Author: Dan

The Bible describes a covenant between God and the people of Israel. After Moses leads Israel out of captivity, the people agree to obey God, and God promises to bless the people. It is from this covenant, or testament, that the name of the first part of the Bible, the Old Testament, derives.

Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord…said, “This is what you are to…tell the people of Israel: ‘…if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession….’”

So Moses went back and summoned the elders of the people and set before them all the words the Lord had commanded him to speak. The people all responded together, “We will do everything the Lord has said.” (Exodus 19:3 – 8 NIV)

In return for keeping the Mosaic Law, Israel is promised prosperity, victory in battle, and honor among the nations. In return for breaking the Mosaic Law, Israel is promised severe punishment.

The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed…because of the evil you have done in forsaking him…. The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron…. Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. (Deuteronomy 28:20 – 48 NIV)

The Mosaic Law imposes hundreds of restrictions. The most famous commandments prohibit behavior that obviously harms others, like theft and murder. However, the Mosaic Law also includes instructions for diet, hygiene, economic organization, and even a requirement for rest.

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. On it you shall not do any work…. (Exodus 20:8-10 ESV)

The Mosaic Covenant seems to impose a heavy burden in exchange for a blessing from God. However, compliance with the Mosaic Law is not just a burden. All of the Mosaic Law, not just the requirement to keep a Sabbath, is also about rest. At the core of the Mosaic Law is the reformation of our desires. Our instinctual desires are boundless, and only by reforming our desires can we escape perpetual labor in their service.

When Jesus explains the Mosaic Law in the Bible, he emphasizes the importance of reforming desires. When asked about the greatest commandment, he answers that all of the Mosaic Law follows from two commandments governing our attitudes.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.” This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments. (Matthew 22:37 – 40 NIV)

The Mosaic Law hangs on the commandments Jesus cites because our behavior reflects our attitudes. We harm our neighbors through behavior prohibited in the Mosaic Law after we have failed to love them as we should. In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus teaches that the failures of attitude that lead to murder make us guilty before God even without the murder itself.

You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, “Do not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.” But I tell you that anyone who is angry with his brother will be subject to judgment. (Matthew 5:21 – 22 NIV)

The first part of the Bible is called the Old Testament because Christians believe that through Jesus a new covenant is available. Like the Mosaic Covenant, the New Covenant promises both burden and rest. Jesus warns those who would follow him that they must be willing to sacrifice everything (Luke 14:25 – 33). However, he also offers,

Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. (Matthew 11:28 – 30 NIV)

In a letter to the church in Rome, Paul explains that under the New Covenant, burden and rest are two facets of a single gem. The behavior demanded is the natural consequence of the reformation of our desires. While reforming our instinctual desires is difficult, the alternative is to be ruled by them. As Paul writes, to be ruled by our instinctual desires is to live as slaves to cruel masters.

Don’t you know that…you are slaves of the one you obey…. When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the control of righteousness.  What benefit did you reap at that time from the things you are now ashamed of? (Romans 6:16 – 21 NIV)

Paul advances a curious method for freeing ourselves. We escape slavery to our instinctual desires by becoming slaves to something better. By surrendering ourselves to God, we accomplish the sacrifice demanded in the New Covenant while also achieving the promised rest.

But thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness. (Romans 6:17 – 18 NIV)

Under the Mosaic Covenant, the people of Israel keep the Mosaic Law in exchange for a blessing from God. The Mosaic Law includes hundreds of commandments, including a weekly Sabbath rest. However, the complex requirements of the Mosaic Law hang on a simple transformation. Both the Mosaic Covenant and the New Covenant that follows call for the reformation of our desires. By reforming our desires, we escape endless pursuit of their limitless demands. The Mosaic Law not only prohibits work on the Sabbath but also shows the way to a deeper rest.

When there is no desire,
all things are at peace.

Lao Tzu, Tao Te Ching 37

In the book of Exodus, God commands Moses to lead the nation of Israel out of slavery in Egypt. They flee into the desert, where they camp near Mount Sinai. God descends on the trembling mountain in fire, covering it in billowing smoke. God summons Moses, and on Mount Sinai God gives him the Ten Commandments.

The Ten Commandments include basic instructions for handling other people. Murder, adultery, theft, and false witness are prohibited. The social theorist René Girard points out that the final commandment differs from those that precede it in addressing not our actions but our desires.

You shall not covet your neighbor’s house. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife, or his male or female servant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor. (Exodus 20:17 NIV)

Girard argues that the tenth commandment addresses an aspect of our desire that generates the behaviors prohibited in the commandments that precede it. We want what we see our neighbors having or even what we see our neighbors wanting. Such “mimetic” desire creates competition and conflict.

