DEUTERONOMY 27:1-28:68 We ve said from the very beginning that the book of Deuteronomy is one long sermon by Moses to the children of God. Moses knew he could not enter the Promised Land with the people. But the deep longing of Moses heart was that the people cross over Jordan and occupy the land and enjoy all the blessings God had for them. Moses wanted so much to give God s children one last call to obedience. And in the Scripture we have before us today, we see Moses joining with the elders and the priests and we see him seeking to remind the people of the requirements God is giving them in order for them to occupy the land. God had given this land as an everlasting possession and inheritance to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; but their occupation of that land was dependant upon their obedience to God s commandments. So, Moses told the people that when they crossed over Jordan, they were to observe a ritual a ceremony reaffirming the covenant. The ceremony would take place in the valley between Mt. Ebal to the North and Mt. Gerizim to the South. Six tribes would be assembled at Mt. Gerizim, the mount of blessing and six tribes would be assembled at Mt. Ebal, the mount of cursing. Now, try to get this picture in your mind. The Law was to be written on stones so all the people could see it. An altar was to be built and burnt offerings were to be sacrificed on the altar. Peace offerings were to be offered there and the people were to eat there and they were also to rejoice. The valley in between these two mountains was a natural amphitheater so that a speaker on either mountain could be easily heard on both hillsides. The voices of the crowd on Gerizim could be heard on Ebal, and vice versa. These acoustics made this an ideal place to ratify and reaffirm the covenant. Now, why was this to be done? It would be done so the people would have absolutely no excuse for not knowing the terms of possessing and occupying the Promised Land. Deuteronomy 27:15-26 These verses list the curses God would bring upon the people. I looked up the word for curse in my Hebrew dictionary really hoping in my heart that the definition would be milder than it is in English. My Hebrew dictionary said it meant to execrate Well, I had to look that word up. I didn t know what execrate meant but it didn t sound good to me it sounded a lot like execute. I found it meant to abhor, to detest, to abominate. So I said, Well, Lord, it looks like to curse means exactly what it says and it says exactly what it means Page 1 of 7
Did you notice that after each curse the people shall say, Amen? Amen means so be it. Now think about this When the Israelites in the Promised Land said their amen to these twelve curses, they would be assenting to the Law of God. They would be promising to obey it and also agreeing that they deserved judgment if they did not obey it! This would be a very solemn hour in the history of Israel. Their words would mean that they agreed to keep the Law or be cursed, and their very words would be what condemned them. But, that s not at all what God wanted for His people. All we have to do is look at chapter 28 to see what God longed to give His people. In fact, in chapter 28, we see both subjects addressed 1) Rewards or blessings for Obedience (verses 1-14) 2) Consequences or curses for Disobedience (verses 15-68) Deuteronomy 28:1-8 Here we see that no area of their lives would be without God s hand of blessing. And did you notice we didn t read that the people were to say amen to these blessings as they did to the curses? I believe the reason is that they knew they deserved the curses if they didn t obey God but they also knew the blessings of God were not deserved. They are wholly of grace. They did nothing to deserve God s blessings! Even their obedience would not be enough to warrant God s blessings! And it s the same with us, isn t it? The Bible tells us that Jesus didn t come into the world to condemn the world but that the world might be saved through the Lord Jesus. The Bible says that those who do not believe in Jesus are condemned already! We can t earn salvation! We don t deserve salvation! Salvation is totally of grace! All we have to do is believe and trust in the shed blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and we will be saved and have all the blessings of God upon our lives! The blessings God wanted to shower upon Israel would lift Israel far above all the other nations and these blessings would make Israel a nation to be honored and respected and admired. These blessings would give the Jews opportunities to tell the other nations about the true and living God! Verses 9-14 God promised to bless His people in all places The city, the field, the home with all they needed He would care for them and prosper their efforts. He would give them victory over their enemies. Page 2 of 7
