{"id":5595,"date":"2022-09-24T01:13:18","date_gmt":"2022-09-24T06:13:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/exegetical-and-hermeneutical-commentary-of-deuteronomy-271\/"},"modified":"2022-09-24T01:13:18","modified_gmt":"2022-09-24T06:13:18","slug":"exegetical-and-hermeneutical-commentary-of-deuteronomy-271","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/exegetical-and-hermeneutical-commentary-of-deuteronomy-271\/","title":{"rendered":"Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 27:1"},"content":{"rendered":"

And Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you this day. <\/i><\/b><\/h3>\n

1<\/strong>. Note the re-appearance of the narrative form.<\/p>\n

And Moses and the elders commanded the people<\/em> ] The association of the elders with Moses in giving this charge is singular, especially in view of the following, ‘which I command you<\/em>.’ The LXX (except in a few cursive MSS) omits the people<\/em>. Therefore some read, And Moses commanded the elders<\/em>. More probably we have here the fusion of the introductions to the two different forms of the law, Moses commanded the elders<\/em> and Moses commanded the people<\/em> (so also Marti; cp. Berth.).<\/p>\n

Keep all the commandment<\/em>, etc.] Heb. Miwah<\/em> viii. 1; cp. Deu 5:12<\/span> ( observe<\/em>), 31, Deu 6:1<\/span>. In Sam., LXX keep<\/em> is PL.<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

1 8. Erection of Stones for the Inscription of the Law, and of an Altar<\/p>\n

Moses and the elders charged the people to keep the commandment (1); when they cross Jordan they shall set up stones and, whitening them, shall thereon write the Law (Torah) (2 f.); they shall do this on Mt ‘Ebal (4), and build an altar (of the form enjoined in E, Exo 20:24<\/span> f.) for burnt and peace offerings, eating and rejoicing before God (5 7), and writing on the stones very plainly (8). The passage is a compilation from different sources.<\/p>\n

First<\/em>, in Deu 27:2-4<\/em><\/span> ; Deu 27:8<\/em><\/span><\/em>, Deu 27:2<\/em><\/span> f. and Deu 27:4<\/em><\/span> ; Deu 27:8<\/em><\/span><\/em> are doublets (cp. Dillm., Westphal, Berth., Marti). With deuteron. phrases both command the same thing, the erection of stones to bear on a white surface an inscription of the Law; but the former prescribes this to be done immediately ( Deu 27:3<\/em><\/span>) on the crossing of the Jordan, the latter on Mt ‘Ebal. Here, then, is another indication of more than one edition of the Code with different supplements. Deu 27:1<\/em><\/span> fuses the introductions to these two supplements: Moses charged the elders<\/em>, and Moses charged the people<\/em> (see below). Second<\/em>, in Deu 27:5-7<\/em><\/span> the command to build an altar on ‘Ebal seems inconsistent with D’s law of the One Altar, and therefore it is usually taken as the revision by a deuteronomic editor (note the phrases in 7 b<\/em>) of a command in E (see the small print above on chs. 27 30). This only mitigates the difficulty, if Deu 27:5-7<\/em><\/span> be really inconsistent with ch. 12. Yet, whoever placed 5 7 here, must have felt no inconsistency; probably because he argued that at the time fixed for the erection of an altar on ‘Ebal Israel would not have gotten that rest from all their enemies round about<\/em>, which D fixes as the date after which the law of the One Altar was to come into operation (Deu 12:10<\/span>). Because the text is uncertain and the passage has been touched by more editors than one, we can infer nothing from the changes between the Sg. and Pl. forms of address in this passage.<\/p>\n

Steuern. offers with reserve the following analysis. ‘The Editor appears first to have expanded Deu 27:5-7<\/em><\/span> [a fragment older than D] with 2 b<\/em>, 3 a<\/em> and thereby identified the altar-stones with the stones on which the law was written, as in Jos 8:30<\/span> ff.; hence he also repeated 3 a<\/em> in Deu 27:8<\/em><\/span>. Another has further identified these stones with those Deu 27:2<\/em><\/span> a<\/em> and so added besides Deu 27:1-2<\/em><\/span> a<\/em> , 4 a<\/em>.’<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Moses in a third discourse Deut. 2730, proceeds more specifically to dwell upon the sanctions of the Law. In these chapters he sets before Israel in striking and elaborate detail the blessings which would ensue upon faithfulness to the covenant, and the curses which disobedience would involve. Deut. 27<\/span> introduces this portion of the book by enjoining the erection of a stone monument on which the Law should be inscribed as soon as the people took possession of the promised inheritance Deu 27:1-10<\/span>; and by next prescribing the liturgical form after which the blessings and cursings should be pronounced Deut. 27:11-26<\/span>.<\/P> <\/p>\n

Fuente: Albert Barnes’ Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

CHAPTER XXVII <\/P>

Moses commands the people to write the law upon stones, when<\/I><\/P>

they shall come to the promised land<\/I>, 1-3.<\/P>

And to set up these stones on Mount<\/I> Ebal, 4;<\/P>

and to build an altar of unhewn stones, and to offer on it<\/I><\/P>

burnt-offerings and peace-offerings<\/I>, 5-7.<\/P>

The words to be written plainly, and the people to be exhorted<\/I><\/P>

to obedience<\/I>, 8-10.<\/P>

The six tribes which should stand on Mount<\/I> Gerizim to bless the<\/I><\/P>

people<\/I>, 11, 12.<\/P>

Those who are to stand upon Mount<\/I> Ebal to curse the<\/I><\/P>

transgressors<\/I>, 13.<\/P>

The different transgressors against whom the curses are to be<\/I><\/P>

denounced<\/I>, 14-26. <\/P>

NOTES ON CHAP. XXVII<\/P><\/p>\n

Fuente: Adam Clarke’s Commentary and Critical Notes on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

And Moses, with the elders of Israel, commanded the people<\/strong>,<\/p>\n

saying<\/strong>,…. The seventy elders, at the head of whom was Moses, which made the great sanhedrim, or council of the nation; Moses having recited all the laws of God to the people, these joined with him in an exhortation to them to observe and obey them:<\/p>\n

keep all the commandments which I command you this day<\/strong>; not in his own name, as being the supreme legislator, but in the name of the Lord, whom they had avouched to be their God and King, from whom he had received them.<\/p>\n

Fuente: John Gill’s Exposition of the Entire Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

The command in Deu 27:1<\/span> to keep the whole law ( , inf. abs<\/em>. for the imperative, as in Exo 13:3<\/span>, etc.), with which the instructions that follow are introduced, indicates at the very outset the purpose for which the law written upon stones was to be set up in Canaan, namely, as a public testimony that the Israelites who were entering into Canaan possessed in the law their rule and source of life. The command itself is given by Moses, together with the elders, because the latter had to see to the execution of it after Moses’ death; on the other hand, the priests are mentioned along with Moses in Deu 27:9<\/span>, because it was their special duty to superintend the fulfilment of the commands of God.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:1-3<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong> Deu 27:2<\/span> and Deu 27:3<\/span> contain the general instructions; Deu 27:4-8<\/span>, more minute details. In the appointment of the time, “ on the day when ye shall pass over Jordan into the land<\/em>,” etc., the word “ day<\/em> ” must not be pressed, but is to be understood in a broader sense, as signifying the time when Israel should have entered the land and taken possession of it. The stones to be set up were to be covered with lime, or gypsum (whether sid<\/em> signifies lime or gypsum cannot be determined), and all the words of the law were to be written upon them. The writing, therefore, was not to be cut into the stones and then covered with lime (as J. D. Mich., Ros<\/em>.), but to be inscribed upon the plaistered stones, as was the custom in Egypt, where the walls of buildings, and even monumental stones, which they were about to paint with figures and hieroglyphics, were first of all covered with a coating of lime or gypsum, and then the figures painted upon this (see the testimonies of Minutoli, Heeren, Prokesch<\/em> in Hengstenberg’s Dissertations<\/em>, i. 433, and Egypt and the Books of Moses<\/em>, p. 90). The object of this writing was not to hand down the law in this manner to posterity without alteration, but, as has already been stated, simply to set forth a public acknowledgement of the law on the part of the people, first of all for the sake of the generation which took possession of the land, and for posterity, only so far as this act was recorded in the book of Joshua and thus transmitted to future generations.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:3<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong> Upon the stones there were to be written “ all the words of this law:<\/em> ” obviously, therefore, not only the blessings and curses in Deu 27:15-26<\/span> (as Josephus, Ant.<\/em> iv. 8, 44, Masius, Clericus, and others maintain), nor only Deuteronomy ( J. Gerhard, A. Osiander, Vater,<\/em> etc.), since this contained no independent “second law,” but the whole of the Mosaic law; not, indeed, the entire Pentateuch, with its historical narratives, its geographical, ethnographical, and other notices, but simply the legal part of it – the commandments, statutes, and rights of the Thorah<\/em>. But whether all the 613 commandments contained in the Pentateuch, according to the Jewish reckoning (vid., Bertheau, die 7 Gruppen Mos.<\/em> Ges.<\/em> p. 12), or only the quintessence of them, with the omission of the numerous repetitions of different commands, cannot be decided, and is of no importance to the matter in hand. The object aimed at would be attained by writing the essential kernel of the whole law; though the possibility of all the commandments being written, of course without the reasons and exhortations connected with them, cannot be denied, since it is not stated how many stones were set up, but simply that large stones were to be taken, which would therefore contain a great deal. In the clause, “ that thou mayest come into the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee<\/em>,” etc., the coming involves the permanent possession of the land. Not only the treading or conquest of Canaan, but the maintenance of the conquered land as a permanent hereditary possession, was promised to Israel; but it would only permanently rejoice in the fulfilment of this promise, if it set up the law of its God in the land, and observed it.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:4-8<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong> In the further expansion of this command, Moses first of all fixes the place where the stones were to be set up, namely, upon Mount Ebal (see at Deu 11:29<\/span>), – not upon Gerizim, according to the reading of the Samaritan Pentateuch; for since the discussion of the question by Verschuir<\/em> ( dissertt. phil. exeg. diss.<\/em> 3) and Gesenius<\/em> ( de Pent. Samar. <\/em> p. 61), it may be regarded as an established fact, that this reading is an arbitrary alteration. The following clause, “ thou shalt plaister<\/em>,” etc., is a repetition in the earliest form of historical writing among the Hebrews. To this there are appended in Deu 27:5-7<\/span> the new and further instructions, that an altar was to be built upon Ebal, and burnt-offerings and slain-offerings to be sacrificed upon it. The notion that this altar was to be built of the stones with the law written upon them, or even with a portion of them, needs no refutation, as it has not the slightest support in the words of the text. For according to these the altar was to be built of unhewn stones (therefore not of the stones covered with cement), in obedience to the law in Exo 20:22<\/span> (see the exposition of this passage, where the reason for this is discussed). The spot selected for the setting up of the stones with the law written upon it, as well as for the altar and the offering of sacrifice, was Ebal, the mountain upon which the curses were to be proclaimed; not Gerizim, which was appointed for the publication of the blessings, for the very same reason for which only the curses to be proclaimed are given in Deu 27:14<\/span>. and not the blessings, – not, as Schultz<\/em> supposes, because the law in connection with the curse speaks more forcibly to sinful man than in connection with the blessing, or because the curse, which manifests itself on every hand in human life, sounds more credible than the promise; but, as the Berleburger Bible<\/em> expresses it, “to show how the law and economy of the Old Testament would denounce the curse which rests upon the whole human race because of sin, to awaken a desire for the Messiah, who was to take away the curse and bring the true blessing instead.” For however remote the allusion to the Messiah may be here, the truth is unquestionably pointed out in these instructions, that the law primarily and chiefly brings a curse upon man because of the sinfulness of his nature, as Moses himself announces to the people in Deu 31:16-17<\/span>. And for this very reason the book of the law was to be laid by the side of the ark of the covenant as a “testimony against Israel” (Deu 31:26<\/span>). But the altar was built for the offering of sacrifices, to mould and consecrate the setting up of the law upon the stones into a renewal of the covenant. In the burnt-offerings Israel gave itself up to the Lord with all its life and labour, and in the sacrificial meal it entered into the enjoyment of the blessings of divine grace, to taste of the blessedness of vital communion with its God. By connecting the sacrificial ceremony with the setting up of the law, Israel gave a practical testimony to the fact that its life and blessedness were founded upon its observance of the law. The sacrifices and the sacrificial meal have the same signification here as at the conclusion of the covenant at Sinai (Exo 24:11<\/span>). – In Deu 27:8<\/span> the writing of the law upon the stones is commanded once more, and the further injunction is added, “ very<\/em> plainly<\/em>.” – The writing of the law is mentioned last, as being the most important, and not because it was to take place after the sacrificial ceremony. The different instructions are arranged according to their character, and not in chronological order.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:9-10<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong> The words of Moses which follow in Deu 27:9<\/span> and Deu 27:10<\/span>, “ Be silent, and hearken, O Israel; To-day thou hast become the people of the Lord thy God<\/em>,” show the significance of the act enjoined; although primarily they simply summon the Israelites to listen attentively to the still further commands. When Israel renewed the covenant with the Lord, by solemnly setting up the law in Canaan, it became thereby the nation of God, and bound itself, at the same time, to hearken to the voice of the Lord and keep His commandments, as it had already done (cf. Deu 26:17-18<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Fuente: Keil & Delitzsch Commentary on the Old Testament<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

The Exhibition of the Law.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/I><\/span><\/P> <\/TD>

B. C.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN> 1451.<\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/P> <\/TD> <\/TR> <\/TABLE>

      1 And Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you this day.   2 And it shall be on the day when ye shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the LORD<\/B> thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaster them with plaster:   3 And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the LORD<\/B> thy God giveth thee, a land that floweth with milk and honey; as the LORD<\/B> God of thy fathers hath promised thee.   4 Therefore it shall be when ye be gone over Jordan, that<\/I> ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in mount Ebal, and thou shalt plaster them with plaster.   5 And there shalt thou build an altar unto the LORD<\/B> thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt not lift up any<\/I> iron tool<\/I> upon them.   6 Thou shalt build the altar of the LORD<\/B> thy God of whole stones: and thou shalt offer burnt offerings thereon unto the LORD<\/B> thy God:   7 And thou shalt offer peace offerings, and shalt eat there, and rejoice before the LORD<\/B> thy God.   8 And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly.   9 And Moses and the priests the Levites spake unto all Israel, saying, Take heed, and hearken, O Israel; this day thou art become the people of the LORD<\/B> thy God.   10 Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the LORD<\/B> thy God, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day.<\/P>

      Here is, I. A general charge to the people to keep God’s commandments; for in vain did they know them, unless they would do them. This is pressed upon them, 1. With all authority. Moses with the elders of Israel,<\/I> the rulers of each tribe (v.<\/I><\/span> 1<\/span>), and again, Moses and the priests the Levites<\/I> (v.<\/I><\/span> 9<\/span>); so that the charge is given by Moses who was king in Jeshurun, and by their lords, both spiritual and temporal, in concurrence with him. Lest they should think that it was Moses only, an old and dying man, that made such ado about religion, or the priests and Levites only, whose trade it was to attend religion and who had their maintenance out of it, the elders of Israel, whom God had placed in honour and power over them, and who were men of business in the world and likely to be so long so when Moses was gone, they<\/I> commanded their people to keep God’s law.<\/I> Moses, having put some of his honour upon them, joins them in commission with himself, in giving this charge, as Paul sometimes in his epistles joins with himself Silvanus and Timotheus. Note, All that have any interest in others, or power over them, should use it for the support and furtherance of religion among them. Though the supreme power of a nation provide ever so good laws for this purpose, if inferior magistrates in their places, and ministers in theirs, and masters of families in theirs, do not execute their offices, it will all be to little effect. 2. With all importunity. They press it upon them with the utmost earnestness (v.<\/I><\/span> 9, 10<\/span>): Take heed and hearken, O Israel.<\/I> It is a thing that requires and deserves the highest degree of caution and attention. They tell them of their privilege and honour: “This day thou hast become the people of the Lord thy God,<\/I> the Lord having avouched thee to be his own, and being now about to put thee in possession of Canaan which he had long promised as thy God<\/I> (Gen 17:7<\/span>; Gen 17:8<\/span>), and which if he had failed to do in due time, he would have been ashamed to be called thy God, Heb. xi. 16<\/span>. Now thou art more than ever his people, therefore obey his voice.<\/I>” Privileges should be improved as engagements to duty. Should not a people be ruled by their God?<\/P>

      II. A particular direction to them with great solemnity to register the words of this law,<\/I> as soon as they came into Canaan. It was to be done but once, and at their entrance into the land of promise, in token of their taking possession of it under the several provisos and conditions contained in this law. There was a solemn ratification of the covenant between God and Israel at Mount Sinai, when an altar was erected, with twelve pillars, and the book of the covenant was produced, Exod. xxiv. 4<\/span>. That which is here appointed is a somewhat similar solemnity.<\/P>

      1. They must set up a monument on which they must write the words of this law.<\/I> (1.) The monument itself was to be very mean, only rough unhewn stone plastered over; not polished marble or alabaster, nor brass tables, but common plaster upon stone, v.<\/I><\/span> 2<\/span>. The command is repeated (v.<\/I><\/span> 4<\/span>), and orders are given that it be written, not very finely, to be admired by the curious, but very plainly, that he who runs may read it, Hab. ii. 2<\/span>. The word of God needs not to be set off by the art of man, nor embellished with the enticing words of man’s wisdom.<\/I> But, (2.) The inscription was to be very great: All the words of this law,<\/I> v.<\/span> 3<\/span><\/U><\/I><\/span>, and again, v.<\/I><\/span> 8<\/span>. Some understand it only of the covenant between God and Israel, mentioned Deu 26:17<\/span>; Deu 26:18<\/span>. Let this help be set up for a witness, like that memorial of the covenant between Laban and Jacob, which was nothing but a heap of stones thrown hastily together, upon which they did eat together in token of friendship (Gen 31:46<\/span>; Gen 31:47<\/span>), and that stone which Joshua set up, Josh. xxiv. 26<\/span>. Others think that the curses of the covenant in this chapter were written upon this monument, the rather because it was set up in Mount Ebal, v.<\/I><\/span> 4<\/span>. Others think that the whole book of Deuteronomy was written upon this monument, or at least the statutes and judgments from ch.<\/I><\/span> xii. to the end of <\/span>ch.<\/I><\/span> xxvi.<\/span> And it is not improbable that the heap might be so large as, taking in all the sides of it, to contain so copious an inscription, unless we will suppose (as some do) that the ten commandments only were here written, as an authentic copy of the close rolls which were laid up in the ark. They must write this when they had gone into Canaan, and yet Moses says (v.<\/I><\/span> 3<\/span>), “Write it that thou mayest go in,<\/I>” that is, “that thou mayest go in with comfort, and assurance of success and settlement, otherwise it were well for thee not to go in at all. Write it as the conditions of thy entry, and own that thou comest in upon these terms and no other: since Canaan is given by promise, it must beheld by obedience.”<\/P>

      2. They must also set up an altar. By the words of the law which were written upon the plaster, God spoke to them;<\/I> by the altar, and the sacrifices offered upon it, they spoke to God; and thus was communion kept up between them and God. The word and prayer must go together. Though they might not, of their own heads, set up any altar besides that at the tabernacle, yet, but the appointment of God, they might upon a special occasion. Elijah built a temporary altar of twelve unhewn stones, similar to this, when he brought Israel back to the covenant which was now made, 1Ki 18:31<\/span>; 1Ki 18:32<\/span>. Now, (1.) This altar must be made of such stones as they found ready upon the field, not newly cut out of the rock, much less squared artificially: Thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them,<\/I> v.<\/span> 5<\/span><\/U><\/I><\/span>. Christ, our altar, is a stone cut out of the mountain without hands<\/I> (Dan 2:34<\/span>; Dan 2:35<\/span>), and therefore refused by the builders,<\/I> as having no form or comeliness, but accepted of God the Father, and made the head of the corner. (2.) Burnt-offerings and peace-offerings must be offered upon this altar (Deu 27:6<\/span>; Deu 27:7<\/span>), that by them they might give glory to God and obtain favour. Where the law was written, an altar was set up close by it, to signify that we could not look with any comfort upon the law, being conscious to ourselves of the violation of it, if it were not for the great sacrifice by which atonement is made for sin; and the altar was set up on Mount Ebal, the mount on which those tribes stood that said Amen<\/I> to the curses, to intimate that through Christ we are redeemed from the curse of the law.<\/I> In the Old Testament the words of the law are written, with the curse annexed, which would fill us with horror and amazement if we had not in the New Testament (which is bound up with it) an altar erected close by it, which gives us everlasting consolation. (3.) They must eat there, and rejoice before the Lord their God,<\/I> v.<\/span> 7<\/span><\/U><\/I><\/span>. This signified, [1.] The consent they gave to the covenant; for the parties to a covenant ratified the covenant by feasting together. They were partakers of the altar, which was God’s table, as his servants and tenants, and such they acknowledged themselves, and, being put in possession of this good land, bound themselves to pay the rent and to do the services reserved by the royal grant. [2.] The comfort they took in the covenant; they had reason to rejoice in the law, when they had an altar, a remedial law, so near it. It was a great favour to them, and a token for good, that God gave them his statutes;<\/I> and that they were owned as the people of God, and the children of the promise,<\/I> was what they had reason to rejoice in, though, when this solemnity was to be performed, they were not put in full possession of Canaan; but God has spoken in his holiness,<\/I> and then I will rejoice, Gilead is mine, Manasseh is mine;<\/I> all my own.<\/P> <\/p>\n

Fuente: Matthew Henry’s Whole Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

DEUTERONOMY – CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN<\/strong><\/p>\n

Verses 1-8:<\/strong><\/p>\n

Moses and the elders of Israel gave instructions for a means by which all the people could be familiar with the Law which God gave from Sinai. This was a means commonly practiced in ancient times.<\/p>\n

They were to erect pillars made of “great stones,” and cover these pillars with plaster, sid, made of lime or gypsum. This coating provided a smooth, white surface upon which the words of the Law could be written. Specimens of such writing are extant today, which are as distinct and legible as when first written, two thousand years ago (Thomson, `Land and the Book’).<\/p>\n

These pillars were to be erected on Mount Ebal. Compare this text with Jos 8:30-32<\/span>.<\/p>\n

In addition to the pillars, an altar was to be erected, made of whole or uncut stones, see Exo 20:25<\/span>. The altar was to be on Mount Ebal, likely in close proximity to the pillars.<\/p>\n

Israel was to offer on this altar sacrifices of burnt offerings (Le ch. 1) and peace offerings (Le ch. 3), in the same manner as they had done following the giving of the Law on Mount Sinai, Exo 24:3-5<\/span>.<\/p>\n

The entire Law was to be written upon the plastered pillars, “very plainly,” so there could be no misunderstanding, and so that all would be without excuse to know what God required. <\/p>\n

Compare this text with Rom 1:18-20<\/span>; Rom 2:12-16<\/span>.<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

Fuente: Garner-Howes Baptist Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

1. And Moses, with the elders. This precept is of the same character as those that have preceded it; for, as God would have His precepts written on the door-posts, and on the borders of their garments, so that they might constantly meet their eyes, so also would He have a monument existing at the very entrance of their land, from which the people might learn that they dwelt in it, in order that they might worship God purely. Wherefore, lest by the people’s carelessness the knowledge of the Law should be obscured, or in any way obliterated, God would have its sum inscribed in a conspicuous place. Hence may be gathered the similarity I have adverted to between the private houses of individuals and the whole land. When the precepts were written on the doors, every one was admonished that his house was sacred to God, and the same was the case with the whole land, so that whosoever entered it might know that it was, as it were, the sanctuary of heavenly doctrine, and thus their zeal might be stirred up to the pure worship of God. The object of the plain and distinct writing of the Scripture, referred to in verse 8, was to take away (the excuse of (237)) ignorance. <\/p>\n

(237) Added from the French. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Calvin’s Complete Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

THE RELATION OF CONDUCT TO CONSEQUENCES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deu 27:1<\/strong><\/span> to Deu 34:12<\/strong><\/span><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

An earnest study of these reveals: Blessing is a fruit of obedience; and curses are a consequence of disobedience. It was said to Israel,<\/p>\n

If thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe and to do all His commandments which I command thee this day, that the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth:<\/em><\/p>\n

And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God (Deu 28:1-2<\/em><\/span>, f).<\/em><\/p>\n

Blessings in the city, blessings in the field (Deu 28:3<\/em><\/span><\/em>), <\/em>blessings on the fruit of the ground (Deu 28:4<\/em><\/span><\/em>),<\/em> triumph over enemies (Deu 28:7<\/em><\/span><\/em>),<\/em> richness in store-house (Deu 28:8<\/em><\/span><\/em>), <\/em>a great and good name (Deu 28:10<\/em><\/span><\/em>),<\/em> multiplied children (Deu 28:11<\/em><\/span><\/em>),<\/em> treasures from Heaven (Deu 28:12<\/em><\/span><\/em>),<\/em> their eventual supremacy (Deu 28:12<\/em><\/span><\/em>),<\/em> the head and not the tail, from above and not beneath (Deu 28:13<\/em><\/span><\/em>)all conditioned upon their keeping the law (Deu 28:14<\/em><\/span><\/em>).<\/em><\/p>\n

Who would change it now? Who would dare to have blessings apart from obedience? Who would dare to divorce the one from the other and face the consequences? Men have always shown a disposition to obey their fellows and an almost equal disposition to forget God. The monk or the nunhow they yield to the Abbot or the Abbess; the Sister to the Mother Superior; the Papal churchwhat obedience to the Pope! Paganismwhat abject slavery to high potentates! But for Israeltype of the Christian it is theirs to obey God<\/strong>, and if conflict arises, then in the language of Peter, to obey God rather than men (Act 5:29<\/em><\/span><\/em>).<\/em><\/p>\n

One is compelled to recognize the fact that Modernism has so far discredited the personality of God, the Deity of Christ, and the authority of the Scriptures, that mens convictions no longer know a keen edge, and the Scripture commands no longer bind conscience, and the thus saith the Lord<\/em> no longer settles subjects of controversy.<\/p>\n

The Modernist argues against all external authority and has not only increased the waters of infidelity, but he has pushed back the floodgates of lawlessness and deluged the world.<\/p>\n

If there were no other reason for studying the Book of Deuteronomy, the repeated ringing call to men for obedience to the Divine Law is both a defense and justification of the same.<\/p>\n

As one moves on in its study he encounters the Palestinian covenant<\/strong> (Deu 29:1<\/em><\/span><\/em>, f).<\/em> That it is a Covenant in addition to the one made with them in Horeb, is perfectly clear, in fact, so clear that all debate about that subject is strained and needless. The former Covenant rested in right, tempered with mercy, and enriched by grace. This covenant explains itself in the light of experience; and while enunciating stringent conditions of blessing and strict rules of conduct, its promises are rich and lift to a higher spiritual level than the Horeb covenant. Circumcision of the flesh is changed now to the circumcision of the heart, and the bending of the knee to the surrender of the Spirit, and the blessings of the body to the life of the soul. The great lesson that runs throughout Deuteronomy, namely, that of the relation between obedience to God and Divine benediction, is a lesson upon which no mortal tongue will ever lay undue emphasis. The evils that grow out of disregard to Gods lawsno man can imagine them! The annals of human anguish is their record.<\/p>\n

We are told that when the first cable was laid in the Atlantic, where it went down miles and miles deep, it was found to be a failure and had to be taken up, at the loss of an enormous amount of time and unthinkable expense, and it was discovered that the workmen had ignored the oft-repeated command to keep it immersed in water while working on it, and on one occasion had left it where the hot sun struck it for a few minutes and melted the gutta-percha. Years followed before it could be laid again. Friends of the enterprise were greatly discouraged. Fifty voyages were made across the Atlantic, and finally capital enough was secured to lay it the second time. Possibly through the fault of another, who had forgotten to obey when the steamer had proceeded six hundred miles to sea, the cable parted and a loss of six million dollars ensued. In July 1866, the third cable was ready and a vessel sent out on her way. This time the work was completely successful and the world applauded Field. It might have been so from the first. This loss of time, of talent, of means, might have been saved had men exactly obeyed, but even this is but a feeble type of what the world has felt in consequence of disobedience to God. Moses, then, must have brought his message from above, for only God Himself ever understood, or even now comprehends the relation of obedience to blessing, of covenant keeping to character and world consequences.<\/p>\n

But we conclude with a further lesson of the relation of conduct to consequences.<\/p>\n

The death of Moses is a fitting climax to Moses life.<\/strong> The thirty-second chapter records his swan song, and what a song it is! Volumes might be devoted to it without a waste word. Truth follows truth in an almost unlimited series of statements. When the great soul comes to his conclusion God permits his lips to pour forth blessing upon the Children of Israel before he dies. The tribes are taken in turn, and for each, blessing is announced, Reuben, Levi, Jacob, Benjamin, and so on. Moses is now to the tribes what Jacob was to his sonsa rare father yearning over them and blessing them. Happy art thou, O Israel: who is like unto thee, O<\/em> <\/strong>people saved by the Lord, the shield of thy help, and who is the sword of thy excellency! (Deu 33:29<\/em><\/span><\/em>).<\/p>\n