If the Decalogue devotes its final commandment to prohibiting desire for whatever belongs to the neighbor, it is because it lucidly recognizes in that desire the key to the violence prohibited in the four commandments that precede it. If we ceased to desire the goods of our neighbor, we would never commit murder or adultery or theft or false witness. If we respected the tenth commandment, the four commandments that precede it would be superfluous.¹

Girard errs in claiming that the wrongs addressed in the Ten Commandments are always caused by mimetic desire. Mimetic desire can cause us to harm others, but not all harmful desire is mimetic. When Jesus is asked about the greatest commandment, he explains that all of the commandments, including the one against coveting, depend on two more general commandments about attitude.

You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the great and first commandment. And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets. (Matthew 22:37 – 40 ESV)

However, mimetic desire does shape our attitudes. In designating two commandments addressing attitude as the greatest commandments, Jesus prioritizes nurturing proper attitudes. The Bible describes several spiritual disciplines through which attitudes can be reformed, including prayer, ritual, and meditation. If our desires can reflect what we see in others as Girard describes, then we can also improve our attitudes by choosing who we see. Socializing can also be a spiritual discipline.

Continue reading “Meeting together”

Someone who associates regularly with certain people, for conversation, or for parties, or simply for the sake of sociability, is bound either to come to resemble them or else to convert them….  Since the risk is thus so great, we should be cautious in entering into such relations…, remembering that it is impossible to rub up against someone covered with soot without getting sooty oneself.

Epictetus, Discourses

In the gospel of Mark, Jesus visits the temple in Jerusalem with his disciples. In an open area of the temple are receptacles for donations. He sees rich people put in large amounts. He also sees a poor widow donate two lepta, the smallest coins in circulation. He tells his disciples,

Truly…this poor widow has put more into the treasury than all the others. They all gave out of their wealth; but she, out of her poverty, put in everything—all she had to live on. (Mark 12:43 – 44 NIV)

We find such charity by the poor praised in the Bible. For example, Paul writes,

And now, brothers and sisters, we want you to know about the grace that God has given the Macedonian churches.  In the midst of a very severe trial, their overflowing joy and their extreme poverty welled up in rich generosity.  For I testify that they gave as much as they were able, and even beyond their ability. (2 Corinthians 8:1 – 3 NIV)

Charity by the poor is confusing. We expect the poor to receive rather than to give charity. Why should those who need money give away what little they have? Surely whatever can be accomplished with their meager donations can be accomplished with less sacrifice by others. Continue reading “Charity by the poor”

Never say about anything, “I’ve lost it,” but rather, “I’ve given it back.”

Epictetus, Handbook

In her popular book The Secret, Rhonda Byrne claims that we can get whatever we want using the “law of attraction.” Byrne writes that what we think about, we attract. To obtain anything, we need only focus on what we want.

It is the law that determines the complete order in the Universe, every moment of your life, and every single thing you experience in your life. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you are, the law of attraction is forming your entire life experience, and this all-powerful law is doing that through your thoughts.¹

Byrne claims the law of attraction has been recognized by many religions, including Christianity. She elaborates a process for using the law of attraction that includes three steps: ask, believe, and receive. She quotes Jesus discussing those aspects of prayer.

Despite the parallel between the process Byrne provides and Christian prayer, The Secret and the Bible relate to our desires in radically different ways. The Secret focuses on conforming the universe to our will. In the Bible, we are taught that our instinctual desires can mislead us. The Bible focuses not on conforming the universe to our will, but on conforming our will to the will of God. Continue reading “The power of prayer”

The natural state of all possessions is to need repair and maintenance.  What you own will eventually own you.

Kevin Kelly, Excellent Advice for Living

Religious practice has declined in the United States. The share of the population describing themselves as religious fell from 65 percent in 2012 to 54 percent in 2017.¹ The share affiliated with any specific religion fell from 84 percent in 2007 to 71 percent in 2021.² During that period, the share affiliated with Christianity fell from 78 percent to 63 percent.

However, the decline in religious affiliation was not accompanied by an equivalent rise in atheism or agnosticism.³ While the share describing themselves as religious fell by 11 percentage points, the share describing themselves as spiritual fell by only 3 percentage points, from 78 percent in 2012 to 75 percent in 2017.⁴

The decline in religious practice was a decline in formal aspects of religion like ritual. Ritual does not obviously transform the world in a constructive way, and some may have abandoned religious practice because they see little value in ritual. However, ritual is a powerful tool for shaping our lives.

Continue reading “Rediscovering ritual”

When someone tells you something is wrong, they’re usually right.  When they tell you how to fix it, they’re usually wrong.

Kevin Kelly, Excellent Advice for Living