Curses and God's Glory (part 2) - Deuteronomy 28:15-68

Introduction and Review

In the last lesson, Curses and God’s Glory (part 1), we recalled God’s blessings for the Israelites’ faithfulness to Him affected every part of their lives. Those blessings promised them prolonged life and possession of the land God gave them in Canaan. We learned, too, that blessings and curses were a normal part of any covenant or contract in the Near East at that time. Finally, we learned that verses fifteen through sixty-eight contain three sections of curses. We recognize them at verses fifteen, forty-five through forty-seven, and fifty-eight. In these three sets of verses that begin the sections of curses, Moses reminded the Israelites of their covenant with God in a negative way as a prelude for the succeeding curses from God for their lack of faithfulness to Him.

In this Bible study, we will understand that the second section of God’s curses occur through other nations against the Israelites. God used foreign nations to enact His curses of death on the Israelites for breaking covenant with Him. In the third and final section of curses, which begins with verse fifty-eight, we hear again how the LORD would actively strike the Israelites Himself, not through other people. In verses fifty-nine through sixty-eight, we read the LORD would bring plagues, bring back diseases, scatter them, and give them trembling. The LORD would apply His curses in this last section of curses. The biggest area in which God would affect the Israelites in this third section was in their bodies – physical and mental. Let us now get into our study for today.

Section 2

 

In the first section of curses, God actively struck the Israelites bodies, prosperity, families, and international relationships. In this current section, comprised of verses forty-five through fifty-seven, God’s curses against the Israelites occur through a third party, enemies of Israel, via siege warfare. As stated earlier, each section of curses begins with a reminder that the Israelites’ disobedience to their covenant with God would bring about His curses. The reminder in this section of curses is in verses forty-five through forty-seven.

Comparison.

In comparing verse fifteen to verses forty-five through forty-seven, we note the extended length of the latter. Verse 15 is brief and does not use the legal format of the if/then statement. Moses developed how the curses would occur in the latter. He reiterated God would curse the Israelites until their enemies overtook and destroyed them. Compared to verse fifteen, verses forty-five through forty-seven give greater depth as a reminder of the covenant they pledged with God - the curses for unfaithfulness, the extent of the curses, and the reality they, as unfaithful people, would be an example of scorn and horror.

The Preamble.

Moses said the Israelites would be an example to other nations. He said twice in verses forty-five through forty-seven the curses would occur because of the Israelites’ disobedience (vs. 45 “because you would not obey the LORD your God” and vs. 47 “Because you did not serve the LORD your God”). In verse 45, we must note again that God would send the curses until the overtaking and destruction of the Israelites occurred. The ultimate purpose of the curses, as Moses said many times in verses fifteen through sixty-eight, was the destroying and perishing of the Israelites. Added to this, Moses said these curses and their resultant destruction would be proof of their disobedience for themselves and their descendents forever. He said this in verse 46a when he said, “They ([the curses] shall become a sign and a wonder on you and your descendents forever.” We recall Moses said God did mighty things in the presence of the Israelites as signs and wonders (Numbers 26:10). Isaiah said God gave him and the Israelites as signs and wonders in Isaiah 8:18. Ezekiel, too, used this same wording when he prophesied about Israel being taken into captivity because of their unfaithfulness to God (Ezekiel 5:15 & 14:8). As a final thought, in verses forty-five through forty-seven, Moses reminded the Israelites of their first encounter with the LORD found in Deuteronomy 4:25-26. They agreed to the covenant and the resultant blessings and curses from God for their faithfulness or unfaithfulness.

From verses forty-seven and forty-eight’s interplay using a “because…therefore” statement (similar to an if/then statement), the Israelites heard they would serve their enemies that the LORD would send against them. In this section of curses, the Israelites learned God would not actively go against them, but He would send their enemies. Those enemies would bring the curses against their bodies, families, land, livestock (prosperity and food). Because their enemies did this through siege warfare, the warfare we cannot separate the curses of God against body, property, family, prosperity from the results of warfare. They intertwine. The curse of ruptured international relationships – battle with their enemies - would cause the others. Overall though, God caused each of the curses and they each caused mental anguish to the Israelites. Because of this, we will look in this section at the verses as a whole, not as individual types of curses.

The Body.

As introduced in the prior paragraph, the breakdown of international relations would cause their destruction. Verse 48 gives us the method God said He would use to bring His curses upon the unfaithful Israelites. It says, “Therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in the lack of all things; and He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.” Moses said God would use the Israelites enemies to inflict His curses. He explained the enemies would affect their bodies, prosperity, freedom, and their lives. These covered each of the areas mention in the blessings of verses one through fourteen and the curses thus far studied. Lamentations 4:4-6 and Jeremiah 28:13-14 testify to the time God enacted these curses against Israel for disobedience.

From verse 49, Moses expanded the teaching of verse forty-eight to the Israelites. He said, “The LORD will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth as the eagle swoops down, a nation whose language you shall not understand.” The nation God would use to curse them would possibly be unknown to the Israelites. It would arrive suddenly like an eagle, swift to fly in and overtake. The distant nation would surprise the Israelites and confound them because of the language barrier. They would be foreign to the Israelites, which would give its own element of uncertainty. Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Hosea recorded the northern and southern kingdoms’ defeats in Isaiah 5:26-30 & 7:18-20, Jeremiah 5:15, 6:22-23, 48:40, & 49:22, Lamentations 4:19, and Hosea 8:21. Besides fear, surprise, and uncertainty, the Israelites would be hungry, thirsty, naked, lack all things, and be enslaved as Moses said in verse forty-eight.

Besides surprising the Israelites and confounding them with their foreign language, we read the enemy would do many other things. They would not have respect for the old or favor the young. The enemy would eat the Israelites’ herds and produce while leaving no wine or oil (vs. 50-51). This alone made the Israelites destitute and hungry. Yet, Moses added, the Israelites’ enemy would show them the faith they had in their high walls and fortifications throughout the land was unfounded (vs. 52). They would learn they should have put complete their trust in the LORD. The Israelites did not consider that the LORD, who gave them the land, was the sole one who could save their land, and in contrast, take it away. Jeremiah and Zephaniah foretold these events of God’s wrath/curses in Jeremiah 10:17-18 and Zephaniah 1:15-16. The prophets of God reminded the Israelites many times of God’s curses and pleaded with them to return to God.

When the Israelites had no food left in their cities and towns, while their enemy besieged them, they would become cannibals of their own families. In graphic detail, Moses told them they would eat their own offspring, their children whom the LORD gave them. The enemy would oppress them so thoroughly even the refined and delicate man and woman would become hostile toward his and her brother, spouse, and children so that he and/or she would eat their bodies (vs. 53-57). The woman would eat her placenta. Consuming flesh meant killing their family. God forbade human sacrifice and killing of innocent people. That made the eating of people wrong. By putting dead human flesh into their bodies, the Israelites defiled the dead and their own bodies. Remember if anyone touched a dead person, that person would be ritually unclean until he or she performed ritual cleansing and the priest approved him or her to enter the town/city and temple again. By consuming another person, which God disapproved in the Garden of Eden, the Israelite sinned against God, themselves, and other humans. On top of these things, by removing their children, they ended the family line. The land God gave them would not be kept in the family. Descendents would not survive to inherit the land. The Israelite’s life would not be prolonged by descendents. Arriving at the point of desperation and eating human flesh became the only way to survive. That shows the level of despair the Israelites would feel. Their desperation during the siege was so great it affected the peoples’ bodies, their families, their spiritual state, their mental state, their property, and, their international relations. The Israelites would feel a vast separation from God. Their bodies, minds, and souls would be in distress.