The concluding chapter of this Book, the thirty-fourth, records Moses death, and suggests the translation of his body. How can one speak as he ought to speak of this man when he comes to the last and hushed moment of life! Bettex writes: Forty years a prince in the palaces of Egypt; forty years a shepherd in the wild wastes of Midian; forty years in the power of God, he bears his people through the wilderness, as a mother carries her babe, and then dies on Mount Nebo, according to the Word of the Lord,<\/em> literally at the mouth of the Lord<\/em> which the rabbins interpret, by the kiss of the Lord (Deu 34:5<\/em><\/span><\/em>).<\/em> What inexpressible words this man may have heard; what heavenly mysteries and Divine visions he may have seen, when, oblivious of the world, he was with Jehovah forty days and forty nights, and ate no bread and drank no water! His countenance is radiant with it; his thundering words flash it; the song of Moses, which John hears the redeemed sing in Heaven, echoes it. And the Christian is permitted to ascend Sinai with him; to come into the presence of his God; to hear unspeakable things out of His Law, and to forget the world below, which is dancing around its golden calf.<\/p>\n

And Moses was an hundred and twenty years old when he died: his eye was not dim, nor his natural force abated. And the Children of Israel wept for Moses in the plains of Moab (Deu 34:7-8<\/em><\/span><\/em>).<\/em><\/p>\n

How simple and yet how sublime the record! It is enough! Moses tomb requires no epitaph. His name is sufficiently immortalized. Modernists will never take the coronet from Moses brow.<\/p>\n

This was the bravest warrior <\/p>\n

That ever buckled sword;<\/p>\n

This the most gifted poet <\/p>\n

That ever breathed a word:<\/p>\n

And never earthy philosopher <\/p>\n

Traced with his golden pen,<\/p>\n

On the deathless page, truths half so sage <\/p>\n

As he wrote down for men.<\/p>\n

That was the grandest funeral <\/p>\n

That ever passed on earth,<\/p>\n

But no one heard the tramping,<\/p>\n

Or saw the train go forth,<\/p>\n

None but the bald old eagle<\/p>\n

On gray Bethpeors height,<\/p>\n

Which from his rocky eyrie<\/p>\n

Looked on the wondrous sight.<\/p>\n

And had he not high honor<\/p>\n

The hillside for his pall<\/p>\n

To lie in state, while angels wait<\/p>\n

With stars for tapers tall;<\/p>\n

And the dark rock-pines, like tossing plumes,<\/p>\n

Over his bier to wave,<\/p>\n

And Gods own hand, in that lonely land,<\/p>\n

To lay him in the grave?<\/p>\n

O lonely tomb in Moabs land!<\/p>\n

O dark Bethpeors hill!<\/p>\n

Speak to these curious hearts of ours<\/p>\n

And teach them to be still!<\/p>\n

God hath His mysteries of grace,<\/p>\n

Ways that we cannot tell,<\/p>\n

He hides them deep, like the secret sleep<\/p>\n

Of him He loved so well.<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Bible of the Expositor and the Evangelist by Riley<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

CRITICAL NOTES<\/strong>.Connect this chapter with Deu. 27:16<\/span> of preceding one, where Moses concludes discourse on plains of Moab. Here he dwells on sanctions of the law and sets forth in striking detail the blessings of obedience and curses of disobedience.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:1-4<\/span><\/strong>. On the day of entrance into the land, stones must be erected and the law written on them. Elders<\/em>, rulers, and representatives of tribes, prominent, because they would require what was due after death of Moses. Great stones<\/em> fulfilled (Jos. 8:30-32<\/span>). Plaister<\/em>. Daubed with paint or white cement to make conspicuous. Writing not to be cut into stone and then covered with slime. All words<\/em>, not the Decalogue, nor the blessings and curses following, nor the Book of Deuteronomy, but all laws revealed from God by Moses, not historical, didactic and non-legislative matter in Pentateuch, but simply its legal enactments (cf. Speak. Com<\/em>.). Ebal<\/em>, the place specified for stones (Deu. 11:29<\/span>). Now Mad-el-down<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:4-8<\/span><\/strong>. More details. Altar. None used in ordinary cases except brazen one at door of tabernacle, but on this occasion they were to renew the covenant and offer sacrifices. Stones<\/em>. not covered with slime, but unhewn, according to Exo. 20:25<\/span>. Offer<\/em> burnt offerings and peace offerings, symbolic of entire dedication and enjoyment of Divine grace.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:8<\/span><\/strong>. Plainly. To read easily.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:9-10<\/span><\/strong>. Heed<\/strong>. An appeal for attention. When the covenant was renewed and law set up in Canaan, Israel bound themselves to hearken and keep the commandments.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:11-26<\/span><\/strong>. Form and manner of the solemn blessing and cursing. Tribes appointed to stand on Gerizim sprang from two wives of Jacob, Leah, and Rachel. All the four tribes located on Ebal, from handmaids Zilpah and BilhahReuben is added probably because he lost his primogeniture (Gen. 49:4<\/span>); and Zebulum, because youngest son of Leah (Speak. Com.<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:14<\/span><\/strong> Levites. Only to speak aloud, i.e.<\/em>, to pronounce the different formularies of blessing and cursing. In pronouncing benedictions they turned towards the multidude on Gerizim, from whom rolled back the Amen<\/em>. in turning to Ebal, in distinct and solemn tone they received back the same impressive Amen<\/em> in ratification of each blessing and curse.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:15-26<\/span><\/strong>. Twelve curses against transgressions of the covenant. The first eleven directed against special sins, selected by way of example; the last comprehensively sum in general terms and condemns all and every offence against Gods law.(Speak. Com.<\/em>)<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:15<\/span><\/strong>. Image<\/strong>. (cf<\/em>. 4, 16; Exo. 20:4<\/span>; Lev. 26:1<\/span>.) Secret place<\/em> set apart as a shrine. This covers private as well as public image worship.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:16<\/span><\/strong>. Light<\/strong>. Disregards, or lightly esteems parents (Exo. 21:17<\/span>; Lev. 19:3<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:17<\/span><\/strong> Landmark<\/strong>. (cf<\/em>. Deu. 19:14<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:18<\/span><\/strong> Blind<\/strong>. Lack of consideration for suffering (Lev. 19:14<\/span>). Perverteth<\/em>. taketh advantage of desolation (Exo. 22:21<\/span>; Mal. 3:5<\/span>; Psa. 68:5<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:20-23<\/span><\/strong>. (cf<\/em>. Lev. 18:23<\/span>; Lev. 20:15<\/span>.) Heinous sins springing from unlawful passions, destructive of bodily vigour and family bliss.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:24<\/span><\/strong>. Secretly<\/strong>. To kill him (Gen. 9:5<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:25<\/span><\/strong>. Reward<\/strong>. (cf<\/em>. Exo. 23:7-8<\/span>.) For this section cf<\/em>. Jos. 8:30-35<\/span>.<\/p>\n

THE MEMORIAL PILLARS.<\/strong>Deu. 27:1<\/span><\/em><\/strong>; <\/em><\/strong>Deu. 27:4<\/span><\/em><\/strong>; <\/em><\/strong>Deu. 27:9-10<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Instructions are given for setting up pillars or stones, on which the law must be written. This was a common mode of publishing edicts or laws in ancient times. The design of these pillars is significant. They assert:<\/p>\n

I. The principle on which the Land was held<\/strong>. On the day, when they had crossed Jordan, they must halt, erect great stones and remember their title deeds. The entering into the land, its conquest and permanent possession depended upon certain conditions. <\/p>\n

1. They took possession through Gods covenant<\/em>. That day they had become the people of God. He was about to give them the land which he had promised. <\/p>\n

2. They could keep possession only through obedience to that covenant<\/em>. Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the Lord (Deu. 27:10<\/span>). The law is set up, the covenant solemnly renewed, and the national policy fixed. All progress and prosperity depend upon God. Obedience to him will give access to the land with its beauties and products, access to possession and gladness. Hearkening unto his voice we succeed in all enterprises and positions. Never forget the terms on which you enter in. Everything is given in mercy and only kept by obedienceThat thou mayest go into the land.<\/p>\n

II. The Perpetuity of the Divine Law<\/strong>. Write all the words of this law. The law was unchangeable, adapted to Israel in the wilderness and in Canaan, to every nation and every age. We are apt to forget it. New conditions of life efface it from our minds. It must, therefore, be preserved and perpetuatedwritten not on pillars and parchments, but in the heart and life. Written not with ink, but with the spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy tables of the heart.<\/p>\n

III. The obligation to keep this Divine Law<\/strong>. It must ever be prominent and lifted up before us. The covenant must not simply be ratified but kept. <\/p>\n

1. This is pressed with authority<\/em> I command you. Not the mere act of Moses and the elders, but the expression of God. <\/p>\n

2. This is pressed with earnestness<\/em>. Take heed and hearken, O Israel (Deu. 27:9<\/span>.) Moses, the leader, is earnest. The priests and Levites are earnest. Feeling the obligation ourselves, we must be urgent in pressing others. Delight in Gods law and passionate concern for others should ever characterise ministers and leaders. The very name and calling impose responsibility upon Gods Israel. The Lord hath avouched thee to be his peculiar people and that thou shouldest keep all his commandments (ch. Deu. 26:18<\/span>; Exo. 19:5<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

THE STONE ALTAR.<\/strong>Deu. 27:5-7<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

An altar was set up, besides monumental stones. No tool must be used in its preparation. Burnt offerings and peace offerings were to be offered as in the covenant of Sinai, and a festive entertainment was to follow. Notice the erection and design of this altar.<\/p>\n

I. The erection of the Altar<\/strong>. Patriarchs erected an altar to express gratitude to God and confess dependence upon Him. <\/p>\n

1. The circumstances<\/em>. As soon as they entered into Canaan, the stones and altar must be fixed up. Many would counsel delay. They were in a strange place, surrounded by enemies, and must prepare for defence. God is our best defence. In every new situation, enterprise, and possession God must be first. Acknowledge Him, and He will direct thy steps. <\/p>\n

2. The material<\/em>. In rough material, without the touch of an iron tool (Deu. 27:5<\/span>). Perhaps to indicate that God requires no help from man in making atonement for sin, no art and co-operation in setting forth his claims. Decorations in worship pre-occupy the mind, and may lead to idolatry. At any rate, nature is Gods work, pure and holy. Man, by contact, may pollute it; hence the altar for expiation of sin must be free from taint and human corruption. Thou shalt not build it of hewn stone; for if thou lift up thy tool upon it, thou hast polluted it (Exo. 20:25<\/span>).<\/p>\n

II. The design of the Altar<\/strong>. Burnt offerings were expiatory, signs of dedication of life and labours. Peace offerings were expressions of gratitude for benefits received, tokens of reconciliation with God. Both were offered to mark <\/p>\n

(1) Israels gratitude for blessings of covenant relation;
(2) Israels determination to consecrate themselves wholly to Gods service (cf<\/em>. Exo. 24:5<\/span>). In the sacrificial meal they entered into blessings of divine grace and enjoyed rital communion with God. Thus were they divinely taught and solemnly pledged by this public ceremony to carry out their sacred obligations. Sin must be expiated by sacrifice before we can have access to God. But God has made provision. In faith and obedience thou shalt eat, and shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God.<\/p>\n

THE STONES AND THE ALTAR.<\/strong>Deu. 27:2-7<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

There is an intimate relation between the two, symbolic of spiritual truth<\/p>\n

I. The stones represent the demands of law<\/strong>. Stern and exalted, requiring perfect and constant obedience. Plain and adapted to man in its revelationtestifying against all disobedience. Law must existcan never be abolished nor give life. It brings curse and condemnation.<\/p>\n

II. Altar represents atonement for violations of law<\/strong>. Law has been satisfied in its demands. God has made provision for access, pardon, and peace. Without sacrifice there is no remission of sin. Law stands erect and unyielding as the pillars of stone. The altar indicates propitiation and grace. We are set free, redeemed from the curse of the law, that we may honour God in obeying it. By the stones God<\/em> speaks to us; on the altar we<\/em> sacrifice and speak to Him. Thus communion is real, vital, and complete.<\/p>\n

HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Deu. 27:2-3<\/span>; Deu. 27:8<\/span>. In these verses it appears that Israel set up a monument on which they must write the words of this law. <\/p>\n

1. The monument itself must be very mean<\/em>; only rough unhewn stones covered over; not with polished marble or alabaster, nor brass tables, but with common plaster. The word of God needs not to be set off by the art of man, nor embellished with enticing words of mans wisdom (1Co. 2:4<\/span>; Col. 2:4<\/span>). <\/p>\n

2. The inscription was to be very great<\/em>. All the words of this law. Some say the ten commandments, others the five books of Moses, but probably only an abridgment of the book of Deuteronomy or the blessings and curses here set down (cf<\/em>. Jos. 8:34<\/span>).Wilson<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:6<\/span>. Altar<\/em>. This atonement is introduced in the very midst of the moral law, that the people of Israel might be pointed forward to that great provision through which the breaches of that law might be forgiven, and in which strength might be found for obedience (Cumming<\/em>). At all events, the stony pile was so large as to contain all the conditions of the covenant, so elevated as to be visible to the whole congreations of Israel; and the religious ceremonial performed around it on the occasion was solemn and impressiveconsisting, first<\/em>, of the elementary worship needed for sinful men; and, secondly<\/em>, of the peace offerings, or lively social feasts that were suited to the happy people whose God was the Lord. There were thus the law which condemned and the typical expiationthe two great principles of revealed religion (Jamieson). Very plainly<\/em>, Deu. 27:8<\/span>. Not very finely to be admired by the curious, but very plainly that he who runs may read.Mt. Henry<\/em>.<\/p>\n

BLESSING AND CURSING.<\/strong>Deu. 27:11-14<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The curses only given, and not the blessings. For as many as were under the law, were under the curse. It was reserved for Christ to bless, to do what the law could not do.<\/p>\n

I. The special places<\/strong>. Gerizim was one pulpit and Ebal another. Their isolated position made them naturally suitable for the occasion. (cf<\/em>. Stanley<\/em>, Sinai and Palestine.) But their moral import is significant. One may suggest bondage, another freedom. Both set forth what nature may become, a blessing or a curse, according to its use. Creation is in sympathy with man, responds to his moral condition, and is wasted or blessed by his moral conduct. Things take the signature of thought.<\/p>\n

II. The appointed agencies<\/strong>. On the sides of the mountains the tribes were drawn up, six on one, and six on the other side. The priests pronounced, in loud tones, blessings and curses. On Gerizim were stationed descendants of Rachel and Leah. On Ebal the posterity of the two secondary wives of Jacob, Zilpah and Bilah, with those of Rueben, who had lost his primogeniturethe children of the bondwoman and the children of the free. (Gal. 4:23<\/span>.) The moral of the mountains is legible enough. Men, according to training, history and position, have power to do good or evil. Their ascent on the mount of wealth, learning and success, will be a source of blessing or curse to those below them. I will bless thee, and thou Shalt be a blessing. (Gen. 12:2<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

CURSES AND RESPONSES.<\/strong>Deu. 27:25-26<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Previous laws had prohibited these things, but now God openly declares a curse upon offenders.<\/p>\n

I. The curses pronounced against transgressors<\/strong>. Twelve in number answering to the twelve tribes of Israel. The first<\/em>, against those who make graven or molten images of Jehovah, and set them up in secret, that is to say, against secret breaches of the second commandment (Exo. 20:4<\/span>); the second<\/em>, against contempt of, or want of reverence towards parents (Exo. 21:17<\/span>); the third<\/em> against removing boundaries (Deu. 19:14<\/span>); the fourth<\/em>, against leading the blind astray (Lev. 19:14<\/span>); the fifth<\/em>, against perverting the right of orphans and widows (Deu. 24:17<\/span>); the sixth<\/em>, against incest with a mother (Deu. 23:1<\/span>; Lev. 18:8<\/span>); the seventh<\/em>, against unnatural vices (Lev. 18:23<\/span>); the eighth<\/em> and ninth<\/em>, against incest with a sister or mother-in-law (Lev. 18:9<\/span>; Lev. 18:17<\/span>); the tenth<\/em>, against secret murder (Exo. 20:13<\/span>; Num. 35:16<\/span>); the eleventh<\/em>, against judicial murder (Exo. 23:7-8<\/span>); the twelfth<\/em>, against the man who does not set up the words of the law to do them, who does not make it the model and standard of life and conduct. This last curse applied to every breach of law and proves that the different sins mentioned were selected by way of example and were mostly such as could be easily concealed from judicial authorities. The office of the law is shown in this last utterance, the summing up of all the rest, to have been pre-eminently to proclaim condemnation. Every conscious act of transgression subjects the sinner to the curse of God, for which none but He who has become a curse for us can possibly deliver us (Gal. 3:10-13<\/span>).Keil<\/em>.<\/p>\n

II. The curses publicly ratified by the people<\/strong>. It is easy to understand amen to blessings, but how could the people say it to curses? They felt and acknowledged the equity of them. The response was not a mere profession of faith in the truth of the curses, but an open declaration that they were just, true and certain. Their amen was the expression of deep conviction, the approval of law which brands sin with a curse. <\/p>\n

1. Scripture<\/em> says amen. <\/p>\n

2. Conscience<\/em> says amen. <\/p>\n

3. The universe<\/em> of God says amen. The righteous Lord loveth righteousness. Just and true are thy ways.<\/p>\n

HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Deu. 27:11-15<\/span>. A Wonderful Scene<\/em>. <\/p>\n

1. The locality. Describe the valley between Ebal and Gerizim (cf<\/em>. Tristam Ld. of Isa. Bonar and Stanley). <\/p>\n

2. The Actors, Priests, tribes and people distinctly, loudly and solemnly reciting their parts.
3. The audience. Their position<\/em>, sat on sides of the mountains; attention<\/em>, waiting in awful silence for the utterance. Take heed (Deu. 27:9<\/span>); response<\/em>, Amen. What a grand assembly! What a solemn purpose and how serious one consequences!<\/p>\n

All the worlds a stage,<\/p>\n

And all the men and women merely players
They have their exita and their entrances, etc.<\/p>\n

Shakespeare<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Secret Sins<\/em>.Most of the sins were secret, but are brought to light by the Omniscient Judge, and receive their just desert. <\/p>\n

1. Men outwardly moral may be addicted to secret sins.
2. God will discover these sins, pronounce sentence, execute judgment upon them. For His eyes are upon the ways of man, and He seeth all his goings. There is no darkness, nor shadow of darkness, where the workers of iniquity may hide themselves.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:15<\/span>. Amen. A little word of big meaning<\/em>. <\/p>\n

1. An acknowledgment of the supremacy of moral law. This law is a real force, above all contingency and human control. Right and wrong are eternal verities, written in the nature of things, and can never be altered. A men<\/em>, so be it. <\/p>\n

2. A confession of justice in the administration of His law. God is absolutely supreme, a law to himself. Right is not independant of his will, cannot be accomplished without his providence, what he wills must be done, because<\/em> right. Dr. Payson once asked if he saw any special reasons for some particular event, replied, No! but I am as well satisfied as if I could see a thousand. Gods will is the very perfection of reason. Amen<\/em>, so be it. <\/p>\n

3. A submission to the decisions of this law. These decisions may be opposed to our wishes and anticipations, but there is no injustice in the government of the world. Amen<\/em>, so be it. Shall even he that hateth right govern, and wilt thou condemn him that is most just? (Job. 34:17<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

IDOLATRY, OR SINS AGAINST THE SECOND COMMANDMENT.<\/strong>Deu. 27:15<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This command against image worship in public or private, sets forth:<\/p>\n

I. The Spirituality of the Divine Nature<\/strong>. The words forbid any image o Jehovah in a material form. Other nations had images, regarded them with superstitious veneration, and were influenced by seductive practice. But God will have no likeness of him, no representation, to becloud his spiritual essence or rank him with forms of matter. Images lower the conception of Deity, tend to make him the product of human thought and ingenuity, and degrade the worshippers. God is a spirit entirely separate from matter. To whom, then, will ye liken God, or what likeness will ye compare to him? (Isa. 40:18<\/span>).<\/p>\n

II. The Spirituality of Divine Worship<\/strong>. We are forbidden to worship God by graven images. <\/p>\n

1. In material forms<\/em>. This was prohibited in Rome by Numa, a Pagan prince, yet allowed by the Pope, a Christian bishop! Devotion to God must not be excited, directed and helped by pictures and crucifixessymbols which are liable to take the place of truth symbolised and lead to sensual worship. Turn ye not unto idols, nor make to yourselves molten gods. <\/p>\n

2. In fanciful forms<\/em>. Worship is often will-worship (Col. 2:23<\/span>). We fancy a God, cut and carve one like ourselves in our evil imaginations. Our worship is governed by the power of imagination, not the power of faith. We are the offspring of God, our life is the breath of the highest life, and our moral nature makes us kin with Him. We ought not to think that the godhead is like unto gold, Or silver, or stone, graven by art and mans device (Act. 17:29<\/span>).<\/p>\n

FILIAL DISHONOUR.<\/strong>Deu. 27:16<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This sin is against the fifth commandment. Obedience to God first, then respect for parental authority, which represents God.<\/p>\n

I. What these words imply<\/strong>. First, lack of true affection. Then irreverence, disobedience, and defiance. If there be no love, no right feeling, children will soon dishonour and reproach their parents. It is more than uncharitable, uncivil or unjust, to withhold from them what is due. In thee have they set light by father and mother. The instincts of nature, the demands of conscience, and the word of God, require honour to father and mother.<\/p>\n

II. What these words require<\/strong>. Gratitude for existence, sustenance, and education. Love, trust, and filial fear. Submission to rebuke, instruction, and correction. Endeavouring to be comfort and support in time of need. Never to despise and mock our parents. He that curseth father and mother, let him die the death. The poet Cowper expressed true feeling when presented by his cousin with a portrait of his mother. I had rather possess that picture than the richest jewel in the British crown; for I loved her with an affection that her death, fifty-two years since, has not in the least abated.<\/p>\n

MEN OF INJUSTICE.<\/strong>Deu. 27:17-19<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Three forms of cruelty and injustice are here given<\/p>\n

I. An unjust neighbour (<\/strong>Deu. 27:17<\/span><\/strong>)<\/strong>. Removal of landmarks a secret way of injuring a neighbour and breaking the law of lovedisregard to his will and property. An act springing from selfishness, pride, a spirit of oppression and covetousness. Disregarding the authority, and confusing the heritage God gave to families. An old form of dishonesty, robbing your neighbour to increase your own lands; tempting flocks and herds out of other folds into your own. Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set (Pro. 22:28<\/span>).<\/p>\n

II. An unjust counsellor (<\/strong>Deu. 27:18<\/span><\/strong>)<\/strong>. It is specially cruel to impose upon the ignorant and defencelessto misdirect the blind or cause them to stumble by treachery, deceit, and wrong advice. To help the deaf and blind has always been considered an act of benevolence. Job was eyes to the blind (Deu. 29:15<\/span>). Tenderness is enjoined by the apostleThat no man put a stumbling block, or occasion to fall in his brothers way (Rom. 14:13<\/span>). The deaf and blind may be unable to detect the offender and bring him to an earthly tribunal, but God hears when the human ear is deaf, and sees when the human eye is dark. Cursed be he that maketh the blind to wander.<\/p>\n

III. An unjust judge<\/strong>. Widows and orphans have lost protectors. No advantage should be taken of their poor and helpless condition. Justice should be done to the stranger<\/em>, ignorant of our laws and customsto the widow<\/em>, too poor and weak to secure legal advice. Judgment must never be perverted by bribes to judges, by sophistry of advocates, and by evidence false and manufactured. A father of the fatherless, and a judge of the widows, is God in His holy habitation (Psa. 68:5<\/span>).<\/p>\n

HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Deu. 27:15<\/span>. Images<\/em>. <\/p>\n

1. Men eject God from heart and mind.
2. Make, set up, worship and keep rivals or antagonists.
3. This command, forbidding all false gods, would bring man into right attitude with God. Craftsman<\/em>. A profession sinful, degrading and dangerous.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:16<\/span>. Setteth light<\/em>. Notice the close relation between reverence to God and reverence to parents. Cursing a parent was punished as blasphemy against God (Lev. 20:9<\/span>). Unnatural despisers of parents<\/em> in many ways; resistance to authoritycontempt of reproof, denying obligationneedless exposure to sin. Every village bears testimony to this crying sin. Solon asked why he made no law against parricides, replied that he could not conceive of anyone so impious and cruel. God knows man better. The heart is capable of wickedness beyond the imagination of the heathen sage. Cursed<\/em>. Absalom self-willed and rebellious against his father, made a reproach before the people (2Sa. 18:9-17<\/span>). Confessions on scaffold that the first step was contempt of parental authority and restraint. If not literal fulfilment, often retributive judgment late, but certain, in dis-appointed hope, poignant anguish and corrections from their own sins (Jer. 2:19<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:17<\/span>. Landmark<\/em>. <\/p>\n

1. Every man has certain rightspolitical, social and religious.
2. These rights should be respectednot to be removed. They are sacred and inalienable. We have plenty of liberty in our own sphere without encroaching upon the rights and in the boundary of others.
3. Violation of these rights, sinful and risky. Intense selfishnesssocial injusticedisregard of divine order and will bring a curse. Cursed<\/em> be he that removeth his neighbours landmark.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:17-19<\/span>. Principles of humanity<\/em>. <\/p>\n

1. Respect for rights of property (Deu. 27:17<\/span>). <\/p>\n

2. Tender regard for the unfortunate (Deu. 27:18<\/span>). <\/p>\n

3. Justice administered to the helpless (Deu. 27:19<\/span>).<\/p>\n

SINS OF UNCLEANNESS.<\/strong>Deu. 27:20-23<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Sins which spring from lust destroy the sacredness of the human body and dissolve family relationships. Learn<\/p>\n

I. That men have a tendency to commit great sins<\/strong>. Judgment is perverted, the heart alienated, and the power of evil habits drives men deeper into self-corruption. The blackest crimes have disgraced humanityincest, adultery, robbery, fratricide, and murder. Pride has been in active conflict with personal and social liberty. Covetousness has dried up the wealth of provinces and the sources of enterprise. Sensuality has wasted the strength and manhood of the people. Pleasure has mounted the throne and shame departed from the heart. Pauls terrible indictment (Rom. 1:16-32<\/span>) is not more severe than that of Tacitus and SenecaAll things are full of crimes and vices.<\/p>\n

II. That this tendency has existed in all ages<\/strong>. It is not the birth of modern civilization, but old as human nature itself. In Jewish and Gentile world, in corrupt and enlightened ages man is the same the world over. The principles that prompted to these crimes are alive and at work in every unregenerate heart in the present day. Moral corruption invariably follows religious debasement. For this cause God gave them up unto vile (shameless) affections (passions); for even their women (who lost modesty, a priceless jewel) did change the natural use into that which is against nature, &c. (Rom. 1:26-27<\/span>).<\/p>\n

III. That God seeks to preserve men from great sins<\/strong>. By His word<\/em>. with its fearful warnings, threatenings, and promises. By His spirit<\/em>. enlightening the mind, discovering dangers, renewing the disposition and destroying the tendency to evil. By His providence<\/em>, in putting barriers in the way, checks to prevent crime; and by His grace<\/em>. to form and strengthen habits and efforts the very opposite. Sins of the deepest stain, and the most inveterate strength may be overcome. My grace is sufficient for thee. The blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin.<\/p>\n

MURDER.<\/strong>Deu. 27:24-25<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Two kinds of murder are here mentioned, secret murder and judicial or murder under colour of law.<\/p>\n

I. Murder is an offence to God<\/strong>. It may be secret and undiscovered, but the curse of God rests upon it. If bribed or hired to convict and condemn the innocent; then it makes the ordinance of God to patronise villany and shame (1Ti. 1:9<\/span>.) Man is made in the image of God. Not simply life, but the man himself<\/em> is sacred and divinely guarded. To destroy the work is to dishonour the workman. Thou shalt not kill.<\/p>\n

II. Murder is an injury to society<\/strong>. Men owe duties to one another as well as to God. Respect for life is one of the first duties. Murder destroys the security of life, defeats the primary object of human government, brings disgrace to the murderer and entails suffering upon the murdered and his relations. Society is outraged by the crime, and its welfare demands the punishment of the criminal. He that killeth any man shall surely be put to death.<\/p>\n

THE DEMANDS OF GODS LAW.<\/strong>Deu. 27:26<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In general terms this verse sums up all offences against the law. In itself and in its connection it is instructive, not subordinate truth, ornamental and non-essential. Reference is made to it in the New Testament, as a vital fundamental truth, lying at the roots of the Gospel, and setting forth the permanency of moral obligation.<\/p>\n

