Deeper Commentary
Deu 27:1 Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people
saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you this day-
Deu 27:2 On the day when you pass over the Jordan to the land which Yahweh
your God gives you, you must set up great stones and plaster them with
plaster-
Dt. 27:2-8 commanded that "in the day" Israel passed over Jordan,
they were to set up plastered stones with the law written upon them
[perhaps just the ten commandments], and put them "in mount Ebal". But
when Joshua fulfilled it in Josh. 8:30, this was not "in the day" that
Israel passed over Jordan. They had indeed taken stones with them from the
Jordan, but had not used them as intended. They didn't plaster them nor
write the law upon them. And so perhaps God ammended His intention- which
was initially that they would set those stones up in mount Ebal
immediately. Instead, He sent the people against Jericho, and then against
Ai. Perhaps an instant conquest of Jericho had been originally intended,
so that they could proceed to mount Ebal immediately. For later in Joshua
we will read of God giving His people unnaturally speedy progress against
their enemies, all in the same day. Or maybe His intention was that
firstly they ought to have gone to mount Ebal with the plastered stones,
and only then attacked Jericho. But they didn't plaster the stones nor
wish to proceed immediately to Ebal. And so He arranged the campaign
against Jericho and then Ai. We see how God is so eager to accommodate His
programs to the weakness of men.
Deu 27:3 and write on them all the words of this law, when you have 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-
Israel came to describe the Egypt they had been called out from as
the land flowing with milk and honey (Num. 16:12), and denied that the
Kingdom was in fact like that. And so we have the same tendency to be
deceived into thinking that the kingdoms of this world, the world around
us, is effectively the Kingdom of God, the only thing worth striving
after.
Deu 27:4 When you have passed over the Jordan, I command you this day that
you shall set up these stones, in Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them
with plaster-
The word "commandments" occurs 43 times in Deuteronomy, and
only 19 times in the other three records; "remember" occurs 16 times
compared to 8 times in the other three. And yet Moses commanded Israel
specifically to engrave the law on tables of plaster, not stone, knowing
that they would soon be washed away; thus he wished to teach Israel [or
try to] the temporary nature of the Law (Dt. 27:4-8). Like Paul in his
time of dying, Moses saw the importance of obedience, the harder side of
God; yet he also saw in real depth the surpassing love of God, and the grace that was to come, beyond Law.
Deu 27:5 There you shall build an altar to Yahweh your God, an altar of
stones. You shall lift up no iron on them-
Ex. 20:25 says that the use of any tool upon an altar would defile it
(also see Dt. 27:5). This is how strongly God despises chic externality,
and wants us to offer to Him as we are, uncut stones. He wants us, as we
are, and not covered by cosmetics. In this we see the deep unspirituality
of the altars in the temple, as designed by David and Solomon. I have
suggested that although Solomon claims all this was commanded by God, in
fact that was merely His assumption. Solomon attempted to get around this
law by ensuring that the stones were cut away from the temple construction
site (1 Kings 6:7). But this surely was breaking the spirit of the law.
Deu 27:6 You shall build the altar of Yahweh your God of uncut stones and
you shall offer burnt offerings thereon to Yahweh your God-
God wants us to serve Him in simplicity without trying to make our
altars externally beautiful as if to impress a human eye.
Deu 27:7 You shall sacrifice peace offerings and shall eat there and you
shall rejoice before Yahweh your God-
Eating upon a heap of unhewn stones was understood as a sign of
having made a covenant on mutually agreed terms and being at peace with
each other (Gen. 31:46,47). Our eating before God at the breaking of bread
meeting is something similar.
Deu 27:8 You must write on the stones all the words of this law very
plainly-
"All the words" may be used as in Ex. 15:22, and might refer just to
Dt. 26:16-19. "Plainly" is literally 'dug' or 'engraved'. As the old
covenant was engraved upon stones, both on the tables of the covenant and
here again, so Paul draws the contrast with how under the new covenant,
God's law is engraved or dug in to our heart: "written... with the Spirit
of the living God. Not in tablets of stone, but in tablets that are hearts
of flesh" (2 Cor. 3:3; Rom. 2:15). There is implied here a direct working
of God upon the human heart, in order to dig in or engrave His law there,
just as He will do to latter day Israel when they too enter the new
covenant (Jer. 31:33). He instills His word and ways into the hearts or
minds of His people. This is all part of blessing under the new covenant,
the gift of the holy Spirit within our human spirit or mind.