Section 3

Overview and Preamble.

We arrive now at the last section of curses. The verses from fifty-eight through sixty-eight show the magnitude of the results from the curses God would perform or would allow occur. Verse fifty-eight is very similar to verse fifteen. They both remind the Israelites that curses would occur if they did not observe the whole Law of God – His commandments and statutes. “Observe” comes from the Hebrew word ‘anah, which means to do. Moses told them in verse fifteen, “To observe to do His commandments.” In verse fifty-eight he said, “Be careful to observe all the words of this law.” In both verses, the Israelites were to do what God said. Notice, too, that in verse fifteen and fifty-eight, the words “obey” and “careful” come from the Hebrew word shama’, which means to hear, listen, and obey. Moses did this to stress his point. He told the Israelites in these verses carefully do them - to do them and make sure you do them. Moses wanted to make sure they got the seriousness of this message. He meant, “Do what God commands; your life depends upon it.” Moses repeated twice within each of these verses to obey/do what God’s laws said. He reminded them of this command in verses one, nine, and thirteen, when he said to “obey” (vs. 1), “keep” (vs. 9), and “listen to” (vs. 13) the commandments of the LORD. He tied the results for faithfulness and unfaithfulness to the same thing - obedience/disobedience to their covenant with God.

Moses added one other part to his restatement of their covenant. He told the Israelites to obey God because they fear “the honored and awesome name, that is the LORD God” (vs. 58). For the first time in this chapter, in verse fifty-eight, we read something extra. Moses told the Israelites a new reason they should obey God and His commandments. He told them to do it because of their reverence of the honorable, glorious, and awesome LORD God. “Honor” comes from the Hebrew word kabad, which means honorable and glorious. The Israelites were to obey God because He was worthy of their reverence, not just because they feared for their lives. In each of the other five verses, section preambles, (vs. 1, 9, 13, 15, & 45-47) of this chapter where Moses spoke to the Israelites about obeying God, he told them to be faithful and receive God’s blessings, not curses due to unfaithfulness. While we ponder that thought, keep it in mind as we look at the remaining ten verses of this chapter.

The Body.

Notice that verse fifty-nine begins with the word “then.” That means it is a conditional statement and we should read the prior section to see the condition. Moses often used this legal format when speaking to teach the Israelites. As we learned in the preamble, he told them, “If the Israelites were not careful to observe all the words of this law.” Their obedience was the condition of the Mount Horeb covenant. Verses 59 through 68 continue this legal format with the  word “then.” The “then” Moses told them was God’s curses He would bring upon unfaithful Israelites. Notice in the second section of curses God used other nations to destroy Israel and bring His curses upon them. In this third section of curses, God Himself brought the curses against the Israelites, just as He did in the first section of curses. These verses say, “The LORD will bring,” “The LORD will delight in their destruction,” “The LORD will scatter,” and “The LORD will give.”

God first directed His curse against the Israelites’ bodies. Verse 59 says, “The LORD will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendents, even severe and lasting plagues and miserable and chronic sicknesses.” This provides the “then” to the earlier “if.” When looking at the words of this verse, we find the word “extraordinary” comes from the Hebrew word pala’ and means surpassing. These plagues Moses told the Israelites about would be so great it would surpass any knowledge of plagues they had from previous times. The plagues and illnesses would ravage their bodies and stun their minds. Moses said its surpassing nature would be severe, lasting, miserable, and chronic. Only a great and everlasting God could create such great, lasting, and severe plagues and sicknesses.

On top of this, Moses told the Israelites, “He [God] will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they will cling to you.” He spoke of these Egyptian diseases before in verse twenty-seven. From research of mummies, skeletons, hieroglyphs, and pictures of healing in art, researchers conclude there were eye diseases, tuberculosis, polio, and parasitic diseases. (Disease in Ancient Egypt, University College London, http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/age/disease.html.) The Israelites were familiar with these diseases since they lived in Egypt for 400 years.

Because of these illnesses, not to mention the war sieges, the Israelites would be left fewer in number (vs. 62). Remember, one promise to Abraham was that God would make of him many nations which would be as great as the stars in heaven and the sands of the sea. Moses reminded the Israelites of God’s faithfulness to His promise to Abraham in Deuteronomy 1:10. After God’s curses, the Israelites would be few in number. This would show God removed His hand of blessing from them. The Israelites would continue experiencing the curses to the point of destruction and perishing from the diseases because they did not obey the LORD God. Later in history, when the Israelites returned from captivity, Nehemiah led them in confession of their sins to God. In his prayer with and for them, as he spoke to God, he reminded the people and God of how God made them as numerous as the stars and that He was the one who brought them into the Promised Land (Nehemiah 9:23). From Nehemiah’s account in the Bible, we learn the Israelites were unfaithful to God, but He was faithful to the covenant and cursed them by making them become fewer and become captives.

Lest we get sidetracked, let us continue to verse sixty-three. In this verse, Moses used an interesting mix of words. He said, “It shall come about that as the LORD delighted over you to prosper you and multiply you, so the LORD will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it.” The LORD will delight over them to make them perish and destroy them? Does that seem odd to you? We must look at it in context with the verse and passage. Why did the LORD delight over the Israelites before when He prospered them? He rejoiced over them because of their obedience to Him and His laws. The Israelites obeyed the LORD because of who He is and what He did for them. They saw His might and power. The Israelites feared/reverenced Him. When the LORD placed His hand upon them with curses, they felt His might and power and they feared Him again. The Israelites and the nations around them re-experienced the might and power of God. They  recalled His greatness and revered Him again. That is why the LORD delighted in making them perish and be destroyed. He received reverence again. The LORD did not delight in hurting the Israelites. Their unfaithfulness/sinfulness required discipline and punishment. They agreed to the punishment when they agreed to the covenant. When God enacted the curses and the Israelites felt the curses, they remembered God’s power, might, and worthiness of praise. In human terms, we can say they respected God again. Would receiving respect give you delight? How much more would the God of all creation delight in that respect whether He received it the preferable way, by honor and love, or by the judgment that His righteousness requires. Let me say this straight: God does not want to judge and apply justice to return things to their rightful balance. He is like a loving parent who sets boundaries and rejoices when a child thrives within those boundaries. Yet, like a loving parent, sometimes a child steps outside the boundary and consequences arise, either as natural results of overstepping bounds (erring/sinning) or as discipline/punishment for not respecting boundaries and the parents who instituted them for the safety and wellbeing of the child. Just as those parents love their children and established boundaries with consequences, God loves His creation, humans, and established boundaries with positive and negative consequences. They are to bring us back into a right relationship with Him.

Along with striking the Israelites with plagues and leaving them few in number, Moses said. “Moreover, the LORD will scatter you from among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth; and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone, which you or your fathers have not known” (vs. 64). The people would be sick and fewer in number; those are physical things. They affect a person’s/nation’s psyche, too, when they realize an army could overtake them and make them slaves because they are so few in number. Moses added to that fear when he told the Israelites they would not live among their own kind, but among strangers of a different language and gods. The Israelites would not understand the captor people because of a language barrier. Those nations would make them worship gods who were powerless, foreign, and unknown to them. The curses of God would affect their spiritual selves, too. Yahweh God, whom the Israelites knew was all-powerful, was not the god the foreign nations worshipped. Their captors would make them worship an inferior god.