I. Gods Law is the standard of duty<\/strong>. It legislates for individuals and nations in all relations of life; it comprehends every duty, and touches every act. I. Divine in origin<\/em>. Not of human invention. No mere conventional rules made by civil governors, by priestcraft, and by philosophers. Not as the edict of a master mind did Moses publish the law, but as the distinct utterance of God<\/em> Himself. The Lord<\/em> talked with them from the heavens, and God<\/em> spake all the words of this law. <\/p>\n

2. Spiritual in nature<\/em>. The law is spiritual, originating from the spirit of God and appealing to the spirit of man. It relates not merely to outward acts, to parental discipline, social custom, and civil government, but to the thoughts and intents of the heart. It demands right feelings and right thoughts. Christ tells us that it is heart-life which determines our guilt or innocence in the sight of God (Mat. 5:21<\/span>; Mat. 5:28<\/span>). <\/p>\n

3. Clear in its demands<\/em>. Spoken distinctly, and appealing to the senses at Sinai (Exo. 19:16<\/span>). Written plainly on the pillars (Deu. 27:8<\/span>), and now printed for us. We cannot plead ignorance nor mistake; we cannot con plain of uncertainty and want of light to guide us in worship and the discharge of duty. The law is high as the summit, loud as the thunders, and bright as the flames of the mount on which it was given. It is holy, just, and true.<\/p>\n

II. Obedience to Gods Law must be perfect<\/strong>. It requires us not only to abstain from wrong, but to do that which is right. <\/p>\n

1. Perfect in extent<\/em>. All the words of this law. There must be no choice, no omission, no extenuation. Actual breach of one involves neglect and contempt of all. For whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point<\/em> (one commandment), he is guilty of all, i.e.<\/em>, becomes liable to condemnation under indictment which includes all particular commandments of the law (Jas. 1:10<\/span>.) <\/p>\n

2. Perfect in duration<\/em>. There must be a confirmation, a continuation<\/em> in every act of life. For under the covenant of works to break down only one moment, even the last, is to be lost. Obey my voice and do them, according to that which I command you: so shall ye be my people, and I will be your God (Jer. 11:4<\/span>).<\/p>\n

III. Imperfect obedience to Gods law will bring a curse<\/strong>. Who has given or can give perfect<\/em> obedience in every thought, word and deed? The blot of a single sin on a character pure as that of an angel would seal our doom. Do and live is the voice of law, but the soul that sinneth shall die. No middle sentence between these two and not a whisper of mercy. Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them. Every mouth is stopped before God. All are guilty and exposed. We must either continue in misery, bear the curse, or appeal from law to gospel. It is terrible to be cursed by men, but to be cursed by God, who never errs in judgment, nor ceases to warnwhat must this be! But Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. There is no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus.<\/p>\n

HOMILETIC HINTS AND SUGGESTIONS<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Deu. 27:19<\/span>. <\/p>\n

1. A dependent class, objects of pity. The stranger, fatherless, and widow.
2. Advantage is often taken of this class. This law is repeated, indicating strong inclination among the Hebrews to ill use strangers, and anxious desire in the legislator to check it. The same tendency discovered in modern days.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:20<\/span> to Deu. 23:1<\/span>. Abominable crimes<\/em>. Common in Canaan and Egypt, to the last degree of unnatural mixture. Condition of Sodom, and passages in Pauline epistles, confirm the corruptions of the heathen world. <\/p>\n

2. Awful consequences if not checked<\/em>. (a<\/em>) Men demoralised by lust and bestiality. (b<\/em>) Laws of consanguinity violated by illicit intercourse and incestuous marriage. (c<\/em>) Social retribution follows. Land unproductive by sloth, luxury and effeminacy of the people. The country an easy prey to the foreigner (Persia, Turkey). (d<\/em>) The anger of God displayed. God curses such crimes by nature, providence, and conscience.<\/p>\n

Many a crime deemd innocent on earth
Is registered in heavn, and these, no doubt, with a curse annexd.
Man may dismiss compassion from his heart,
But God will never.<\/p>\n

Cowper<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:26<\/span>. From this we see that every precept of the holy law is equally obligatory, and that he that is guilty of a breach of one is guilty, not merely of breaking an individual law, but of insurrection and rebellion against the Great Author and Inspirer of the lawthe Lord God of Israel. We thus learn that the breach of one precept is regarded by God as an impeachment of His jurisdiction and authority as King and Lord. View sin then not lightly, not as a mere breach of an isolated law, but as insurrection against the Great Law giver himself. This truth also disposes of the principle of the Pharisee, that excessive and scrupulous attention to one law was an atonement for daily disobedience to another. The more we study the law, the more searching, inquisitive and comprehensive we find it. What a solemn truth, that all born into the world are born in the eclipse, by nature under the curse. By deeds of law no flesh shall be justified. If you feel convinced of sin, condemned in your heart, flee to Christ. For what the law could not do, that God hath done in his son, etc.Dr. Cumming<\/em>.<\/p>\n

ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 27<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Deu. 27:2-4<\/span>. Write<\/em>. Stones and even rocks are seen in Egypt and the peninsula of Sinai, containing inscriptions made 3000 years ago, in paint or plaster, of which, owing to the serenity of the climate, the coating is as firm and the colouring as fresh as if it had been put yesterday.(Jamieson.<\/em>) I have seen numerous inscriptions of this kind of writing more than 2000 years old, and still as distinct as when it was first inscribed on the plaster.Thomson Ld. and Bk<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:9-10<\/span>. Heed<\/em>. God esteems our actions and works, not according to the greatness or exactness of the performance, but according to the sincerity and truth of our hearts in doing them (J. Meade<\/em>). Child-like obedience moves towards every command of God, as the needle points the way the loadstone draws. If God calls to duties which are cross to flesh and blood, if we are children, we obey our Father.Watson<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:15<\/span>. Image<\/em>. Yet manthis glorious creaturecan debase His spirit down to worship wood and stone, and hold the very beasts which bear his yoke and tremble at his eye for sacred things.Landon<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:16<\/span>. Father<\/em>. It is certain, whatever can be signified by fear and honour and reverence, is the duty of childrenthat is, so far as to think honourably of parentsto speak well of them, to conceal their faults, to excuse them to others, and to comport themselves with reverence and great regard before them. Grieve them in nothing; this is the sweet measure.J. Taylor<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:17<\/span>. Removeth<\/em>. Covetousness debaseth a mans spirit.Archbishop Tillotson<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Desire of having is the sin of covetousness<\/p>\n

Shakespeare<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:18<\/span>. Wander<\/em>. Deceit is only a game played by small minds.(Corneille). Cursed<\/em>. It is a double pleasure to deceive the deceiver.Fontaine<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:19<\/span>. Judgment<\/em>. I mistrust the judgment of every man in a case in which his own wishes are concerned.Wellington<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:20-23<\/span>. Evil passions and lusts<\/em>. If I had but character, said Mirabeau, if I had but been a good man, if I had not degraded my life by sensuality, and my youth by evil passions, I could have saved France.Farrar<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Passion is the drunkenness of the mind.<\/p>\n

Spencer.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:24-25<\/span>. Slay<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Murder may pass unpunishd for a time.
But tardy justice will oertake the crime.<\/p>\n

Dryden<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:26<\/span>. Law<\/em>. The main strength and force of a law consists in the penalty annexed to it.(Blackstone<\/em>). Hard and imperious law has not a word of encouragement for the sinner, not a grain of sympathy, not an atom of helpnothing but an awful threat of judgment and fiery vengeance on his failure. President Garfield truly said Coercion is the basis of all law. A law is no law without coercion.T. Griffith<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Preacher’s Complete Homiletical Commentary Edited by Joseph S. Exell<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

LESSON TWENTY-ONE <\/strong>Deu. 27:1<\/span><\/strong> to <\/strong>Deu. 28:68<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

III. THE THIRD DISCOURSE<\/p>\n

Future of Israel Foretold (Deu. 27:1<\/span> to Deu. 30:20<\/span>)<\/p>\n

A. ALTAR TO BE BUILT UPON MOUNT EBAL
FOR THE RECORDING OF GODS LAW
(Deu. 27:1-8<\/span>)<\/p>\n

And Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandment which I command you this day. 2 And it shall be on the day when ye shall pass over the Jordan unto the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaster them with plaster: 3 and thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over; that thou mayest go in unto the land which Jehovah thy God giveth thee, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Jehovah, the God of thy fathers, hath promised thee. 4 And it shall be, when ye are passed over the Jordan, that ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in mount Ebal, and thou shalt plaster them with plaster. 5 And there shalt thou build an altar unto Jehovah thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt lift up no iron tool upon them. 6 Thou shalt build the altar of Jehovah thy God of unhewn stones; and thou shalt offer burnt-offerings thereon unto Jehovah thy God: 7 and thou shalt sacrifice peace-offerings, and shalt eat there; and thou shalt rejoice before Jehovah thy God. 8 And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly.<\/p>\n

THOUGHT QUESTIONS 27:18<\/p>\n

465.<\/p>\n

Read Jos. 8:30-35<\/span> for fulfillment of the promises made here.<\/p>\n

466.<\/p>\n

What was to be written upon the stones? How much of the law? How large were the stones?<\/p>\n

467.<\/p>\n

Was the altar the same as the stones upon which was written the laws of Jehovah? Cf. Jos. 8:31-32<\/span>.<\/p>\n

468.<\/p>\n

What specific purpose or purposes were served in fulfilling these instructions?<\/p>\n

AMPLIFIED TRANSLATION 27:18<\/p>\n

And Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people, Keep all the commandments with which I charge you today.
2 And on the day when you pass over the Jordan to the land which the Lord your God gives you, you shall set you up great stones, and cover them with plaster.
3 And you shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have passed over, that you may go into the land which the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you.
4 And when you have gone over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, on Mount Ebal, and coat them with plaster.
5 And there you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones; you shall not lift up any iron tool upon them.
6 You shall build the altar of the Lord your God of whole stones, and offer burnt offerings on it to Him;
7 And you shall offer peace offerings, and eat there, and rejoice before the Lord your God.
8 And you shall write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly.<\/p>\n

COMMENT 27:18<\/p>\n

See also Jos. 8:30-35<\/span> where we have these instructions carried out.<\/p>\n

SET THEE UP GREAT STONES (Deu. 27:2<\/span>)These were to be unhewn stones, Deu. 27:5<\/span>, Exo. 20:25<\/span>. Hewn and engraven stones were associated with idolatry. Thus graven images were forbidden, Deu. 27:15<\/span>, Deu. 4:16<\/span> ff. Recall Aaron in making the golden calf fashioned it with a graving tool (Exo. 32:4<\/span>). The whole stones would contrast to the idolators hewn and graven ones. Compare memorials set up in the Jordan (Jos. 4:8-9<\/span>), and Gilgal (Jos. 4:20<\/span>). Perhaps for this (as well as other reasons), no iron tool was used on the temple premises (1Ki. 6:7<\/span>).<\/p>\n

PLASTER THEM WITH PLASTER (Deu. 27:2<\/span>)Some believe the Hebrew is better read, cement them with cement. Smith has white washing them with lime. But regardless of the mixture used, its purpose is apparent: to serve as a binder and provide a relatively smooth surface for writing (we suppose before it hardened).<\/p>\n

WRITE UPON THEM ALL THE WORDS OF THE LAW (Deu. 27:3<\/span>)Are all the words of Moses meant? The laws of the book meant? The laws of the book of Deuteronomy just given? Surely not the entire Pentateuch! Nor is there any valid reason for supposing only the decalogue to be meant. Clarke suggests that the (. . . Torah) law or ordinance in question simply means the blessings and curses mentioned in this and the following chapter; and indeed these contained a very good epitome of the whole law in all its promises and threatenings, in reference to the whole of its grand moral design.<\/p>\n

But it seems difficult to understand all the words of this law (Deu. 27:3<\/span>; Deu. 27:8<\/span>) as not referring to a legal code. And in view of the ability of the Hebrew language to say much in a few words, we would tend to believe that at least the legislative portion of Deuteronomythis law is meant. It may have been condensed or abbreviated. Note especially Jos. 8:32<\/span>, where it is called a copy of the law of Moses, which is distinguished from the book of the law of Moses, (Deu. 29:21<\/span>). As we are not told the size of the monument, no problem exists concerning making it large enough for a lengthy inscription.<\/p>\n

IN MOUNT EBAL (Deu. 27:4<\/span>)On the side of this mount the stones were to be set up. It was the mountain of curses, 3,075 feet, and stood to the north and directly opposite mount Gerizim, the mountain of blessings, 2,850 feet. Between them lay a vale, and the town of Shechema city of ancient origin (Gen. 12:6<\/span>; Gen. 33:18<\/span>), before which lay a relatively wide plain.<\/p>\n

AND THERE SHALT THOU BUILD AN ALTAR (Deu. 27:5<\/span>)Not a different structure from the memorial, but the same one, Jos. 8:31-32<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Fuente: College Press Bible Study Textbook Series<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

XXVII.
THE LAW TO BE ESTABLISHED IN CANAAN AS THE LAW OF THE LAND.<\/strong><\/p>\n

(1) Moses with the elders.<\/strong>Here joined in exhortation for the first time in this book.<\/p>\n

Keep.<\/strong>Literally, to keep. <\/em>Possibly we are intended to connect the two verses. In order to keep them, ye shall write them.<\/p>\n

Deu. 27:2-4<\/span><\/em> <\/em><\/p>\n

THE DECALOGUE TO BE WRITTEN ON MOUNT EBAL.<\/strong><\/p>\n

(2) Set . . . up great stones, and plaister them with plaister.<\/strong>The idea is to make a smooth surface, on which the Law could be inscribed. Plaister only here and in Isa. 33:12<\/span>; Amo. 2:2<\/span>. In both those places it is rendered lime.<\/p>\n

(3) Thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in.<\/strong>Again it is evident that the going in to the land and the passing over Jordan are not identical. The Law of God was to be set up in the heart of the country, as soon as Israel had entered it, in order that they might complete the conquest of it. It is abundantly clear that Israels title to Canaan was dependent upon their maintaining the Law of Jehovah as the law of the land.<\/p>\n

For the fulfilment of this precept, see Jos. 8:32-35<\/span>. The words of this verse are an additional reason for the view taken in the Note on that passage, that the Law was set up on Ebal immediately after the capture of Ai, without waiting for the completion of the conquest (as some suppose).<\/p>\n

Fuente: Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

1<\/strong>. <\/strong> Moses with the elders commanded <\/strong> The elders <\/strong> were the representatives of the whole nation in its character as a body politic. Moses is now near the close of his administration of the affairs of the people. He, therefore, intimately associates with himself the representatives of the nation. It would be their province to see that these commands were carried out.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Whedon’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

e-Sword Note: <\/p>\n

<\/em><\/p>\n

For the section, “Deuteronoomy 27 Paraellels Exodus 24<\/span> “, see the chapter comments.<\/p>\n

For the section, “Shechem Was To Be The First ‘Place (Maqom) Which Yahweh Shall Choose’, ” see the chapter comments.<\/p>\n

Moses and the Elders of Israel Call For The Witness to the Covenant To Be Set Up In Shechem ( Deu 27:1-8<\/strong><\/span><\/strong> ).<\/strong> <\/p>\n

The covenant having been outlined in detail ‘Moses and the elders of Israel’ now speak up. It is clear that Moses had arranged for them to come and join him at the end of his speech so as to support this final step. Whether Moses spoke at their head, or whether their spokesman spoke up on behalf of Moses and the other elders, is not said. What matters is that with regard to the point being made they were shown to be at one. <\/p>\n

Analysis using the words of Moses. <\/p>\n

a <\/strong> And Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandment which I command you this day (Deu 27:1<\/span>). <\/p>\n

b <\/strong> And it shall be on the day when you shall pass over the Jordan to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, that you shall set yourself up great stones, and plaster them with plaster, and you shall write on them all the words of this instruction (law), when you are passed over, that you may go in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you (Deu 27:2-3<\/span>). <\/p>\n

b <\/strong> And it shall be, when you are passed over the Jordan, that you shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster, and there you (thou) shall build an altar to Yahweh your God, an altar of stones. You shall lift up no iron on them. You shall build the altar of Yahweh your God of unhewn stones, and you shall offer whole burnt offerings on it to Yahweh your God, And you shall sacrifice peace offerings, and shall eat there, and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God (Deu 27:4-7<\/span>). <\/p>\n

a <\/strong> And you shall write on the stones all the words of this instruction (law) very plainly (literally ‘engraving well’) (Deu 27:8<\/span>). <\/p>\n

Note in ‘a’ the commandment to keep ‘all the commandment’ (the covenant stipulations) and in the parallel it is to be written on the stones. In ‘b’ and its parallel we have two large sentences, the first commencing with ‘And it shall be on the day when you shall pass over the Jordan’, and the second commencing with ‘And it shall be, when you are passed over the Jordan’. The first deals with setting up the great stones and writing on them the Torah (Instruction, Law), and will be an indication that they have begun to take possession of the land which Yahweh has promised them, and the second with setting up ‘these stones’ and building by them an altar in order to offer up offerings and sacrifices so as to eat and rejoice before Yahweh their God in a sealing of the covenant (compare Exo 24:9-11<\/span>). <\/p>\n

Deu 27:1<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

‘<\/strong> And Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandment which I command you this day.’ <\/p>\n

Moses’ speech to all Israel having been completed what followed directly involved ‘the elders of Israel’, including all their leading men and princes, along with Moses, with regard to those words. The intention was clearly to align the elders of Israel with all that Moses had said, for he was soon to pass on and he wanted them to feel a part of, and to be tied in with, the remaking of the covenant. They would be the ones who were responsible for ensuring the fulfilment of His words. He did not want there to be an ‘us’ and ‘them’ situation. <\/p>\n

“All the commandment”<\/strong> refers to the statutes and ordinances (judgments) previously given (Deu 6:1<\/span>; Deu 8:1<\/span>) from Deu 5:1<\/span> onwards, and from Deu 12:1<\/span> onwards, the commands given ‘on that day’. Israel were to keep them, holding on to them, remembering them and obeying them. And in order to assist them in this and to bring home the solemnity of his words, and of what he was requiring of them, he now commanded that all his words were to be written on rocks especially plastered to receive the writing, once they have entered the land. This was a technique regularly practised in Egypt. <\/p>\n

(Incidentally there may be good reason to believe that at this point in time representatives have come from Shechem seeking to become one with the children of Israel on the grounds of their joint relationship resulting from Jacob’s previous sojourn in Shechem and ownership of land there, for once Israel did enter the land we never hear of any conquests having to be made at Shechem and Jdg 8:33<\/span> specifically refers to ‘the stranger’ as being present at the covenant ceremony there). <\/p>\n

“Moses.”<\/strong> The reference to Moses is in the third person. Does this then mean that it was written down by someone else? It is in fact very likely that Moses had arranged for his words to be recorded by a trustworthy scribe, or by Joshua himself, with himself confirming their accuracy, but it is not in fact required by the usage. For in writing an important document like this it would be quite reasonable for Moses to write of himself in the third person. It was a solemn covenant recorded for future generations. In such types of documents writers often speak of themselves in the third person. <\/p>\n

The name of Moses occurs in this book in Deu 1:1<\/span>; Deu 1:3<\/span>; Deu 1:5<\/span>; Deu 4:41<\/span>; Deu 4:44-46<\/span>; Deu 5:1<\/span>; Deu 27:1<\/span>; Deu 27:9<\/span>; Deu 27:11<\/span>; Deu 29:1-2<\/span>; Deu 31:1<\/span>; Deu 31:7<\/span>; Deu 31:9-10<\/span>; Deu 31:14<\/span> (twice); Deu 31:16<\/span>; Deu 31:22<\/span>; Deu 31:24-25<\/span>; Deu 31:30<\/span>; Deu 32:44-45<\/span>; Deu 32:48<\/span>; Deu 33:1<\/span>; Deu 33:4<\/span>; Deu 34:1<\/span>; Deu 34:5<\/span>; Deu 34:7-9<\/span> twice, Deu 34:1<\/span>; Deu 34:10<\/span>; Deu 34:12<\/span>. The main reason why he was not mentioned in the remainder is because they are claimed to be recordings of his speeches. But in Deu 33:1<\/span>; Deu 33:4<\/span> we actually have an example of something claimed to be composed by Moses (Deu 33:1<\/span>) which openly speaks of him in the third person (Deu 33:4<\/span>), in such a way as anyone might easily speak of themselves. This thus demonstrates that he is said to have used such a method. There is nothing intrinsically unlikely therefore in Moses referring to himself in this way continually in a permanent covenant record. <\/p>\n

Furthermore in Deu 31:7<\/span>; Deu 31:14<\/span>; Deu 34:9<\/span> he is spoken of in conjunction with Joshua (compare Joshua alone in Deu 31:3<\/span>; Deu 31:23<\/span>; Deu 32:44<\/span>) who was also referred to in the third person. But on the same basis that does not necessarily mean that Joshua could not have written down much of Deuteronomy. <\/p>\n

So while this third person usage may reflect the writing of another scribe (possibly even Eliezer the Priest), it does not necessarily do so. For writing in the third person could simply be a device used in order to ensure that future readers recognised who was in mind in what the documents said. Far too many writers have used this method in history in this way for this not to be accepted as a perfectly reasonable possibility. <\/p>\n

More difficult for the idea that Moses wrote the book himself was the recording of his death in Deuteronomy 34<\/span> as a past event. But once it is accepted that Moses would almost certainly use a scribe, whether Joshua, Eliezer, or any other, in writing down what he wanted recorded, all that that indicates is that Moses did not always himself hold the pen. It says nothing about whether the words were mainly his. The scribe would naturally finish the book off with an account of his death when that death had been specifically spoken of as near in the heart of the record, indeed so near that it had to occur before the crossing of the Jordan (Deu 1:37-38<\/span>; Deu 3:25-28<\/span>; Deu 4:21-22<\/span>; Deu 31:2<\/span>; Deu 31:7-8<\/span>; Deu 31:27<\/span>; Deu 31:29<\/span>; Deu 32:48-52<\/span>). It simply sealed what had been spoken about. <\/p>\n

On the other hand the claim that most of Deuteronomy was based on the direct words of Moses is constant in the book. See Deu 1:1<\/span>; Deu 1:5<\/span>; Deu 4:44-45<\/span>; Deu 5:1<\/span>; Deu 27:1<\/span>; Deu 27:9<\/span>; Deu 27:11<\/span>; Deu 29:1<\/span>; Deu 31:1<\/span>; Deu 31:9-10<\/span>; Deu 31:22<\/span>; Deu 31:24<\/span>; Deu 31:30<\/span>; Deu 32:44-45<\/span>; Deu 33:1<\/span>. Furthermore he is actually said to have written parts of it (Deu 31:9<\/span>; Deu 31:22<\/span>; Deu 31:24-26<\/span>) and that in connection with it being regularly read before all Israel (Deu 31:10-13<\/span>). That could mean ‘arranged to be written on the basis of his own words’, but it cannot mean that he had no connection with it at all. Its content is also written in such a way as to indicate that it was given in the words of Moses, and, in anybody’s language, ‘this instruction’ in Deu 31:9<\/span> must refer to at least the main speech in the book, if it means anything at all. See Jos 8:35<\/span>. <\/p>\n

Future generations certainly saw it that way for they wrote of ‘the book of the Instruction (Torah – Law) of Moses’ (Jos 8:31-32<\/span>; Jos 23:6<\/span>; 1Ki 2:3<\/span>; 2Ki 14:6<\/span>; 2Ki 23:25<\/span>; 2Ch 23:18<\/span> compare Jdg 3:4<\/span>; 1Ki 8:9<\/span>). <\/p>\n

Deu 27:2<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

‘<\/strong> And it shall be on the day when you (ye) shall pass over the Jordan to the land which Yahweh your (thy) God gives you (thee), that you (thou) shall set yourself (thee) up great stones, and plaster them with plaster.’ <\/p>\n

“On the day”<\/strong> does not literally mean within that twenty four hour period, but was using yom in its other significance as a period of time. We could therefore translate, ‘at the time when’. They must do it as soon as possible after entry. Deu 27:2-3<\/span> form a quick summary of what was considered to be the crucial element of what was to happen on entering the land, the writing clearly on stones the covenant with Yahweh. This was the crux of the matter. And it was an indication that at last they were beginning to possess their land flowing with milk and honey which Yahweh the God of their fathers had promised them. The stones would be a seal on their possession of the land.<\/p>\n

In the parallel in Deu 27:4-8<\/span> this is expanded on by declaring again that the stones must be set up, but this time the connection is with the completion of the covenant ceremony, and the site where it is to be done is named. Thus it refers to the covenant sacrifices which will be eaten before Yahweh. The repetition, which is typical of ancient writings which loved repetition, by this means puts extra stress on the most important point, the public display of the covenant actually written on the land of their possession, and draws special attention to it, while linking it with both the new possession of the land ( Deu 27:-3 ) and the renewed covenant (Deu 27:4-8<\/span>). <\/p>\n

Deu 27:3<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

‘<\/strong> And you (thou) shall write on them all the words of this instruction (law), when you (thou) are passed over, that you (thou) may go in to the land which Yahweh your God gives you (thee), a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, has promised you (thee).’ <\/p>\n

Once they had ‘passed over’ into the land, then Israel, through their representatives, were to write on the stones at Shechem ‘all the words of this instruction (law)’. Speaking on the basis of the book itself without any bias, that would surely signify at least 12-26, and probably Deu 5:1<\/span> to Deu 26:19<\/span>, but it may also be intended to include the whole of the Law of which his speech was a popular survey, for his speech omits too much for it to be seen as the whole Law. The writing on the stones would confirm the covenant in the land so that they could then confidently go in and possess it on the basis of the promise that Yahweh had made to their fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. <\/p>\n

He also reminded them of the quality of what Yahweh was giving them. It was a land ‘flowing with milk and honey’ (compare Deu 6:3<\/span>; Deu 11:9<\/span>; Deu 26:9<\/span>; Deu 26:15<\/span>; Deu 31:20<\/span>). It will be noticed that this promise is spread evenly over the different parts of the covenant. The kingdom of God could be theirs on the basis of His love and faithfulness to the fathers. But, as has been and will be pointed out, from that free gift had to spring obedience. It was a covenant gift. Without obedience the gift would be forfeit. <\/p>\n

Deu 27:4<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

‘<\/strong> And it shall be, when you (ye) are passed over the Jordan, that you (ye) shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in mount Ebal, and you (thou) shall plaster them with plaster.’ <\/p>\n

This repetition is a regular feature of the Pentateuch, and here has the purpose of emphasising the tow purposes in setting up the stones. Such repetition was also a regular feature of other ancient literature. It confirmed to the hearer what had just been said so that it would become fixed in his mind and he would remember it. So Moses partly repeats what he had said, but with the additional information that it was to be on Mount Ebal, and then he adds the requirement of sealing the covenant with offerings and sacrifices what follows and a covenant feast. All that he described was to be done as soon as possible after passing over the Jordan. <\/p>\n

It may be asked why the Instruction was to be recorded on Mount Ebal, and not Mount Gerizim. This was partly because it was there that the sacrifices were to be offered, which themselves warned of the threat of death to any who broke the covenant. That was hardly suitable for the Mount of blessing. But added to this was the fact that the curses on secret sins were an essential part of the covenant. While the blessings were to result from keeping the covenant, that was the result of, rather than part of the essential nature of, the covenant. The blessings did not come because the covenant was kept, for they were already promised, rather the keeping of the covenant simply maintained their flow, which primarily resulted from God’s graciousness. On the other hand the cursings in Deuteronomy 27<\/span> actually directly affected the covenant. Disobedience directly affected the covenant itself. The curses came to fruition because of the disobedience. They had therefore to be accepted as a part of the covenant. <\/p>\n

Deu 27:5-7<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

‘<\/strong> And there you (thou) shall build an altar to Yahweh your God, an altar of stones. You shall lift up no iron on them. You shall build the altar of Yahweh your God of unhewn stones, and you shall offer whole burnt offerings on it to Yahweh your God, And you shall sacrifice peace offerings, and shall eat there, and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God.’ <\/p>\n

(Up to verse 10 it is now all ‘thou, thee’). <\/p>\n

On Mount Ebal they were to set up an altar to Yahweh their God. It had to be an altar of stones on which no tool of man had come, for it must be of unhewn stones (compare Exo 20:24-25<\/span>) And no iron must have touched it. This may be because the main iron known was that ‘from the sky’ in the form of meteorites, which others saw as from the gods, or it may refer to rare imported iron tools which were therefore ‘foreign’. Either way the stones must not be touched by iron in any way. Interestingly the remains of an ancient rough stone altar dating from around the time of Joshua have been discovered on Mount Ebal. <\/p>\n

Offerings and sacrifices were regularly offered to confirm a covenant. At Mari in the 18th century BC when they intended to make a covenant they spoke of ‘killing an ass’. All knew what that signified. They were going to prepare a covenant sealed in blood. That is why the Old Testament often speaks of ‘cutting a covenant’. And similar practises were widespread. It was also common for part of the sacrifice to be offered up and part to be eaten by the participants. Thus the purposes of the whole burnt offerings, which were offerings of dedication and tribute, and the peace sacrifices which would supply the meat for the covenant feast, were to be for the sealing of the covenant (compare Exo 24:5<\/span>). <\/p>\n