Deu 27:9 Moses and the priests and Levites spoke to all Israel, saying,
Keep silence and listen, Israel-
"Keep silence" is AV "take heed". Paul warned the new Israel that after his death ("after my departing",
Acts 20:29) there would be serious apostasy. This is the spirit of his
very last words, in 2 Tim. 4. it is exactly the spirit of Moses' farewell
speech throughout the book of Deuteronomy, and throughout his final song
(Dt. 32) and Dt. 31:29: "After my death you will utterly corrupt
yourselves". Paul's "Take heed therefore unto yourselves" (Acts 20:28) is
quoted from many places in Deuteronomy (e.g. Dt. 2:4; 4:9,15,23; 11:16;
12:13,19,30; 24:8; 27:9).
This day you have become the people of
Yahweh your God-
At this time, God saw no iniquity in Israel (Num. 23:21). He fulfilled
His promise at Sinai that if they were obedient, He would make them His
people; and He did, counting them as obedient. Yet the events of the
intervening forty years hardly sound like Israel being obedient; He
"suffered their manners" forty years (Ps. 95:10; Acts 13:18). And yet at
the end of that period, they were counted as having been sufficiently
obedient to be made God’s people (Ex. 19:5 cp. Dt. 27:9).
Deu 27:10 You must therefore obey the voice of Yahweh your God and do His
commandments and His statutes which I command you this day-
As noted on :9, they were to become God's people if they were
obedient (Ex. 19:5). They had been disobedient, but still they were
counted as His people (:9). But the response to such grace was that they
should therefore be obedient- not in order to gain God's acceptance as His
people, for He had already given them that, by grace. But instead their
obedience was to be a sign of their gratitude for that grace. And so the
commandments given them were a channel, an opportunity, through which to
express gratitude for God's salvation by grace rather than legal
obedience.
Deu 27:11 Moses commanded the people the same day saying-
"The same day... this day" runs as a refrain throughout Deuteronomy.
Although "I tell you this day" can be read as merely a way of making a
solemn statement, verses like this ["the same day"] suggest we would be
justified in reading them literally. Thus Deuteronomy would be a
transcript of Moses' final address to Israel on the last day of his life.
Deu 27:12 These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people when you
have passed over the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and
Benjamin-
Josh. 8:33 says that "All Israel, their elders and officers and their
judges, stood on both sides of the ark before the priests the Levites who
carried the ark of Yahweh’s covenant". So we can assume that the ark
remained in the very narrow valley between the two mountains, with Israel
as it were like the wings of the cherubim on both sides of it. Ezekiel's
visions likewise use the cherubim to represent Israel. The departure and
return of the cherubim spoke of Israel with their representative Angels
leaving and then returning to the land and temple.
We note that generally the sons of Rachel and Leah said "Amen"
to the blessings, whilst the cursed Reuben and the sons of the concubines
said "Amen" to the curses (:13).
Deu 27:13 These shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben,
Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali-
Reuben had been the firstborn but had been demoted from that for
sleeping with his father's wife, which was one of the curses (:20). This
was a reminder to the people that their own honoured ancestors had done
the very things they were now cursing (see on :18,22). They were a people
who stood before God blessed by grace, rather than because of their
obedience.
Deu 27:14 The Levites shall answer and tell all the men of Israel with a
loud voice-
The Levites were in the narrow valley in between the two mountains
(see on :12). They would turn to Ebal and pronounce the curses, and the
tribes standing there would shout "Amen". Just as they had turned to
Gerazim and pronounced the blessings, and the tribes there had shouted
"Amen".
Deu 27:15 ‘Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an
abomination to Yahweh, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and
secretly sets it up’. All the people shall answer and say ‘Amen’-
The list of sins which follow in :15-25 are all matters of the heart
or things which are not seen by others. The people were confirming their
acceptance of the fact that God sees and knows all things, and there
really would be a judgment for them.
Deu 27:16 ‘Cursed is he who dishonours his father or his mother’. All the
people shall say ‘Amen’-
As noted on :15,23, the context here is of things done in the heart,
or unperceived by others. This "dishonour" of parents may therefore refer
to hidden mental attitudes and curses of parents, which [unrepented of] we
will be held culpable for in the last day.
Deu 27:17 ‘Cursed is he who removes his neighbour’s landmark’. All the
people shall say ‘Amen’-
This again was likely to be done secretly, bit by bit grabbing small
parcels of extra land from your neighbour. Why this was so abhorrent was
because each family of Israel had a specific inheritance which was not to
be sold or moved outside the family. Hence the sin of Ahab in obtaining
Naboth's vineyard. It would seem that there was some unrecorded list made
of each family and which land they were to be given. This looks forward to
our very personal and unique inheritance in God's Kingdom, possibly based
around spiritual family units. This was "The inheritance of fathers",
"your possession" (Lev. 25:27,28; Num. 36:7,8). God had given specific
inheritances to His people, that this was not to be sold or traded. The
division by lot in Josh. 15:1 presumably meant that the tribal areas were
defined and then distributed by lot. And then within those areas, each
family was given a specific inheritance. So to try to remove another's
inheritance was tantamount to removing the inheritance of another in God's
Kingdom. Anything which edges another out of their eternal inheritance is
abhorrent to God. It is reflected in the Lord's condemnation of any who
make their brother stumble from the path to the Kingdom.
