The primary goal of the laws, as we have them in the Torah, is to lead the reader to wisdom in light of the larger story into which the laws are set. The last post was about how, as we try to discern the wisdom of the laws, it’s helpful to move back and forth between the laws of the Torah and the stories of the Torah—each informs the other. In this post, I want to note a few explicit prompts to do so within the laws themselves. Multiple laws in Deuteronomy 24 prompt the reader to recall the larger narrative context. These prompts are instructive for how to read biblical laws, in general.

Remember Miriam

The word for leprosy/skin disease (צָרַעַת) occurs twenty-nine times in Leviticus, but only once in Deuteronomy:

Be careful in cases of a skin disease to keep diligently what the Levite priests teach you. Do exactly what they command you (Deut 24:8).

Rather than restating the leprosy laws, Deuteronomy is interested in using the symbol of leprosy to prompt the reader to reflect on the consequences of failing to listen to the voice of Yahweh—and his mediators, whether priests or prophets. The law continues,

Remember what Yahweh your God did to Miriam on the way as you were headed out of Egypt (Deut 24:9).

This verse explicitly prompts the reader to move from law to reflection on the Exodus story, specifically Numbers 12.

Remember your former life

Later in the chapter, Deuteronomy 24:17–18 prompts the reader to reflect on the oppression Israel experienced in Egypt (Exodus 1–2).

You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment in pledge, but you shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there; therefore I command you to do this (Deut 24:17–18, ESV).

Again, the law is given a narrative frame and the reader is told to reflect on the story to better grasp the wisdom.

Deuteronomy 24:19–22 does the same thing. The law tells the people to leave on the ground the sheaves and olives that they drop so that vulnerable people can have them. To motivate obedience and point readers to wisdom, verse 22 says, “Remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt.”

Deuteronomy 24, therefore, includes several explicit prompts for readers to move from law to recollection of the stories that surround the laws.

Implication

The implication is that we should always be reading in light of the larger narrative context. The explicit prompts discussed above are indicative of the way Deuteronomy communicates from start to finish: In Deuteronomy 1–11 Moses motivates obedience by repeatedly recalling Israel’s story, the book closes with poetic reflection on Israel’s story (Deut 32), and nearly every chapter in between calls the reader to reflect on the story of God from Genesis through Numbers, Joshua through 2 Kings. Deuteronomy’s Torah instructs with a meta-perspective that stretches from creation to exile (for example, Deut 17 explicitly critiques Solomon’s reign).

Even though in Deuteronomy 24:15 there’s no explicit prompt to remember a particular story, it’s wise to reflect on the way, throughout the narratives of Scripture, Yahweh responds to the cries of his people.

You shall not oppress a hired worker … give him his wages on the same day … lest he cry against you to the LORD, and you be guilty of sin (Deut 24:14–15).

The exodus began as Yahweh heard the cries of his oppressed people (Exod 2:24), glimmers of hope are triggered in the book of Judges as Israel cries out under oppression (Judg 3:9, 15; 4:3; 6:6–7; 7:20–21; 10:10–12), and the ideal reader of Deuteronomy does well to ponder these stories alongside the laws that urge Israel to remember the cries of the vulnerable.

The explicit prompts point us toward the primary goal of the laws: discerning wisdom in light of the larger story into which the laws are set.