We are not actually told that the Ark (at least) was to be present at this ceremony but it is hardly conceivable that it was not. The Ark was the central point of their focus on God and was portable. It could hardly not be there. Its presence would be just assumed (compare Jos 8:30-35<\/span>). As always in Deuteronomy Moses ignores the priests’ part. <\/p>\n

The setting up of the stones and the offering of the offerings and sacrifices are parallel to the acceptance of the covenant in Exodus 24<\/span>, where twelve stone pillars were set up and whole burnt offerings and peace offerings were also offered. There too the blood was applied as a warning of what would happen to those who broke the covenant. <\/p>\n

Deu 27:8<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

‘<\/strong> And you shall write on the stones all the words of this instruction (law) very plainly (literally ‘engraving well’).’ <\/p>\n

The purpose of the preparation of the stone was now repeated, stressing its importance. It was that ‘all the words of this Instruction’ might be plainly written on them and might be ‘well engraved’. <\/p>\n

We do not know whether at this point the people made a response (see Exo 24:3<\/span>), for due to the pending death of Moses this ceremony was a strange one, for it was an acting out beforehand of the actual ceremony that would later take place, putting firmly behind it the authority if Moses. But that was not to lessen its significance, for as all the people stood there it would be powerful confirmation of the certainty that they would successfully enter the land and reach Shechem, most only being aware that that was somewhere in the land and sacred because of its association with Abraham and Jacob, and was somewhere where they already owned land as descendants of Jacob. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Commentary Series on the Bible by Peter Pett<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Deu 27:11-26<\/strong><\/span> The Pronouncement of Blessings and Curses Over the Promised Land – <\/strong> The commandment to pronounce blessings and curses upon Mounts Gerizim and Ebal was first given in Deu 11:29<\/span>, and is further explained in Deu 27:11-26<\/span>. We read the account of Israel fulfilling this command in Jos 8:30-35<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Deu 11:29<\/span>, “And it shall come to pass, when the LORD thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal.”<\/p>\n

Why would God command the children of Israel to do such a thing? Because when they spoke these words over the land of Canaan, the blessings and the curses became effective and active in the lives of all the inhabitants. In Numbers 23-24, Balaam stood on a mountain above the camp of the children of Israel. As he prophesied blessings, those same blessings became active in the lives of the Israelites. If the children of Israel had not spoken these blessings and curses, they would not have been in operation over this land. This passage also gives us the reasons why curses come upon people. In other words, a curse will not come without a cause (Pro 26:2<\/span>). Each verse reinforces the causes of a curse.<\/p>\n

Pro 26:2<\/span>, “As the bird by wandering, as the swallow by flying, so the curse causeless shall not come.”<\/p>\n

Fuente: Everett’s Study Notes on the Holy Scriptures<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/strong> The Stone Monument<\/p>\n

v. 1. And Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you this day,<\/strong> namely, that which now follows. <\/p>\n

v. 2. And it shall be on the day when ye shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the Lord, thy God, giveth thee, that thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaster them with plaster,<\/strong> to prepare them for the inscription which they were to receive, for the stones were apparently of great size, and a number of them could well receive the inscription intended for them; <\/p>\n

v. 3. and thou shalt write upon them all the words of this Law,<\/strong> as the public confession of the children of Israel and as the norm of its entire life, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the Lord, thy God, giveth thee, a land that floweth with milk and honey, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee. <\/strong> The purpose of the command was realized by inscribing at least the Ten Commandments, as the nucleus of the entire Mosaic Law, but it is probable that all the regulations of the Ceremonial Law were included. If Israel would keep this Law, then the people were to have the Land of Promise for a lasting possession. <\/p>\n

v. 4. Therefore it shall be, when ye be gone over Jordan, that ye shall set up these stones which I command you this day, in Mount Ebal,<\/strong> in the approximate center of the land, and thou shalt plaster them with plaster,<\/strong> either with gypsum or with lime. <\/p>\n

v. 5. And there shalt thou build an altar unto the Lord, thy God, an altar of stones; thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them,<\/strong> the stones were to be neither plastered nor hewn, Exo 20:22<\/span>. <\/p>\n

v. 6. Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord, thy God, of whole stones; and thou shalt offer burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord, thy God,<\/strong> as expressing the entire and undivided devotion of Israel to Jehovah; <\/p>\n

v. 7. and thou shalt offer peace-offerings,<\/strong> expressing the enjoyment of the fellowship with Jehovah and the confidence of salvation in Him, and shalt eat there,<\/strong> celebrate a sacrificial meal, and rejoice before the Lord, thy God. <\/p>\n

v. 8. And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this Law very plainly,<\/strong> as a constant reminder to all the members of the nation. As the individual dwellings, so the whole land was to be holy to God, as a sanctuary of heavenly truth. <\/p>\n

Fuente: The Popular Commentary on the Bible by Kretzmann<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

PART<\/strong> III<\/strong>.THIRD<\/strong> DISCOURSE<\/strong> OF<\/strong> MOSES<\/strong>. THE<\/strong> COVENANT<\/strong> RENEWED<\/strong>. CHAPTERS<\/strong> 27-30.<\/p>\n

EXPOSITION<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deu 27:1-26<\/span>. INSTRUCTIONS<\/strong> AS<\/strong> TO<\/strong> THE<\/strong> PUBLISHING<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THE<\/strong> LAW<\/strong> IN<\/strong> CANAAN<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

HAVING<\/strong> set forth the laws and rights of Israel with special reference to the settlement of the people in Canaan, Hoses proceeds to dwell more particularly on the sanctions by which obedience to the Divine institute was enforced. Before entering on these, however, he gives some instructions regarding the setting up and proclamation of the Law when they should have entered Canaan. These instructions Moses gives in conjunction with the elders of Israel, who are associated with him here, because on them would devolve the obligation to see to the fulfillment of what the Law enjoined after Moses had ceased to be the ruler and leader of the people.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:1-8<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The first instruction respects the setting up of pillars on which the Law was to be inscribed. Such a mode of publishing laws or edicts was common in ancient times. Pillars of stone or metal, on which laws were inscribed, are frequently mentioned by the classical writers. Lysias quotes a law from such a pillar in the Areopagus at Athens (‘Eratosth.,’ 31, 12); at Eleusis there were pillars on which laws were inscribed (Pollux, 10, 97); Plato speaks of pillars set up in the market-place, on which were laws for the regulation of traffic; and Polybius even uses the word ‘pillar’ () as synonymous with “law” or “conditions of treaty”.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:1<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

All the commandments<\/strong>, etc.; all that up to this time I have enjoined upon you. The reference is to the entire Law as given by Moses.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:2<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

On the day when ye shall pass over Jordan<\/strong>; i<\/em>.e<\/em>. at the time<\/em>; <\/em>“day” is here used in a wide sense (cf. Gen 2:4<\/span>; Num 3:1<\/span>; 2Sa 22:1<\/span>; Ecc 12:3<\/span>; Isa 11:10<\/span>, etc.). Thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaster them with plaster,<\/strong> The stones, the number of which is not specified, were to be large, because much was to be inscribed upon them, and they were to be covered with a coating of lime or gypsum (), in order to secure a smooth white surface on which the inscription might be clearly depicted. That the words were not, as Michaelis, Rosenmller, and others suppose, cut in the stone, and afterwards covered with plaster in order to preserve them, is plain from its being enjoined that they were to be written upon () the stones so prepared; and besides, as this was intended to be a proclamation <\/em>of the Law, the main purpose of the erection would have been frustrated had the inscription been concealed by such a covering as that supposed. Among the ancient Egyptians the practice of depicting records on walls or monuments covered with a coating of plaster was common (see Hengstenberg, ‘Authentic des Pent.,’ 1.464, English translation, 1:433); from them, doubtless, it was borrowed by the Hebrews. It has been suggested by Kennicott that the writing was to be in relieve<\/em>, <\/em>and that the spaces between the letters were filled up by the mortar or cement. This is possible, but it is not such a process as this that the words of the text suggest. “A careful examination of Deu 27:4<\/span>, Deu 27:8<\/span>, and Jos 8:30-32<\/span>, will lead to the opinion that the Law was written upon <\/em>or in the plaster <\/em>with which these pillars were coated. This could easily be done, and such writing was common in ancient times. I have seen specimens of it certainly more than two thousand years old<\/em>, <\/em>and still as distinct as when they were first inscribed on the plaster”.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:3<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

All the words of this law<\/strong>; i<\/em>.e<\/em>. all the purely legislative parts of the Mosaic institute. By the “Law” here cannot be intended merely the blessings and the curses afterwards mentioned (Deu 27:14-26<\/span>); nor is there any reason why this term should be restricted to the precepts of this Book of Deuteronomy, as if they only were to be inscribed on the stones: the term must be extended so as to cover all that Moses had at any time delivered to Israel as a law from God. It is not necessary, however, to suppose that all <\/em>the reasons and exhortations with which the delivery of these, as recorded in the Pentateuch, was accompanied were to be inscribed along with the Law; still less that the historical details amidst which the record of these laws is embedded should be given. It may be questioned even whether each <\/em>and all <\/em>of the legislative enactments of the Torah, reckoned by the Jews to be 613, were to be recorded; for it might be deemed enough that the substance and essence of the Law should be thus presented. But even if the whole was to be inscribed, there would be no serious difficulty in the way of carrying this into effect, seeing there is no limitation as to the number of the stones to be set up.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:4<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The stones were to be set up on Mount Ebal (cf. Deu 11:29<\/span>). The Samaritan Codex and Version have Gerizim here, in place of Ebal; but though some critics have accepted this, it is generally regarded as an arbitrary alteration introduced to favor Samaritan pretensions (see the exhaustive and conclusive Dissertation of Gesenius, ‘De Pentat. Samarit’). All the ancient versions, as well as all the Hebrew manuscripts, support the received text.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:5-7<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Besides the monumental stones, an altar of whole stones, on which no tool had passed (cf. Exo 20:22<\/span>) was to be erected, and burnt offerings and peace offerings were to be presented as at the establishment of the covenant at Sinai, followed by the statutory festive entertainment (cf. Exo 24:5<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Deu 27:8<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The injunction to write the Law on the stones is repeated, with the addition that it was to be done very plainly (LXX<\/strong>; : <\/em>Vulgate, plane et lucide), which shows that the main purpose of setting up the stones was that the Law might be easily known by the people (cf. Hab 2:2<\/span>). The stones and the altar were fittingly placed on Ebal, the mount of cursing. For the setting up of the stones on which the Law was inscribed, and the building beside them of the altar, was the symbolical renewal of the covenant of God with Israel, and the establishment in Canaan of that dispensation which was “the ministration of condemnation and of death” (2Co 3:7<\/span>, 2Co 3:9<\/span>), and of that Law which, though in itself “holy, just, and good,” can only, because of man’s perversity and sinfulness, bring on those who are under it a curse (Gal 3:10<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Deu 27:9<\/span><\/strong>, <\/strong>Deu 27:10<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

When Israel renewed the covenant with the Lord, by solemnly setting up the Law in Canaan, it became thereby the nation of God, and bound itself at the same time to hearken to the voice of the Lord, and keep his commandments, as it had already done (cf. Deu 26:17<\/span>, Deu 26:18<\/span>; Mic 4:5<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Deu 27:9<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Take heed;<\/strong> literally, Be silent; LXX<\/strong>; , with silent attention listen (cf. Zec 2:13<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Deu 27:11-14<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Having set up the Law and renewed the covenant in Canaan, Israel was to proclaim upon the land the blessing and the curse of the Law, as already commanded (see Deu 11:29<\/span>). For this purpose six tribes were to station themselves on Mount Gerizim, and six on Mount Ebal, the former to pronounce the blessing, the latter the curse. (On the situation of these two mountains, see at eh. Deu 11:29<\/span>.) The six tribes by whom the blessing was to be pronounced were Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin, all descended from the two wives of JacobLeah and Rachel. The tribes by whom the curse was to be uttered were those descended from Zilpah, Leah’s maid, viz. Gad and Asher; those descended from Bilhah, Rachel’s maid, viz. Dan and Naphtali; with Zebulun and Reuben, both descended from Leah. As, in order to ob-rain a division of the tribes into two equal portions, two of the sons of Leah must be assigned to the second half, Zebulun and Reuben were chosen, probably because the former was the youngest of Leah’s sons, and the latter had by his sin forfeited his birthright (Gen 49:4<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Deu 27:13<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

These shall stand <\/strong>upon <\/em><\/strong>mount Ebal to curse<\/strong>; literally, These shall stand upon the curse on Mount Ebal<\/em>; i<\/em>.e<\/em>. it shall belong to them to utter the curse.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:14<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Levitesstanding probably in some convenient spot midway between the two mountains (cf. Jos 8:33<\/span>)were to pronounce with a loud voice the blessing and the curse, so that all might hear; and the people were to give their assent, and take to themselves, as it were, the blessing or the curse as uttered, by a solemn Amen<\/strong>. By the Levites here are intended, not the sons of Levi generally, but that portion of them which belonged to the priesthood, and bare the ark of the covenant (cf. Jos 8:33<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Deu 27:15-26<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The curses to be pronounced were twelve in number, probably to correspond with the number of the tribes. The blessings are not here recorded; but when the injunction here given was fulfilled by Joshua, the blessing as well as the curse was pronounced (Jos 8:34<\/span>). And probably, as the Jews report, each, the blessing and the curse, was pronounced alternately. It has sometimes been doubted whether any human voice could be audible over so wide a stretch as that between these two mountains; but this need be no longer matter of doubt, for the experiment has been repeatedly tried in recent times with success. In the clear atmosphere of the East sounds travel far. It is to be borne in mind also that it was not a single voice that had to make itself heard across the valley on this occasion, but a chorus of voices pro-seeding from a body of priests stationed apparently in the midst between the two companies (cf. Jos 8:33<\/span>), and chanting in unison the words of each blessing or curse.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:15-26<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Each of the first eleven curses is directed against some particular sin already denounced in the Law. The twelfth curse is directed generally against all breaches of the Law, against those who fail or refuse to set up the whole Law and follow it as the rule of life and conduct. This shows that the sins specially denounced are selected by way of specimen, and also, perhaps, because they are such as could for the most part be easily concealed from judicial inspection.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:15<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Cf. Exo 20:4<\/span>; Le Exo 26:1<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

Deu 27:16<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Cf. Exo 21:17<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

Deu 27:17<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Cf. Deu 19:14<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

Deu 27:18<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Cf. Le Deu 19:14<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

Deu 27:19<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Cf. Deu 24:17<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

Deu 27:20<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Cf. Le Deu 18:8<\/span>; Deu 22:30<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

Deu 27:21<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Cf. Le 18:23<\/span>; Deu 20:15<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

Deu 27:22<\/span><\/strong>, <\/strong>Deu 27:23<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

.(Cf. Le Deu 18:9<\/span>, Deu 18:17<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

Deu 27:24<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Cf. Exo 20:13<\/span>; Num 35:16<\/span>, etc.)<\/p>\n

Deu 27:25<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Cf. Exo 23:7<\/span>, Exo 23:8<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

Deu 27:26<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

(Cf. Deu 28:15<\/span>; Jer 11:3<\/span>, Jer 11:4<\/span>.)<\/p>\n

HOMILETICS<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deu 27:1-10<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Very plainly.<\/strong><\/p>\n

These words, “very plainly,” suggest three lines of thought.<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> THEY<\/strong> SHOW<\/strong> SOMETHING<\/strong> THAT<\/strong> WAS<\/strong> ORDERED<\/strong> TO<\/strong> BE<\/strong>, viz. that the Law of God was to be written very plainly, as the permanent, standard expression of right, to which the people might appeal. It was not to be left to a floating tradition. To no such risks would God expose his teaching. There was no priesthood in Israel which had any monopoly of knowledge. The words were to be so clearly and accurately recorded that, upon all that pertained to life and godliness, the people might see for themselves what the Lord had spoken, and not be dependent on any sacerdotal interpretation whatever. How clearly does this fact indicate the mind and will of Jehovah concerning our race! God would not have us walk uncertainly. He would have the way of life so plain, that the “wayfaring men, though fools,” need not err therein.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> THEY<\/strong> SHOW<\/strong> SOMETHING<\/strong> WHICH<\/strong> HAS<\/strong> BEEN<\/strong>. The injunction has been carried out, not only in the matter here specially referred to, but in God’s later disclosures also.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> In the books which Moses left behind him there was a revelation of the Divine mind and win so clear and distinct, that no one reading even the Pentateuch with a loyal faith need ever have been at a loss to know that the ground of his trust was the forgiving love of God, and that the duty of life was summed up in love to God and love to man.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Later teachings are given with equal, yea, with increasing clearness.<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> Those of the prophets. <\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> Of our Lord. <\/p>\n

(3)<\/strong> Of the apostles.<\/p>\n

In all, the main teachings are given “very <\/em>plainly.” Note: The plainness of Scripture is not of that kind which men outgrow as they get older. Those very passages which charm childhood with their simplicity, do come to have a fuller and deeper meaning for the “old disciple.”<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> THEY<\/strong> SUGGEST<\/strong> SOMETHING<\/strong> WHICH<\/strong> SHOULD<\/strong> BE<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Let us ever regard the Bible as a Book for the people, and let us insist on its being made the ultimate standard of appeal.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Let us use it as God meant us to use it, not as a book, but as the <\/em>Book; not as man’s, but as God’s.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> With such a Book before us, let us walk<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> intelligently, as if we understood the meaning of life; <\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> thankfully, as if we apprehended the glory of life; <\/p>\n

(3)<\/strong> earnestly, as if we knew the solemnity of life; <\/p>\n

(4)<\/strong> hopefully, as those who are advancing towards the goal of life.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:11-26<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A grand<\/strong><\/p>\n

“Amen!” It is more than possible that, with the strong disposition there is nowadays to look on Judaism as obsolete, the chapter before us may be very frequently passed over as if full of curses that no longer have any effect; especially as Paul, in Gal 3:1-29<\/span>; says, “Christ <\/em>hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law.” But we are apt, perhaps, in dealing with the doctrinal aspect of these curses of the Law<\/em>, <\/em>in reference to the Atonement, to lose sight of their primary historical aspect in reference to Israel. But the significance of both altar and pillar, pillar and altar, should be taken into account. Here, in the valley between Gerizim and Ebal, the grandest assembly met that was ever convened. The Law was read in the people’s hearing, and the people were to declare themselves ready to brand sin with their curse, as God branded it with his. In a word, they were in a glorious league with the Great King of heaven and earth, that, whatever he disapproved, they would combine to brand with the infamy of eternal shame. As Israel was expected then to be in league with God in denouncing wrong, so are Christians expected by the holy cross to swear eternal war against sin. This may be worked out in seven consecutive lines of thought. <\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> God’s people now are a divinely chosen commonwealth.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> In subjection to God alone, this commonwealth is a self-governing body.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> The only law for life which they accept is that of righteousnessrighteousness, of course, all round<\/em>, <\/em>both as regards God and man.<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> It was for this very purpose Israel had been chosen out of the peoples that, for the world’s sake, there might be one nation in which righteousness was the supreme law.<\/p>\n

V.<\/strong> Side by side with the records of a Law which demands perfect righteousness, there is the altar and its sacrifice thereon, speaking to the people of a Divine provision for forgiving the penitent.<\/p>\n

VI.<\/strong> The penitent is set free from the curse of Law, that he may ever after co-operate with God in honoring the Law from whose curse he has been redeemed.<\/p>\n

VII.<\/strong> The passionate concern for holiness, and the delight in a holy Law, which are begotten in them who are of “the commonwealth of Israel,” ensure their entire sympathy with God in the everlasting curse pronounced against all unrighteousness.<\/p>\n

VIII.<\/strong> Thus the pure and just Law of God may serve believers as an educatory force throughout their whole life. And in their incessant hatred and condemnation of evil is the saying true in the highest sense, Vex populi, vex Dei<\/em>.<\/p>\n

HOMILIES BY J. ORR<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deu 27:1-8<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The stones on Ebal.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This chapter is significant, as letting in light on the design of the Law, and on the nature of the Jewish covenant. We see from it:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> That the Law could not give life. <\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> That it was not designed to give life. <\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> That its real aim was to convince of sin, and so to shut men up to the faith that would afterwards be revealed (Gal 3:23<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Three topics in these verses<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> ERECTION<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THE<\/strong> STONES<\/strong>. (Deu 27:2<\/span>, Deu 27:8<\/span>.) Stones were to be set up, coated with plaster (a custom of Egypt), on which were to be written, “very plainly,” “all <\/em>the words of this Law” (Deu 27:8<\/span>)either the Law in Deuteronomy, or the Pentateuchal laws generally. The stones were:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Significant reminders of the tenure on which the land was held.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Witnesses against the people in case of disobedience.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> A testimony to the plainness with which the Law had been made known to them. The last point reminds us of our own privilege in possessing a clear and full revelation of the will of God in the Bible. Copies of the Bible are like these stones, witnesses against us if we disobey the gospel. “Light <\/em>has come into the world” (Joh 3:19<\/span>). We are not left to the natural conscience, sufficient though that be to convict men of sin (Rom 2:14<\/span>, Rom 2:15<\/span>). We are servants who know our Lord’s will (Luk 12:47<\/span>). We have the light both of Law and gospel. Supremely great are our privileges, and equally great are our responsibilities.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> STONES<\/strong> ERECTED<\/strong> ON<\/strong> EBAL<\/strong>. (Verse 4.) But why on Ebal? Why on the mount of cursing? Had there been a Law which could have given life, “verily,” Paul says, “righteousness <\/em>should have been by the Law” (Gal 3:21<\/span>). In that case, the appropriate place for the erection of the stones would have been Gerizimthe mount of blessing. But the Law could not give life. In itself considered, as requiring perfect obedience, it could only condemn. Its principal functionits economic scope and purposewas not to bless, but to give “knowledge of sin” (Rom 3:19<\/span>, Rom 3:20<\/span>; Rom 7:9-14<\/span>; Gal 3:1-29<\/span>.). Hence the appropriate place for the stones being planted was on the mount of cursing.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> ACCOMPANYING<\/strong> SACRIFICES<\/strong>. (Verses 5-7.)<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> As the Law testified to sin, so the sacrifices testified to graceto the provision in mercy which lay within the covenant for the removal of guilt. Burnt offerings and peace offerings, as well as the sin offerings, included the idea of propitiation. This was shown at the first forming of the covenant by the action of sprinkling the blood (Exo 22:6-8<\/span>; cf. Heb 9:19-28<\/span>). Without sacrifice, without the means of removing, or at least covering guilt, Israel’s position under the Law would have been a mockery.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> The altar of unhewn stones testifies to the subordinate place which art ought to have in the worship of God. There was a special suitableness in the altar of propitiation being built of undesecrated materials. Himself sinful, man’s art would have polluted it. Only when propitiation had been made was art permitted to resume its function of ministering to the beauty of Divine service. But art, in religion, needs to be carefully guarded. It is false art when it drowns other thoughts in admiration of the finish, injuring worship by that which draws away the mind from worship.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> The burnt offerings and peace offerings testifiedthe one to the entire consecration of heart and life which is the condition of acceptable service; the other, to the peace and fellowship with God which, on the ground of sacrifice, are attained through consecration and obedience.J.O.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:9<\/span><\/strong>, <\/strong>Deu 27:10<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

A people of God.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> A PEOPLE<\/strong> BOUND<\/strong> TO<\/strong> GOD<\/strong> BY<\/strong> MANY<\/strong> TIES<\/strong>. Both by what God had done for them, and by the vows which, on different occasions, they had taken on themselves. They were his by covenant with the fathers. He had made them his by redemption from Egypt. He had covenanted with them at Sinai. The covenant being broken, he had, at Moses’ intercession, graciously renewed it. He had kept covenant with the children, even when rejecting the fathers. Thirty-eight years he had led them in the wilderness, and once more had gathered them together, to hear them renew their vows of obedience. Which things are a figure. They remind us of the many bonds by which numbers of Christ’s people are bound to his covenant. By redemption, by dedication of parents, by personal choice of the Savior, by public profession, by repeated visits to his table, by special vows, etc.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> A PEOPLE<\/strong> REAFFIRMED<\/strong> TO<\/strong> BE<\/strong> GOD<\/strong>‘S BY<\/strong> RENEWAL<\/strong> OF<\/strong> COVENANT<\/strong>. We “become” the Lord’s by revival and renewal of profession, as well as by original entrance into grace. As Christ’s Sonship is from eternity, yet is dated from successive epochshis birth (Luk 1:32<\/span>, Luk 1:35<\/span>), his resurrection (Act 14:1-28 :33; Rom 1:4<\/span>)so each new act of self-dedication, each new approach of God to the soul, each renewal of covenant, may be taken by the Christian as a new date from which to reckon his acceptance.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> A PEOPLE<\/strong> UNDER<\/strong> WEIGHTY<\/strong> RESPONSIBILITIES<\/strong>. The believer’s relation to God entails a solemn obligation to obedience. The very name, “people of God,” reminds us of our “holy calling”of the obligation resting on us to be holy as God is holy (1Pe 2:15<\/span>, 1Pe 2:16<\/span>); exhibiting to the world a pattern of good works, and proving our discipleship by likeness of character to him whose Name we bear.J.O.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:11-26<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Ebal and Gerizim.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This ceremony turns on the idea of the Law as primarily entailing a curse. Blessings and curses were both to be recited (Deu 27:12<\/span>, Deu 27:13<\/span>). But the curse seems to have been first pronounced, and it only is given in the record. It has the lead in the transaction. The explanation is obvious. Deu 27:26<\/span> shows that, in strictness, none can escape the curse (Psa 130:3<\/span>; Gal 3:10<\/span>). A blessing is pronounced from Gerizim, but it is abortive, as depending on a condition which no sinner can fulfill.<\/p>\n

Hence:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> The stones are all placed on Ebal. <\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> All the sons of the bondwomen are placed on that mount (cf. Gal 4:21-31<\/span>).<\/p>\n

This is preferable to supposing that prominence is given to the curse, inasmuch as, under law, fear rather than love is the motive relied on to secure obedience. The appeal to fear is itself an evidence that “the law is not made for a righteous man” (1Ti 1:9<\/span>). It brings strikingly to light the inherent weakness of the economy (Rom 8:3<\/span>). When a Law, the essence of which is love<\/em>, <\/em>requires to lean on curses <\/em>to enforce it, the unlikelihood of getting it obeyed is tolerably manifest. As an actually working system, the Mosaic economy, while availing itself of the Law to awaken consciousness of sin and to keep men in the path of virtue, drew its strength for holiness, not from the Law, but from the revelations of love and grace which lay within and behind it. We learn<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> THAT<\/strong> THE<\/strong> LAW<\/strong> IS<\/strong> COMPREHENSIVE<\/strong> OF<\/strong> EVERY<\/strong> PART<\/strong> OF<\/strong> OUR<\/strong> DUTY<\/strong>. A variety of sins are mentioned as examples. They relate to all departments of dutyduty to God and duty to man. The list is avowedly representative (Deu 27:26<\/span>).<\/p>\n

Note:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> That it covers a large part of the Decalogue<\/em>. <\/em>The first table is fairly represented by the second commandment, and a curse is pronounced on the making and worshipping of images (Deu 27:15<\/span>). The precepts of the second table are involved in the other versesthe fifth commandment in the curse on filial disrespect (Deu 27:16<\/span>), the sixth in the curse on murder (Deu 27:24<\/span>), the seventh in the curses on the grosser forms of uncleanness (Deu 27:20-23<\/span>); the eighth in the curse on removing the landmark (Deu 27:17<\/span>); the ninth in the, curse on slaying another for reward, which may include perjury (Deu 27:25<\/span>); while Deu 19:19<\/span> may be viewed as forbidding breaches of the law of love generally.<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> That the sins against which the curses are directed are mostly secret sins<\/em>. <\/em>The Law searches the heart.<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> That the usual care is shown for the interests of the defenseless <\/em>(Deu 19:18<\/span>, Deu 19:19<\/span>). It is touching, in the heart of so awful a malediction, to find this tender love for the blind, the stranger, the fatherless, the widow. Wrath and love in God are close of kin.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> THAT<\/strong> A CURSE<\/strong> WAITS<\/strong> ON<\/strong> EVERY<\/strong> VIOLATION<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THE<\/strong> LAW<\/strong>‘S PRECEPTS<\/strong>. The position of Scripture is that every sin, great and small, subjects the sinner to God’s wrath and curse. It derives this truth, not, as some have sought to derive it, from the metaphysical notion of sin’s infinite demerit, as committed against an infinite God; but from its own deep view of sin, as involving a change, a deflection, an alteration, in its effects of infinite moment, in the very center of man’s being. There is no sin of slight turpitude. A holy being, to become capable of sin, must admit a principle into his heart totally foreign to the holy condition, and subversive of it. In this sense, he that offends in one point is guilty of all (Jas 2:10<\/span>, Jas 2:11<\/span>). Sin is in him, and on a being with sin in him the Law can pronounce but one sentence. His life is polluted, and, being polluted, is forfeited. The curse involves the cutting of the sinner off from life and favor, with subjection to the temporal, spiritual, and eternal penalties of transgression. The denial of this article leaves no single important doctrine of the gospel unaffected; the admission of it carries with it all the rest. It gives its complexion to a whole theology.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> THAT<\/strong> THE<\/strong> SINNER<\/strong> MUST<\/strong> ACKNOWLEDGE<\/strong> THE<\/strong> JUSTICE<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THE<\/strong> LAW<\/strong>‘S CLAIMS<\/strong> AGAINST<\/strong> HIM<\/strong>. The people were required to say, “Amen.” This “Amen<\/em>“ <\/em>was:<\/p>\n

