4:1-4 - Hear now, O Israel, the decrees and laws I am about to teach you. Follow them so that you may live and may go in and take possession of the land that the Lord, the God of your fathers, is giving you.Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the Lord your God that I give you.

You saw with your own eyes what the Lord did at Baal Peor. The Lord your God destroyed from among you everyone who followed the Baal of Peor, but all of you who held fast to the Lord your God are still alive today.

Moses' call begins with the conjunction, "and now," signalling that the ensuing call to obedience is the logical consequence of what he has already told them in the preceding historical retrospective.1 The imperative to "hear" is followed immediately by the infinitive "to observe," (lit. "to do," which NIV translates as a separate imperative, "follow them"), which thus defines the purpose of that hearing. Not only here but it is the consistent assertion of the Bible that hearing has no value unless it is followed by actions appropriate to what is heard. It says a great deal about the sermons we preach—or about our pastoral discipling—today that so little results follow from weeks after weeks of our preaching.

Hearing has no value unless
it is followed by actions
appropriate to what is heard.
It says a great deal about
the sermons we preach
—or about our pastoral discipling—
today that so little results follow from
weeks after weeks of our preaching.

By following hearing with appropriate actions, Israel's stance towards the law is also clarified; she is not merely to give it mental assent as good and wonderful in principle. The "decrees and laws"2 are to form and inform every contours of her everyday life. Moses, and the Old Testament as a whole, has little interest in academic pondering that has no relevance for life (something those of us who write commentaries and articles needs reminding). The consequence of such obedience is, firstly, "so that you may live," and secondly, so that she "may go in and take possession of the land" (so also v.5). The logic of the sentence suggests that possession of the land is conditional upon Israel's obedience, which seems to contrast with the following description of the land as given. But, as G. McConville observes, "the rhetoric of Deuteronomy . . . has a dynamic in which gift of land and duty of obedience are interdependent."3 This relationship between the gift of the land and obedience, suggests C. Wright, may "best be understood in the light of the 'father-son' relationship between Yahweh and Israel. Sonship is an unconditional 'given' of life—a status that cannot be earned. Yet it also intrinsically involves obligations and commitments, especially to obedience." This reciprocity between gift of land and obedience to the law is affirmed by the logic of v.5, where the decrees and laws are given "so that you may observe them in the land you are about to take possession of."4

The call to obedience is followed by a naturally complementary warning not to add to or subtract from the decrees and laws (v.2).5 Adding to them is tantamount to saying Yahweh knows less than he has commanded. Subtracting from them avers that Yahweh demands more than he should. Either action is presumptuous arrogance. Israel's role is simply the humility of obedience—"Keep the commands of Yahweh your God that I am commanding you"—that is appropriate to her status as a people standing under the covenant of Yahweh. It is tempting to think of this prohibition as a comprehensive bar against any unauthorized innovation of the canon of faith. While such a specific notion is probably not absent in the proscription, the injunction here should rather be understood in the context of the following verse, as emphasizing the need for singleheartedness in Israel's loyalty to Yahweh and his commandments.

Adding to the law
is tantamount to saying
Yahweh knows less than he has commanded.
Subtracting from them avers that
Yahweh demands more than he should.
Either action is presumptuous arrogance.

By way of motivation (♥), Moses illustrates this warning with a case-history from the recent past—Israel's religious orgy with the Moabite deity Baal Peor (Num.25:1-9). "Your eyes were the ones that saw" attests to Israel's first-hand knowledge of it. Israel's present location in the shadow of Peor, makes recalling the details of the incident superfluous. The sharp contrast between "Yahweh destroyed from your midst all who followed the Baal Peor" and "all of you who held fast to Yahweh your God are still alive today" serves to emphasize the point that is being illustrated here, that is, "observe the laws so that you may live!"

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