A Review of the Contract with Jehovah

(Deuteronomy 29:1 - 29:29)
These are the words of the contract that Jehovah commanded Moses to make with the people of Israel in Moab, in addition to the contract he made with them at Horeb.  Moses summoned all the Israelite people and addressed them:

“You have witnessed what Jehovah did to the Pharaoh of Egypt, to all his minions, and to his entire country; your very eyes saw the tests of might, the miracles and the fantastic wonders.  But up until this time Jehovah has never given you the mind to understand, the eyes to see, or the ears to hear.  I have led you 40 years through the desert.  Neither the clothes on your back nor the sandals on your feet have worn out with age.  You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or strong drink, so that you would remember that Jehovah is your god.

“When you arrived here, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out to fight against us, but we defeated them.  We occupied their land and gave it to the tribes of Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh as their share of the inheritance.

“Therefore, obey all the terms of the contract so that you will succeed in all you do.  You are standing today before Jehovah your god, among the tribal leaders, elders, and officers, indeed all the men of Israel, your women and children, as well as the foreigners who live among us, from those who chop wood to those who carry water.  You are standing here to enter into a contract with Jehovah your god, a contract that must be sealed with an oath to Jehovah your god.  It will confirm that you are his people and that he is your god, as he promised you and as he swore to your forefathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  But you are not the only ones with whom this sworn contract is being made.  It is being made not only with those who stand before Jehovah your god today but with those who are not here.

“You remember how we lived in Egypt and how we passed through the midst of nations on our way here.  And you saw their detestable things, their idols of wood and stone, silver and gold.  Beware lest there may be among you, a man or a woman, a clan or a tribe, that may betray Jehovah your god and go and serve the gods of those nations.  Beware lest there be a root among you that will bear a fruit so poisonous and bitter.  Those who hear the warnings of this sworn contract, but arrogantly say to themselves, ‘I will be safe, even if I follow the will of my headstrong heart and sate my appetites,’  Jehovah will never pardon them; his jealousy and wrath will be inflamed against them.  All the curses written here will come down upon them, and Jehovah will blot out their names from under the heavens.  Jehovah will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for destruction and afflict upon them all the curses of the contract detailed in this book of law.

“Then, future generations, both your descendants and foreigners who will immigrate from distant lands, will witness the devastation of the land and the pestilences that Jehovah has inflicted upon it.  The entire country will be burned out by sulfur and salt, with nothing planted on it and nothing growing, not even a blade of grass.  It will be like the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim that Jehovah in his intense anger destroyed.  All the surrounding countries will ask, ‘Why did Jehovah do this to the land?  What so aroused his fury?'  The people will reply, ‘This occurred because the people of this land violated the contract they had made with Jehovah, the god of their ancestors, when he brought them out of the land of Egypt.  They strayed and served other gods, gods not known to them, gods Jehovah did not permit them to worship.  Consequently, Jehovah’s anger was inflicted upon this land, and he brought down upon it all the curses written in this book.  Jehovah, in anger and fury, uprooted them from the land and banished them to the country where they now dwell.

“There are secrets that belong only to Jehovah our god, but the things he has revealed to us belong to us and our descendants forever so that we may follow the words of this law.”

Notes
1. This contract or covenant that Jehovah has made with the people of Israel is the heart of the Books of Moses.  It seems however to be a very fluid agreement with Jehovah adding more and more conditions, more and more laws and statutes that his people must follow.  The benefits of adhering to the agreement do not increase, but the penalties, eg. the curses listed in Deuteronomy, become more severe.

2. Some explanation for the Israelites not needing to eat regular food has been previously suggested.  (Jehovah, being most likely an extraterrestrial, makes daily drops of synthetic food, manna, from an airship the guides the wandering Israelites and continually hovers over their camp.)  No explanation can, however, be offered for the Israelites not wearing out their clothes and sandals.  (Imagine wearing the same set of clothes every day for 40 years!  How was a tailor or a sandal maker able to make a living?)  This is, of course, preposterous.  Also, it should be mentioned that Moses is ignoring one salient fact.  With only a couple exceptions, all the people who had started on the Exodus had died off by the 40th year.  This has been repeated many times.  Moses, the old man, seems to have forgotten all about it and during this speech, he seems to be addressing the dead Israelites who departed from Egypt.  One would have thought such glaring contradictions, and there are many others, would not have escaped an editor’s notice, as they still seem to escape the notice of faithful believers.

3. The contract with Jehovah is binding upon future generations of Israelites.  In other words, those not yet born are bound to a contract completely without their consent.  And there seems to be no opt-out clause.

4. Jehovah again takes delight in bragging how he will destroy the land if any of his subject people disobey him.  Comparison is made to the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.  Those cities were incinerated because the inhabitants were immoral, or, more likely, defiant of Jehovah.  There is no suggestion, though, that the people of Sodom and Gomorrah had any sort of contract with Jehovah; he destroyed them anyway.  (Why didn’t Jehovah also destroy other countries whose immorality was egregious?)

5. Jehovah’s acts of destruction are motivated by his anger and not by his sense of justice.  Punishment is never corrective, merely vindictive.  There is no sense of using punishment to show the sinner the errors of his ways, only to make him suffer the most.  Jehovah is less the stern, reproving parent, than the cruel and sadistic prison warden.