To this point, the curses would affect the Israelites’ bodies, minds, spirits, properties, income, families, and international relations. From verse 65 through 67, the curses would affect almost exclusively their mental wellbeing. Moses said,

Among those nations, you shall find no rest and there will be no resting place for the sole of your foot, but there the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and despair of soul. So your life shall hang in doubt before you; and you will be in dread night and day, and shall have no assurance of your life. In the morning you shall say, “Would that it were evening!” and at evening you shall say, “Would that it were morning!” because of the dread of your heart which you dread, and for the sight of your eyes which you will see. (Deut. 28:65-67, [NASB])

The word “rest” in these verses comes from the Hebrew word raga’ and means to be quiet and not disturbed or stirred up. When the Israelites went to other nations as captives, they would be disturbed and stirred up within their minds and hearts. The writer of Lamentations confirmed this in Lamentations 1:3. On top of being disturbed, Moses said the LORD would give the Israelites trembling hearts, failing eyes, and despair of soul. They would be afraid of what would happen to them. The Israelites, shaken by much sickness, privations, death, and capturing, would not know the land or people in which they were to live. “They were afraid of their shadows,” we might say. The Israelites would wish for familiar things – home. The Israelites would think they did not have a God upon whom to call. Heaviness would overcome their souls. They would despair death at first. In this last section of the chapter, they would despair of what life might bring them as captives in a new land. Moses told them in verse sixty-six their life would hang in doubt. The Israelites did not know what to do or who to trust. They did not know what today, much less tomorrow, would bring. Dread and fear would pervade throughout the day into the night. The Israelites would have no assurance of life – death or life, fear or trust. They would hope the night would bring relief from fear and dread then get there and find it did not so wish for day to arrive. We, as human as the Israelites, understand this fear and dread. When a loved one has a terminal illness or when a child goes astray into a dangerous lifestyle, we live in dread of what the next phone call might tell us. We pray with each breath hoping God will hear and intervene with blessings. We know and understand the dread and anguish that would befall the Israelites.

      As the final nail in the coffin - the last dreaded part of the curses - Moses told the Israelites the LORD would take them back to Egypt and they would find no one to buy them as servants. no (vs. 68). Even their old lord, the Egyptians, to whom they threatened to return if the LORD did not give them food and drink during the exodus, would not buy them. The Israelites would become so low their old slave drivers and masters would not deign to look at and hire them. They could not even become the lowest in society when they disobeyed God and received their due judgment, His curses. The Israelites were lower than the lowest person of society. They were dead.

Recap

In Deuteronomy 28, Moses reminded the Israelites of their covenant with God at Mount Horeb (Sinai). In the first fourteen verses, he told them the blessings God promised to give them if they diligently obeyed the LORD and carefully did His commands. These blessings covered their bodies, nation, families, property (animal, land, and business), prosperity, and international relations. Just as the blessings covered these areas, so too did the curses. In the first section of curses, Moses related one to one the curse to the earlier expressed blessing saying God would actively apply the curse Himself. In the second section of curses, each part of the Israelites’ lives to receive blessing in the first fourteen verses God would curse by using a foreign enemy nation to enact them on the Israelites. Their implementation occurred during siege warfare. By that curse, the Israelites’ minds and spirits would begin to be affected so they would fear what would happen to them. In the final section of curses, God would actively enact the curses on the Israelites. The curses of this section would affect their mental and physical wellbeing. By the last curse, the Israelites would be lower than the lowest rung on the social ladder. They would not be able to sell themselves into slavery. This would show in how little regard other nations would hold the Israelites. International relations would not be profitable for them.

Relevance and Conclusion

Moses spent twenty-eight chapters and many days speaking to the Israelites on the border of Canaan. Before crossing the Jordan River, God had Moses remind them of their covenant with Him - what was required of them, and what He promised to do for or against them for their faithfulness or unfaithness. During these speeches, Moses reminded the Israelites of their past without the LORD God and since the LORD chose them to be His people. He reminded them of God’s faithful to their forefathers – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Throughout these speeches, Moses spoke of God’s power, might, and omniscience and the Israelites’ smallness and relative lack of power and might. He reminded them that God’s gift of the land of Canaan, the Promised Land, occurred because of His faithfulness to their forefathers, not their faithfulness to Him. The Israelites’ faithfulness to their covenant with God would result in their possessing the land in perpetuity and having prosperity in the land. Moses distinguished their covenant with God from Abraham’s so they could recognize God’s faithfulness to Abraham and separate it from their pledge with Him. He wanted them to realize two things – God is faithful and they would continue to live in the land if they were faithful to their covenant with God. Their inheritance ended with sin against God – unfaithfulness to their covenant.

This fact is important for us today. You may say, “I am not a Jew and I do not live in Israel, so how does this pertain to me?” Because the intention of the old covenant at Mount Sinai was to lead people to God, not to save them from the power of sin and death, God created a new and better covenant. Because humans are sinful, they needed a better covenant. We have free will, a gift from God when He created us. When we exercise our will in such a way as to choose what we want counter to what is best and God’s perfect plan, that is sin. Because humans cannot ever be sinless since the original sin in the Garden of Eden, no covenant, promise, or contract is ever guaranteed to be fulfilled. People may honor their agreements or not. If a covenant with God relied just on the will of a human to fulfill his or her promises before God would give blessings, then not every covenant would be fulfilled. Some people would not receive the blessings and love of God.

God made a better plan. He loves humankind very much. God planned from the beginning of time to provide the greater covenant, one in which humans are not required to do anything for God to bless them. God wants to bless humans because He loves them, us. In Old Testament times when the Israelites lived by the old covenant, God’s priests led them to recognize their sin against God and to offer a sacrifice by which to atone for their sin. With the new covenant, the one where humans do not have to do anything, God provided the sin sacrifice. This sacrifice was a perfect sacrifice, not a created animal, but the Son of God, Jesus Christ. The Son of God is a part of the Godhead and, so was perfect though Satan attempted to tempt Him during His life on earth. God provided this new covenant when He allowed His Son to be crucified on a cross though He did nothing wrong. He was sin free. Jesus Christ beat the power of sin Satan holds over humans. Before we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Master, Satan was master of us because we are sinful. He held us in guilt, told us we are not good enough, and God could not love us. By Jesus’ death, our sins are atoned. God did not leave it there. He resurrected His Son from death beating the power of sin and death. We each deserve death because we are sinful. Sin separates us from God because He is pure and good and cannot be in the presence of sin. When we are not in the presence of God, we are dead; Satan made sure of that and works hard to keep us that way. God won though. There was no contest for God against Satan; Satan is a created being and God is the Creator. God had the plan for the better covenant from day one in Genesis. Paul spoke of it in Ephesians 1:4. God loves us and made a plan so we could be free of sin, the power of sin, and the power of death. We can choose to be with God and let Jesus Christ be our Lord and Master instead of Satan.

What do humans have to do to receive this mercy and forgiveness from Jesus Christ’s atoning sacrifice? Nothing. Nothing we can do could ever pay for the blessing of washing away our wrongs against God. Nothing. Because we can do nothing to wash sin away or to earn or pay for mercy and grace, God gives it to us freely – because God loves us that much. This great love is free. God wants us to receive His love and live with Him forever, you see. There is nothing we can do to earn it, but we must believe. Accept Jesus Christ is God’s Son and claim Him as your Lord and Master. Believe His death atoned for/washed away your sins. Confess your sins and receive His forgiveness.

Questions remain –

Do you believe?

Will you accept?

Is He your Lord and Master?

Curses and God's Glory (Part 1) - Deuteronomy 28:15-68

Introduction

In the previous Bible study, we looked at the blessings God promised the Israelites for obeying Him and His commandments, statutes, and laws. Throughout Deuteronomy Moses told the Israelites about God’s blessings and curses. Verses 15-68 are Moses’ teachings on the curses God will bring upon the Israelites for their disobedience to Him. Whether the Israelites obeyed and received God’s blessings or disobeyed and received God’s curses, they experienced and other nations saw the power and glory of the LORD God. For the next couple of weeks, we will be studying about God’s curses on the Israelites for their disobedience to their covenant with Him.

