God admonishes Israel by telling Israel to consume these nations, to devour them without pity. Israel is to destroy their gods and not make use of any of the ornamentation or precious metals associated with their Idols --for they are an abomination. And... if Israel were to worship these Idols then Israel will also perish. Conversely, if Israel follows God,Israel will flourish.
Israel is reminded that they are there because Moshe has interceded on their behalf. And when Israel moves into the promised land they are to obey the commandments, with special emphasis on taking care of the 'sojourner' since Israel had been a sojourner in Mitzraim. Israel is also to remember by means of Tefillin and Mezzuzot.
In this passage there are things to be remembered, things to questions, and lessons to be learned. We are concerned with our relationship to God and the rewards and punishment which are dependent on that relationship
So we have to remember that 'God's ways' are not our ways --and we have to follow God's commandments even when we don't understand them. The logic of God's commands are not the logic we possess. If we had obeyed the command as initially stated perhaps the problems of the next few centuries after Sinai could have been avoided. But of course... God knew we would behave as we did---perhaps that's why we were chosen, perhaps we have things to teach God.
The passage also leaves us fearful and puzzled when we realize that God has commanded the utter destruction of these seven nations because of their wickedness--and that wickedness seems to be idolatry--and we are promised the same fate if we adopt their practices. Moshe is commanding Israel to destroy other nations--Israel, the nation who heard God's voice--the same people who followed God as a pillar of fire and as a cloud of smoke---the same people who were fed Mannah and Quail and water----the same people who while Moshe was receiving the tablets of the law built a molten calf to worship!!! Wait a second!! Isn't Israel's sin of idol worship at least as great as the seven nations about to be conquered? We were (and are) the only nation ever to have a direct experience of God. The answer has to be yes!! So why weren't we destroyed? There is no logical answer other than there was a covenant with Avraham, Itzhak, and Yaakov; but it is a covenant that God could break because of the faithlessness of the nation in the dessert. In fact, God offers Moshe the opportunity to be the father of the chosen nation---an opportunity Moshe declines.
So the passage raises the question, why didn't God destroy us? Why does God continue to choose us and stay with us? There is no simple understanding of the decision of the almighty. Did God choose a stiff necked people on purpose? So that we would rebel, and be made an example of, for good and for bad? Or for us to be teachers of the human side to God? Did God choose us because we were at heart and soul more compassionate than the other nations and also more determined ? After all, even while commanding us to devour the other nations, God instructs us not to intermarry. Not intermarry???!!!! We were just commanded to destroy them!!! Who will be left for us to marry? God knows that Israel will not utterly destroy the other nations; the children of the patriarch Avraham who fought for the life of Sodom cannot obey that command. You half expect that the next line will be, "and if your children intermarry ---the children of your daughters will be my people, but not the children of your sons........unless of course they're Reform."
The question of chosenness is an aspect of the existential question which asks, Why are we (the world, humans) here? And as a corollary, What role do Jews play in this purpose? This portion says that if we follow God's rules we will do well. But, it says we have to remember that when we are doing well, that it is God who gives us the ability to do well. This can easily be read as a partnership. There is not a denial of doing well as an aspect of the individual (or the nation) but there is a commandment to remember who gave us the ability to do well; the giver of the ability and the user of the ability are partners in 'doing well'. It must be that our worshipping the one God, and following God's commandments leads not just to material wealth, and life ---the other nations certainly have that; It must be that following God's rules as We (Israel) Intrepet them is a means to the good life.
But the existential question still begs----What does obeying the commandments and being a light to the nations do for us and for the other nations? The answer in the text is not explicit. Implicit is living in the light of God's love proven by following the commandments in the way that Israel has always followed the commandments - in a questioning, God-wrestling manner that is compassionate and sometimes resistant- will be good for us. We are taught our lesson in a manner which is as a young bride(Israel) walking together with her older wiser husband (God) -- questioning, lovingly rebllious, reinventing ideas, growing into maturity, bending to the beloved's wishes to earn love, and also asking the beloved to bend, a manner which brings the contentment, peace, and joy reflected in the wealth described in Deuteronomy beginning with 11:11. This passage tells what our reward will be if we follow God's words.
" .... the land you are about to cross into and occupy, a land of hills and valleys, soaks up its water from the rains of heaven. It is a land which the Lord your God looks after, on which the Lord your God always keeps His eye, from year's beginning to year's end.
If, then, you obey the commandments that I enjoin upon you this day, loving the Lord your God and serving Him with all your heart and soul, I will grant the rain for your land in season, the early rain and the late. You shall gather in your new grain and wine and oil- I will also provide grass in the fields for your cattle-and thus you shall eat your fill. ....... S.(from The Torah, A Modern Commentary edited by W.G. Plaut pp1407-1408).
Israel, may your inner landscape be in tune to the rhythms of heaven and look like the outer landscape painted by God over 3,000 years ago.
Bill Wiesner
State University of New York at Stony Brook
Stony Brook, NY
William R. Wiesner
Assistant Provost
Undergraduate Academic Affairs
632-7790
18-Aug-1997 12:03pm EDT