The direct expression of divine will is frightening to civil society. It was the people who asked the divine ruler to convey His message not directly to the people but through prophetic intermediaries. What most commentaries fail to appreciate is how the interposition of a prophetic intermediary led to the intermediary coming to serve as a partner with the divine ruler, becoming he himself a principal in the covenantal bond.
The prophetic ruler came to serve as the alternative to the 'neck' of the people, which neck the divine ruler had judged to be too stiff for Him to be able to manage a direct and immediate covenant with the people. The final (second) covenant at Sinai was cut between YHWH and Moshe, with Israel's sons there as an adjunct.
On the banks of the Jordan, nearly forty years later at the end of the saga, at the moment of Moshe's leaving Israel's sons to the tender mercies of YHWH and whoever would become Moshe's political descendants, Moshe cuts another covenant with Israel's sons. That covenant at Moab takes both YHWH and Moshe out of the direct performance of the covenanting ceremony. YHWH takes no overt role in the ceremony; and Moshe is clearly about to take leave of the people.
The covenant at Moab is a template for how future generations of Israel's sons will need to affirm or renew the covenant with YHWH, especially when that affirmation or renewal will entail the reclaiming of the Land of Israel, a reclamation that could not have involved Moshe's direct leadership because Moshe was explicitly excluded from the role of leading within the Land of Israel. Moshe is the quintessential diaspora leader: he could not teach us how to lead within the land. For that, the Jewish people tend to be on their own.
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