We must remember God’s blessings gave life and His curses gave death, either immediately or in the long-run. In the verses of this study, Moses taught how God would bring death upon the Israelites through His curses. Just as the blessings affected the Israelites’ bodies, land, animals, food, children, and international relations, the curses affected these, too.

Throughout the teaching on God’s curses, Moses reminded the Israelites of their covenant with God, but in a negative way, particularly in verses forty-five through forty-seven. The first six verses of the curses relates to the list of blessings Moses taught in verses three through six. Moses reflected the international relations of the Israelites referred to in verses seven and ten in verses twenty-five and forty-three through forty-four. In the remaining verses of curses, Moses expounded on and expanded for the Israelites how God’s curses would affect them. We must remember Moses taught about these curses of God in his first sermon to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 4:25-28.

Outline

Upon first looking at the fifty-four verses that comprise the curses portion of this chapter, one is apt to want to skim through them because of their length. However, if one takes the time to study the verses and map them out, an order and significance appears. When reading these verses, certain words repeat – observe, careful, obey, destroy, and perish. In mapping them out, we find that the words “observe”, “careful,” and “obey,” begin three sections of curses in Deuteronomy 28:15-68.

Moses reaffirmed his teaching about following God and His commandments before each expansion of the curses. The three sections of the curses portion of this chapter begin at verses fifteen, forty-five, and fifty-eight. Verse 15 begins the general curses that relate to the blessings of the first fourteen verses of this chapter. These verses state what the LORD will do to the Israelites that affect their bodies (physical and mental, their property), land, animals, families (offspring  and wives), international relationships, and the work of their hands. Verses 45-47 begin the section where God allows other nations to enact His curses upon the Israelites. The curses in verses forty-eight through fifty-seven occur because of siege warfare upon Israel. From the siege, the curses affect all the previous mentioned parts of the Israelites’ lives. Upon studying the Old Testament, readers learn these curses befell the Israelites numerous times. Verse 58 begins the final section about the curses of God on the Israelites for disobedience to their covenant with Him. In verses fifty-nine through sixty-eight, Moses taught the Israelites the LORD would bring plagues and reduce their population, scatter them over the earth, allow them to be impoverished, and delight in their perishing and destruction.

The words “destroy” and “perish” told the Israelites the most pertinent point of God’s curse on disobedient Israelites – disobedience brought death. Moses used the word “destroy” seven times and “perish” four times. “Destroy” comes from the Hebrew word shamad and means exterminate, annihilate, devastate, and destroy. “Perish” comes from the Hebrew word ‘abad and means vanish, die, exterminate, go astray, and perish. In the Law of the Ban from Deuteronomy 7, God told the Israelites to “utterly destroy” the Canaanites upon their entrance into the Promised Land. “Destroy” in that verse, Deut. 7:2, comes from the Hebrew word charam. It means to destroy completely so that the people group was removed from the earth, as well as their fame and reputation. This study shows that God’s curse would not remove the memory of the Israelites, but only their blessings of being God’s chosen people. God wanted (wants) people to remember the Israelites and learn from their blessings and curses. Verse 37 expresses that sentiment.

Section 1

As mentioned earlier, Moses began each section curses with a reminder of the covenant obedience God required from the Israelites. In verse 15 he said, “But it shall come about, if you do not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you.” First, notice Moses equated obedience to action, doing God’s commandments and statutes. Obedience, if you remember, comes from the Hebrew word shama’ (shamar) and means to hear, listen, and obey. In Hebrew understanding, hearing something means a person must act upon it. A person could not hear and listen to anything without it affecting him or her in some way so that he or she acted upon it either in following what he or she heared/learned or in denying what he or she lerned/heard. Hence, in the Israelite mindset, hearing required action. Their covenant with God required obedience and gave the resultant reward of blessings – long life and possession of the Promised Land. In this first part of verses fifteen, Moses stated three times the Israelites were to obey God when he used the words “obey,” observe,” and “do.” This brings us to the second part of verse fifteen. Notice there is an if/then statement in this verse. If the Israelites did not obey the LORD, then (“that”) curses would befall them. The giving of blessing or curse within a covenant was common in the Near East at that time. The Israelites knew about that structure and agreed to the covenant multiple times from its inception at Mount Sinai. Yet as we read and learn, they disobeyed God and were unfaithful to their covenant with Him. Hence, God rewarded them with curses – death, shortened life and dispossession of the Promised Land.

What did the curses entail? They affected every part of an Israelites’ life as well as his or her relationship with the LORD. Verses 16 through 19 related exactly to the blessings God promised in verses three through six. Just as Moses said God would bless the Israelites in the city and country in verse three, he said God would curse them in the city and country in verse sixteen. This phrasing expressed universal blessing in the earlier verse and universal cursing in the latter. No matter where the Israelites lived, God would curse them for unfaithfulness. Verse 17 reminds us of verse five. That verse said the Israelites would always have food on their table, whereas verse seventeen says God would curse them so they did not have enough food. Verse 18 relates to verse four. Whereas God promised the blessing of offspring from the Israelites’ bodies, their livestock’s bodies, and fruitfulness of their fields, verse eighteen curses them with lack of offspring and fruit/produce from the fields. The final general curse arises in verse nineteen and relates to verse six. The Hebrew idiom of verse six that said God would bless the Israelites in their coming in and their going out meant they and all their life activities were blessed. The curse then meant God would curse them and all their life activities. No matter what the Israelites did or who they were, God cursed them for their faithlessness.

To make the point more poignant, Moses told the Israelites in verse twenty that the LORD said, “The LORD will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke in all you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken Me.” This relates to the blessing in verse eight. Verse 20 told the Israelites everything they attempted to do God would obstruct. By thwarting them, they would perish and be destroyed. God told the Israelites disobedience would bring death. By God removing His hand from the Israelites’ lives, they would not prosper and would die. The next twenty-three verses relay how God, directly or indirectly, would obstruct them.

Bodily Curses.

The bodily curses with which God promised to smite the Israelties occur in verses twenty-one through twenty-two, twenty-six through twenty-nine, and thirty-four through thirty-five. In these, God actively would smite the Israelites or allow the curse through a third-party, the enemies of the Israelites. Verse 21 says God would make the pestilence cling to them until He consumed them from the land they entered to possess. A pestilence was any plague. “Consumed” comes from the Hebrew word kalah meaning finished and ended. In verse 22, God would smite the Israelites with a multitude of oppressing things that affected their bodies – consumption, fever, inflammation, fiery heat, sword, and blight and mildew. Moses said these would follow them until they perished. These plagues reminded the Israelites of what Moses taught them in Deuteronomy 4:26, “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that you will surely perish quickly from the land where you are going over the Jordan to possess it. You shall not live long on it, but will be utterly destroyed.” When Moses gave the terms of God’s covenant with them to the Israelites, they agreed to them and the resultant curses if they were faithless to God and His commands. These curses of Deuteronomy 28 did not surprise the Israelites.

