The Altar on Mount Ebal. Deu 27:1-26
INTRODUCTION TO THE OLD TESTAMENT
The Law Repeated for the New Generation
II. MOSES’ SECOND DISCOURSE, Deuteronomy 5-28
3. The Law to be Written on Plastered Stones; the Cursings and the Blessings, Deu_27:1-26; Deu_28:1-6
23. Where and how was the Law to be plainly written in the new land?
INTRODUCTION
This is again the Greek name for this book, and signifies the “second giving of the Law.” It contains the records of public addresses to Israel, delivered in the eleventh month of the fortieth year of their wanderings through the Wilderness. As Moses uttered them on the eve of his own speedy removal, he was able to speak with unusual emphasis and urgency. The allusions to the natural features amidst which these addresses were given are consistent with the place and speaker. It has been shown also by competent scholarship that Deuteronomy has all the peculiarities of Moses’ style; and any differences of hortatory entreaty and appeal may be accounted for by the mellowing effect of age.
The special references to this book in the New Testament are very significant. Our Lord quoted from it thrice in His Temptation, Mat_4:4; Mat_4:10. See also Rom_10:19; Act_3:22; Act_7:37. There are touches by a later writer, and an appendix, Deu_34:1-12; but the origin of the treatise as a whole must be ascribed to the great Lawgiver.
THE ALTAR ON MOUNT EBAL
Then Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep (remember, obey) all the commandments which I am commanding you today.
So it shall be on the day when you cross the Jordan to [enter] the land which the LORD your God gives you, that you shall set up for yourself large stones and coat them with plaster (lime, whitewash).
You shall write on the stones all the words of this law when you cross over, so that you may go into the land which the LORD your God gives you, a land [of plenty] flowing with milk and honey, just as the LORD, the God of your fathers has promised you.
Now when you cross the Jordan you shall set up these stones on Mount Ebal, just as I am commanding you today and coat them with plaster.
There you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones; you shall not use an iron tool on them.
You shall build the altar of the LORD your God with whole [uncut] stones, and offer burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God;
and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and shall eat there, and shall rejoice before the LORD your God.
And you shall write very clearly on the stones all the words of this law.”
CURSES FROM MOUNT EBAL
Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, “Be silent and listen, O Israel! This day you have become a people for the LORD your God.
So you shall obey the voice of the LORD your God, and do His commandments and statutes which I am commanding you today.”
Moses also commanded the people that day, saying,
“These [tribes] shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people when you have crossed the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.
These [tribes] shall stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce the curse [for disobedience]: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.
The Levites shall answer with a loud voice to all the men of Israel:
‘Cursed is the man who makes a carved or cast image (idol), a repulsive thing to the LORD, the work of the hands of the artisan, and sets it up in secret.’ All the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’
‘Cursed is he who dishonors (treats with contempt) his father or his mother.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
‘Cursed is he who moves his neighbor’s boundary mark.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
‘Cursed is he who misleads a blind person on the road.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
‘Cursed is he who distorts (perverts) the justice due to a stranger, an orphan, and a widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
‘Cursed is he who is intimate with his father’s [former] wife, because he has violated what belongs to his father.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
‘Cursed is he who is intimate with any animal.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
‘Cursed is he who is intimate with his [half] sister, whether his father’s or his mother’s daughter.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
‘Cursed is he who is intimate with his mother-in-law.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
‘Cursed is he who strikes his neighbor in secret.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
‘Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to strike down an innocent person.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
‘Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them [keeping them, taking them to heart as the rule of his life].’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’
Comments by
F.B.Meyer
On
Deuteronomy 27:1-26
CURSES UPON EVILDOERS
Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal were two masses of limestone rock, reaching 2700 and 2000 feet above the sea-level. Between them lay a beautiful valley, about 300 yards wide. At the foot and on the lower slopes of Gerizim stood the descendants of Rachel and Leah; on those of Ebal, the descendants of Zilpah and Bilhah, together with Zebulun and with Reuben, who had forfeited the rights of the first-born. The priests and the Levites, grouped beside the Ark in the valley, uttered both the benedictions and the solemn denunciations of the Law, each item eliciting the responsive “Amens.”
Notice the sensitiveness of the divine Spirit! To make a blind man wander out of his way and to wrest the judgment of the fatherless, was held to be as reprehensible as to commit those terrible breaches of the law of purity. Nothing in life is insignificant or trivial when weighed in the balance of eternal justice. We can only rejoice when we realize that we are accepted in the Beloved, and that He has stood for us, Rom_3:20; Rom_5:1-3; Rom_5:9.
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