Deuteronomy and the Paris Covenant in Sinai
Climate Bible Study: October 2022
View of Mount Sinai, by Edward Lear (1812-1888)
Across the Jordan in the land of Moab, Moses undertook to expound this law, saying: “the Lord our God spoke to us at Horeb [Sinai], saying, ‘You have stayed long enough at this mountain. Turn and set your journey. . .’” (Deuteronomy 1:5-7a)
The Sunday between the two weeks of a COP are always a day off for negotiators and observers, and so many in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt for COP27 will have to decide what to do. Some will no doubt use their day off to lie on the beach of this fabled resort town on the Gulf of Aqaba. The wealthier may have already booked scuba diving expeditions. Some, I know, have booked a 200-kilometer drive into the desert to a bio-preserve which the Egyptians call Jabal Mousa, but which the rest of the world calls Mount Sinai. The hike to the top takes about 2.5 hours.
The weight of biblical and archeological scholarship seems to have tilted to the belief that the Mount Sinai mentioned in the Book of Exodus where Moses spoke with God and returned with the Ten Commandments is NOT this Mount Sinai. Instead, the Bible’s Mount Sinai was likely across the gulf over in ancient Midian, which was in modern day Saudi Arabia. Nonetheless, Old Testament references are going to be rife at COP27. Sharm el-Sheik after all is on the banks of the Red Sea. If we are going to profit from these allusions however, may I recommend the Book of Deuteronomy, not Exodus, for our meditations. Deuteronomy is about the “treaties” that we make with God that supersede any treaty, like the Paris Agreement, that nations make with each other. Its stated motivation behind its restatement of the Ten Commandments is markedly humanitarian. And its theme that “the past is always present” should encourage us that God is still as active in 2022 as he was when the shekinah glory fell on Moses.
The word Deuteronomy, which can be found in 17:18, literally means “second law.” Scholar Pete Enns claims, “It’s a repeat of the laws given on Mount Sinai 40 years earlier.” Enns recounts the 40 years of Israel wandering in the wilderness and then says, “Deuteronomy is basically one big reset, okay? It’s like, ‘Hey, man, things went horribly. Let’s try this again, and not make the same mistake. And now we’re going to try it with a fresh batch of Israelites.’” We might say that Deuteronomy is to the Book of Exodus the way that the Paris Agreement is to the Kyoto Protocol.
I would encourage you to listen to the podcast episode on The Bible for Normal People that Enns has playfully entitled “Pete Ruins Deuteronomy” (Episode 218). Enns is my source for all the scholarship and reflections in this newsletter. You can evaluate his analysis of who the author is who collected the three speeches of Moses contained in the book, and how long after Moses’ death (and settling into Canaan) this text was published. You may discover for yourself more application from Deuteronomy as we prepare for COP27 in the shadow of Mount Sinai, but here are three of my thoughts:
A Treaty with God
The Book of Deuteronomy shows much evidence of being aware of the practice in the ancient Near East of overlords (suzerains) imposing treaties upon the nations they are threatening to conquer. The powerful Hittite rulers or the Assyrian king Esarhaddon would offer protection but only in exchange for complete fealty. Such an offer may have seemed tempting to a small nation like Israel who had watched her neighbours get over-run. Enns explains,
And this is where the writer of Deuteronomy and the community that backed him sort of drew the line. And they said, no, the children of Abraham whom Yahweh brought out of Egypt with His mighty hand and outstretched arm will not share his people with anyone. That’s, in fact, even the motivation for the Exodus itself. Right? The issue is: To whom to the Israelites belong? Well, they belong to Yahweh alone. It’s very important that Yahweh’s people belong to him. He doesn’t share them with other gods or other nations. So faced with this real existential Assyrian threat, and the temptation to pledge allegiance to the Assyrian war machine, the author of Deuteronomy says no—I have another idea. Instead of making a treaty with the Assyrians, he offers an alternate treaty, a pledge of fidelity to their true suzerain Yahweh and not to Assyria. So the message is don’t give in, don’t lose heart. And the writer of Deuteronomy makes the case by mimicking this suzerain treaty format.