The second portion of bodily curses, verses twenty-six through twenty-nine, state the enemies of the Israelites would attack them and animals would eat their carcasses. In essence, their bodies would be defiled. In addition to this, the LORD would strike them with boils, tumors, scabs, and itching. They would remember the LORD’s power when Moses spoke of boils because He gave boils to the Egyptians as one of the ten plagues. With physical illness, God would strike the Israelites with mental anguish in the form of madness and bewilderment (vs. 28). God would send blindness so they would grope as in darkness just like He sent darkness on the Egyptians. The darkness would keep the Israelites from prospering and allow their enemies to oppress and rob them continually with no one to save them (vs. 29). This latter reminded them of the blessing the LORD promised in verse eleven relating to their prosperity.

With the third set of bodily curses, verses thirty-four through thirty-five, Moses once again told the Israelites they would experience madness by all they saw and encountered. They would fall to their knees in anguish only to realize the LORD struck them with boils on their knees and legs. The boil would not heal anywhere on the Israelites’ bodies. This curse covered all their body – all their life – from the soles of their feet to the crowns of their heads. God’s will was all-encompassing.

Proprietary Curses.

Moses told the Israelites about God’s curses that would befall their possessions – land, animals, homes, families. These occur in verses twenty-three through twenty-four, thirty through thirty-three, and thirty-eight through forty-two. They affect the Israelites’ fruitfulness and prosperity. The curse of these could affect their mental well-being.

In verses 23 through 24, the first set of verses aimed at their property/prosperity, Moses told the Israelites God would thwart their plans to be productive. He would do this by stopping the rains from His heavens. Moses said in verse twenty-three, “The heaven, which is over your head, shall be bronze and the earth, which is under your feet, iron.” The land would not produce because no rains would fall from God’s heaven. Because of that, the land would become like iron, hard. Bible writers often used iron as a metaphor for difficulties. If no rain fell, the Israelites would have difficulty feeding themselves and their animals. Eventually they would all die. Added to this, Moses said in verse twenty-four, “The LORD will make the rain of your land powder from heaven; it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.” Instead of nourishing rain, God would send dust to blow, choke, and spoil the produce of the land. In this way, without rain, produce, or meat, God would destroy the Israelites. Moses spoke to them of this in Deuteronomy 11:17. He told them the opposite of this curse in Deuteronomy 28:12 when he told them of God’s blessings for their faithfulness to Him.

With verses 30 through 33, God cursed the Israelite men’s wives and children. Moses taught God would allow another man to ravish a man’s betrothed fiancé. In addition, God would allow another man to live in and eat the fruit of the home a man built and the vineyard he planted, respectively. Moses said God would allow the enemy to steal and slaughter the man’s livestock. These latter curses would remind the Israelites of God’s promises from verses four and eleven. On top of these, the enemy would take the Israelites’ children and eat their produce (vs. 32-33). As the cherry on top, Moses explained the Israelites would “never be anything but oppressed and crushed continually.” (vs. 33) God would bring them low in the eyes of other people by His and their enemy’s actions. The Israelites’ hearts would be crushed.

These would not affect the Israelites’ productivity and prosperity much. The curses of verses thirty-eight through forty-two would, though. Each of these verses, except verse forty-one, relates to the vitality of their land. God would send locusts to consume the seed the Israelites’ sowed. He would send worms to devour the grapes they cultivated in their vineyards. God would make the olives fall off the trees and rot. He would send the cricket to possess the fruit of the trees of Israel. God’s blessing of offspring (children and descendents) for the Israelites turned to a curse because God promised they would be captives. The Israelites negated the promised prosperity of the LORD from verse eight when they were disobedient and unfaithful to the LORD. For their seeds, God would send locusts. The LORD would send worms for the Israelites vineyards and crickets to destroy their fruit crops. The olives would fall and rot and their children would become captives. The Israelites’ hope for the future would vanish and bring despair, bewilderment, and madness.

International Relationship Curses.

If the Israelites expected their international relationships to rescue them as Egypt did for the sons of Israel during the famine, Moses explained God would curse those relationships, too. He relayed these curses in verses twenty-five, thirty-six through thirty-seven, and forty-three through forty-four. With verse twenty-five, Moses recalled for the Israelites God’s blessing from verse seven. Prior to this chapter, the enemies of the Israelites were God’s enemies. Now in these verses of curses, the enemies of the Israelites became God’s tools because when the Israelites disobeyed God, they became His enemies. In verse seven, we learned God blessed the Israelites by routing their enemies. Those enemies escaped the Israelites any way they could find. In verse twenty-five, the Israelites enemies routed the Israelites. The Israelites would try to escape their enemies any way they could find. Yet God’s hand would be against them and they would fall to their enemies. Added to this, the Israelites would be an example of terror to all the people of the earth. They went against the LORD God, the God the other nations heard about and knew of, and they fell. Earlier in their history with the LORD, the other kingdoms heard and knew about the Israelites’ God because of His might and provision for them. That would cease to be with the Israelites unfaithfulness. The other nations would learn of God’s wrath for unfaithfulness and disobedience after that and would tremble at so great a God. Verse 10 would have new meaning when the Israelites disobeyed. Still, in it all, whether by God’s blessings or curses, people  would give Him glory.

God would make another nation the captors and rulers of the Israelites. Verse 36 expresses this curse. The Israelites would serve foreign gods made of stone and wood, the kind God spoke against in Deuteronomy 4:28. By becoming captives and under the rule of other nations after the LORD chose them and they failed Him, the Israelites’ story would become a horror, proverb, and taunt (vs. 37). “Horror” comes from the Hebrew word shammah and means waste, horror, and appalment. “Proverb” comes from the Hebrew word meaning a parable, ethical maxim, and proverb. The Israelites’ story would be appalling and one from which people would learn a lesson so horrible that they would respect and consider faithfulness to God. Notice at the end of verse thirty-seven, Moses made sure the Israelites understood that God led them to live among the people who beat and captured them. None of their lives were outside God’s control. He controlled their blessings and curses – prolonged life and death, either by His hand or their enemies hands.

The third international curse in this section of curses arises in verses forty-three and forty-four. Moses told the Israelites, “The alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you will go down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, but you will not lend to him; he shall be the head and you will be the tail.” These two verses are the counter to verses twelve and thirteen in the blessings part of this chapter. Moses used two of the idioms of verses twelve and thirteen relating to the Israelites’ stature among aliens and other nations in verses forty-two and forty-three. He said the aliens would be the lenders and not the borrowers. The Israelites would be impoverished and need loans to buy necessities because of God’s removal of His hand from them. The people of other nations would no longer be followers, but the chiefs, the leaders. The people of other nations would hold a higher status in the community than the Israelites. These would occur because God removed His hand from the Israelites due to their unfaithfulness and disobedience.

Recap

The first section of curses, verses fifteen through forty-four, affect every part of the Israelites’ lives – body, property and prosperity, and international relations. Moses recalled for the Israelites their covenant with God and the result of disobedience and unfaithfulness to Him. He explained God rewarded these with curses. This reward was not something new to them because it was a common practice of covenanting in the Near East and they heard about them in Deuteronomy 4. As in the blessings section of chapter 28, so in the curses, God’s intentions will occur and His power and might will be glorified.

Application and Conclusion

From the Israelites’ experiences with God, we see and acknowledge God is greater than humankind. His power is greater whether He uses it for blessing or cursing. God’s glory is evident and we should acknowledge it and follow His will.

As we continue to study the justice side of God’s righteousness, we must realize that God was not active just in Old Testament times and no longer pertinent to today. His hand has been, continues to be, and will be on all created things – people and things. His power is evident every day. We must decide whether we will accept and acknowledge the God of eternal power and creation who chooses to love us. His action in the past did not result just in creation and saving/cursing the Israelites. God’s action continued so that He provided a Savior for all humankind in the life, death, and resurrection of His Son, Jesus Christ, as Savior from sin and death. Remember, when the Israelites disobeyed God, they became His enemies. We, too, are enemies of God because of our sins, rebelling against God and His plan. Just as the Israelites needed a Savior, we need a Savior and God provided one 2000 years ago.

