NOTES for Deu 1:1-46

The Book of Deuteronomy begins with a lengthy historical introduction. In the first part of it, the book’s first chapter, special mention is made of the people choosing judges for themselves, whom Moses blesses for the work entrusted to them by their fellow tribesmen. Here we see a connection between God’s will, His plan and its fulfilment, on the one hand, and human freedom, together with responsibility, on the other. Indeed, what did it mean for the people to choose judges who would settle disputes as they arose? First of all, it meant responsibility before God for the choice made. This was a patriarchal clan society, with neither police nor bailiffs to enforce a judge’s decision.

Compliance could only be voluntary—or compulsory, but in that case the disobedient person’s fellow tribesmen and clansmen would have had to compel him to obey the judicial decision. Otherwise the decision would remain unenforced, and sooner or later anarchy would replace proper justice. Here we see direct democracy without any special institutions of public coercion, at least as far as judicial authority was concerned.

Moreover, the judicial authority created on Moses’ initiative was not traditional: it was neither sanctioned nor supported by the customary law characteristic of every tribal society. Traditional tribal institutions formed part of the equally traditional social ethos; obeying them meant following familiar social and psychological patterns and models of behaviour, without requiring conscious reflection.

The institution of judges proposed to the people by Moses did not fit within traditional frameworks. It required a conscious choice and an equally conscious responsibility for that choice. This was responsibility first of all before God—the God of Moses, who was now becoming the God of the whole people. He was becoming so not merely in word but in deed, because both the choice of judges and obedience to their decisions were deeds: the deeds of free people exercising their freedom before God.