(1)<\/strong> An assent to the conditions of life proposed. <\/p>\n

(2)<\/strong> A recognition of the righteousness of them.<\/p>\n

The Law declares God’s judgment against sin. And this:<\/p>\n

1.<\/strong> Is echoed by the conscience<\/em>. <\/em>Fitfully, reluctantly, intermittently, yet truly, even by the natural conscience. The “Amen” is implied in every pang of remorse, in every feeling of self-condemnation. Every time we do that we would not, we consent unto the Law that it is good (Rom 3:16<\/span>). The very heathen know the “judgment of God, that they which commit such things” as are here specified “are worthy of death” (Rom 1:32<\/span>). But it needs the spiritually convinced heart to render this “Amen<\/em>“ <\/em>hearty and sincere. The true penitent justifies God and condemns himself (Psa 51:1-19<\/span>.).<\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> Was acknowledged by Christ as our Sin-bearer<\/em>. <\/em>In Christ’s atonement, it has been truly remarked, there “must have been a perfect <\/em>‘Amen<\/em>‘ in humanity to the judgment of God on the sin of man<\/em>. <\/em>Such an ‘Amen’ was due to the truth of things. He who was the Truth could not be in humanity and not utter itand it was necessarily a first step in dealing with the Father on our behalf” (J. McLeod Campbell).<\/p>\n

3.<\/strong> Will yet be joined in by the whole universe <\/em>(Rev 15:2<\/span>; Rev 17:1<\/span>, Rev 17:2<\/span>).<\/p>\n

CONCLUSION<\/strong>. “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law, being made a curse for us” (Gal 3:13<\/span>). In him no condemnation (Rom 8:1<\/span>).J.O.<\/p>\n

HOMILIES BY D. DAVIES<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deu 27:1-10<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Safeguards for obedience.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The enthusiasm of Moses for God’s Law is admirable, and no less admirable is his earnest desire for Israel’s prosperity. That self-forgetful zeal for others’ good was one main qualification in Moses to be the vehicle of God’s revealed will. With singular sagacity, Moses presses into the earliest service, for the promulgation of Divine Law, the people themselves. The very stones of Canaan were to be written over with the substance of the Law, and in this way were to become monuments of the covenant between God and Israel. The people who had taken an active part in publishing that Law would feel bound in self-consistency to maintain it. Their title-deeds to Canaan they set up in sight of heaven and earth; and if afterward they should be disobedient, the very stones of the land would cry out against them.<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> AN<\/strong> OBEDIENT<\/strong> SPIRIT<\/strong> DELIGHTS<\/strong> TO<\/strong> EXALT<\/strong> AND<\/strong> PERPETUATE<\/strong> GOD<\/strong>‘S LAW<\/strong>. Moses, instructed by God, was a wise observer of human nature; hence he engages the cooperation of the people in proclaiming the Law in the first flush of conquest. The first stones they touched with their feet on the other side Jordan were to be consecrated to the service of God’s Law. Deficient in tools, they were not expected to grave them in stone, but to write them on plaster. This could be expeditiously done, and might serve to remind them how easily were the Divine commands effaced from human hearts. As soon as God had begun to fulfill his part of the covenant, man must fulfill his. The people were to write “all” the precepts; for not one of them, however minute, was needless. What was sufficiently important for God to reveal, we may be sure was important enough for man to preserve. These stones, when inscribed with Divine legislation, were to be set up on a mount central in the land, to indicate the universal honor to which they were entitled. And probably Ebal was selected that the people might be awed by the curses which sprang from disobedience. To magnify the Law of the King is the loyal subject’s delight. “Oh, how I love thy Law!”<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> AN<\/strong> OBEDIENT<\/strong> SPIRIT<\/strong> IS<\/strong> QUALIFIED<\/strong> TO<\/strong> ENTER<\/strong> UPON<\/strong> A LARGER<\/strong> INHERITANCE<\/strong>. (Deu 27:3<\/span>.) The language is significant. Having passed over Jordan, they were to select and prepare these monumental stones, to the end “thou mayest go in unto the land.” Various measures of success were possible. They might destroy the Canaanites, and yet find little advantage or comfort from the inheritance. God could give with one hand and blast with the other. Though in the land, it might not yet open out its resources to them as a “land flowing with milk and honey.” Every day they tarried in the land, they might pass into an inner circle of blessing. New waves of sunshine and blessing might sweep over them, so that every morning the inheritance might be to them new. Nature, in its beauties, its wonders, its products, is inexhaustible. With God as our Friend and Teacher, we may find accessions of good and gladness perpetually. Obeying his voice, we enter in; and still, as obedience grows, we enter into fuller possession increasingly.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> AN<\/strong> OBEDIENT<\/strong> SPIRIT<\/strong> OBTAINS<\/strong> QUICKENING<\/strong> AND<\/strong> STRENGTH<\/strong> AT<\/strong> GOD<\/strong>‘S ALTAR<\/strong>. It was forbidden the Hebrews to erect an altar for burnt offering anywhere except the place which God should choose for his abode. So vital, however, to the interests of the nation was this act of proclaiming the Law, that an exception was made in its favor. In the presence of the Law, men would feel their deficiencies and offences; hence provision was specially made for the confession of sin, for the presentation of sacrifice, and for the assurance of mercy. At the altar of burnt offering God and guilty man could meet; here reconciliation could be effected, and here new grace could be obtained. In the somber light of the burnt offering, men would read the august meaning of the Law, and learn to cover that Law with honor.<\/p>\n

But why must the altar be built of unhewn stones? We can only conjecture. Was it to symbolize the fact that God can allow no human interference or co-operation in the work of atonement? Was it to indicate that every part of God’s will and Law must be kept perfectly intact, if man would be the friend of God? Was it to prevent any kind of graven work, the craft of human imagination, from adorning the altar of God; by which the minds of worshippers might be diverted from the one solemn act to be performed? There may be an element of truth in all these surmises.<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> AN<\/strong> OBEDIENT<\/strong> SPIRIT<\/strong> FINDS<\/strong> UNEXPECTEDLY<\/strong> A BANQUET<\/strong> OF<\/strong> JOY<\/strong>. “Thou shalt eat, and shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God.” On all sides God has provided the materials for a splendid repast, where every desire of the soul may be satisfied; but the pathway to that sumptuous feast is the pathway of hearty obedience. We can secure the annual harvest only by acting along the line of God’s law in nature; and active co-operation with the Divine will is essential to our soul’s satisfaction. The joy that thrills the heart of God he desires to share with us, but self-will too often robs us of the boon. “The meek shall eat and be satisfied.”<\/p>\n

V.<\/strong> AN<\/strong> OBEDIENT<\/strong> SPIRIT<\/strong> RECEIVES<\/strong> INSPIRATION<\/strong> FROM<\/strong> THE<\/strong> HIGHEST<\/strong> SOURCE<\/strong>. “Thou art the people of the Lord thy God; therefore thou shalt obey his voice.” Service which is done from motives of advantageto gain favor or promotion from Godis mercenary. A selfish end is in view. The favor of the Most High is not merely the end <\/em>we seek; it is the source <\/em>whence all right desire and exertion spring. Thou art the Lord’s: this is the chief inspiration of effort. Thou art the Lord’s; therefore live as becometh such royal rank. Thou art the Lord’s; therefore all his stores of help are at thy command.” “Greater is he that is for us than all who can be against us.”D.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:11-26<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

The Decalogue nationally reciprocated.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is obvious that the same God who prescribed its Jewish Law is the Creator also of the human conscience; for, just as the sword fits its scabbard, or as cog corresponds with cog in the mechanical wheel, so accord Mosaic Law and human conscience. They are natural counterparts. <\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> MEN<\/strong> ARE<\/strong> RULED<\/strong> BY<\/strong> A SYSTEM<\/strong> OF<\/strong> REWARDS<\/strong> AND<\/strong> PUNISHMENTS<\/strong>. Notwithstanding the development of the human mind, and the progress of civilization since Moses’ day, human nature is still in its minority, still in a state of childhood. We do not yet see into the interior nature of spiritual realities. We do not see the inherent excellence of righteousness. We do not see the native beauty of obedience. Hence we need to be attracted by rewards and awed by punishments. We perceive the glory or the shame of moral conduct chiefly by its fruits. As we grow in piety, we shall value virtue and holiness for their own sakes, and think less about remote effects and consequences. At present we need the attendant pleasure and pain, the promises and threatenings.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> FINAL<\/strong> SEPARATIONS<\/strong> OF<\/strong> MANKIND<\/strong> ARE<\/strong> HERE<\/strong> PREFIGURED<\/strong>. As the twelve tribes were here divided into two distinct groups, divided by the vale of Shechem; so all the tribes of men shall eventually be separated, and that by an impassable gulf. The principle of classification on Ebal and Gerizim was not personal merit or demerit (as it will be at the final assize), yet even this ultimate principle of separation seems to have been foreshadowed there. Only children of Jacob’s married wives were placed on the mount of blessing; but Reuben, the firstborn, had forfeited this privilege by reason of his sin. As yet, the evil could be avertedthe positions might be reversed; these dramatic proceedings were omens both of good and of evil, and were intended to arouse a torpid conscience. To heaven or to hell each man hourly gravitates.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> GOD<\/strong>‘S BLESSING<\/strong> OR<\/strong> CURSE<\/strong> TAKES<\/strong> EFFECT<\/strong> FROM<\/strong> CENTER<\/strong> TO<\/strong> CIRCUMFERENCE<\/strong>. These mountains were situated almost central in the land. Soon this vast congregation would be scattered to their allotted homes, and thus the influence of this scene would be transmitted all over Canaan. Even this external transmission was typical. The blessing and the curse touched every interest and relationship of Jewish lifereligion, home, society, government. The curse was invoked upon idolatry, undutifulness, avarice, oppression, unchastity, insubordination. It began in the inner chamber of the heart, and extended to the outermost circle of the social system. It begins at once, follows the crime as the shadow does the object, until it reaches into the most distant cycles of eternity.<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> HUMAN<\/strong> CONSCIENCE<\/strong> IS<\/strong> THE<\/strong> RECIPROCAL<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THE<\/strong> MORAL<\/strong> LAW<\/strong>, THE<\/strong> ECHO<\/strong> OF<\/strong> ITS<\/strong> SANCTIONS<\/strong> AND<\/strong> ITS<\/strong> PENALTIES<\/strong>. Every healthy conscience utters its sincere “Amen” to every dictate of God’s Law. When free from the mists and storms of guilty passion, it reflects, with the fidelity of a mirror, the decisions of God’s royal will. Even when a man is the victim of judicial sentence, his conscience admits the justice of the doom. The culprit, in his calmer moods, is self-convicted and self-condemned. When God, by the lips of Moses, required all the tribes to affirm thus solemnly the curses due to disobedience, he knew that every man would heartily take his part in that august deed.<\/p>\n

V.<\/strong> MEN<\/strong> BECOME<\/strong> THE<\/strong> ADMINISTRATORS<\/strong> OF<\/strong> GOD<\/strong>‘S LAW<\/strong>. We cannot doubt that one reason why God required this public assent to the sanctions of his Law, was that each man might feel more deeply his responsibility toward himself and toward his neigh-bouts. In proportion to our reverential regard for God becomes our concern for others’ obedience. The Levites more than once had girded on their swords, and, fired with zeal for their God, had slain their own countrymen. No resistance was attempted, for conscience had made cowards of the culprits. To the same end, David prays, “Let the righteous smite me; it shall be a kindness.” Moved by this impulse, men would seek “to please their neighbors for their good unto edification<\/em>.” <\/em>Possessed with a pious disposition, they endeavor to make known on every side God’s will, to preserve its remembrance among those disposed to grow oblivious, and to exalt its authority on every hand. Self-consistency required that those who had publicly pronounced the curses of the Law should jealously watch their own conductshould tenderly caution others!D.<\/p>\n

HOMILIES BY R.M. EDGAR<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deu 27:1-10<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Law-abiding people.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We have here a direction about writing, upon great stones in Mount Ebal, the words of the Divine Law. Whether this meant only the blessings and curses, as Josephus thinks, or an abstract of Deuteronomy, or only the ten commandments, we cannot tell. But the idea implied is similar to the writing of the Decalogue in stone; it was to render fixed <\/em>the Law on which the national policy was to rest. In other words, it was a symbolic way of declaring that Israel will be a Law-abiding people. In connection with this display of the Law, there was to be an altar erected, on which burnt offerings and peace offerings were to be presented, and the people were to realize, as they had never before done, that they have “become the people of the Lord their God.” The following ideas are, among others, suggested:<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> LORD<\/strong>‘S PEOPLE<\/strong> WILL<\/strong> GREATLY<\/strong> HONOR<\/strong> HIS<\/strong> LAW<\/strong>. All disrespect shown to the Divine Law argues superficiality both in thought and in feeling. Even suppose it were not most practical and just and good, it ought to be held in high honor as proceeding from the Lord. How much more when it is so wise and so thorough in dealing with human and national life! The great business, therefore, of getting the Law written on the rocks of Mount Ebal must have impressed its sacredness upon the people, and have constituted a standing witness of their undertaking to obey it. It was the acceptance and the publication of Divine Law as that by which, as a nation, they would abide.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> BURNT<\/strong> OFFERINGS<\/strong> INDICATED<\/strong> THEIR<\/strong> PERSONAL<\/strong> CONSECRATION<\/strong> TO<\/strong> GOD<\/strong>. A reference to this sacrifice will show that the idea emphasized in the burnt offering is consecration. The fire is emblematic of the sublimating influence of the Holy Spirit, by which the whole being, the entire personality, is lifted heavenward. When, then, the Israelites gathered round the altar between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, and had plentiful burnt offerings presented by their priests, it was surely dedicating their persons unto God, vowing to be a holy people unto him. Just as the burnt offering comes first in Leviticus to indicate the consecrated attitude of a people redeemed from Egyptian bondage, so it comes first on their entrance into the land of promise. It was Israel asserting that they were not their own, but “bought with a price,” and therefore bound to glorify God with their bodies, and their spirits, which are God’s (1Co 6:20<\/span>).<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> PEACE<\/strong> OFFERINGS<\/strong> INDICATED<\/strong> FELLOWSHIP<\/strong> BEFORE<\/strong> GOD<\/strong>. After the burnt offerings came the peace offerings, part of which was laid on the altar, part appropriated by the priests, and the remainder the portion of the people. It was a feast of fellowship between God and his people. It was the sacrament of the land of promise. It indicated peace and unity between God and man. What a precious and interesting service it must have been! The most magnificent congregation the world ever saw, and the most impressive service! Communion is based upon unity of mind and of will on the part of the covenant-keeping God and his Law-abiding people.R.M.E.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:11-26<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

Responses.<\/strong><\/p>\n

After the writing of the Law, and the sacrifices, there was to be a great congregation, and half of the people were to assemble on Mount Gerizim to bless, viz. Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin; while the other half were to assemble on Mount Ebal to curse, viz. Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. Now, we know from Numbers that the order of march was this: Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Gershon and Merari with the tabernacle, Reuben, Simeon, Gad, Kohath with the sanctuary, Ephraim, Manasseh, Benjamin, Dan, Asher, and Naphtali. The order for the arrangement, therefore, was that the van, consisting of Judah and Issachar, marched to Gerizim; then Zebulun, the next tribe, marched to Ebal; then the Gershonites and Merarites marched to Gerizim; then Reuben to Ebal; Simeon to Gerizim; Gad to Ebal; the Kohathites to Gerizim; followed by Ephraim, Manasseh, and Benjamin, who were the followers of the ark; and lastly the rearguard, Dan, Asher, and Naphtali, to Ebal. No commander-in-chief ever disposed of his men more impartially than did Moses in this address beyond the Jordan. Now, we have one or two remarks arising out of this arrangement.<\/p>\n

I.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> TRIBE<\/strong> OF<\/strong> LEVI<\/strong>, WITH<\/strong> ALL<\/strong> THE<\/strong> APPOINTMENTS<\/strong> FOR<\/strong> SACRIFICE<\/strong>, PASSED<\/strong> TO<\/strong> GERIZIM<\/strong> TO<\/strong> BLESS<\/strong>. In the march Levi was divided into two partsthe Gershonites and Merarites going fourth with the tabernacle furniture, while the Kohathites went eighth with the ark and sanctuary. But they unite at Mount Gerizim. Nothing could more clearly indicate the mercy and blessing embodied in the whole ceremonial law which the Levites represented. The Law in its judicial aspect might have its penalties and judgments, but it had its ceremonies of mercy to counterbalance these.<\/p>\n

II.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> WEIGHT<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THE<\/strong> NATION<\/strong> STOOD<\/strong> ON<\/strong> MOUNT<\/strong> GERIZIM<\/strong>. When we consider the tribes that defiled upon the mount of blessing, we see that they absorb the heroic in Israel. Reuben, Gad, Asher, Dan, Zebulun, and Naphtali were nobodies, so far as national heroism is concerned; whereas the other tribes became famous in the history of Palestine. It is surely significant that the weight of the nation is assigned to the mount of blessing.<\/p>\n

III.<\/strong> THE<\/strong> PEOPLE<\/strong> HAD<\/strong> TO<\/strong> SAY<\/strong> “AMEN<\/strong>” TO<\/strong> THE<\/strong> CURSES<\/strong> AS<\/strong> WELL<\/strong> AS<\/strong> TO<\/strong> THE<\/strong> BLESSINGS<\/strong> PRONOUNCED<\/strong> IN<\/strong> THE<\/strong> NAME<\/strong> OF<\/strong> GOD<\/strong>. Some are ready with their responses to the blessings; they cannot get too much of them. But they demur to any curses issuing from God. They think they are unworthy of him. It so happens, however, that, in the great congregation between the mountains, the curses of Ebal had precedence of the blessings of Gerizim. The emphasis chronologically was given to the curses<\/em>. <\/em>And our consciences must acknowledge that the Law of God must carry out its penalties punctually, or it will forfeit all respect.<\/p>\n

IV.<\/strong> A REVIEW<\/strong> OF<\/strong> THE<\/strong> CURSES<\/strong> HERE<\/strong> UTTERED<\/strong> SHOWS<\/strong> THAT<\/strong> THEY<\/strong> ALL<\/strong> REST<\/strong> UPON<\/strong> RIGHT<\/strong>. No one dare take up one of these curses and suggest its omission or alteration. It is absolute morality which assigns a malediction to such crimes as these. They have the hearty “Amen<\/em>“ <\/em>of every unbiased conscience.R.M.E.<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Complete Pulpit Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

The Instructions for the Stone Monument as a Pause to the Second Discourse<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deu 27:1-8<\/span><\/p>\n

1And Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandments [the whole commandment] which I command you this day. 2And it shall be on the day when ye shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaster them with plaster: 3And thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over [in thy passing over], that thou mayest go in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, a land that floweth with milk and honey; as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee. 4Therefore it shall be when ye be gone over Jordan, that<\/em> ye shall set up these stones which I command you this day, in mount Ebal, and thou shalt plaster them with plaster. 5And there shalt thou build an altar unto the Lord thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt not lift up [swing over it] any<\/em> iron tool<\/em> upon them. 6Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God of whole [complete] stones: and thou shalt offer [cause to ascend] burnt offerings [whole offerings] thereon unto the Lord thy God: And thou shalt offer peace-offerings 7[salvation offerings], and shalt eat there, and rejoice before the Lord thy God. 8And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law, very plainly.<\/p>\n

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deu 27:1<\/span>. And the elders<\/strong>because they had it to perform (Deu 1:1<\/span>). The whole commandment<\/strong> is the following command for the erection, plastering, and inscribing, etc.<\/em>, in all its compass. Its keeping<\/strong> is symbolical for the keeping of all the commands generally. (Knobel, Schultz, Keil, of the whole law.) Comp. Introd.<\/em> 2. The time limit in Deu 27:2<\/span> places at once the entrance upon Canaan, to which all refers here, as the day for the fulfilment of the command, as it corresponds to the day of the command ( ,). The closer restriction follows in Deu 27:4<\/span>. Plaster<\/strong>either with gypsum or lime-wash generallyto fit them for the inscription, Deu 27:3<\/span>; for the cementing of the stones with mortarwas either evidently included in the command for their erection, or perhaps was unnecessary from their great size. The writing follows upon the plastering, and thus is to be inserted upon the plastered stones, and not to be cut in the stones, and then whitewashed or covered. For the Egyptian usage comp. Hengstenberg, Auth.<\/em> I. p. 464 sq. They carved or painted upon the smooth surface. The inscription was not for posterity, but as a testimony to their cotemporaries. All the words of this law<\/strong>Introd.<\/em> 2. The obedience to the law so declared and attested justified the conquest of Canaan to their cotemporaries. Deu 27:4<\/span>. A resumption of Deu 27:2<\/span> for the purpose of defining the locality, that the command there, should be restricted to the midst of the land. Ebal, for which the Samaritan Pentateuch designedly substitutes Gerizim, on account of Deu 27:12-13<\/span> (Deu 11:29<\/span>). The Samaritan temple stood upon Gerizim. Comp. Hengstenberg, Authen.<\/em> I. 37. Ebal, which was at least a hundred feet higher than Gerizim (Robinson, Researches<\/em>, Vol. III., and Later Researches<\/em>, pp. 131, 132), and was better fitted both for the stones and the altar, Deu 27:5<\/span>. Comp. upon Exo 20:22<\/span>; Jos 8:30<\/span> sqq. (Introd.<\/em> 4). That the altar was not to be built of the stones already mentioned is the more clear since the stones of the altar are in Deu 27:6<\/span> whole stones<\/strong> (Deu 25:15<\/span>)thus stones untouched by human hands (1Th 5:23<\/span>). As the altar for the sacrifices, so it gives a more solemn stamp and completion to the symbolical transaction, Deu 27:2-4<\/span>. Burnt offerings<\/strong> (Lev 1:3<\/span> sq.) as those ascending wholly to God in the high places, designated and expressed the entire concession of the offerer to the Lord. The peace-offerings<\/strong> (Shelamim<\/strong>) express the enjoyment of salvation the more distinctly, since here also the portion in this sacrifice belonging to the offerer for the joyful meal is expressly noticed. Comp. the similar transaction, Exodus 24<\/span>, in the first law-giving, as also here in the repetition, Deuteronomy 5<\/span> sq. As Deu 27:4<\/span> resumes Deu 27:2<\/span>, for the purpose of the local determination, so now Deu 27:8<\/span> resumes again Deu 27:3<\/span>, for a closer description how the words should be written. Comp. upon Deu 1:5<\/span>, Hengstenb. Auth.<\/em> I. p. 482 sq. (Deu 9:21<\/span>). In good, distinct characters, so that every one may see and understand.<\/p>\n

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. In the first place, the necessity that the people should appropriate the law to itself is thus expressed. Its writing stands over against the writing of God, Deu 27:2<\/span>; the writing of Jehovah has thus penetrated the mind of Israel. But, on the other hand, this rigid stone writing, these hard letters, show that the law, even after the preceding appropriation, remains still an external law, standing over against the people. But the sacrifices bring the act of inscribing inwardly to the consciousnessmake it a real appropriation. Baumgarten.<\/p>\n

2. The paternal city of Hesiod honored his memory by engraving his great poem in full upon lead tables (Pausanias 9, 31). Comp. the descriptive pillars of Darius at the Hellespont (Herod, iv. 87). was a post or pillar erected by the state, inscribed with laws, ordinances, decrees of the council or of the people. There were also metal pillars inscribed with laws. Hence is a kind of proverbial expression in Polybius for the transgression of the laws.<\/p>\n

3. That the law should be set up upon Mount Ebal, from whence the curse should be proclaimed, has essentially the same ground, as the fact that Moses gives only the formula for the curse, Deu 27:15<\/span> sq., as the fire upon Sinai, as the prominent position of the threatenings in the law. The law speaks more impressively to sinful man in connection with the curse. Fear must be first awakened. The curse manifests itself throughout in human lifemost unquestionably in death. To see the blessing belongs often to other eyes than those of the natural man. It was, moreover, not concealed from Moses that the curse, for the most part, should come through the law, Deu 31:16<\/span> sq. As the curse is connected more clearly with the law, so the blessing first with him whom God should send (Act 3:26<\/span>). Schultz. According to Baumgarten, the curse appears to be wiped away through the sacrifice; for in the sacrifice Israel judged itself that it should not be condemned by God (1 Corinthians 9<\/span>). Hence the eating with joy of the peace-offerings, the completing, finished offerings, and that before the face of Jehovah. Keil (as the Berl. Bib.); in order to show how the law and economy of the Old Testament would denounce the curse lying upon the whole human race for sin, in order to awaken the desire for the Messiah, who should take away the curse and bring in the true blessing.<\/p>\n

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deu 27:1<\/span>. Calvin: This command tends to the same end as the commands with respect to the door-posts and the fringes of the garments. The stones should be a monument in the land, from which the people should learn that they dwelt there purely to honor God. As the individual dwellings, so the whole land should be holy to God, as a sanctuary of heavenly truth. Deu 27:3<\/span>. Piscator: God holds His law as the unchangeable rule of wisdom and righteousness, and will have it so held. The stones should speak, if Israel were silent. Tub. Bib.: The O. T. upon the stones, the new upon the tables of the heart, Jeremiah 31<\/span>; 2Co 3:3<\/span>. [The stones so inscribed were a testimony on the part of the people: 1) that they took possession of the land by virtue of the law; 2) that they held it only as obedient to the law; 3) that these stones should witness against their unfaithfulness.A. G.] Deu 27:5<\/span>. Lange: In this simple, unartistic form, God is well pleased, for the sake of the Messiah, who presents Himself in the form of a servant, altar, priest, and sacrifice. Piscator. In the service of God we should not do any thing out of mere human good intentions, but abide in the simplicity which God has prescribed. Deu 27:7<\/span>. J. Gerhard (just prior to his death): Such joy is the foretaste of that eternal joy which we shall share in the other world through the death of Christ.<\/p>\n

Transition to the Last Third Discourse<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deu 27:9-26<\/span><\/p>\n

9And Moses and the priests the Levites spake unto all Israel, saying, Take heed [keep silence] and hearken, O Israel, this day thou art become the people of the Lord thy God. 10Thou shalt therefore obey [hearken to] the voice of the Lord thy God, and do his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day. 11And Moses charged [commanded] the people the same day, saying, 12These shall stand upon mount Gerizim to bless the people, when ye are come over Jordan: Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin: 13And these shall stand upon [in] mount Ebal to curse [Schroeder, as the margin: for a cursing]; Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. 14And the Levites shall speak [answer] and say unto all the men of Israel with a<\/em> loud [high] 15voice, Cursed be<\/em> the man that maketh any<\/em> graven or molten image, an abomination unto the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth [setteth it up] 16 it<\/em> in a<\/em> secret place:<\/em> and all the people shall answer and say, Amen. Cursed be<\/em> he that setteth light by [despises] his father or his mother: and all the people shall 17say, Amen. Cursed be<\/em> he that removeth his neighbours land-mark: and all the 18people shall say, Amen. Cursed be<\/em> he that maketh the blind to wander out of the 19way: and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be<\/em> he that perverteth the judgment [right] of the stranger, fatherless, and widow: and all the people shall say, 20Amen. Cursed be<\/em> he that lieth with his fathers wife; because he uncovereth his 21fathers skirt: and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be<\/em> he that lieth with 22any manner of beast: and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be<\/em> he that lieth with his sister, the daughter of his father, or the daughter of his mother: and all 23the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be<\/em> he that lieth with his mother-in law: and 24all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be<\/em> he that smiteth his neighbour secretly: 25and all the people shall say, Amen. Cursed be<\/em> he that taketh reward to slay [slay a soul, innocent blood] an innocent person: and all the people shall say, Amen. 26Cursed be<\/em> he that confirmeth not [setteth not up] all<\/em> the words of this law to do them: and all the people shall say, Amen.<\/p>\n

