⁶For you are a people holy to the Lord your God; the Lord your God has chosen you out of all the peoples on earth to be his people, his treasured possession.

7 It was not because you were more numerous than any other people that the Lord set his heart on you and chose you—for you were the fewest of all peoples.⁸It was because the Lord loved you and kept the oath that he swore to your ancestors, that the Lord has brought you out with a mighty hand, and redeemed you from the house of slavery, from the hand of Pharaoh king of Egypt.⁹Know therefore that the Lord your God is God, the faithful God who maintains covenant loyalty with those who love him and keep his commandments, to a thousand generations,¹⁰and who repays in their own person those who reject him. He does not delay but repays in their own person those who reject him.¹¹Therefore, observe diligently the commandment—the statutes and the ordinances—that I am commanding you today.

There is much to admire in this central utterance from Deuteronomy. It’s not of course the utterance of Moses (the character in Exodus) but rather a Moses speaking to an Israel that had experience of exile in Babylon. What had gone wrong with the covenenat between God and Israel? Was it now abolished? Or could it be revived? This Moses presents a new generation with a sharpened version of the ancient covenant. Its basic terms are clear: worship the one God and obey his commands and God will bless the people. In Deuteronomy Moses comtinually reminds the people of the conditionality of the covenant. Yes, God wants to bless the people but he will punish those who disregard his law. The inner reason for this is that the Torah itself is part of the blessing. Those who worship one God and obey his wise commands are already blessed.

But there is more. God has not chosen Israel because of its magnificence or power as a nation. His choice was motivated by love alone. That’s an astonishing reminder to Israel that the covenant is not simply a quid pro quo. No, this people is enveloped in a love which has no explanation and which informs both blessing and curse. Either Israel basks in the love of God or suffers from the anger of a rejected lover. Deuteronomy repeatedly emphasises the God who offers the covenant. It is not ancient custom but personal gift, offered now. Every Israeli and all Israel as a people have to respond.

I don’t pretend to understand what it’s like to live with this Torah as one’s main revelation; only a Jew can give that witness. But I’ve read the stories of the 18th century Jewish Hasidim in Eastern Europe and found there a passionate and imaginative delight in God’s Law which is very different from anything I’ve come across in Christianity. I think Deuteronomy looks for that kind of response.