11. Yahweh, your God: You, his people, follow his decrees/laws (26:16-19)

This short conclusion to chs. 12-26 could not be more fitting. As indicated earlier, it looks back to 7:6 (cf. 14:2, 21, et al.). The foundation for keeping the Torah of Yahweh is a love for Yahweh that issues in obedience (26:16-17). Ex 6:7 has declared God’s purpose in liberating Israel from Egypt: “I will take you as my own people, and I will be your God.” Ex 19:6 has asserted, “You shall be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” Lev 20:26 had repeated, “You are to be holy to me because I, the Lord, am holy, and I have set you apart from the nations to be my own.” Dt 26:16-19 records the time when Israel, in Moab, becomes Yahweh’s people, his treasured possession: “You will be a people holy to the Lord your God, as he promised.”

Yet one wonders whether Israel has “circumcised its heart” (10:16) that Yahweh might put his Torah into their inner constitution (5:29). If so, the destiny of God’s people is awesome: “He will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations he has made” (26:19). Isaiah caught the possibilities implied in the declarations of Deuteronomy (Isa 48:17-19).