After almost four months (including a not-so-brief foray into Job) we have finally come to the end of the Pentateuch! We started with a promise on faith to the family of a wandering nomad and now stand expectantly on the borders of the Promised Land waiting with the Israelite children for the next phase in their historic story.

This last section of Deuteronomy, from chapters 27-34 – the passionate end to Moses’ speech and to his part in the Israelite journey – is, arguably, the best moment in the Old Testament for us to explore what has been a dominant theme from the beginning and will continue right through to the New: Covenant.

A covenant in Old Testament terms is a very particular type of binding agreement. In those days nations would forge covenants with each other to ensure military protection. The most relevant of these is the Suzerain-Vassal treaty in which the Suzerain, the large powerful protector agrees to ally itself to the smaller, weaker Vassal in return for absolute allegiance. Elaborate blessings and curses like that found in chapters 27-28 were common, placing the Vassal at the disposal of the Suzerain’s might, promising countless rewards for absolute allegiance but disastrous afflictions for wavering loyalty. Empires such as Assyria and Babylon would play Suzerain to many of Israel’s neighbours over the course of her history, but as we have read over and over again, Israel was instructed to ally itself to no one else but Yahweh.

Despite the claim to a sizeable army found in Numbers, Israel was not well placed to establish herself as a significant nation in her own right. Even if she could defeat the inhabitants of Canaan and capture workable land (and we read in early Numbers the implausibility of that plan) she could not hope to stand against the whims of the Philistines, the Edomites, the Moabites and others. Nevertheless the Law that Moses recounts to the people is clear that Yahweh will be Israel’s Suzerain. They should look to no-one else for protection, for he is able to defend and provide for them.

It is hard to overestimate the apparent insanity of this plan. Deuteronomy, from a covenant perspective, is the final capitulation to the suicide-mission that began so boldly in the great halls of Egypt. More than that, it is the utterly implausible path that perfectly echoes the wholly doubtful promises given to an old man and his barren wife in early Genesis. Yet, incredibly, unbelievably, so far, Yahweh – Israel’s jealous Suzerain – has delivered time and time again!

This is why the Pentateuch became known as the Book of the Law. Only sections of it are actually legal directives; large chunks are narratives that trace the story of the ancient promise. For Israel, the Law is wrapped up inextricably with the covenant with Yahweh, and the narratives of Genesis, Exodus and Numbers are fundamental to establishing the credibility of their God as Suzerain.

The Law is, in fact, the terms of the Covenant; that Israel should keep it was the key Covenant stipulation. Even the slightest deviation risked the Suzerain’s wrath, yet a kept covenant brought untold, unimagined blessing. Instead of obeying the law of a foreign nation, Israel was to keep the law of her liberator God; instead of a covenant with an alien power, Israel was forever and totally allied to Yahweh, their Elohim (the God to whom complete allegiance is given).

This is what set Israel apart as a ‘chosen people’ and gave them their identity as the ‘people of God’, an identity that will run right through the rest of the Old Testament, for better or worse. No matter what happened, God was their Suzerain and though that meant severe punishments for disobedience they need never feel abandoned; God would always be close, working for their salvation. This is why we find it written so explicitly that nothing will happen to them without God’s approval, even exile will serve to teach them to trust him again, just as was their wandering in the wilderness (see the highly emotive song of chapter 32).

As we progress through the rest of the Old Testament the echoes of this Covenant will reverberate deafeningly through its pages. Once the New Testament happens, however, everything is thrown up in the air and out of the chaos emerges a New and more radical covenant, signed and sealed by the blood of God himself.

With our New Covenant perspective, the pages of Deuteronomy read a little cold. In the New Covenant, God is not the Suzerain in the same all-defending manner. Neither is he enshrouded by the fear of such dire punishments. The sizzling desperation in Moses’ voice does not hit us with the same power it would have its first audience. Yet, despite our distance, the words of this Covenant code, along with the rest of the Pentateuchal narrative, paint for us a landscape of both fear and promise, kept hand in hand by a new and greater deity than any known before. The Covenant with Yahweh was a great risk, but it was also a stirring beacon of change.

In Jesus, the author of the New Covenant, we meet a fuller revelation of the Yahweh of the Israelites. But their early experience is still echoed in our modern technologiculture. We may not risk national dissemination or military conquest, but we still are tempted by toxic social trends and threatened by arrogant rival doctrines. To ally ourselves in totality to the God of Jesus is a life-changing risk, but it is also a light that shines in even the darkest of places.

Questions for reflection:

1. What would it mean for you to live in total commitment to Jesus?

2. What do you think is the primary benefit of being in covenant with God?

3. The Israelites set up stones to remind themselves of their covenant. What images could you use to remind you of God’s covenant with you?