The question is –

Will we deny God’s gift of salvation or will we accept it and receive His love and salvation?

What will you decide?

Covenant Renewal Ceremony - Deuteronomy 27

Introduction

With Deuteronomy 26, Moses started ending his second speech. He reminded the Israelites of the most important things – God chose them to be His people and their response to His love (their offerings and obeying His commands). In chapter 27, Moses reminded them of the rewards for obeying and disobeying God’s commandments and statutes. He taught them, too, about a one-time ceremony God commanded they hold when they entered the Promised Land.

Chapter 27 differs from the rest of Moses’ second speech/sermon. In it, the writer spoke of Moses in the third person using past tense. This gives chapter 27 a narrative feel just as Deuteronomy 4:44-46, 5:1, and chapters 31-34. Because of this, many scholars believe another person added to Moses’ writing of Deuteronomy. It would make sense to hold this understanding. Perhaps Joshua added more to the book of Deuteronomy than just the last chapter, which chronicles Moses’ death.

Another thing to notice, it looks like it comprised of three sections - vs. 1-8, vs. 9-10, and vs. 11-26. A few scholars believe verses nine and ten have no direct connection with the rest of the chapter. They consider it the transition between chapter twenty-six and chapter twenty-eight. If that is the case, then these scholars state another writer added verses 1-8 and 11-26 after Moses and Joshua penned the original book of Deuteronomy. After studying the text, I agree with scholars such as Matthew Henry and John Wesley. Verses nine and ten start the ceremony Moses taught the Israelites for when they entered the Promised Land. The silence at the time of Moses’ teaching applied, too, because he just reminded them of God’s love to them. Any time a person is reminded of God’s love and mercy, a moment of silence is good to reflect on it and return thanks, reverence, and love to Him. Because verses nine and ten fit into the whole of the ceremony, I feel just two distinct parts to this chapter occur with four distinct groups of players – Moses, elders, priests, and Israelites.

Ceremony for Covenant Renewal

The altar.

In verses 1 through 8, Moses and the elders ordered the Israelites to follow God’s commands about writing His laws in plaster upon stones and setting up an altar made of unhewn stones. In the beginning of this speech, Moses told them when they crossed the Jordan River into the land that God gives them they were to set up stones. From verse two, Moses said the Israelites were to set up the stones as soon as they crossed the river at Gilgal, yet verse four told them they were to set up the stones at Mount Ebal, which was further north in Shechem. Most people believe they set up the altar and stones after Gilgal when they reached Shechem

God’s gave specific commands on how to set up the stones. Verses 2-3 say they were to use large stones, coat them with lime, and write on them all the words of the law. Verse 4 reiterates this. Later in verse 8, Moses commanded the Israelites write the law in a distinct manner on the stones. The word “write” in verses three and eight comes from the Hebrew word kathab and means to inscribe or engrave. This marker was to be a permanent reminder of the Israelites’ covenant with God. Many scholars over the millennia have queried which “laws” God commanded them to write on the stones. Did “laws” mean the Ten Commandments, all the commands, statutes, and decrees of God in the book of Deuteronomy, or a shortened version of it? No definitive thought has emerged as to which is correct, but we must consider that if the Israelites engraved Deuteronomy 4:44-26 on the stones, the engraving would have taken many months to finish. Some scholars believe the “laws” to be engraved were the Ten Commandments of Deuteronomy 5. Others think God could have meant a much shorter version such as what Moses wrote in Exodus 24:4 or Joshua in Joshua 24:26.

Besides setting up stones and engraving God’s laws upon them, Moses commanded they set up an altar on Mount Ebal. Verses 5-7 say,

Moreover, you shall build there an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones; you shall not wield an iron tool on them. You shall build the altar of the LORD your God and you shall offer on it burnt offerings to the LORD your God; and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and eat there and rejoice before the LORD your God. [NASB]

The Israelites were to stack and plaster stones to hold the engraving of God’s laws as a way to renew their vows with God. In addition, God commanded them to build and altar in a specific way. Then they were to offer a peace offering on it while rejoicing before the LORD God. God gave a specific command about the altar. The Israelites were not to shape the stones, but stack them unhewn into an altar. Moses used the English word “uncut” in verse six to describe the stones God commanded the Israelites to use. The Hebrew word for “uncut” is shalem, which comes from the same root word as shalom (peace). Shalem means complete, whole, and perfect. The stones that man may consider imperfect and try to shape, God called perfect for His altar. This reminds us that Jesus, the chief cornerstone, was a stone the builders cast away, but God called Him the perfect cornerstone upon which to build His church. God had the Israelites build this altar out of uncut stones He considered perfect for such a task.

      After building the altar on Mount Ebal, Moses commanded the Israelites to offer burnt and peace offerings to the LORD. Of the peace offerings, they were to eat and rejoice at the site of the altar before the LORD. If you remember from the Bible study that dealt with offerings, burnt offerings were the offerings the Israelites gave to God for Him only (Leviticus 1). None of them ate from that part. The peace offerings were a means of offering thanks to God praising Him for His goodness. It comprised unleavened cakes/bread and flesh of animals. In Leviticus 7:11-21, a part of what the Israelites gave to the LORD belonged to the Priests. The Israelites could eat the rest of the offering. Notice in Deuteronomy 27:7 the Israelites were to eat the peace offering before the LORD while rejoicing. The opportunity to worship and praise God came with rejoicing and thanks by each person as they each brought their sacrifices and by the community when they ate and rejoiced together.

      We must not forget the purpose of sacrifices lest we lose the meaning of setting up the altar and engraving God’s laws on stone. When people of Bible times made a covenant, they offered sacrifices to seal the covenant between the two people. For people of God, they laid out the sacrifices and God’s tongue of fire walked between the pieces of the sacrifice as an avowal to the validity of the covenant. Hence, God was part of the covenant of the two parties because He was a witness to the covenant. When a person places his or her hand on the Bible when taking and oath, that is a vow/pledge/covenant before God. From this then, we see the burnt and peace offerings were the seal on the covenant the Israelites made with God and God with them. This action professed the absolute validity of the covenant. The Israelites’ renewed their covenant with God on Mount Ebal when they entered the Promised Land by writing His laws on the stones. They sealed it with their burnt and peace offerings on the altar. From Deuteronomy 27:15 through 28:67, the Israelites pledged to follow God’s laws and to be His people.

The Silence.

Moses no longer spoke using the elders, but the priests. Here, as verse nine says, he and the priests spoke and commanded the Israelites, “Be silent and listen, O Israel!” Scholars have debated the purpose and placement of verses nine and ten. They said based on the future purpose of the rest of the chapter, these verses should be a command to do something in the future, too. Yet, they appear to be a command for the present time when Moses gave God’s commands to the Israelites before they entered the Promised Land. “Which is it, present or future?” scholars have wondered.

Priests often used silence in worship. They used it as a way for the people to prepare to be in the presence of God – to still themselves. I think Moses and the priests intentionally used verses nine and ten for their present time. Moses did not mean for these verses to be at the end of chapter twenty-six. Moses and the priests used the verses to silence the people. This enabled the Israelites to still their restless minds, remember who they were because of God, and consider what their response should be to Him. The priests used this call to worship perhaps when the Israelites worshipped God at Mount Ebal, too.

Moses and the priests called the people to be silent (still their inner and outer voices) and listen. Pastors do this today at the beginning of a worship service. They offer a call to worship with communal prayer. It stills the voices of the people before the LORD. The people can then become attune to God’s speaking to them.

