God's Deliverance In The Wilderness.
“So I caused them to go forth out of the land of Egypt, and brought them into the wilderness. And I gave them my statutes and showed them my judgments, which if a man does he shall live in them.
So God delivered His people from Egypt by His mighty power, led them out of it into the wilderness and there entered into His covenant with them at Sinai (Exodus 20), again with the promise ‘I am Yahweh your God' (Exodus 20:2). There He gave them His statutes and judgments, response to which bring life (Exodus 20:12; Leviticus; Deuteronomy 4:10; Deuteronomy 5:16). They would result in a full life of blessing. Primary in these statutes and judgments was their response to God, covered by the first five ‘words' (commandments - the fifth is included because the parents stood in the place of God). They would live because they walked with God, which would then be revealed in their keeping the last five ‘words' (commandments).
The later New Testament strictures against the Law (John 1:17; Acts 13:39; Romans 3:20; Galatians 3:10-11) were not against this significance of the Law, but against the idea that had grown up that eternal life was achievable by punctilious observance of every ordinance in exactly the right way, and of every detail of the moral Law. They had taken their eyes off God and fixed them on themselves.
To ‘live' as compared with to ‘die' indicated wellbeing and blessing. It indicated the enjoyment of God's presence (Psalms 139:7-12). While there were a few indications of it, there was not at this stage, as far as we know, any general thought out conception of an afterlife. This would slowly grow through the coming centuries (but compare Daniel 12:2 which is its beginnings. See also Isaiah 53:12; Isaiah 26:19; Psalms 16:10-11; Psalms 17:15; also possibly Psalms 11:7; Psalms 140:13. It was at this stage an instinct within the heart of the righteous rather than an expressed doctrine).