If you were tired of reading about all the laws and rules in Leviticus and Numbers, hold on to your hat- we have one more book of laws to get through. This book is much different in its style and approach to the law that governs the Jewish people. It is less of a listing of do’s and don’ts and more of an explanation of the how’s and why’s of the law. Laws become traditions, stories and remembrance. The law is depicted as a covenant between God and nation – with the give and take of any relationship.
We begin in the first three chapters with a historical review of the Exodus and the giving of the land. Passages like this later become credal in the traditions of the Jewish people. Repeated in communal worship and in family ceremonies, it is a constant reminder of their relationship with their Creator and Sustainor. It almost sounds like a sermon rather than a list of rules like the earlier books of the Torah.
This all is a prelude to the second giving of the Decalogue (10 commandments) made necessary because Moses broke the first tablets when he came upon the worship of the golden calf. The emphasis begins with a covenant made “not with our ancestors but with us.” (5:3) This covenant is unusual, because in that time a deity disclosing himself to an entire nation across lines of gender, race and class was unprecedented. The personal nature of this covenant (use of the personal pronoun YOU) is also remarkable because usually the laws of a nation were directed toward changing society in general. (Think Constitution of the US). These laws require personal commitment of morality.
Starting in chapter 12 we begin the “legal corpus” the Deuteronomical transformation of the Israelite religion.
Chapter 12 Centralization of worship
Chapter 13 Unconditional loyalty to God
Chapter 14 The obligations of holiness
Chapter 15 The remission of debts and dealing with slaves
Chapter 16 Festivals, laws of public officials, and the organization of the judiciary
Chapter 17 The rules of judiciary and the law of the king. (interesting that there are no kings up to this point but there are rules for their authority. Evidence again of this being written much later)
Chapter 18 the Levitical priesthood and the establishment of the prophet status
Chapter 19 Cities of Refuge, rules about murder