Besides being a call to worship, Moses highlighted two other significant things in verses nine and  ten. The first significant part of these two verses is that Moses and the priests called the people to worship – to be silent and listen – as we understand from the aforementioned paragraphs. The second significant part is that Moses and the priests called the people to obedience man times. In verses 9 and 10, Moses said “listen” and “obey.” Both come from the Hebrew word shama. Remember, shama means to hear, listen, and obey. Within Hebrew society, an automatic response to hearing is listening and obeying. The first cannot be separated from the other two. Hearing calls a person to act, which is what Moses commanded the Israelites do in verse ten. Three words in these two verses call the Israelites to action – listen, obey, and do. Moses emphasized obedience by stating it three times in these two verses. That leads us to the third significant part of these two verses.

The third significant part of these two verses is Moses told the Israelites who and what to listen to and obey. They were to obey God. Moses gave them the reason in verse nine. He said, “This day you have become a people for the LORD your God.” Because God chose them and loved them, their response to Him should be obedience. God’s covenant with them was a gift to the Israelites. Their obedience was not a condition that preceded the covenant, but should result from it out of gratitude. That is the important part. Obedience is not required as part of the covenant, but is the response of the person out of gratitude to God. It comes as part of their worship, lives, praise, and thanks. What God commanded of the Israelites should have been the automatic and natural response because of thanks to Him for His saving and loving them. Obedience to God today should come because of thanks to God, too. It should be the natural action in return to God who loves us.

Moses used these two verses at this place in the chapter to still the voices in and around the Israelites so they could remember the love and salvation of God for them. Mentally, from verses one through eight, they were ready to worship and thank the LORD. In commanding them to set up an altar to God and engrave on stone His laws, the Israelites remembered God’s actions for them. Moses’ call to silence emphasized the call to return to God. His use of silence at the time of his commands about what to do when they entered the Promised Land taught them how to calm and silence themselves before the LORD at their first worship and consecration service in Israel. It helped them focus their minds and hearts on the magnitude of their vow renewal before God on Mounts Ebal and Gerizim.

The Participants.

Scholars have considered Moses’ third speech of this chapter began with verse eleven. Remember, I and other scholars such as Henry and Wesley consider this section as part of the second speech of the chapter, verses nine and ten. In this section of the chapter, Moses spoke alone, without elders or priests as in the earlier parts of this chapter. In verses one through eight, Moses told them what to build, how to build, what to engrave, and how to worship as people of the LORD, but  in verses eleven through thirteen, he divided the Israelites into two groups to speak different parts of the renewal ceremony.

Moses commanded one group of the Israelites stand on Mount Gerizim and the other on Mount Ebal. These two mountains were in Shechem. The valley formed between the base of these two mountains was about one mile long. Moses commanded six tribes to stand upon each mountain. He told the tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin to stand upon Mount Gerizim to bless the people. Moses then told the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali to say the “Amen” to the curses. Some scholars say the tribes who said the “Amen” for the blessings all came from the free women, so it was right for them to say “Amen.” That reasoning does not hold for the tribes who say the “Amen” to the curses because Leah and Rachel, free women, bore Reuben and Zebulun. Some scholars have tried to understand why God chose Mount Gerizim to be the place of blessing and Mount Ebal for the curses. Several have said it was because Mt. Gerizim was more green and produced vegetation while Mt. Ebal was rocky and barren. We do not know for a fact why God chose specific tribes to offer the blessing or curse “Amen.” We, too, do not know for a fact why He chose one mountain as the site for the “Amen” to blessings and the other for curses. What we know is that God commanded this ceremony by the Israelites when they entered the Promised Land to renew their covenant with Him.

The other participants in this ceremony were the Levites. In verse 12, Moses commanded the tribe of Levi to stand on Mt. Gerizim and offer blessing for the people. How then can they be on the mountain and in the valley? The Levites of verse fourteen were the priests who bore the ark of the covenant. The Levites of verse 12 were the non-priests of the tribe of Levi who stood on the mountain. Levitical priests’ in this ceremony were to shout to the Israelites the different parts of God’s covenant after which the tribes offered the “Amen” to the blessing or curse.

The ceremony of consecration and renewal began with the writing of God’s laws on the stones, continued with the erecting of the altar and burning of offering, and concluded with the antiphonal agreement by the people to the blessings and curses of God. Those where mental reminders and physical actions. The verbal part of the ceremony occurred the priests stood in the valley shouting (answering/‘anah) to either the tribes on Mt. Gerizim or Mt. Ebal. As they stood at the base of the mountains, the tribes antiphonally replied “Amen” in agreement and acceptance to the curses and blessings of God’s laws.

The Curses.

Moses told the Israelites to affirm the twelve curses in this chapter. These curses carried implied blessings both of which the Israelites were to affirm in the ceremony at Shechem. The implied blessings are what the Levitical priests shouted to the tribes on Mt. Gerizim. Those tribes replied, “Amen,” after the tribes on Mt. Ebal replied, “Amen,” to the curse. Each  of the first eleven curses paralleled at least one of the Ten Commandments. The twelfth curse (vs. 26) is the bubble proviso. It incorporates all God’s laws including the ones not listed in the previous eleven verses so it touches everyone.

In looking at the eleven curses of verses fifteen through twenty-five, we recognize the most important commandments occurred in the first two curses. Verse 15 says, “Cursed is the man who makes an idol or molten image, an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman and sets it up in secret.” This verse speaks of any image whether carved or molded by the hands of a craftsman. Added to this, it says whether a person hid or displayed the idol, God considered both an abomination. This curse related to the second commandment, but incorporated each of the first four commandments. God said He was to be their only God and they were to worship just Him. As per Moses’ command, after the Levitical priests shouted this curse, the tribes on Mt. Ebal said, “Amen.” “Amen” means “truly” or “so be it.” Their affirmation was an acceptance of God’s terms set up by this command. Once the priests shouted the curse, they turned to face the tribes on Mt. Gerizim and shouted the blessing. They said something like this, “Blessed is the man who does not make images and worships God alone.” To this, those tribes would agree with an “Amen.”

Verse 16 reflected the second most important relationship in the Ten Commandments – the relationship to one’s parents. The fifth commandment addresses this. Verse 16 says, “Cursed is he who dishonors his father and mother.” A person’s relationship with his parents reflects his relationship with the rest of his family and other people. If the two primary relationships in a person’s life were not right, as in the person dishonored God and his parents, then the foundation for good relationships with others was not solid. To this curse, the tribes on Mt. Ebal said, “Amen.” Then the priests shouted to the tribes on Mt. Gerizim, “Blessed is he who honors his parents,” and the tribes said, “Amen.”

Verse 17 reflected a person’s respect for another person’s property. That property was the second person’s inheritance from the LORD and the rightful inheritance for that person’s descendents. By moving a neighbor’s boundary mark (landmark), the person showed his jealousy of a neighbor and coveted the neighbor’s property. The first person stole from the second person. This curse went with the eighth and tenth commandments. To this, the tribes on Mt. Ebal said, “Amen.” The priests then shouted the blessing of not moving a neighbor’s boundary mark, to which the people on Mt. Gerizim answered, “Amen.”

Verse 18 says, “Cursed is he who misleads a blind person on the road.” An unjust person maliciously counsels a person to do something not in the blind person’s best interest. He or she imposes his or her will on the weaker person, a disadvantaged person, for his or her own good fortune. They malicious person could give a false witness against a weaker person to gain the person’s property. He or she could counsel the person to take specific steps when that would be to the person’s detriment. This curse relates to the eighth and ninth commandments, not stealing and not bearing false witness against one’s neighbors. The tribes on Mt. Ebal said, “Amen.” The priests then would shout the blessing, “Blessed is he who does not mislead a blind person on the road,” to which the tribes on Mt. Gerizim answered, “Amen.”