EXEGETICAL AND CRITICAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deu 27:9<\/span>. And the priests<\/strong>, etc.<\/em> (Introd.<\/em> 4)because they were generally the teachers of the law, and were specially to declare the blessing and the curse respectively (Deu 10:8<\/span>; Deu 21:5<\/span>; Num 6:23<\/span> sq.; Deu 5:19<\/span> sq.). As Deu 26:16<\/span> and Deu 27:6<\/span> sq. allude to the covenant relation, so we have here the actual transition to it. The repetition of the law, of that which took place at Sinai, through which Israel became a people, and indeed this peculiar people which they were. Comp. Deu 5:1<\/span> sq.; chap. 29. Deu 27:10<\/span>. Comp. Deu 26:17<\/span>. With respect to Jehovah, it must hearken to His law (Deu 4:12<\/span>; Deu 4:30<\/span>; Deu 4:36<\/span>), practically obey it (Deu 4:1<\/span> sq.), and especially carry out the following commands which Moses enjoined, Deu 27:11<\/span>, through which the erection of the stones for the law, and the setting up of the altar, as also the sacrificing in Canaan, appear not so much in their significance, as in their immediate application to Israel, through which it solemnly adjudges to itself the consequences, the blessings, or the curses, according to its character. Deu 27:12<\/span>. Comp. upon Deu 11:26<\/span> sq., 29 (Deu 27:4<\/span>). The blessings were previously intimated, and are to be regarded as blessings corresponding to the curses which are above delivered. The six tribes for blessing are those which sprang from Leah and Rachel (with the exception of Reuben and Zebulon). Gen 29:30<\/span>. Joseph appears as embracing Ephraim and Manasseh, as in Gen 49:22<\/span> sq. Comp. Deu 33:13<\/span> sq. The six tribes for the cursing, Deu 27:13<\/span>, are those descending from the handmaid of Leah and then those from the handmaid of Rachel (Genesis 30<\/span>.), the first preceded by Reuben (the fallen first-born), and last by Zebulon, Leahs youngest son. Since with respect to both, the curse as the blessing, it is said only they shall stand<\/strong>, and accordingly the distance between comes into view, we may certainly think of a representation of the tribes, perhaps their elders, who descend from the two mountains. Through their position they represent only, do not utter, the blessing and the curse. (Sepp, Pilgerbuch<\/em> II. p. 27, remarks that at all times, day and night mountains, light and shadow lands, have been distinguished. The northern half of the Meru is the Himalaya (i.e<\/em>., winter); the southern the Kailasa (i.e.<\/em>, the summer), mountains; Horeb the hoary (frosty) stands over against Sinai, the burning; so also Ebal over against Gerizim. The Arabians call Saturn Hobal, the destroyer, and worship him under the image of the black stone in the Kaaba. Then Ebal would be called after Baal Chronos(the god of the dead.) Deu 27:14<\/span>. . Comp. upon Deu 21:7<\/span>; Deu 25:9<\/span>. The Levites<\/strong>according to Deu 27:9<\/span>, and also from the fact that the tribe has its place upon Gerizim<\/em>, Deu 27:12<\/span>are the levitical priests, to whom the like position and duties are entirely fitting. Comp. Jos 8:33<\/span> (Introd.<\/em> 4). They answer (what perhaps is yet questionable), inasmuch as in the blessings they turned to Gerizim, and in the curses to Ebal, and say to all the men of Israel, and indeed with a loud voice<\/strong>, as God Himself, Deu 5:19<\/span>, and as the law was to be written very plainly upon the stones (Deu 27:8<\/span>). Knobel incorrectly refers the loud voice to the people. All the people<\/strong> in the following verses include the more widely distant, congregated masses of Israel. Deu 27:15<\/span>. Only curses here. Comp. Doct. and Eth. 3<\/span> and 4. The number twelve is in accordance with the twelve-tribed people. As the whole ceremony and the special form of the curses are practical, so also the inward peculiar nature of the examples selected. Gross transgressions incur the penalty, but the more secret and refined meet with the curse, in order to show that God will in any case visit such sinners, and to instil into the hypocrite a terror of his works of darkness (V. Gerlach). (kindred with )to sever, reject, curse; one rejected by God and men;the separation, i.e.<\/em>, to death. The first instance is the secret transgression of the second commandment, whose significance for the thought of the decalogue is again made prominent in this exemplification. Comp. upon Deu 5:8<\/span>; Deu 4:16<\/span> and Deu 9:12<\/span>. Neither graven nor molten. Comp. further Deu 17:1<\/span>; Deu 4:28<\/span>; Deu 13:7<\/span>. firm, faithful, certain; i.e.<\/em>, so be it, and so will we heartily keep it (Num 5:22<\/span>; Neh 5:13<\/span>; Neh 8:6<\/span>; 1Co 14:16<\/span>). Do the plurals and , not occurring in the other verses, embrace the six, and six tribes? Or do they correspond merely to the Levites? Deu 27:16<\/span>. Next to the character of God comes that of the parents. Upon comp. Deu 25:3<\/span>. The disposition may represent itself in words or deeds, or in the general deportment (v. 16; Deu 21:18<\/span> sq.; Exo 21:17<\/span>; Exo 21:15<\/span>; Lev 20:9<\/span>). Upon Deu 27:17<\/span> comp. Deu 19:14<\/span>. Deu 27:18<\/span>. Not: viatorem, qui similis cco<\/em>, or ignarum in itinere<\/em>, or spiritually, 2Ti 3:13<\/span>, but as Lev 19:14<\/span>. Eye diseases are still as prevalent in Egypt as other types of diseases among us. As one, therefore, readily comprehends the eye-salvee.g.<\/em>, Rev 3:18<\/span>so also the conception of a helpless neighbor, as of one blind. Upon Deu 27:19<\/span> comp. Deu 24:17<\/span>. Upon Deu 27:20<\/span>; Deu 23:1<\/span>. Upon Deu 27:21-23<\/span>, Lev 18:20<\/span>; Exo 22:19<\/span>. Upon Deu 27:24<\/span> comp. Deu 19:11<\/span>; Deu 21:1<\/span> sq.; Exo 21:13-14<\/span>; Num 35:20<\/span> sq. To the private he now adds Deu 27:25<\/span>, the judicial murder embracing both the judge and witnesses. Comp. Deu 16:19<\/span>; Deu 19:10<\/span>; Deu 19:13<\/span>. Deu 27:26<\/span>. Most comprehensive: to set up, as for others so for himself, as the rule of his life. Non tanturn, ut sciat et rata habeat, sed ut etiam faciat.<\/em>. J. H. Michaelis (Rom 3:31<\/span>). Comp. Mat 5:19<\/span>; Jam 2:10<\/span>; Gal 3:10<\/span>; Joh 8:31<\/span>.<\/p>\n

DOCTRINAL AND ETHICAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. Comp. upon the previous section 3.<\/p>\n

2. Israel must by its own words take upon itself the results or consequences of the law (Luk 19:22<\/span>; Mat 12:37<\/span>).<\/p>\n

3. Although the exhibition of the curse upon Ebal is at the same time, through the altar, a representation of its being overcome or taken away, still it must ever remind Israel of its weakness and of the possibility of its fall. Thus Reuben, who, through his fall, forfeited his birth-right, stands at the head of the curse-speaking tribes (Baumgarten).<\/p>\n

4. It is the office of the law pre-eminently to proclaim the condemnation (V. Gerlach).<\/p>\n

5. Every conscious transgression of the law brings the sinner under the curse of God, from which He alone can deliver us, who was made a curse for us (V. Gerlach).<\/p>\n

6. The first and last of the curses have the most comprehensive importthat relates to the outbreaking of the original sin, this embraces all transgressions of the law (Baumgarten).<\/p>\n

HOMILETICAL AND PRACTICAL<\/strong><\/p>\n

Deu 27:9<\/span>. Silence and hearing, the key to the word of God, to its understanding, and to an experience of the same. Deu 27:12<\/span> sq. Piscator: The children of the free are for the blessing, as are believers, who are the free children of the promise and heirs of blessing. Starke: A type of the last judgment. Either under the blessing or under the curse., Even Levi also. Deu 27:14<\/span>. Piscator: The faithful watcher for souls stands in the midst between the pious and the wicked. Richter: Some think that the blessings are not further mentioned here, because Christ should first utter these, Matthew 5<\/span>. Berl. Bib.: They might also observe how our Saviour at another time with the blessings has also announced the curse, as He uttered the woes upon the rich, the full, etc.<\/em> [Deu 27:26<\/span>. Wordsworth: Not the hearers of the law are justified, but the doers (Rom 2:13<\/span>). Vain are the hopes of men founded upon their obedience to the law. The Amen is a condemnation upon ourselves, and shuts us up to Christ, who alone has set up, established the words of this law to do them, and in whom therefore there is blessing instead of the curse.A.G.]<\/p>\n

Fuente: A Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, Critical, Doctrinal, and Homiletical by Lange<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

CONTENTS<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

As Moses had now nearly concluded everything relating to the precepts; he enjoins the people in this chapter to adopt a means of keeping alive in their remembrance the great things of GOD’S law, by writing it upon stones. And the chapter is concluded in aiming to impress the whole still more upon their minds, by causing the Levites to pronounce curses upon all that disobeyed the divine commands.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

If the Reader will recollect, similar methods of perpetuating the law of GOD, were observed after the delivery on Mount Sinai. Exo 24:4<\/span> .<\/p>\n

Fuente: Hawker’s Poor Man’s Commentary (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

(See the Deuteronomy Book Comments for Introductory content and Homiletic suggestions).<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

XIV<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

THIRD, FOURTH, AND FIFTH ORATIONS<\/p>\n

Deu 27:1-31:13<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

It is customary to classify the words of Moses in Deuteronomy into three orations, a song and a benediction, but this classification is not exact. His third address is contained in Deuteronomy 27-28. A fourth distinct address with its introduction is contained in Deuteronomy 29-30. A fifth address distinct in introduction and matter is to be found in Deu 31<\/span> , covering only thirteen verses. So that there are at least five distinct addresses, besides the song and benediction, each with an appropriate historical introduction. We consider in this discussion the third, fourth, and fifth addresses.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

THE THIRD ORATION<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

This oration first provided for a most elaborate and impressive renewal and ratification of the covenant when Israel shall have entered the Promised Land, and closes with a most earnest exhortation to obedience, including a notable and far reaching prophecy of the curses that will certainly follow disobedience. The parts of this third oration are very distinct:<\/p>\n

(1) Associating with him the elders of Israel, he directs that on entrance into the Land of Promise, plastered monumental stones shall be erected on Mount Ebal and thereon plainly inscribed all the laws of the covenant, as a perpetual memorial and witness of their possession of the land by Jehovah’s power and grace, conditioned upon their observance of the terms of the covenant. What a lasting library of stone! What a witness to the grounds of their tenure of the land!<\/p>\n

(2) The erection of an altar after the model given in the original covenant at Sinai (Exo 20:24-26<\/span> ) and the sacrifice thereon of burnt offerings as originally provided, thus renewing the ratification of the covenant.<\/p>\n

(3) The sacrifice of peace offerings followed by a Joyful communion feast showing forth peace with Jehovah (arising from the blood of the covenant) and their enjoyment of him.<\/p>\n

(4) Then associating himself with the priests and Levites, he provides for the solemn announcement that they are Jehovah’s people and must obey him.<\/p>\n

(5) He then charges the whole people that on this great day they must take their places in two great divisions, six tribes on Gerizirn and six on Ebal, prepared to repeat after the Levites the responsive blessings and curses of the law.<\/p>\n

He directs that on this great day the Levites shall stand in the valley between the two mountains and solemnly pronounce alternatively twelve blessings and twelve curses, the first eleven of each special statutes as specimens of the whole, and the twelfth of each touching the whole law as a unit. That as each course on disobedience is pronounced by the Levites, the six tribes on Ebal shall repeat it, and as the alternate blessing on obedience is pronounced, the other six tribes on Gerizirn shall repeat it, and when the twelfth blessing and curse touching the whole covenant are repeated, then all the tribes on both mountains in one loud, blended chorus shall say, “Amen.” We shall find in Joshua all these directions becoming history. The history of the world furnishes no parallel in solemnity and sublimity to this great transaction in conception here, and in fulfilment later.<\/p>\n

Deu 28<\/span> is devoted to exhortation based upon these directions and prophecies. It is difficult to summarize this awful exhortation, but we may profitably emphasize the following points of the exhortation:<\/p>\n

(1) If you keep this covenant you shall be blessed in national position and with God. Jehovah shall be your God and ye shall be the head and not the tail; shall be above and not below. Jehovah shall smite all your enemies. Coming against you in one way, they shall flee in seven ways. All other nations shall see that you are called by Jehovah’s name and shall be afraid. Jehovah will establish you as a holy people unto himself.<\/p>\n

If ye keep this covenant ye shall be blessed in all places: in the city, in the field, in the home, in the barn, and in the kitchen.<\/p>\n

Ye shall be cursed in all things: in children, in crops, in herds, in vineyards, in the seasons, and in business (lending to others but not borrowing), in health, in your outgoings and incomings, and especially in peace of mind and joy of heart.<\/p>\n

(2) But if you disobey this covenant and break it, all these groups of blessings shall be reversed into their opposites: Ye shall lose your exalted position among the nations, and with God. Ye shall be outcasts from God; ye shall be the tail of all nations and not the head. Ye shall be beaten in wars; ye shall flee in all battles; ye shall be dispersed seven ways where you went out one. Now you see this curse is national, just like the corresponding blessing was national. Ye shall be cursed in all places: in the city, in the home, in the field, in the barn, in the kitchen, and in all lands of dispersion.<\/p>\n

Ye shall be cursed in all things: in children, in crops, in herds, vineyards, wars, outgoings, incomings, and especially shall ye be cursed in your mind and heart. Ye shall have neither peace of mind nor joy of heart. Here is the curse of mind and heart; it is as awful a thing as I ever read in my life:<\/p>\n

“And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of thy foot: but Jehovah will give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul; and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear night and day, and shalt have no assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would it were even I And at even thou shalt say, Would it were morning! for the fear of thy heart which thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see” (Deu 28:65-67<\/span> ). Note particularly the awful picture of their disaster when besieged by enemies, as set forth in Deu 28:49-57<\/span> , so literally fulfilled when Jerusalem was taken by Titus in A.D. 70, and so fearfully depicted by Josephus. The prophecy closes with a reversal of their deliverance from Egypt since as captives they again shall be transported back in ships to become once more a nation of slaves in Egypt. This going into Egyptian bondage we shall find verified in the closing days of Jeremiah. His book of Lamentations furnishes the commentary on a part of this fearful prophecy. Poor man! he himself was carried there, and died there at the downfall of the Jewish monarchy.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

FOURTH ORATION<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

The fourth address is contained in Deuteronomy 29-30, according to our chapter divisions. The occasion of this address as set forth in the introductory verse is a special present renewing of the Sinaitic covenant by oath, but it is not followed by ratification by sacrifices. The address recites again their miraculous deliverance from Egypt by Jehovah with signs and wonders, his merciful providence in miraculously supplying all their needs throughout their wanderings even though they had not eyes to see nor heart to appreciate. These blessings were light by night and shade by day, guidance in travel, water from the rock, bread from heaven, clothing and shoes that did not wax old or wear out, oracles for perplexities, forgiveness of sin through faith in the antitype of sacrifices, healing when poisoned, health so miraculous that there was not a feeble one in all the host, deliverance in battle. And now after reciting the Egyptian deliverance and the providential miracles while wandering, he tells them that they all stand before Jehovah to renew the oath of the covenant. Particularly note how comprehensive the statement of the human parties to the covenant:<\/p>\n

“Ye stand this day all of you before Jehovah your God; your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and thy sojourner that is in the midst of thy camps, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water; that thou mayest enter into the covenant of Jehovah thy God, and into his oath, which Jehovah thy God maketh with thee this day; that he may establish thee this day unto himself for a people, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he spake unto thee, and as he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath, etc.”<\/p>\n

Elders, tribes, officers, men, women, children, sojourners, and slaves and their children to the latest posterity, and as a national unit, and all touching every individual are bound by this covenant. Now later after that statement of the case he commences his exhortation:<\/p>\n

(1) He warns against the arising of any root or germ of bitterness (Deu 29:18<\/span> ). How radical the law! It does not wait to condemn the stem, or branches, or flowers, or fruit, but strikes at the root hidden from sight. So our Saviour interprets the law condemning the heart fountain from which flow all the streams of blasphemy, murder, adultery, and other overt actions. And so the wise man: “Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life.” And so the letter to the Hebrews quotes this very passage (Heb 12:15<\/span> ) warning them “lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby the many be defiled.”<\/p>\n

(2) The second point in his exhortation is that he warns them against the vain confidence of security, even though the law be broken. He describes a man or a woman in confidence saying to the heart: “I am all right if I did break the law,” that vain confidence of feeling secure with the law broken, and then he goes on to show that nothing under the heavens is so certain as that Jehovah saw that breach of the covenant and will punish it.<\/p>\n

(3) He foretells that other nations in future days, seeing the awful desolation of their once beautiful land, shall count it a land accursed of God on account of the sins of Israel. That is just exactly what you would say if you were to go there and look at the country. You would be astonished that such a land was ever described as flowing with milk and honey; you would not be able to understand how such a land ever was so beautiful and fruitful as described. You would see it under a curse.<\/p>\n

(4) He warns them that while some things are hidden, inscrutable, the property of God, the revealed things touching both blessing and curse belong to them and to their children. Whatever God reveals, that is worthy of study; whatever he hides, let it alone.<\/p>\n

(5) Then he graciously unfolds this special mercy of God, that if when smitten and scattered and oppressed by all other nations they will in far-off lands of exile and dispersion repent and turn to God, he will forgive and restore them. It was this promise of restoration that prompted the notable paragraph in Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple (1Ki 8:33-40<\/span> ), and encouraged the later prophets, like Zechariah, Ezekiel and Daniel in days of exile, and still later the Apostles, like Paul in his discussion, Rom 11<\/span> , concerning the restoration of the Jews.<\/p>\n

(6) He then assures them that obedience to this law is neither too hard nor too far off, but very nigh to them. Alas, it was both too far off and too hard to be obeyed by unrenewed and unbelieving hearts without faith in Christ. It remained for Paul, a later Jew, and the only other man in all show how by faith alone this salvation was both nigh and easy. (See Rom 10<\/span> .)<\/p>\n

He closes with a most touching invocation to both heaven and earth to bear witness that he that very day set before them these awful, inexorable alternatives: Life and good go together; death and evil are indissoluble.<\/p>\n

FIFTH ORATION<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

This, the last and shortest address, is contained in Deu 31:1-13<\/span> . The first part, verses Deu 31:1-8<\/span> , touchingly refers to his age, “I am now one hundred and twenty years old,” and to the vacation of his office. The great leader can no more go out and come in before them. But they need neither despair nor fear on that account. God’s cause does not die with its great advocates. Moses indeed will be gone, but Jehovah himself will remain their guide and protector. And even a human successor, Joshua, has already been trained to be their captain.<\/p>\n

The second part of this last oration directs that every seventh year, the year of release, the great Land Sabbath, a sabbath a year long, the whole people must be assembled, men, women and children, and that very year in which they have to do no work because the land lies idle, is to be devoted to studying and understanding the entire Pentateuch. I am sometimes blamed for devoting so much time to the Pentateuch. Here is my warrant. The year of the Land Sabbath was to be so devoted. It calls for a year. Happy the man who can master it in one year. What a Sunday school is here, men, women and children devoting a year to the study of the Law! Let us here find the original Sunday school idea; that it is not a school for only little children. The Sunday school idea is that men, women, and children shall come together and hear and be made to understand that Word of God. For example of fulfilment, see the remarkable history in Neh 8:1-8<\/span> . Illustrations may be given of the tremendous power of even a month’s concentration of mind on one study, viz.: the case of a thirty days’ school in geography, arithmetic, writing or mathematics. I would suggest the trial of one summer month devoted to the Pentateuch, the Gospels, Paul’s Letters, Eschatology, the Prophets) the Poetical Books, or the Monarchy.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

QUESTIONS<\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/p>\n

1. What chapters contain the third oration and of what does it consist?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

2. Itemize the provisions for a renewal of the covenant after entrance into the Promised Land.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

3. Of what does the twenty-eighth chapter consist?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

4. Give a summary of the exhortation based on the required renewal of the covenant.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

5. What the blessings promised for obedience?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

6. What the curses threatened for disobedience?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

7. What chapters contain the fourth oration?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

8. What its occasion?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

9. In what does it consist?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

10. Wherein does this retaking of the oath of the covenant in Oration Four, before they cross the Jordan, differ from the full renewal of the covenant required after they cross the Jordan, aa set forth in Oration Three?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

11. What blessings recited here?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

12. Who were the human parties to the covenant?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

13. Give a summary of the exhortation of the Fourth Oration.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

14. How does he close this oration?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

15. Where do we find the Fifth Oration?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

16. In what does it consist?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

17. Did they ever, apart from the one case cited in Nehemiah, attempt even to keep any part of this Land Sabbath, or its culmination, the Year of Jubilee?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

18. What exact and awful judgment in their later history became the penalty for disregarding the seventh year, or Land Sabbath, and its accompanying year-study of the Law?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

19. Cite the scriptures that prove the enforcement of the penalty for not keeping it.<\/p>\n

Fuente: B.H. Carroll’s An Interpretation of the English Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

NASB (UPDATED) TEXT: Deu 27:1-8<\/p>\n

1Then Moses and the elders of Israel charged the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you today. 2So it shall be on the day when you cross the Jordan to the land which the LORD your God gives you, that you shall set up for yourself large stones and coat them with lime 3and write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over, so that you may 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, promised you. 4So it shall be when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up on Mount Ebal, these stones, as I am commanding you today, and you shall coat them with lime. 5Moreover, you shall build there an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones; you shall not wield an iron tool on them. 6You shall build the altar of the LORD your God of uncut stones, and you shall offer on it burnt offerings to the LORD your God; 7and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and eat there, and rejoice before the LORD your God. 8You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very distinctly.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:1 and the elders of Israel Moses knew that soon the people would go into the Promised Land and that he would not be able to go (cf. Num 20:12; Num 27:12-14; Deu 3:26-27). He was trying to empower the tribal leadership group.<\/p>\n

Keep all the commandments This is a recurrent theme (cf. Deu 27:10) and condition for Israel’s stay in the land.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:2 on the day when you cross the Jordan. . .set up for yourself large stones There were three sets of stones:<\/p>\n

1. at Gilgal (Deu 27:1-3, cf. Joshua 4)<\/p>\n

2. at Shechem (Deu 27:4-8)<\/p>\n

3. after the conquest and division of the land God’s law was written on a large stone and on a book\/scroll (BDB 706, cf. Jos 24:26-27)<\/p>\n

It is possible that the phrase on the day can be understood as when, meaning both refer to Shechem.<\/p>\n

Exactly what was written on the stones is debated. They were large stones so they could hold a considerable amount of text. Many assume it is Deuteronomy 12-26 or 27-28 or Deu 5:8-21 or even Exo 20:22 to Exo 23:33.<\/p>\n

coat them with lime This VERB (BDB 966, KB 1319, Qal PERFECT) is found only in the OT in Deu 27:2; Deu 27:4. This was an Egyptian method of preparation for writing. It was a long lasting way for writing to stay visible. The reason for writing the Law down was so that each person could read it for themselves (cf. Deu 27:8).<\/p>\n

Deu 27:3 write on them There are several references in the Pentateuch which mention Moses’ writing:<\/p>\n

1. Exo 17:14; Exo 24:4; Exo 34:27-28<\/p>\n

2. Num 33:2<\/p>\n

3. Deu 27:3; Deu 27:8; Deu 28:58; Deu 29:21; Deu 30:10; Deu 31:9; Deu 31:22; Deu 31:24-26<\/p>\n

as the LORD, the God of your fathers, promised you (cf. Deu 27:12) Shechem [Mt. Gerizim] is the place where Abraham (cf. Gen 12:6-9) and Jacob (cf. Gen 33:18-20) built altars. This showed the fulfillment of God’s earlier promises to them.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:4 Mount Ebal There are two mountains (i.e., 3,080 feet high) on either side of the city of Shechem (i.e., shoulder blade). This was one of them. Shechem was the first place Abraham had earlier built an altar (cf. Gen 12:6-7).<\/p>\n

Deu 27:5 you shall not wield an iron tool on them This is possibly related to the structure of Canaanite altars (cf. Exo 20:24-25). God required that His altars had to be different from the manmade Canaanite altars (i.e., cut stones, Deu 27:6). This account reflects Jos 8:30-35.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:6 burnt offerings A burnt offering is one that is totally consumed (i.e., given completely to YHWH, Lev 1:1-7).<\/p>\n

Deu 27:7 peace offering This is partially burnt on the altar, part is given to priests, part is given back to the offerer for a communal meal (cf. Lev 3:1; Lev 3:7).<\/p>\n

you shall… rejoice This is a theme in Deuteronomy (BDB 970, KB 1333, Qal perfect, cf. Deu 12:7; Deu 12:12; Deu 12:18; Deu 14:26; Deu 16:11; Deu 16:14; Deu 26:11; Deu 27:7). YHWH wanted to bless Israel so as to attract the attention of the surrounding nations.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:8<\/p>\n

NASBvery distinctly<\/p>\n

NKJVvery plainly<\/p>\n

NRSVvery clearly<\/p>\n

TEVwrite clearly<\/p>\n

NJBcarefully<\/p>\n

This English translation is made up of two Hebrew INFINITIVE ABSOLUTES:<\/p>\n

1. BDB 91, KB 106, Piel<\/p>\n

2. BDB 405, KB 408, Hiphil<\/p>\n

This is saying that these words, each and every word, are important.<\/p>\n

Fuente: You Can Understand the Bible: Study Guide Commentary Series by Bob Utley<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

And Moses. This is the beginning of the fifth address. See note on Deu 1:1. <\/p>\n

this day. See note on Deu 4:26. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Companion Bible Notes, Appendices and Graphics<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Chapter 27<\/p>\n

In chapter twenty-seven, when you come into the land you are to take these stones and you are to build a tower and you are to plaster it. And then you are to write on the plaster of the tower the words of the law when you pass over into the land that God has given to you.<\/p>\n

Therefore it shall be when you have gone over Jordan, [verse four] that ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in mount Ebal, and thou shalt plaster them with plaster. And there shalt thou build an altar unto the LORD thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them. Thou shalt build the altar of the LORD thy God of whole stones: and thou shalt offer burnt offerings thereon unto the LORD thy God: And thou shalt offer peace offerings, and shalt eat there, and rejoice before the LORD thy God. And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly ( Deu 27:4-8 ).<\/p>\n

And so they were to build this altar, but they were not to carve the stones. They were not to cut the stones. They were to use just whole stones. No tool was to come upon them.<\/p>\n

Now when God first commanded the building of altars they were to be built just out of earth. It was interesting that when they made a place of worship for God, God’s desire that the place that they make for the worship of God be simple and natural. God did not want them building ornate places of worship. Why? Because when you come into an ornate place of worship your mind is drawn to the ornateness of the place. And you begin to glory in its architecture or in the fine carvings or in the beauty of the place itself. But God wants you when you come to worship Him not to be distracted. To stand in awe of gorgeous architecture or whatever but that your place of worship be just a simple place, that does not attract attention to itself but allows you to give your full attention unto the Lord to worship Him.<\/p>\n

And those stones, don’t carve them, don’t cut them out, just smooth them out, just whole stones to make the altar. Then on Mount Ebal to place these stones in a pile, to plaster the pile and to write upon the plaster the law of God, there on Mount Ebal, then to bring burnt offerings and peace offerings.<\/p>\n

Now you remember your lessons out of Leviticus. You will remember that the burnt offerings were the offerings of consecration. It is the symbolizing of the consecrating of my life to God. The peace offerings were the offerings of communion, my desire to fellowship with God and to commune with God. And so the two offerings, the burnt offering, that is the consecration and communion with God.<\/p>\n

Now up on top of Mount Gerizim certain of the tribes were to stand and to pronounce the blessings upon the people. And on Mount Ebal other tribes were to stand and pronounce the curses.<\/p>\n

Now on Mount Gerizim, verse twelve,<\/p>\n

to bless the people, the tribe of Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin: On mount Ebal to curse the people; Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. And the Levites shall speak, and say unto all the men of Israel with a loud voice ( Deu 27:12-13 ).<\/p>\n

Now here is the picture: when you are in the valley, when you are in the valley of Shechem. You have on your left-hand side Mount Gerizim. It raises, probably two thousand feet above the valley, and on the right hand side you have Mount Ebal, raising about two thousand feet above the valley. So here you have the valley of the area of Shechem with these two mountains on either side, so the vast multitude of Israel standing in this valley. And up on the top of Mount Gerizim these men from these tribes that we read off are calling out the blessings of God that shall come upon you for obedience. On the other Mount Ebal, if you are in the valley you are hearing these guys crying the curses for those that disobey the laws of God. And so it must have been a very awesome kind of an experience. One that would really implant itself quite deeply in your mind as you realized the blessings and the cursings, as God said, “I have set before you today a blessing and a curse”. A blessing if you obey, a curse if you disobey.<\/p>\n

So these are the curses that were then pronounced,<\/p>\n

Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and puts it in a secret place. And all the congregation shall answer and say, Amen ( Deu 27:15 ).<\/p>\n

