Moses & the fear of God: Be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery. Deuteronomy 6:12

Deuteronomy recounts that Moses summoned all the Israelites during their journey to the Promised Land and explained that God had made a covenant with them at Mount Horeb, and that he was an intermediary between the Israelites and God. This covenant consisted primarily of a promised land and a series of precepts that Moses expounded for its fulfillment.
But then Deuteronomy continues and explains that these commands or imperatives set forth by the prophet have ethical or moral conditions for their validity. In other words, Moses clarified that the law does not consist of the literal application of the commandments. And this is so because there is an underlying wisdom to the law, and this wisdom must be understood. A wisdom that has accompanied God since the very creation of the world and that was deposited especially in Israel. And Moses expounded this wisdom with these words: "Love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts" Deuteronomy 6:5-6. With these words, Moses explained the spirit that should give life to the law. Otherwise, the law is a dead letter.
And this is very important to understand because when Israel lost its way due to the hardness of hearts, the prophets repeated this message in other words. The beginning of the Law of Moses is, first and foremost, the fear of God, a fear that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob possessed. This is why Moses also expressed that this fear should be a constant reminder, and thus he taught: "Be careful that you do not forget the LORD, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery" Deuteronomy 6:12.
Fear, and this cannot be denied, is first and foremost a grace from the Lord, a free gift, but also, the fear of God is instruction, teaching. And this is where the full weight of Moses' words falls. The fear of God and the law must go hand in hand. A fear of God that must be cultivated along with the law until it bears fruit in that perfect love expounded by Moses. A love directed towards the highest and most perfect, a love that God grants as a reward for devotion, constancy and firmness in the application of the law. A love that David, Josiah, and Hezekiah bore witness to, a love that perfected the law and led Israel to safety and life.

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