Verse 19 speaks against distorting justice to the weak or low. This verse specifically speaks about the lowest in society – the widow, orphan, and alien. The previous verse could have meant these people or any other member or society. The word “distort” comes from the Hebrew word meaning to pervert or bend. If a person distorted the justice due an alien, widow, or orphan, it showed he or she had no scruples. The ones who were weakest in society were the ones picked on instead of those who could stand up for themselves. The laws and justice of Israel, as given to them by God, were there to protect all Israelites, especially the lowest who had no one else to defend them. This curse relates to the eighth and ninth commandments. To this the tribes on Mt. Ebal said, “Amen.” The priests then turned and shouted, “Blessed are they who do not distort justice to the weak or low,” and the tribes on Mt. Gerizim shouted, “Amen.”

Verses 20, 22, and 23 relate to the seventh commandment, “You shall not commit adultery.” God’s laws say anyone who slept with his mother, father’s wife, sister, or mother-in-law committed adultery. For this crime, God’s judgment required death (Leviticus 20:11). By lying with a family member, the person exerted his power on a family member to usurp the head of the family. This act showed covetousness of another person’s position and wife, sister, or mother. To this curse, the tribes on Mt. Ebal said, “Amen.” The priests then shouted the blessing, “Blessed is he who does not lie with his mother/sister/mother-in-law,” to which the tribes on Mt. Gerizim said, “Amen.” These three verses relate to the seventh and tenth commandments.

Verse 21 relates to the seventh commandment, too. If you remember that adultery means the unlawful mixing of two things God said not to mix, then lying with animals is adultery. It is against the natural order God established. To this the Mt. Ebal tribes said, “Amen.” The priests shouted, “Blessed is he who does not lie with an animal,” to which the tribes on Mt. Gerizim said, “Amen.”

Verse 24 speaks a curse on anyone who kills a neighbor. Remember, in both Deuteronomy and in Jesus’ teachings, a neighbor is anyone with whom you come in contact. This verse says, “Cursed is he who strikes his neighbor in secret.” Whether the people knew the murderer or not, God knows who killed another person and His judgment will occur even if not administered by people. Secrecy in killing a person does not make a person innocent. God’s curse follows the murderer. God gave this law in the sixth commandment. To this, the tribes on Mt. Ebal said, “Amen.” The priests then shouted, “Blessed is he who does not kill,” to which the tribes on Mt. Gerizim replied, “Amen.”

Verse 25 states, “Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to strike down an innocent person.” The Hebrew meaning for “strike down” is to kill. The meaning of “innocent person” comes from the Hebrew word naqiy, which means innocent or free from guilt. To kill someone is murder and God forbade that in the sixth commandment. God mandated laws that required the judgment of death for adulterers or murderers. This law does not affect consider adultery. It speaks about killing an innocent person. To this curse, the tribes on Mt. Ebal said, “Amen.” The priests would say to the tribes on Mt. Gerizim, “Blessed is he who does not kill or accept a bribe to kill an innocent person.” To this blessing, the tribes on Mt. Gerizim would say, “Amen.”

In the final verse of this chapter, God commanded through Moses, “Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them.” We understand these words, but let us look closer at the word “confirm.” The Hebrew word for this word is quwm. It means to stand up for or to arise. If a person did not do God’s laws mentioned in these twelve verses, His curse rested on that person. This verse has two other deeper meanings. If a person did not stand up for God’s laws, but turned a blind eye when someone committed a forbidden act, God’s curse rested on that person as well as the transgressor. Added to this, the law forbade doing evil omitting doing good implied by the law. This last curse is the bubble proviso mentioned at the beginning of this Bible study. It meant that any person who disobeyed any of God’s laws, whether mentioned above or not, received God’s curse.

Confirming the words of the law required doing them – action as well as words. The first eleven curses came upon a person for disobeying and the tribes agreed. The last law said any person who did not keep any of God’s laws that, not just the above eleven, received His curse. Obedience to the law showed love of God and confirmed acceptance of God’s laws. Each of the twelve tribes agreed to enact God’s laws when they said, “Amen.”

Just agreeing that a law is God’s law is not enough. God required acting upon them by following and obeying them not going against them. Moses had been with the Israelites for about forty years at this point. They were on the verge of entering the Promised Land and receiving the fulfillment of God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. At this important point in their lives, on the verge of receiving the land gushing with milk and honey, Moses reminded them of God’s covenant with them. He recalled for them their covenant with God resulted in obedience to Him out of love and reverence for Him.

Recap

God understood the Israelites needed to revisit their pledge/covenant with Him before they took possession of the Promised Land otherwise it would be easy to forget Him, the Giver. We recognize this being like a child on Christmas day. When the child sees the mass of toys under the tree, he or she runs with glee to scramble and open the presents without looking at who gave it and thanking the giver. God commanded them to take the time and make a solemn vow renewal, to consecrate themselves anew to Him. Moses reminded the Israelites God chose them. He explained that a covenant needs a sacrifice, which required an altar. He led them to recall God’s laws by engraving them on plaster on the stones and by antiphonally agreeing to them with the shouts of “Amen.” This chapter does not encompass every one of God’s laws with its curses and blessings, but the last curse implies it does. Chapter 28 adds sixty-eight more verses containing more laws as a reminder for the Israelites before they possess the land.

Relevance and Conclusion

We people who live after Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection understand the true curse and blessings of God. Before Jesus, the Israelites had no eternal hope or blessing. Their blessings were earthly – possession of the Promised Land, productive land and livestock, and provision for daily life. They could never completely erase the stain and guilt of their sins and remove the curse. Jesus broke the power of sin with His death and resurrection. He removed the stain of sin and guilt. By Jesus’ resurrection, when He rose back to life on the third day, He beat death, the eternal judgment for sin. Sin has no more power over Christians, people who accept Jesus Christ as their Savior. Jesus gives His strength to not sin because He was sinless when He lived on earth. Jesus was the perfect (shalem) cornerstone the builders rejected. The Jews refused to accept Him as the Messiah, but crucified Him instead. They did not receive the fulfillment of the hope of the Messiah because they did not accept the cornerstone for the church God built. God’s chosen people chose not to accept God’s Son, Jesus, the Messiah.

Today we have the choice of believing Jesus Christ is the Son of God, the One whom God sent to be the Savior of the world. Until we die, we have the opportunity to accept Him as our Savior. Until we choose to believe, we are dead because of our sons. Once we take our last breath, our time for deciding is finished. By not accepting Him, we have rejected Him. That means we have rejected His love, salvation, and the gift of eternal life with God in heaven. When we reject Jesus as God’s Son and our Savior, God will judge our sins and mete to us the judgment of our sin – death. Sinning against God is rebelling against Him. For that, the judgment is death – eternal death. Eternal death is eternal separation from God. Eternal death is living separate from God in hell.

Today is your chance to decide to believe Jesus Christ is the Son of God who provides salvation from your sin. Today you can have salvation and accept Jesus’ gift of salvation from sin’s death penalty. By this you will be accepted in God’s presence forever. You will live forever with God because Jesus paid with His death the price for your judgment that your sin required. He died for each of us though He was sinless. Jesus’ death paid the judgment price for everyone’s sins. When you give Him your life and accept Him as your Savior, the one who paid your sin judgment, you are saved from your sin and can live with God forever.

What will you decide today?