Moses has coursed into the past (Chap.5) to remind GB how he came into his role as the mediator of the torah. In a classic illustration of what exposition means, he now shifts his discourse into the future to spell out what that torah implies. Starting with GB’s imminent entry into the Promised Land (6:1-3), he now paints the first of four portraits of how life in the land will impinge upon Israel in her walk with Yhwh in order to urge GB to obedience. The flow of this exhortation can be seen in the manner the portrait is structured:
A. Fear (tira') & Love Yahweh, vv1-5.
B. Command to Teach the Children, vv6-9.
C. Life in the Land - the Temptation to Forget Yahweh, vv10-12.
D. Fear (tira') Yahweh, Serve Him Only, v13.
C'. Life in the Land - the Temptation of Idolatry, vv14-19.
B'. Command to Teach the Children, vv20-23.
A'. Conclusion: Fear (tira') Yahweh & Obey His Commandmandments, vv24-25.
While chiastic this narrative may also be conceptualized as falling neatly into a triptych, each panel themed on the fear of the Lord:
A. Prologue: Call to Fear God and Obey, vv1-9.
B. Fear God in the Land, vv10-19.
C. Teach the Children to Fear Yahweh, vv20-25.
The prologue, in particular, is a powerful summon that functions not only as a lead-in to the first portrait of life in the land, it also serves as the thematic backboe for the remainder of Moses's second address. The progression of thought—beginning with a call to action (observe the commandments) to the need to hear, and ending with embedding the love of the Lord in the heart from which the commandments then excercise their power to obey—powerfully knits
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©Alberith, 2019