Now these Jews were to worship and obey Jehovah, the one true God,
and him only. And why?
Why, indeed? You MUST understand why, or you will never understand
this book of Deuteronomy or any part of the Old Testament, and if
you do not, then you will understand very little, if anything, of
the New.
You must understand that this was not to be a mere matter of
RELIGION with the old Jews, this trusting and obeying the true God.
Indeed, the word religion, so far as I know, is never mentioned once
in the Old Testament at all. By religion we now mean some plan of
believing and obeying God, which will save our souls after we die.
But Moses said nothing to the Jews about that. He never even
anywhere told them that they would live again after this life. We
do not know the reason of that. But we may suppose that he knew
best. And as we believe that God sent him, we must believe that God
knew best also; and that he thought it good for these Jews not to be
told too much about the next life; perhaps for fear that they should
forget that God was the living God; the God of now, as well as of
hereafter; the God of this life, as well as of the life to come.
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