The Paris Agreement is famously not a treaty. It has no binding force. But even if it did, it would still be dependent for its success on the commitments that we make to a transcendent Goodness, whom we unashamedly call our Creator God. COP27’s theme of “Together for Implementation” has little chance of success unless we find our togetherness, not in belonging to a conference of the parties to the United Nations Framework Convention (“treaty”) on Climate Change. No, we belong to each other because we belong to a common humanity on a common planet beloved by a common Divine.
A Humanitarian Basis for Law
The Ten Commandments, first listed in Exodus 20, are repeated in slightly different fashion in Deuteronomy 5. For example, as Enns explains:
And specifically, the two (Exodus 20, Deuteronomy 5) they differ in what’s called their motive clauses. A motive clause is the reason for the law, the rationale behind the law. In Exodus, the reason for the Sabbath command is to rest as God rested on the seventh day of creation (Genesis 1). In Deuteronomy, the reason is the memory of having been enslaved in Egypt, where the Israelites had no rest. And so you know, everyone should have a day of rest—animals, slaves, everybody—not because God rested on the seventh day, but because “treat them more humanitarily, you were slaves in Egypt as well.”
Pakistan, the current head of the G77, is coming to COP27 after a summer of flooding that displaced 32 million people and destroyed 45 percent of this year’s cropland. I have to believe that the UK will come to COP27 with the fresh memory of the heatwave and the US with fresh memory of Hurricane Ian. Hopefully we will “obey” the “law” (note the air quotes) of the Paris Agreement because of a growing empathy for the impacts of a common enslavement to fossil fuels.
“God is with you too, even today [at COP27]”
The writer of Deuteronomy, or even Moses in his three speeches, is speaking to a different generation of Israelites. None of them were alive when they escaped slavery in Egypt. None of them witnessed the parting of the Red Sea. None of them watched Moses descend in glory from Mount Sinai. And yet, the writer insists on addressing his audience as if they were present in the past. Nowhere is this more pointed than in chapter 5 and the restatement of the Ten Commandments. Enns explains,
“Moses convened all Israel and said to them, ‘Hear, O Israel, the statutes and ordinances that I am addressing to you today; you shall learn them and observe them diligently.'” Right, so he’s going to repeat the Ten Commandments, so far, so good, not a problem. Verse 2: “The LORD our God made a covenant with us at Horeb.” Just like he says, in chapter one, verse six, this is not a slip of the pen. But look at verse 3: “Not with our ancestors did the LORD make this covenant, but with us, who are all of us here alive today.” It’s like he’s trying to make a point. It’s a deliberate tying of this generation together with the past. And he’s doing it in rhetorically powerful way you were there. It’s not even with the ancestors, God made this covenant with you, with all of you here who are alive today. You were there. Verse 4: “The LORD spoke with you face to face at the mountain, out of the fire. 5: At that time I was standing between the LORD and you to declare to you the words of the LORD; for you were afraid because of the fire and did not go up the mountain.) And then he said: I am the LORD your God” and he continues on with the Ten Commandments.
There may be such a thing as a “second law,” but there is no such thing as a second God, a redux God, a rehashed relationship with a God who was past tense, but not present. Enns reminds Christians of John 17 where Jesus prays for his present disciples but also for his future ones, and Enns says:
Future generations will be as intimate with the Father and Son, as are the disciples who follow Jesus around the countryside. Future generations will not look back to the days of old and reminisce for something they never saw or experienced, but they will be participating in it in their time in place. It’s sort of mystical, folks. It really is. And I’m dwelling on this not only because it’s central to Deuteronomy, but you know, isn’t the whole point of any religious faith to experience God here and now rather than through a rear-view mirror?
What will be our experience of God in the Sinai Peninsula during COP27 in 2022?
You are very dear to God,
Lowell Bliss
on behalf of the Climate Intercessors Leadership Team