Obedience to the Law

(Deuteronomy 4:1 - 4:14)
"Now, Israel, listen to the statutes and decrees I will teach you," declared Moses.  “Obey them so that you may prosper when you enter and occupy the land that Jehovah, the god of your ancestors, is giving you.  Neither add to my commands nor subtract from them, but keep the commandments of your god Jehovah that I am giving you.  You witnessed what Jehovah did at Baal Peor, for Jehovah your god destroyed every man among you who worshiped the local god of Peor.  But those who remained faithful to Jehovah your god are still alive today -- every one of you.

"I have taught you these statutes and decrees just as Jehovah your god commanded me, so that you may obey them in the land you are about to enter and occupy.  If you observe them faithfully, it will display your wisdom and intelligence to other countries who, when they hear of all these laws, will say, 'This a great nation, to be sure, a wise and intelligent people!'  For what other country is so great that it has a god near to it, as Jehovah our god is near to us whenever we call upon him?  And what country is so great that it has statutes and decrees as just and fair as the body of law I am presenting to you today?

"But be on your guard!  You must be conscientious so as not to forget what you have experienced.  As long as you live, let not these memories fade from your mind.  Be sure to pass them on to your children and, after them, your grandchildren.  Never forget the day when you stood before Jehovah your god at the mountain in Horeb where he told me, 'Assemble the people before me so that they may hear my words and revere me all the days of their lives  -- and teach their children to do so as well.'  You drew near and stood at the foot of the mountain, blazing with a fire that reached to the heights of heaven and engulfed it in clouds of darkness and gloom.  Jehovah spoke to you from out of the fire.  You heard the sound of his words, but you couldn't see his form; there was only the voice.  He announced the pact requiring you to obey ten commandments that he had inscribed on two tablets of stone.  And at that time Jehovah instructed me to teach you the statutes and decrees so that you may observe them in the land you will enter and occupy."

Notes
1. While demanding the people obey the laws, Moses also uses his address to give his people a pep talk, something that he hitherto has done little of.  He tells them what a great god they have, one that takes a personal interest in them and is always near at hand, and that the laws they live by mark them as a superior people, wiser and more intelligent than their neighbors.  While it's a moot point whether the laws of the Israelites were superior to those of Babylon and Egypt, it seems a stretch that the Israelites can claim credit for wisdom because of them.  They were supposedly given these laws.  They did not work to acquire them.  Their chiefs and wise men did not devise them with careful thought nor did their society formulate them with the sense and judgment that results from experience.  They are, though, compelled to observe them by their god or else suffer severe punishment.  They cannot question the laws, amend them, reject what is useless and outdated, or legislate new laws by common consent.  They have no say in what laws bind them, but must simply obey the laws imposed upon them.  These are not laws for the wise and intelligent, these are laws for the complaisant and sheeplike.  (In fairness to the Israelites, though, it seems much more likely that their code of religious law, most of it at any rate, was of their own creation, rather than being a gift from Jehovah.  If such is the case, they must at least earn our admiration.  And if Moses were really a law-maker, rather than a law-giver, then he justly deserves the prominent place in legal history he is often accorded.) 

2. Moses describes the encounter with Jehovah on the mountain in Sinai (Horeb).  The fire and dark cloud (or smoke) referred to has often been attributed to a volcano, but it should be noted that there has been no volcanic activity in the Sinai during historical times, (and it seems unlikely that the nation of Israel would remain encamped at the foot of an erupting volcano).  The description is much more evocative of a rocket-powered vehicle landing or taking off.  Jehovah's disembodied voice might have emanated from a loud speaker while Jehovah remained within the vehicle, not showing himself.  This would be consistent with the theory that Jehovah was a human from an extraterrestrial or advanced earth civilization.

3. Moses also refers to the pact between Jehovah and the Israelites that demands the latter obey the Ten Commandments.  These have been written on two stone tablets.  Moses does not specify in what language, for it would be centuries before the Hebrew language would appear, nor whether they were written in Egyptian hieroglyphics or Sumerian cuneiform, the only forms of writing used at that time.

4. Moses asks his people to remember when they were at the foot of the mountain in Sinai and received the Ten Commandments.  Moses has apparently forgotten that only three of the adult men who were there are still alive.  He is thus appealing to childhood memories of the older citizens.  He cites Baal Peor when some Israelites corrupted themselves by worshiping the local god.  They were killed outright, but all of the male Israelite adults died out at the end of the 40 years of wandering.  After Baal Peor Jehovah only spared them temporarily, for he caused them all to perish by the time the Promised Land was eventually entered.  (All, of course, save Joshua and Caleb.)  Moses mentions this extermination earlier in his speech in Deuteronomy and it was emphasized in Numbers.  Moses thus directly contradicts himself and the established "historical" account by saying that those who remained faithful to Jehovah are still alive, unless he means by "every one of you" just Joshua and Caleb.  Why the authors did not detect and correct this blatant inconsistency in their narrative is a mystery.  But believers can rest assured that Bible commentaries possess an infinite and infallible ability to deftly explain away the most egregious textual contradictions.