Deu 27:18 ‘Cursed is he who makes the blind wander out of the way’. All
the people shall say ‘Amen’-
It was Aaron, their revered leader, who had made Israel wander "out
of the way" through the golden calf apostacy (Ex. 32:8). Likewise :22 is a
clear reference to the wrong behaviour of Abraham. The people surely could
not have repeated these words without thinking of Aaron. It was intended,
therefore, as a reminder to them of how their very standing with God was
by grace alone; and they were not from any wonderful spiritual pedigree,
but instead were God's people by grace through faith.
Deu 27:19 ‘Cursed is he who deprives the foreigner, fatherless and widow
of justice’. All the people shall say ‘Amen’-
This is in the context of a list of things which were done in secret
and would not be judged by men. So the lack of justice in view would mean
having a biased, discriminatory attitude, deep within the heart, unseen by
men. And this is so easy for us all to slip in to. When our own experience
before baptism was like Israel's in Egypt. We were foreigners, the
excluded and marginal, who were saved by grace. And this is to affect our
mental attitudes to others like that.
Deu 27:20 ‘Cursed is he who lies with his father’s wife, because he has
uncovered his father’s skirt’. All the people shall say ‘Amen’-
Nakedness should only be uncovered before your wife or husband.
Uncovering nakedness is an idiom for the sexual act. The allusion is to
Adam and Eve having their nakedness uncovered; we have to accept the
situation we are in as a result of the curse, rather than having sexual
relations with who we like, as if uncovering nakedness is nothing
shameful. Our hope is for the curse put on us in Eden to be lifted at
Christ’s return; we can’t lift it in this life, as our own ever insistent
mortality reminds us. See on :13.
Deu 27:21 ‘Cursed is he who lies with any kind of animal’. All the people
shall say ‘Amen’-
Such was God's desire to teach that we are made in His image, and
must not act as animals, bringing ourselves down to their level as if we
are equal only to them. So the message for us is that we are to respect
ourselves as made in God's image, and not act on a purely animal level.
Deu 27:22 ‘Cursed is he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his
father or the daughter of his mother’. All the people shall say ‘Amen’-
This is phrased in such language as to allude to the way that Abraham
says of Sarah his wife: "She is indeed my sister, the daughter of my
father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife" (Gen.
20:12). The people surely could not have repeated these words without
thinking of their forefather Abraham, whose children they were,
originating from a legally cursed relationship. It was intended,
therefore, as a reminder to them of how their very standing with God was
by grace alone; and they were not from any wonderful spiritual pedigree,
but instead were God's people by grace through faith. See on :18.
Deu 27:23 ‘Cursed is he who lies with his mother-in-law’. All the people
shall say ‘Amen’-
The implication seems to be, 'And doesn't get caught doing so'. For
this kind of inappropriate bonding would have been done in secret. So many
of these curses are for sins committed which would never be found out by
man, such as taking a bribe (:25). The idea of the curses therefore is
that Israel were recognizing that who we are when nobody is watching is
significant to God, because He does watch and judge, all the time. And He
is therefore invited to "curse" our secret sins, at the last day. No other
legal code was like this- criminalizing things which were unseen and would
never be discovered by anyone else. Because God is the judge of all, and
sees all things and will judge them in His own time.
Deu 27:24 ‘Cursed is he who strikes his neighbour in secret’. All the
people shall say ‘Amen’-
This may refer to a man striking his neighbour in his "secrets", i.e.
his most vulnerable part, the testicles. In which case we deduce the
principle that inappropriate exploitation of another's weakness is as it
were a mortal sin. Or the idea may be that if you strike a person secretly
with no witness, even though you will not be judged for it by men, you
will be by God, and are pronounced "cursed". But the meaning may simply be
"in secret". See on :23.
Deu 27:25 ‘Cursed is he who takes a bribe to kill an innocent person’. All
the people shall say ‘Amen’-
The idea of a bribe suggests that this doesn't refer to a contract
killer, but to someone taking a bribe to make a false legal statement. But
indirect consequence of wrong action is here understood as having
performed the action, of murder in this case. For the death penalty would
come because of the false statement which was made in return for a bribe.
And this is an abiding principle.
Deu 27:26 ‘Cursed is he who doesn’t confirm the words of this law to do
them’. All the people shall say ‘Amen’-
When the people ratified
their covenant with Yahweh [cp. the breaking of bread], they had to
confirm their agreement that they would be cursed for disobedience to it;
and “cursed is who doesn't confirm the words...". They couldn’t opt out
of bringing this curse upon themselves for disobedience- if they did, they
were cursed.
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