of every year at the feast of Passover and Unleavened Bread — would be the greatest testimony an ancient Israelite could give to a Gentile traveling through the promised land.
The Exodus story, of course, showed that Israel’s God was “near” whenever the Israelite would call. Yahweh appeared at Sinai. He answered Israel’s prayers over and over in the wilderness. The Exodus story was a story of amazing grace, in spite of foolish rebellion. A godly Israelite with faith like Joshua would have recounted that story with joy and thanksgiving to Yahweh.
The third important question has already been answered in principle. Why would these people think the Torah was wisdom? The answer is in the stories, especially in the story of the Exodus, for in that story ancient neighbors and travelers would hear how Yahweh the God of Israel was near to His people. No god of the nations had ever done anything like the Exodus deliverance or the glorious Sinai theophany. Wisdom, love, and grace abound in the story of Israel’s God. Of course, the pagans — whose gods were at constant war with one another, whose gods were envious, murderous monsters — would recognize from the stories of Israel’s God that Yahweh was profoundly different and that His laws were wise and kind. The utter uniqueness of Yahweh would not have been hard to perceive.
But note: the nations would only hear of the wonder of Israel’s God if they confronted a strange culture that had no idols, no soothsayers, no pork (!), a strange culture that rested one day in seven, including slaves and animals. Only if Israel had lived by the law, would she have had a testimony that shined the light of the true God to the world. The same is true for us. Only if we obey the commandments of God in love to Christ will we have a testimony (John 15:1-17).
Ralph Smith is pastor of Mitaka Evangelical Church.
- This is an assumption backed by evidence, but I do not need to cite it here. Anyone with access to google can find it. ↩︎
- I have been living in Japan for over 40 years and one of the things that stands out when I have returned to the States is the number of churches versus the lack of public idols. No ancient merchant would have missed this either. ↩︎
- There is no evidence that the Sabbath originated from some other nation or culture outside of Israel. ↩︎