So after each one of these curses they would have to cry out, “so be it”. You know just sorta accepting, you know, all right, judgment, “so be it”. And so the various curses that were cried out from this area and the people acknowledging the righteousness of the curses as you go through the remainder of chapter twenty-seven. <\/p>\n

“<\/p>\n

Fuente: Through the Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

We have here the record of something distinctive and arresting. Immediately after the close of the second discourse containing a r6sum6 I of laws, Moses and the elders commanded the people that after they entered the land they were to erect on Mount Ebal stones that were to be covered with plaster and have inscribed on them the words of the Law, the reference to the Law there undoubtedly being to the Ten Commandments. Moreover, they were to build an altar on the same mountain<\/p>\n

The action was suggestive. The law insisted on the necessity for obedience, while the altar spoke of the only method of approach to God consequent on disobedience.<\/p>\n

Following these instructions, Moses and the Levites charged the people that after they entered on the land there was to be a formal pronouncement of blessing and cursing. The blessings were to be uttered from Mount Gerizim by the children of Leah and Rachael; the cursing from Mount Ebal by the children of the bondwomen. It is noticeable here that the blessings pronounced are not enumerated, but only the curses.<\/p>\n

Fuente: An Exposition on the Whole Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Curses upon Evildoers<\/p>\n

Deu 27:1-26<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Fuente: F.B. Meyer’s Through the Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

23. The Memorial of the Law at Mount Ebal; Gerizim and Ebal<\/p>\n

CHAPTER 27<\/p>\n

1. The memorial to be set up in the land (Deu 27:1-8)<\/p>\n

2. Gerizim and Ebal (Deu 27:9-26)<\/p>\n

Little comment is needed on this chapter. The memorial stones were to be set up on Mount Ebal. Upon that mountain the curses of the law were to be uttered. The blessings were to be pronounced upon Mount Gerizim. However, on Gerizim were no stones with the law written upon it. How strikingly this illustrates the true ministration of the law! It cannot give blessing, but it must curse man. For as many as are of the works of the law are under the curse; for it is written, Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them (Gal 3:10). Then the tribes are divided to stand upon Gerizim to bless and upon Ebal to curse. But where are there words of blessing in connection with Gerizim? Not one. The law cannot give blessing. But the word cursed we find twelve times in this chapter. What a confirmation that the law holds out no blessing for man, but can do nothing but curse. But, blessed be God! upon Mount Ebal there stood not alone the great stones with plaster, with the words of the law upon them, but there was also an altar unto Jehovah, for burnt offerings and for peace offerings, for rejoicing before the Lord. And this speaks of Christ, who has redeemed us from the curse of the law.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Gaebelein’s Annotated Bible (Commentary)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Keep all: Deu 4:1-3, Deu 11:32, Deu 26:16, Luk 11:28, Joh 15:14, 1Th 4:1, 1Th 4:2, Jam 2:10 <\/p>\n

Reciprocal: Deu 28:1 – If thou shalt Deu 30:1 – the blessing Jos 4:3 – twelve stones Jos 8:30 – in mount Ebal<\/p>\n

Fuente: The Treasury of Scripture Knowledge<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Subdivision 3. (Deu 27:1-26; Deu 28:1-68; Deu 29:1-29; Deu 30:1-20.)<\/p>\n

The rewards and penalties which actualize the law as such.<\/p>\n

The law being thus ended, we have now in the next four chapters the rewards and penalties which are its sanctions, -by which it becomes actualized as law. And there are here three sections: <\/p>\n

1. (Deu 27:1-26.) First, the perpetuity of the law under which they place themselves, and its power and promise are plainly signified by the monument upon Ebal.<\/p>\n

2. (Deu 28:1-68.) Secondly, the blessing and the curse are put before them in emphatic contrast, declared by the Word of One that will not lie.<\/p>\n

3. (Deu 29:1-29; Deu 30:1-20.) In the third and concluding section we have the recapitulation of the covenant before the Lord, looking on to the predicted restoration of the people in the time to come.<\/p>\n

1. The first section is of great significance. It is one of many proofs that not isolated passages, but the whole word here is prophetic, the things that happened unto Israel happened unto them for types. How much was here for faith in a humble and convicted soul to lay to heart, and in which to find most serious, in the end most blessed, lessons! Even if none learned them, there was no less in all of it God’s faithfulness, -His witness to Himself, and which now for us ought to be without a cloud upon it.<\/p>\n

(1) They are commanded, when they shall have passed over Jordan into the land, to set up great stones on Mount Ebal, plaster them with lime or gypsum, and write upon them all the words of the law. There also they were to build an altar of unhewn stones, and offer burnt-offerings and peace-offerings upon it, and eat and rejoice before God.<\/p>\n

Mount Ebal, as we already know, and as is again directly stated, is the mountain upon which the curses of the law were to be proclaimed, as upon Mount Gerizim the blessings. How significant of the true power of the law, that it was to stand there permanently identified with the curse and not with the blessing! “As many as are of the works of law are under the curse,” is here the language of the law itself. The Samaritans long afterward strove to reverse this sentence, and their copy of the Pentateuch puts Gerizim here in place of Ebal. Upon Gerizim their schismatic temple stood, a type and prophecy of much legal worship since. But the Old Testament unites in this its witness with the New; and the spiritual Samaritan is still at schism with the law, and a rebel against its sentence. The power of the law is thus lost, for its true power is to destroy self-righteousness, and humble men to the gospel.<\/p>\n

But side by side with this monument of the law therefore, as if God would not have this connection even then mistaken, they were to build their altar and offer their burnt-offerings and their peace-offerings, and on the dreaded mount itself rejoice before God. They could do so, for this worship was sanctified by the law, the righteousness of the law being maintained by the death of the victim. This for faith completes the testimony.<\/p>\n

(2) Gerizim and Ebal lay opposite to one another, -the mount of blessing to the south, the mount of cursing to the north, in the middle of the land of Canaan. Ebal, it is said, overtops Gerizim by about a hundred feet, and is the steeper and more barren of the two. Gesenius takes it to mean “stripped of foliage;” while Gerizim also approaches this in meaning, being given as signifying “dwellers in a shorn land.” Between them in the valley lies Shechem, “shoulder,” -the place of obedience (Gen 12:6, n.), and where Jacob gets so thoroughly tested. (Gen 33:18.) All this is easily suggestive. The tribes are to stand half on the one mount, half on the other, -not to utter, but to confirm for themselves the blessing and the curse: for the blessing, the children of Leah, and Rachel for the curse, those of the bondmaids, with Reuben, the displaced first-born, and Zebulon, Leah’s youngest son. But in fact, as all commentators notice, the blessings here are significantly never uttered. The law, as witnessed for the second time, is potent only for curse: and under this shadow Israel enter the land. That all this happened unto them for types, who can rightly question?<\/p>\n

“As the whole ceremony and the special form of the curses are practical, so also the inward peculiar nature of the examples selected. Gross transgressions incur the penalty, but the more secret and refined meet with the curse, in order to show that God will in any case visit such sinners, and to instill into the hypocrite a terror of his works of darkness.'” (Schrder, Von Gerlach.)<\/p>\n

2. The blessing and the curse are now taken up by Moses, and spread out before the people’s eyes, especially the curse, which has had long, sad fulfillment for many generations, and needed thus to be set before them for their conviction and turning to God when overtaken by it. It was thus already a prophecy of what the legal covenant would bear as fruit; and it is God’s love to His people that speaks in these terrible denunciations, yet insufficient to turn back the unbelieving generation from the path of ruin. So is it with all the sorrow and evil of life, which God, alas, must so much dwell upon for us because souls are so largely born to Him in sorrow, and by night we see farthest into heaven. The blessing occupies but fourteen verses; the curse, fifty-four. It would carry us much beyond our limits to go into the details. As with him who is at peace with God all things are at peace, so, on the other hand, with the enemies of God, all things are hostile really; not the least so when there is the most fair-seeming prosperity, and gentle breezes and calm skies lure the ship on to destruction.<\/p>\n

3. We have now the recapitulation of the covenant, the people standing, as Moses warns them before God, a covenant far-reaching in its effects upon the generations to come; fruitful of blessing, if there were only a heart to respond to Him who had drawn near to them, and who would fain have drawn them near to Himself. but in their condition could not. For this, therefore, and that He may have this witness to Himself, they are pointed forward to a future day.<\/p>\n

(1) Once more the goodness of the Lord is brought before them as the incentive to obedience. From Egypt onward they had had abundant proofs of His power, as displayed against their enemies, and in tenderness toward themselves. Their clothes had not waxen old, nor the shoes upon their feet: for us the easily read types of better things. Already also they were in possession of part of their inheritance, the pledge of what was still to come. With the knowledge of all this, they stood that day before the Lord to renew their covenant, the whole people, for themselves and for the generations yet to come.<\/p>\n

(2) If they turned aside from Him, God’s threatenings would be as faithful as His promises. They had seen the abominations of the heathen, and could thus realize the wickedness which had brought down God’s judgment. Let them not awaken it, then, against themselves by following in their steps; otherwise their own posterity and the stranger from a far country should see in the desolation of the land the manifest anger of the Lord against them for sins as manifest; and they would be rooted out of it.<\/p>\n

(3) And all these things would, in fact, come upon them, both the blessing and the curse. It would be as scattered among the nations, that their hearts would finally return to God, in whole-hearted obedience. Then He would have compassion on them, and gather as He had scattered them. He would circumcise their hearts, and that of their seed (the nation in continuance), so that they should love the Lord their God whole-heartedly and live indeed. Then would the blessing be for themselves, the curses only for their enemies; and He would rejoice over them for good, as He had rejoiced in their past deliverance. But this is of course grace, not law; and the grace of God cannot lack ability to display itself where the heart thus turns to God.<\/p>\n

(4) Meanwhile, in the law itself was the test for them, a plain thing, not hidden, speaking not from afar off, but very nigh, in the heart and in the mouth. The heart might refuse it, the mouth even disown it; yet, in fact, God had made all as simple as possible, and been as tender to man’s infirmity as He could. Only man himself was to blame, if evil came. It was here indeed that man’s state was fully made known. The test was not useless, but did its work well; and the law was holy and just and good; but it is Christ that is the “end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth.”<\/p>\n

(5) Thus the way and the end on both sides had been put before them; and with one more solemn appeal to “choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live,” the exposition of the law comes to an end.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Grant’s Numerical Bible Notes and Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

PROPHECY OF ISRAELS FUTURE<\/p>\n

As we approach the conclusion of this book we come to its most important part from a prophetic point of view indeed the present lesson contains (chap. 28) a foreview of Israels history to the end of the present age, in some respects unparalleled in the Bible, although touched upon in Leviticus (Deut. 26:26), as we saw. <\/p>\n

STONES FOR THE LAW AND STONE FOR AN ALTAR (Deu 27:1-8) <\/p>\n

What should they do when they crossed the Jordan (Deu 27:2)? How should they cover these stones to obtain writing surface or to render them more conspicuous? What was to be written on them (Deu 27:3)? (It is a question whether the decalogue is here meant or the blessings and cursings that follow.) Where were they to be set up (Deu 27:4)? Rocks and stones are seen in the Far East today with inscriptions in paint or plaster thousands of years old. Besides these stones for the law, what others are commanded, and for what purpose (Deu 27:5)? Were these to be hewn or unhewn? The probability is that this pile was to be a pedestal for the other stones containing the law, as well as a place for sacrifice. What religious ceremonies were to be observed there (Deu 27:6-7)? The burnt offerings were part of the worship for sinful men, while the peace offerings were connected with the festivities of a reconciled people. Hence we have here, the law which condemned and the typical expiation the two great principles of revealed religion. <\/p>\n

MOUNT GERIZIM AND MOUNT EBAL (Deu 27:11-26) <\/p>\n

These ridges lay in Samaria, the peaks being near Shechem, rising to about 800 feet and separated by a valley about 500 yards wide. <\/p>\n

On Mount Gerizim (now Jebel-et-Tur) were the descendants of Rachel and Leah, the two principal wives of Jacob, and to them was assigned the office of pronouncing the benedictions; while on the twin hill of Ebal (now Imad- el-Deen) were the posterity of the two secondary wives, Zilpah and Bilhah, with those of Reuben, who had lost the primogeniture, and Zebulun, son of Leah; to them was committed the duty of pronouncing the maledictions (see Jdg 9:7). Amid the silent expectations of the assembly, the priests, standing round the ark in the valley, said aloud, looking to Gerizim, Blessed is the man that maketh not any graven image, when the people ranged on that hill responded, Amen; then turning round to Ebal, they cried, Cursed is the man that maketh any graven image; to which those that covered the ridge answered, Amen. The same course at every pause was followed with all the blessings and curses (see Jos 8:33-34).These curses are given in the form of a declaration, not a wish, as the words should be rendered, cursed is he and not cursed be he.<\/p>\n

THE GREAT PROPHECY (Deuteronomy 28) <\/p>\n

This chapter seems a continuation of the former, the blessings and cursings being enumerated more at length. Here the whole destiny of Israel is laid out before them as the result of their obedience or disobedience. <\/p>\n

What comprehensive blessing is promised in Deu 28:17 Observe that the lesser blessings following go to make up this great one. These include every kind of material prosperity (Deu 28:2-6); the confusion of their national enemies (Deu 28:7); and the independent power of Israel (Deu 28:12-13). Moreover, all this shall tend to the glory of Jehovah before the nations (Deu 28:9-10). <\/p>\n

The curses are the counterpart of the blessings (Deu 28:15-19). Sword, Deu 28:22, is in some ancient versions drought; which agrees better with the figurative expressions of the two following verses. <\/p>\n

The history of the Jews for the past 2,500 years has been a minute fulfillment of this prophecy, but it may be said to be divided into three periods, marked off by the Babylonian and Roman captivities and their present scattered and distressed condition. <\/p>\n

1. The Babylonian captivity comes into view at Deu 28:36, say, to the close of Deu 28:48. <\/p>\n

2. The Roman captivity begins at Deu 28:49 continuing to Deu 28:64. The Romans came from afar; their ensign was an eagle; their tongue was not understood; they were of a fierce countenance, i.e., bold, implacable; they left neither corn, wine nor oil, but strewed devastation everywhere. They successfully besieged the fortified cities, even Jerusalem being razed to the ground. So terrific was the suffering from famine (Deu 28:35-37) that parental affection was extinguished and delicate and refined women ate the flesh of their own children. For the details we are indebted to Josephus. <\/p>\n

3. The present scattered and distressed condition of Israel is depicted, beginning at verse 64, for an account of whose fulfillment it is only necessary to keep ones eye on the daily press. Well, therefore, may we ask, What stronger proof can we desire of the divine legislation of Moses?<\/p>\n

QUESTIONS <\/p>\n

1. What is the sweep of the great prophecy in this lesson? <\/p>\n

2. Describe Mounts Gerizim and Ebal. <\/p>\n

3. What three things are included in the blessings? <\/p>\n

4. Into what three periods is the fulfillment of the curses divided? <\/p>\n

5. Who is a distinguished uninspired historian of the Jews? <\/p>\n

Fuente: James Gray’s Concise Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Deu 27:1. Moses with the elders Having in discourses at several times repeated the principal parts of the laws, and made several necessary additions to them, Moses called the council together, and summoned the body of the people to attend them at the tabernacle; where, after an earnest exhortation to observe what he had already said, and was now about to prescribe to them, he directs them, the first opportunity they had after their arrival in the land of promise, to renew their covenant with God in a solemn manner. In order to this they were to write or engrave the chief heads of their law, especially of the moral law, upon large square stones, smoothly plastered over for that purpose, to be audibly read to the whole assembly with the circumstances hereafter appointed. This day This expression signifies not the space of one day, but refers to the whole time of their abode in the plains of Moab.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Joseph Bensons Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Deu 27:2. Great stones, thought to be twelve in each pillar; they wrote the curses on the one pillar, and the blessings on the other.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:3. Thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law. Not the six hundred precepts, which may be gathered from the short turns and phrases of Moses, but the blessings and the curses. The first altar was built of twelve stones, the day that the Israelites crossed the Jordan; but the two great pillars were not built till fifteen years had elapsed, as the work required much time and labour. All the altars were built of rough stones, to avoid the polluting figures of the heathen. This custom of writing on pillars was common to all ancient nations. Job 19:22. The Egyptians had their pillars filled with hieroglyphics; the Goths have filled Sweden with ancient stones. I have a fac simile of a large one which the Scandinavian society cannot fully decipher, there being often but a single letter for an ancient name. The Romans also had their tablets.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:12-13. Gerizim and Ebal. Gerizim is a fruitful hill near the ancient Shechem. Genesis 34. Opposite it is Ebal, a barren rocky hill. The valley between is not more than two hundred and twenty yards, in which was placed the ark surrounded by the priests: and from hill to hill the shouts of the levites could be distinctly heard. It is remarkable that the tribes descended from the free women, Rachael and Leah, were placed on the side of mount Gerizim, to pronounce the blessings on the obedient; and the tribes descended from the bond women, Zilpah and Bilhah, stood on mount Ebal, to thunder out the curses on the disobedient.<\/p>\n

Deu 27:15. Amen. The Hebrew doctors define this by truth, joined with the prayer, so be it. But a, ay, or aye, is a primitive word, as well Gothic, Greek, and Oriental, as Hebrew, equivalent to ever, or perpetuity; hence the English phrase, forever and ay; that is, forever and ever. In this view, Amen designates what is certain, firm and established; it is the same as verily. See Isa 65:16.<\/p>\n

REFLECTIONS.<\/p>\n

The first national act of the Israelites on crossing the Jordan was to imitate the patriarchs in raising an altar, and renewing their covenant with God, whenever they arrived at a new situation. Carnal policy might suggest, that it was more proper to prepare for war, and wait to perform the duties of religion, when victory should be decided in their favour. But Moses well knew that no design could long prosper without the covenant presence and blessing of God. All good men should make God the beginning, the middle, and the end of all their actions.<\/p>\n

The solemnities attendant on repeating the blessings and curses of the covenant were very instructive. The blessings were the wish and the object of every heart; as to the curses the whole people said, Amen, when they were pronounced; on violating the laws to which they had openly subscribed, they must submit to the punishment with silence, and give glory to God. It is good for nations to avow their religion publicly, and rest their faith on its promises and threatenings.<\/p>\n

How grateful should we be that Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us. How grateful that we are not in the bondage of Sinai, but are the children of mount Zion, and called to the glorious liberty of the gospel. May God preserve us, that we fall no more into condemnation. <\/p>\n

Fuente: Sutcliffe’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Deuteronomy 27<\/p>\n

“And Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you this day. And it shall be on the day when ye shall pass over Jordan unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, that thou shalt set thee up great stones, and plaster them with plaster; and thou shalt write upon them all the words of this law, when thou art passed over, that thou mayest go in unto the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee, a land that floweth with milk and honey; as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee. Therefore it shall be, when ye be gone over Jordan, that ye shall set up these stones, which I command you this day, in mount Ebal, and thou shalt plaster them with plaster. And there shalt thou build an altar unto the Lord thy God, an altar of stones: thou shalt not lift up any iron tool upon them. Thou shalt build the altar of the Lord thy God of whole stones; and thou shalt offer burnt offerings thereon unto the Lord thy God; and thou shalt offer peace offerings, and shalt eat there, and rejoice before the Lord thy God. And thou shalt write upon the stones all the words of this law very plainly. And Moses, and the priests the Levites, spake unto all Israel, saying, Take heed, and hearken, O Israel; this day thou art become the people of the Lord thy God Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the Lord thy God, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command thee this day. And Moses charged the people the same day, saying, These shall stand upon mount Gerazim to bless the people, when ye are come over Jordan; Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin. And these shall stand upon mount Ebal to curse; Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.” (Vers. 1-13.)<\/p>\n

There could not be a more striking contrast than that which is presented in the opening and close of this chapter. In the paragraph which we have just penned, we see Israel entering upon the land of promise – that fair and fruitful land, flowing with milk and honey, and there erecting an altar in mount Ebal, for burnt offerings and peace offerings. We read nothing about sin offerings or trespass offerings here. The law, in all its fullness, was to be “written very plainly,” upon the plastered stones, and the people, in full, recognised, covenant relationship, were to offer on the altar those special offerings of sweet savour, so blessedly expressive of worship and holy communion. The subject here is not the trespasser in act, or the sinner in nature, approaching the brazen altar, with a trespass offering or a sin offering; but rather a people fully delivered, accepted and blessed – a people in the actual enjoyment of their relationship and their inheritance.<\/p>\n

True, they were trespassers and sinners; and, as such, needed the precious provision of the brazen altar. This, of course, is obvious, and fully understood and admitted by every one taught of God; but it manifestly is not the subject of Deuteronomy 27: 1-13, and the spiritual reader will, at once, perceive the reason. When we see the Israel of God, in full covenant relationship, entering into possession of their inheritance, having the revealed will of their covenant God Jehovah, plainly and fully written before them, and the milk and honey flowing around them, we must conclude that all question as to trespasses and sins is definitively settled, and that nothing remains for a people so highly privileged and so richly blessed, but to surround the altar of their covenant God, and present those sweet savour offering which mere acceptable to Him and suited to them.<\/p>\n

In short, the whole scene unfolded to our view in the first half of our chapter is perfectly beautiful. Israel having avouched Jehovah to be their God, and Jehovah having avouched Israel to be His peculiar people, to make them high above all nations which He had made, in praise, and in name, and in honour; and an holy people unto the Lord their God, as He had spoken – Israel thus privileged, blessed and exalted, in full possession of the goodly land, and having all the precious commandments of God before their eyes, what remained, but to present the sacrifices of praise and thanksgiving, in holy worship and happy fellowship?<\/p>\n

But, in the latter half of our chapter, we find something quite different. Moses appoints six tribes to stand upon mount Gerazim, to bless the people; and six on mount Ebal to curse; but alas! when we come to the actual history, the positive facts of the case, there is not a single syllable of blessing? nothing but twelve awful curses each confirmed by a solemn “amen” from the whole congregation.<\/p>\n

What a sad change! What a striking contrast! It reminds us of what passed before us in our study of Exodus 19. There could not be a more impressive commentary on the words of the inspired apostle in Galatians 3: 10. “For as many as are of the works of the law” – as many as are on that ground – “are under the curse: for it is; written” – and here he quotes Deuteronomy 27 – “cursed is every one that continueth not in all things which are written in the book of the law to do them.”<\/p>\n

Here we have the real solution of the question. Israel, as to their actual moral condition, were on the ground of law; and hence, although the opening of our chapter presents a lovely picture of God’s thoughts respecting Israel, yet the close of it sets forth the sad and humiliating result of Israel’s real state before God. There is not a sound from mount Gerazim, not one word of benediction; but, instead thereof, curse upon curse falls on the ears of the people.<\/p>\n

Nor could it possibly be otherwise. Let people contend for it as they will, nothing but a curse can come upon “as many as are of the works of the law. It does not merely say, “as many as fail to keep the law,” though that is true; but, as if to set the truth in the very clearest and most forcible manner before us, the Holy Ghost declares that for all, no matter who, Jew, Gentile or nominal Christian – all who are on the ground or principle of works of law, there is, and can be, nothing but a curse. Thus, then, the reader will be able, intelligently, to account for the profound silence that reigned on mount Gerazim, in the day of Deuteronomy 27 The simple fact is, if one solitary benediction had been heard, it would have been a contradiction to the entire teaching of holy scripture on the question of law.<\/p>\n

We have so fully gone into the weighty subject of the law, in the first volume of these Notes, that we do not feel called upon to dwell upon it here. We can only say that the more we study scripture, and the more we ponder the law-question in the light of the New Testament, the more amazed we are at the manner in which some persist in contending for the opinion that Christians are under the law, whether for life, for righteousness, for holiness, or for any object whatsoever. How can such an opinion stand for a moment in the face of that magnificent and conclusive statement in Romans 6: “YE ARE NOT UNDER LAW, BUT UNDER GRACE?<\/p>\n

Fuente: Mackintosh’s Notes on the Pentateuch<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

A MEMORIAL ON MOUNT EBAL<\/p>\n

(vs.1-10)<\/p>\n

With the directive again to keep all the commandments of the Lord, Moses gave Israel instructions, when they get into the land, to set up large stones coated with lime, on which the words of the law were to be inscribed (vs.1-3). This was to be done on Mount Ebal and also an altar of stones built there (vs.4-6), on which Israel was to offer peace offerings and rejoice before the Lord.<\/p>\n

The significance of these things is very striking, for we are told in verses 12 and 13 that blessings for the people were to be proclaimed from Mount Gerazim and curses from Mount Ebal. Why was the altar not put on Mount Gerizim? Because God knew that Israel would not keep the law, and were thus left under a curse (Gal 3:10). God would meet them in the place they were, not where they ought to be. The altar tells us that God is able to redeem those under the curse by means of the sacrifice of Christ. This is pure grace.<\/p>\n

The words of the law were to be written very plainly, so that there would be no mistake and no excuse for breaking the law (v.8). Then Moses and the priests spoke again to all Israel, urging them to pay attention and listen. They had become the people of God, therefore it was God they were responsible to obey (v.10).<\/p>\n

FROM MOUNT EBAL — CURSES<\/p>\n

(vs.11-26)<\/p>\n

Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal were close to each other and when Israel came into their land they were here instructed by Moses to have six tribes stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce the curses (vs.12-13). The blessings pronounced from Mount Gerizim were on condition of obedience, and the curses from Mount Ebal were against all disobedience.<\/p>\n

The Levites with the company on Mount Ebal were then required to proclaim with a loud voice a number of curses (v.14). Though Mount Gerizim with its blessings were noted first, yet the curses from Mount Ebal are spoken first, for God knew they would incur these curses.<\/p>\n

The first curse (v.15) is against anyone who makes a carved or molded image which the Lord abhors, and sets it up secretly. Of course if this was done publicly the curse was just as effective, but God sees what is in secret too, though people may feel they can get away with such hidden evil. When the curse was pronounced, all the people were required to say “Amen.”<\/p>\n

The second curse would fall on anyone who treated his father or mother with contempt (v.16). This is just the opposite of honoring father or mother, which is the positive command of the law. Again, the people were to fully concur as to such a curse.<\/p>\n

A third curse is pronounced against one who moved his neighbor’s landmark (v.17). This would likely be with the object of cheating a neighbor out of some of some of his property, an evil matter literally, and even worse spiritually, for there are many who falsify the Word of God in order to cheat others out of the spiritual property that God has provided for them. Again, the people were required to back this up by their “Amen.”<\/p>\n

The fourth curse is pronounced against one who makes the blind to wander off the road (v.18). Literally this kind of thing is contemptible cruelty, and so it is spiritually. By teaching false doctrine, evil teachers will drive unsuspecting people away from the truth of God. Again the people must express their agreement to such a curse.<\/p>\n

A fifth curse is against one who perverts justice in regard to the stranger, fatherless and widow (v.19). Such victims have no means of protecting themselves, and to take advantage of them is again cold hearted cruelty which God will judge. Let all the people say “Amen.”<\/p>\n

One who has sexual intercourse with his father’s wife is put under the sixth curse (v.20). This would of course be his step mother, as in the revolting case of the man in 1Co 5:1, who was put out from Christian fellowship for this evil.<\/p>\n

The seventh, eighth and ninth curses are also all connected with sexual evil, and as to all of these the people were to fully concur that the curse was absolutely righteous.<\/p>\n

The tenth curse is against one who attacks his neighbor secretly. One may cover up his bad actions toward another, but God discerns such underhand activity and puts the perpetrator under a curse.<\/p>\n

The eleventh curse is against one who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person. We hear frequently of people being hired to kill someone, and when proven in court, both are held guilty of murder. The curse here is only spoken of as applying to the one who takes a bribe, but certainly both would be held guilty before God.<\/p>\n

The twelfth (and last) curse is against one who does not confirm all this law. In other words, one who does not say “Amen” to all these curses is thereby cursed himself. Let everyone agree to this!<\/p>\n

Fuente: Grant’s Commentary on the Bible<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

27:1 And Moses with the elders of Israel {a} commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you this day.<\/p>\n

(a) As God’s minister and charged with the same.<\/p>\n

Fuente: Geneva Bible Notes<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

A. The ceremony at Shechem 27:1-13<\/span><\/p>\n

When the people entered the Promised Land they were to assemble at Shechem (Deu 27:1-8; cf. Deu 11:29-30). This would be the second stage of the covenant renewal, to be conducted in Canaan. Moses exhorted the Israelites to obey the covenant requirements then (Deu 27:9-10) and prepared them to invoke the covenant sanctions there (Deu 27:11-13).<\/p>\n

