Richter mentioned a chart of treaty in last week's video. I'm pretty sure that is in this week's lesson on pages 70 to 71.
Through this Covenant relationship, through this treaty that Yahweh offers to Israel, Israel is given the Idea of national identity.
They didn't have a national identity before, as they were a tribal outfit, an extended family.
The thing that has forged them together is their common suffering, but at the foot of Mount Sinai by means of the Covenant document, Yahweh makes them a nation.
God is suzerain, Israel is the vassal.
God communicates the idea of monotheism. This is critical, the Israelites don't understand monotheism, and really it's going to take them a while to get this straight. The average citizen sitting in the pew isn't going to get it straight for a long long time, and that's evidenced by all sorts of material, culture, and archaeological evidence. We've still got statues to Ashra dropping into the average citizen's house in 8th century Judah, unfortunately.
God uses a political form to communicate to this theologically challenged outfit what monotheism is all about, and how it works. “I'm the only one here, yes, you've been taught about other Gods, but I am your suzerain you either give your loyalty to me or there will colloquially speaking, be hell to pay."
