132. Although the Jews remembered that some Prophets had been endowed with
the miracle of consuming fire, they conveniently forgot their covenant with
God at the time they were entrusted with the Scripture, and their mission as
the bearers of the Scripture. The 'covenant' to which this verse alludes is
mentioned at several places in the Bible. In the last sermon of Moses, cited
in Deuteronomy, he again and again calls the attention of Israel to the covenant
in the following words: 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord; and you
shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all
your might. And these words which I command shall be upon your heart; and you
shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you
sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and
when you rise. And you shall bind them as a sign upon your hand, and they shall
be as frontlets between your eyes. And you shall write them on the doorposts
of your house and on your gates.' (Deuteronomy 6: 4-9.)
Then, in his last testament Moses said: 'And on the day you pass over the Jordan
to the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall set up large stones,
and plaster them with plaster and you shall write upon them all the words of
this law, when you pass over to enter the land which the Lord your God gives
you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers,
has promised you. And when you have passed over the Jordan, you shall set up
these stones, concerning which I command you this day, on Mount Ebal, and you
shall plaster them with plaster.' (Deuteronomy 27: 2-4.) When the Levites were
handed a copy of the Torah, they were instructed to gather men, women and children
every seventh year on the occasion of the Feast of Tabernacles and to recite
the entire text to them. But their indifference to the Book of God grew to such
a point that seven hundred years later even the priests of the Temple of Solomon
and the Jewish ruler of Jerusalem did not know that they had the Book of God
with them. (See 2 Kings 22: 8-13.)