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

Upon entering Canaan the Israelites were to assemble at Mt. Ebal (the hill that flanked Shechem to the north) near the center of the land and set up several large stones as monuments (cf. Exo 24:4-8). They were to plaster these with lime (or gypsum) and then write the law on the monuments. This was a common way of posting important public announcements in Canaan. [Note: J. Hoftijzer and G. van der Kooij, Aramaic Texts from Deir ’Alla, pp. 23-28.] <\/span> They probably copied the Ten Commandments, [Note: Merrill, Deuteronomy, p. 342.] <\/span> but they may have copied the blessings and curses, [Note: Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, 4:8:44.] <\/span> the legal parts of the law, [Note: Keil and Delitzsch, 3:431.] <\/span> the salient parts of the laws reiterated in Deuteronomy, [Note: Kalland, p. 160.] <\/span> or the entire Book of Deuteronomy. [Note: Deere, p. 309.] <\/span> The purpose of this act was to declare to all people, Canaanites as well as Israelites, that the Mosaic Law was Israel’s standard of faith and practice, its national constitution.<\/p>\n

"The practice of writing laws on a plastered surface was known in other lands, notably Egypt, where the texts were painted rather than engraved." [Note: Thompson, p. 262. Cf. Driver, p. 296.] <\/span><\/p>\n

The people were also to build an altar on Mt. Ebal at the same time (Deu 27:5-7). They were to fashion it of uncut stones (cf. Exo 20:25). Then the nation was to offer burnt and peace offerings of worship to Yahweh thereby committing themselves to Him as their Lord. Abraham received God’s promise of the land and built his first altar in the land at this site (Gen 12:6-7).<\/p>\n

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

V. PREPARATIONS FOR RENEWING THE COVENANT 27:1-29:1<\/span><\/p>\n

Moses now gave the new generation its instructions concerning fresh commitment to the covenant when Israel would enter the land.<\/p>\n

"The ratification of the new covenant which Moses was making with the second generation was to unfold in two stages. That was customary procedure in securing the throne succession to the appointed royal heir. When death was imminent, the suzerain required his vassals to pledge obedience to his son; then, soon after the son’s accession, the vassals’ commitment was repeated. Similarly, Moses and Joshua formed a dynasty of mediatorial representatives of the Lord’s suzerainty over Israel. Hence the succession of Joshua, which symbolized the continuing lordship of Israel’s God, was ensured by the oath elicited from Israel before Moses died, and again later by a ratification ceremony after Joshua’s accession. The pronouncing of curses and blessings is prominent in each of these ratification rituals." [Note: Kline, "Deuteronomy," pp. 190-91.] <\/span><\/p>\n

Fuente: Expository Notes of Dr. Constable (Old and New Testaments)<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n

MOSES FAREWELL SPEECHES<\/p>\n

Deu 4:1-40, Deu 27:1-26; Deu 28:1-68; Deu 29:1-29; Deu 30:1-20.<\/p>\n

WITH the twenty-sixth chapter the entirely homogeneous central portion of the Book of Deuteronomy ends, and it concludes it most worthily. It prescribes two ceremonies which are meant to give solemn expression to the feeling of thankfulness which the love of God, manifested in so many laws and precepts, covering the commonest details of life, should have made the predominant feeling. The first is the utterance of what we have called the “liturgy of gratitude” at the time of the feast of first fruits; and the second is the solemn dedication of the third years tithe to the poor and the fatherless, and the disclaimer of any misuse of it. Further notice of either after what has already been said in reference to them would be superfluous. The closing verses (Deu 26:16-19) of the chapter are a solemn reminder that all these transactions with God had bound the people to Yahweh in a covenant. “Thou hast avouched Yahweh this day to be thy God” and, “Yahweh hath avouched thee this day to be a peculiar people (am segullah) unto Himself.” By this they were bound to keep Yahwehs statutes and judgments, and do them with all their heart and with all their soul, while He, on His part, undertakes on these terms to set them “high above all nations which He hath made in praise, and in name, and in honor,” and to make them a holy people unto Himself.<\/p>\n

But the original Deuteronomy as read to King Josiah cannot have ended with chapter 26, for the thing that awed him most was the threat of evil and desolation which were to follow the non-observance of this covenant. Now though there are indications of such dangers in the first twenty-six chapters of Deuteronomy, yet threats are not, so far, a prominent part of this book. The book as read must consequently have contained some additional chapters, which, in part at least, must have contained threats. Now this is what we have in our Biblical Deuteronomy. But in chapters 27 and 28 there are reduplications which can hardly have formed part of the original authors work. An examination of these has led every one who admits composite authorship in the Pentateuch to see that from chapter 27 onwards the original work has been broken up and dovetailed again with the works of JE and P; so that component parts of the first four books of the Hexateuch appear along with elements which the author of Deuteronomy has supplied. We have, in fact, before us, from this point, the work of the editor who fitted Deuteronomy into the framework of the Pentateuch; and it is of importance, from an expository point of view even, to endeavor to restore Deuteronomy to its original form, and to follow out the traces of it that are left.<\/p>\n

As we have said, we must look for the threats and promises which undoubtedly formed part of it. These are contained in chapters 27 and 28. But a careful reader will feel at once that chapter 27 disturbs the connection, and that 28 should follow 26. In Deu 27:9-10 alone seem necessary to give a transition to chapter 28; and if all the rest were omitted we should have exactly what the narrative in Kings would lead us to expect, a coherent, natural sequence of blessings and curses, which should follow faithfulness to the covenant, or unfaithfulness. The rest of chapter 27 is not consistent either with itself or with Jos 8:30, where the accomplishment of that which is commanded here is recorded. In Deu 27:1-3 Moses and the elders command the people to set up great stones and plaster them with plaster and write upon them all the words of this law, on the day when they shall pass over Jordan, that they may go in unto the land. In Deu 27:4 it is said that these stones are to be set up in Mount Ebal, and there an altar of unhewn stones is to be built, and sacrifices offered, “and thou shalt write upon the stones very plainly.” From the position of this last clause and the mention of Mount Ebal, the course of events would be quite different from that which Deu 27:1-3 suggest. The stones were, according to Deu 27:4 ff., to be set up in Mount Ebal; out of these an altar of unhewn stones was to be built; and on them the law was to be inscribed, and this is what Joshua says was done. But if we take all the verses, Deu 27:1-8, together, we can reconcile them only by the hypothesis that the stones were set up as soon as Jordan was crossed, plastered, and inscribed with the law; that afterwards they were removed to Mount Ebal and built into an altar “of unhewn stone,” upon which sacrifices were offered. But that surely is in the highest degree improbable; and since we know that in other cases two narratives have been combined in the sacred text, that would seem the most probable solution here. Deu 27:4-8 will in that case be a later insertion, probably from J. In the same connection Deu 27:15-26 contain a list of crimes which are visited with a curse and no blessings; this cannot be the proclamation of blessing and cursing which is here required. Further, this list must be by a different author, for it affixes curses to some crimes which are not mentioned in Deuteronomy, and omits such sins as idolatry, which are continually mentioned there. This section must consequently have been inserted here by some later hand. It must probably have been later even than the time of the writer of Jos 8:33 ff., since the arrangement as reported there differs from what is prescribed here. Moreover, as there is nothing new in these sections, and all they say is repeated substantially in chapter 28, we may give our attention wholly to Deu 28:1-68, as being the original proclamation of blessing and curse.<\/p>\n

But other entanglements follow. Chapters 29 and 30 manifestly contained an adieu on the part of Moses, who turns finally to the people with an affecting and solemn speech of farewell. That appears m chapters 29 and 30. But for many reasons it is impossible to believe that these chapters as they stand are the original speech of Deuteronomy. The language is in large part different, and there are references to the Book of the Law as being already written out. {Deu 29:19 f. 26, and Deu 30:10} It is probably therefore an editors rewriting of the original speech, and from the fact that “it contains many points of contact with Jeremiah in thoughts and words,” it is probably to be dated in the Exile. But there is another noticeable thing in connection with it. It has a remarkable resemblance in these and other respects to Deu 4:1-40. That passage can hardly have originally followed chapters 1-3, if as is most probable these were at first a historic introduction to Deuteronomy. The hortative character of Deu 4:1-40 shows that it must have been placed where it is by a reviser. But the language, though not altogether that of Deuteronomy, is like it, and the thought is also Deuteronomic. Probably the passage must have been transferred from some other part of Deuteronomy and adapted by the editor. A clue to its true place may perhaps be found in Deu 4:8, where “all this law” is spoken of as if it were already given, and in Deu 4:5, where we read, “Behold, I have taught you statutes and judgments.” These passages imply that the law of Deuteronomy had been given, and in that case chapter 4 must belong to a closing speech. We probably shall not be in error, therefore, in thinking Deu 4:1-40 ; Deu 29:29 are all founded on an original farewell speech which stood in Deuteronomy after the blessing and the curse.<\/p>\n

But it may be asked, if that be so, why did an editor make these changes? The answer is to be found in two passages in chapters 31 and 32 which cannot be harmonized as they stand. In Deu 31:19 we are told that Yahweh commanded Moses to write “this song” and teach it to the children of Israel, “that this song may be a witness for Me against the children of Israel,” and Deu 31:22, “So Moses wrote this song.” But in Deu 31:28 f. we read that “Moses said, Assemble unto me all the elders of the tribes and your officers, that I may speak these words in their ears, and call heaven and earth to witness against them.” Obviously “these words” are different from “this song,” and are meant for a different purpose. The same ambiguity occurs at the end of the song in Deu 32:44 ff., where we first read of Moses ending “this song,” and in the next verse we read, “And Moses made an end of speaking all these words to all Israel.” Now what has become of “these words”? In all probability they were the substance of chapters 4 and 29 and 30, and were separated and amplified, because the editor who fitted Deuteronomy into the Pentateuch took over the song in chapter 32, as well as those passages of 31 and 32, that speak of this song, from JE. He accepted them as a fitting conclusion for the career of Moses, and transferred the original speech, which we suppose to have been the last great utterance of the original Deuteronomy, putting the main part of it immediately before the song, but taking parts out of it to form a hortatory ending (such as the other Moses speeches have) to that first one which he had formed out of the historic introduction. This may seem a very complicated process and an unlikely one; but after the foundation had been built by Dillmann, Westphal has elaborated the whole matter with such luminous force that it seems hardly possible to doubt that the facts can be accounted for only in this way. By piecing together 4, 30, and 31 he produces a speech so thoroughly coherent and consistent that the mere reading of it becomes the most cogent proof of the substantial truth of his argument.<\/p>\n

An analysis of it will show this.<\/p>\n

(1) There is the introduction; up till now the people have understood neither the commands nor the love of Yahweh. {Deu 29:1-9}<\/p>\n

(2) There is the explanation of the Covenant; {Deu 29:10-15}<\/p>\n

(3) A command to observe the Covenant; {Deu 4:1-2}<\/p>\n

(4) Warning against individual transgression, which will be punished by the destruction of the rebel; {Deu 29:16-21; Deu 4:3-4}<\/p>\n

(5) Warning against collective transgression, which will be punished by the ruin of the people. {Deu 4:5-26} The author, from this point regarding the transgression as an accomplished fact, announces:<\/p>\n

(6) The dispersion and exile of the people; {Deu 4:27-28}<\/p>\n

(7) The impression produced on future generations by the horror of this dispersion Deuteronomy (Deu 29:22-28);<\/p>\n

(8) The conversion of the exiles to God; {Deu 4:30-31}<\/p>\n

(9) Their return to the land of their fathers. {Deu 30:1-10}<\/p>\n

(10) In conclusion, it is stated that the power of Yahweh to sustain the faith of His people and to save them is guaranteed by the past; {Deu 4:32-40} and there is no reason therefore that the people should shrink from obeying the commandment prescribed.to them. It is a matter of will. Life and death are before them; let them choose. {Deu 30:11-20}<\/p>\n

The analysis of the remaining chapters is not difficult. Deu 31:14-23; Deu 31:30, form the introduction to the song, Deu 32:1-43, just as Deu 32:44 is the conclusion of it. Both introduction and song are extracted probably from J and E. Deu 32:48-52 are after P. Then follows the blessing of Moses, chapter 33. Finally, chapter 34 contains an account of Moses death and a final eulogy of him, in which all the sources JE, P, and D have been called into requisition. The threefold cord which runs through the other books of the Pentateuch was untwisted to receive Deuteronomy, and has been re-twisted so as to bind the Pentateuch into one coherent whole. That is the result of the microscopic examination which the text as it stands has undergone, and we may pretty certainly accept it as correct. But we should not lose sight of the fact that, as the book is now arranged, it has a notable coherence of its own, and the impression of unity which it conveys is in itself a result of great literary skill. Not only has the editor combined Deuteronomy into the other narratives most successfully, but he has done so not only without falsifying, but so as to confirm and enhance the impression which the original book was meant to convey.<\/p>\n

We turn now to the substance of the two speeches-the proclamation of the blessing and the curse, and the great farewell address. As we have seen, the first is contained in chapter 28. If any evidence were now needed that this chapter was written later than the Mosaic time, it might be found in the space given to the curses, and the much heavier emphasis laid upon them than upon the blessings. Not that Moses might not have prophetically foretold Israels disregard of warnings. But if the heights to which Israel was actually to rise had been before the authors mind as still future, instead of being wrapped in the mists of the past, he could not but have dwelt more equally upon both sides of the picture. Whatever supernatural gifts a prophet might have, he was still and in all things a man. He was subject to moods like others, and the determination of these depended upon his surroundings. He was not kept by the power of God beyond the shadows which the clouds in his sky might cast; and we may safely say that if the curses which are to follow disobedience are elaborated and dwelt upon much more than the blessings which are to reward obedience, it is because the author lived at a time of unfaithfulness and revolt. Obviously his contemporaries were going far in the evil way, and he warns them with intense and eager earnestness against the dangers they are so recklessly incurring.<\/p>\n

But after all we have seen of the spirituality of the Deuteronomic teaching, and its insistence upon love as the true bond between men and God and the true motive to all right action, it is perhaps disappointing to some to find how entirely these promises and threats have their center in the material world. Probably nowhere else will the truth of Bacons famous saying that “Prosperity is the blessing of the Old Testament” be more conspicuously seen than here. If Israel be faithful she is promised productivity, riches, success in war. Even when it is promised that she shall be established by Yahweh as a holy people unto Himself, the meaning seems to be that the people shall be separated from others by these earthly favors, rather than that they shall have the moral and spiritual qualities which the word “holy” now connotes. Other nations shall fear Israel because of the Divine favor. Israel shall be raised above them all. If it become unfaithful, on the other hand, it is to be visited with pestilence, consumption, fever, inflammation, sword, blasting, mildew. The earth is to be iron beneath them, and the heaven above them brass. Instead of rain they are to have dust; they are to be visited with more than Egyptian plagues. Their minds are to refuse to serve them; they are to be defeated in war; their country is to be overrun by marauders; their wives and children, their cattle and their crops, are to fall into the enemys hands. Locusts and all known pests are to fall upon their fields; and they themselves are to be carried away captive, after having endured the worst horrors of siege, and been compelled by hunger to devour their own children. And in exile they shall be an astonishment, a proverb, and a by-word, and shall be ruled by oppressive aliens. Worst of all, they shall there lose hope in God and “shall serve other gods, even wood and stone.” Their lives shall hang in doubt before them. In the morning they shall say, “Would God it were evening,” and at even they shall say, “Would God it were morning.” All the deliverance Yahweh had wrought for them by bringing them out of Egypt would be undone, and once more they should go back into Egyptian bondage.<\/p>\n

All that is materialistic enough; but there is no need to make apology for Deuteronomy, nevertheless. The prophet has taught the higher law; he has rooted all human duty, both to God and man, in love to God, and now he tries to enlist mans natural fear and hope as allies of his highest principle. How justifiable that is we have already seen in chapter 12.<\/p>\n

But a more serious question is raised when it is asked, does Nature, in definite sober truth, lend itself, in the manner implied throughout this chapter, to the support of religious and moral fidelity? At a time when imaginative literature is largely devoting itself to an angry or querulous denial Of any righteous force working for the unfortunate and the faithful, there can be no question what the popular answer to such a question would be. But from the ranks of literature itself we may summon testimony on the other side. Mr. Hall Caine, in his address at the Edinburgh Philosophical Institution, maintains in a wider and more general way the essence of the Deuteronomic thesis when he says, “I count him the greatest genius who touches the magnetic and Divine chord in humanity which is always waiting to vibrate to the sublime hope of recompense; I count him the greatest man who teaches men that the world is ruled in righteousness.” And his justification of that position is too admirable not to be quoted: “Life is made up of a multitude of fragments, a sea of many currents, often coming into collision and throwing up breakers: We look around and see wrong-doing victorious, and right-doing in the dust; the evil man growing rich and dying in his bed, the good man becoming poor and dying in the street; and our hearts sink and we say, What is God doing after all in this world of His children? But our days are few, our view is limited, we cannot watch the event long enough to see the end which Providence sees.” “It is the very province of imaginative genius,” he goes on to say, “to see that which the common mind cannot see, to offer to it at least suggestions of how these triumphs of unrighteousness may be accounted for in accordance with the law that righteousness rules in the world.” We would go further. It is one of the main purposes of inspiration to go beyond even imaginative genius, to point out in history not only how right may perhaps ultimately triumph, but how it has been in reality and must be victorious. For it will not do to shut off the world of material things from the working of this great and universal law. Owing to the narrow fanaticism of science, modern men have become skeptical, not only of miracle, but even of the fundamental truth that righteousness is profitable for the life that now is, that in following righteousness men are co-operating with the deepest law of the universe. But it remains a truth for all that. It is written deep in the heart of man; and in more wavering lines perhaps, but still most legibly, it is written on the face of things. With the limitations of his time and place, this is what the Deuteronomist preaches. Doubtless he has not faced, as Job does, the whole of the problem; still less has he attained to the final insight exhibited in the New Testament, that temporal gifts may be curses in disguise, that the highest region of recompense Is in the eternal life, in the domain of things which are invisible but eternal. He does not yet know, though he has perhaps a presentiment of it, that being completely stripped of all earthly good may be the path to the highest victory-the victory which makes men more than conquerors through Christ. Nevertheless he is, making these allowances, right, and the moderns are wrong. In many ways obedience to spiritual inspirations does bring worldly prosperity. The absence of moral and spiritual faithfulness does affect even the fruitfulness of the soil, the fecundity of animals, the prevalence of disease, the stability of ordered life, and success in war. This was visible to the ancient world generally in a dim way; but by the inspired men of the Old Covenant it was clearly seen, for they were enlightened for the very purpose of seeing the hand of God where others saw it not. But they never thought of tracing out the chain of intermediate causes by which such results were connected with mens spiritual state. They saw the facts, they recognized the truth, and they threw themselves back at once upon the will of God as the sufficient explanation.<\/p>\n

We, on the other hand, have been so diligent in tracing out the immediately preceding links of natural causation that, for the most part, we have been fatigued before we reached God. We consequently have lost view of Him; and it is wholesome for us to be brought sharply into contact with the ancient Oriental mind as we are here, in order that we may be forced to go the whole way back to Him. For the fact is that much of that very process of decay and destruction from moral causes is going on before us in countries like Turkey and Morocco, where social righteousness is all but unknown, and private morality is low. A truly modern mind scorns the idea that the fertility of the soil can be affected by immorality. Yet there is the whole of Mesopotamia to show that misgovernment can make a garden into a desert. Where teeming populations once covered the country with fruitful gardens and luxurious cities, there are now in the lands of the Tigris and Euphrates a few handfuls of people, and all the fertility of the country has disappeared. Irrigation channels which made all things live have been choked up and have been gradually filled with drifting sand, and one of the most populous and fertile countries of the world has become a desert. In Palestine the same thing may be seen. Under Turkish domination the character of the soil has been entirely changed. In many places where in ancient days the hills were terraced to the top the sweeping rains have had their way, and the very soil has been carried off, leaving only rocks to blister in the pitiless sun. Even in the less likely sphere of animal fecundity modern science shows that peace and good government and righteous order are causes of extraordinary power. And the movements which are going on around us at this day in the elevation and depression of nations and races have a visible connection with fidelity or lack of fidelity to known principles of order and justice. This can be said without concealing how scanty and partial in most cases such attainments are. Prevailing principles can be discerned in the providence which rules the world. And these are of such a kind that the connection which obedience to the highest known rules of life has with fertility, success, and prosperity, is constant and intimate. It is, too, far wider reaching than at first sight would seem possible. To this extent, even modern knowledge justifies these blessings and curses of Deuteronomy.<\/p>\n

But it may be asked, is this all the Old Testament means by such threats and promises? Does it recognize any even self-imposed limitations to the direct action of Divine power? Most probably it does not. Though always keeping clear of Pantheism, the Old Testament is so filled and possessed by the Divine Presence that all second causes are ignored, and the action of God upon nature was conceived, as it could not fail to be, on the analogy of a workman using tools. Now that the methods of Divine action in nature have been studied in the light of science, they have been found to be more fixed and regular than was supposed. The extent of their operation, too, has been found to be immeasurably wider, and the purposes which have to be cared for at every moment are now seen to be infinitely various. As a result, human thought has fallen back discouraged, and takes refuge more and more in a conception of nature which practically deifies it, or at least entirely separates it from any intimate relation to the will of God. It is even denied that there is any purpose in the world at all, or any goal, and to chance or fate all the vicissitudes of life and the mechanical changes of nature are attributed. But though we must recognize, as the Old Testament does not, that ordinary Divine action flows out in perfectly well-defined channels, and is so stable in its movement that results in the sphere of physical nature may be predicted with certainty; and though we see, as was not seen in ancient days, that even God does not always approach His ends by direct and short-cut paths, -these considerations only make the Old Testament view more inspiring and more healthful for us. We may gather from it the inference that if the fertility of a land, the frequency of disease, and success in war are so powerfully affected by the moral and spiritual quality of a people, it is very likely that in subtler and less palpable ways the same influences produce similar effects, even in regions where they cannot be traced. If so, whatever allowance may be required for the inevitable simplicity of Old Testament conceptions on this subject, however much we miss the limitations we have learned to regard as necessary, the Deuteronomic view as to the effects of moral and spiritual declension upon the material fortunes of a people is much nearer the truth than our timorous and hesitating half-belief. To find these effects emphasized and affirmed as they are here, therefore, acts as a much needed tonic in our spiritual life. Coming too from a man who possessed, if ever man did, Divinely inspired insight into the process of the world and the ideal of human life, these promises and warnings bring God near. They dissipate the mists which obscure the workings of Gods Providence, and keep before us aspects of truth which it is the present tendency of thought to ignore too much. They declare in accents which carry conviction that, even in material things, the Lord reigneth; and for that the world has reason to be supremely glad.<\/p>\n

Certainly Christians now know that prosperity in material things is by no means Gods best gift. That great principle must be held to firmly, as well as the legitimacy of the vivid hopes and fears of Old Testament times regarding the material rewards of right-doing. In many ways the new principle must overrule and modify for us those hopes and fears. But with this limitation we are justified in occupying the Deuteronomic standpoint and in repeating the Deuteronomic warnings. For to its very core the world is Gods; and those who find His working everywhere are those whose eyes have been opened to the inmost truth of things.<\/p>\n

With regard to the farewell speech contained in chapters 29 and 30 and the related parts of chapter 4 and chapter 31 there is not much to be said. Taken as a whole, it develops the promises and threats of the previous chapters, and repeats again with affectionate hortatory purpose much of the history. But there is not a great deal that is new; most of the underlying principles of the address have been already dealt with. Taken according to the reconstruction of the speech and its reinsertion in its original framework, the course of things would seem to have been this. After the threats and promises had been concluded, Moses, carrying on the injunction of Deu 3:28, addressed {Deu 32:8} all the people and appointed Joshua to be his successor; then he wrote out “this law,” and produced it before the priests and elders of the people, with the instruction that at the end of every seven years, at the feast of release, in the feast of tabernacles, it should be read before all Israel, men, women, and children. {Deu 31:9-13} Then he gave the book to the Levites, that they might “lay it up” by the side of the Ark of the Covenant of Yahweh their God, that it might be there for a witness against them when they became unfaithful, as he foresaw they would. He next summons all Israel to him, and delivers the farewell address contained in chapters 4, 29, and 30, an outline of which has already been given, according to Westphals recombination. This would seem to indicate that Moses himself inaugurated the custom of reading the law and giving instruction to all the people, which he prescribed for the feast of tabernacles in the year of release. After the law had been given he addressed the whole people in this farewell speech.<\/p>\n

But though on the whole there is no need for detailed exposition here, there are one or two things which ought to be noticed, things which express the spirit of Deuteronomy so directly and so sincerely that they can be identified as forming part of the original Deuteronomic speech. One of these is unquestionably Deu 30:11-20. At the end of the farewell address a return is made to the core of the whole Deuteronomic teaching: “Thou shalt love Yahweh thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” This was announced with unique emphasis at the beginning; it has lain behind all the special commands which have been insisted upon since; and now it emerges again into view as the conclusion of the whole matter. For beyond doubt this, and not the whole series of legal precepts, is what is meant by “this commandment” in Deu 30:2. Both before it, in the sixth and tenth verses {Deu 30:6, Deu 30:10}, and after it, in the sixteenth and twentieth verses {Deu 30:16, Deu 30:20}, this precept is repeated and insisted on as the Divine command. Had the individual commands or the whole mass of them together been meant, the phrase used would have been different. It would have been that in Deu 30:10, where they are called “His commandments and His statutes which are written in this book of the law,” or something analogous. No, it is the central command of love to God, without which all external obedience is vain, which is the theme of this last great paragraph; and a clear perception of this will carry us through both the obscurities of it, and the difficulties of St. Pauls application of it in the Romans.<\/p>\n

Of this then the author of Deuteronomy says: “It is not too hard for thee, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldest say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it unto us, and make us to hear it, that we may do it? But the word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.” That is to say, there is no mystery or difficulty about this commandment of love. Neither have you to go to the uttermost parts of the sea to hear it, nor need you search into the mysteries of heaven. It has been brought near to you by all the mercy and forgiveness and kindness of Yahweh; it has been made known to you now by my mouth, even in its pettiest applications. But that is not all; it is graven on your own heart, which leaps up in glad response to this demand, and in answer to the manifestation of Gods love for you. It is really the fundamental principle of your own nature that is appealed to. You should clearly feel that life in the love of God and man is the only fit life for you who are made in the image of God. If you do, then the fulfillment of all the Divine precepts will be easy, and your lives will lighten more and more unto the perfect day.<\/p>\n

Now, for an Oriental of the pre-Christian era such teaching is most marvelous. How marvelous it is Christians perhaps find it difficult to see. In point of fact, many have denied that Old Testament teaching ever had this character. Misled by the doctrines of Islam, the great Semitic religion of today, many assert that the religion of ancient Israel called upon men to submit to mere power in submitting to God. But the appeal of our text to the heart of man shows that this is an error. No such appeal has ever been made to Mohammedans. Their state of mind in regard to God is represented by the remark of a recent traveler in Persia. Speaking of the Persian Babis, who may be described roughly as a heretical sect whose minds have been formed by Mohammedanism, he says: “They seemed to have no conception of absolute good, or absolute truth; to them good was merely what God chose to ordain, and truth what He chose to reveal, so that they could not understand how any one could attempt to test the truth of a religion by an ethical and moral standard.” Now that is precisely the opposite of the Deuteronomic attitude. Israel is encouraged and incited to right action by having it pointed out that not only experience, not only Divinely given statutes and judgments, but the very nature of man itself guarantees the truth of this supreme law of love. The law laid upon men is nothing strange to, or incongruous with, their own better selves. It is the very thing which their hearts have cried out for; when it is proclaimed the higher nature in man recognizes it and bows before it. It is not received because of fear, nor is it bowed before because it is backed by power which can smite men to the dust. No; even in its ruins human nature is nobler than that; and Deuteronomy everywhere teaches with burning conviction that God is too ethical and spiritual in nature to accept the submission of a slave.<\/p>\n

This reading of our passage is plainly that which St. Paul takes in Rom 10:5-6. He perceives, what so many fail to do, that the spirit and scope of the Deuteronomic teaching are different from that of the purely legal sections of the Pentateuch. Paul therefore quotes the Pentateuch as having already made the distinction between works and faith which he wishes to emphasize, and as having distinctly given preference to the latter. Leviticus keeps men at the level of the worker for wages, while Deuteronomy in this passage, by making love to God the essence of all true observance of the law, raises them almost to the level of sons. And just as in those ancient days the highest manifestations of God had not to be labored for and sought by impotent strivings, but had plainly been made known to them and had found an echo in their hearts, so now the highest revelation had been brought near to men in Christ, and had found a similar response. They did not need to seek it in heaven, for it had been brought to earth in the Incarnation. They did not need to descend into the abyss, for all that was needed had been brought thence by Christ at His resurrection. And in the New Testament as in the Old, the simplicity of the entrance into true relations with God is emphasized. Love and faith are the fundamental conditions. From them obedience will naturally issue, since “to faith all things are possible, and to love all things are easy.”<\/p>\n

Fuente: Expositors Bible Commentary<\/b><\/i><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And Moses with the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you this day. 1. Note the re-appearance of the narrative form. And Moses and the elders commanded the people ] The association of the elders with Moses in giving this charge is singular, especially in view of … Continue reading “Exegetical and Hermeneutical Commentary of Deuteronomy 27:1”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5595\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biblia.work\/bible-commentary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}