THE WRITTEN LAW

=The new law book—­Deuteronomy.=—­So they wrote the new book, and it is preserved in our Bible as the book of Deuteronomy.  We find in it all the old laws which had been handed down from early times, and which were called the “laws of Moses.”  And we find on every page sentences which show the influence of the great prophets, from Amos to Isaiah.  Isaiah’s influence is perhaps the most plainly seen, especially his teaching that the people should worship Jehovah alone as the one ruler of the world.  In Deuteronomy also we find a very solemn and emphatic commandment bidding us love and worship only Jehovah, the one true God.  This is the commandment which Jesus called the first and greatest of all.

    ="Hear, O Israel.  The Lord our God is one Lord; and thou
    shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with
    all thy soul, and with all thy might."=

Such a law as this of course forbade all those covenants with other gods which Isaiah denounced.

=Laws helping the oppressed.=—­All the prophets had been on the side of the poor and the weak, against the rich and powerful who oppressed them.  The authors of the book of Deuteronomy tried to shape this new law so as more fully to protect the poor.  They made stronger all the older laws which were intended to make life a little easier for the weak and unfortunate, and they added others:  for example, laws protecting debtors against greedy and merciless creditors, and laws forbidding the extremely harsh penalties which poor men were sometimes made to suffer by rich judges.

There was an ancient law requiring that any Hebrew who had fallen into a state of slavery on account of debt must be set free after seven years.  The new law book included this law, and added that the master must not send him away emptyhanded at the end of the seven years, but must give him food and clothes enough to keep him alive while he looked for a chance to work and earn money for himself.  The new law also protected fugitive slaves from other countries.  They were not to be returned to their owners.

=A compromise.=—­All of the four reformer-prophets whom we have studied had condemned the offerings and animal sacrifices of the old worship, not only because of the idolatry and other heathen and immoral practices connected with them, but also on the ground that Jehovah did not want sacrifices anyway, but only justice and love.

But the authors of the new law did not abolish sacrifices altogether.  They provided that all the small shrines, called “high places,” such as at Hebron or Gibeon, and all up and down the country should be destroyed, but that sacrifices should be offered at Jerusalem and only there.  The old-time religious feasts, such as the Passover, could no longer be celebrated at home.  All the people must come up to Jerusalem for them.  No doubt it was thought that this would help to put down idolatry.