He would supply precious rain for their fields. He would cause their crops to grow abundantly. He would cause their surplus harvests to be sold to other nations, but they wouldn t have to buy from anybody! We need to keep in mind why the Lord promised these wonderful blessings. For one thing, the nation of Israel was still in its spiritual infancy and one way to teach children is by means of rewards and punishments. These material and physical blessings were God s way of reminding His children that obedience brings blessing but disobedience brings chastening. But, what God wanted was for them to graduate from being spiritual infants. He wanted their obedience to build godly character in the people so they would indeed be the holy nation and the kingdom of priests and the light to the world that He had intended them to be. Well, the remainder of this chapter is prophetical. It describes judgments God promised to send if His children refused to obey His Law. These judgments or curses are given in great detail because God wanted there to be absolutely no doubt in the minds of the people that it was the chastening hand of God when these calamities came upon them. He wanted them to recognize His hand and to not think for a moment that these calamities were a series of coincidences. We re not going to read all this, but let s just read a few verses Verses 15-19 and God goes on to tell them they would be sick in body and mind they would be deprived of the necessities of life they would be defeated in battle they would be scattered throughout the world they would see their wives ravished before their eyes they would see their children slain they would even resort to cannibalism I m telling you if you read the 28 th chapter of Deuteronomy this week, you know it didn t lift your spirits. It wasn t light reading. In fact, it was quite depressing to read this long list of calamities and especially when you realize that indeed Israel experienced all of these things at one time or another and that innocent people suffered because of the sins of the guilty. And what was the reason for all this trouble? Verse 47 They welcomed the blessings and enjoyed them, but they wouldn t honor the Lord who gave them the blessings. Page 3 of 7
So, Israel was a disciplined people disciplined by God because of disobedience but they were also a dispersed people. Verse 49 This tells us God is going to bring a nation against Israel. And this was the beginning of the diaspora the dispersion of Israel. They lived in captivity and then some came back to Jerusalem to rebuild the Temple, but many chose to stay in the land to which they had been exiled. They had married, they had jobs, they had homes they had no interest in going back to Israel. Then, in 70 A.D., the Romans came in, burned the city of Jerusalem and the Temple and after that they were again a scattered people found in almost every nation on earth. They had no homeland. They had no Temple. They had no priesthood yet no matter in what nations they settled, they never lost their national identity. Remember when Dr. John Phillips was here several months ago. He spoke about this. He said that when folks live in America but their heritage is another country, they re referred to, for example, as German Americans, or French Americans, or Russian Americans, but when the Jew is spoken of, he is referred to as an American Jew. If he lives in Russia, he s known as a Russian Jew or if he lives in France, he s known as a French Jew. The Jewish people have never been assimilated totally into all the nations to which they ve been dispersed, because God has still had His hand upon them all these hundreds of years even though it wouldn t be until May 14, 1948 that Israel would once again become a political entity on the world stage. Verses 63-68 John Phillips says of these verses Jewish history is one long commentary on this. Egyptian pharaohs, Assyrian kings, Babylonian rulers, Persian satraps, Greek Hellenists, Roman Caesars, Holy Roman emperors, Roman Catholic pontiffs, Medieval monarchs, Christian crusaders, Spanish inquisitors, Nazi dictators, Russian commissars, Arab sheiks, and United Nations delegates (and we might add PLO chairmen) have all turned their hands against the Jews. Yet God has preserved this people in spite of it all. Warren Wiersbe says of these verses: During these times of severe suffering, more than one Jew has asked the Lord, Why do Your people suffer when the wicked Gentile nations escape suffering? How can a holy God use godless Gentile nations to chasten His chosen people? Dr. Wiersbe goes on to say, This is one of the themes of the book of Habakkuk and it is discussed in several Psalms. But the fact that Israel is God s chosen people and a special nation explains why He chastens them, for the greater the privilege, the greater the responsibility. See, God said, You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your sins. (Amos 3:2) Page 4 of 7
And God also says, To whom much is given, much is required. Well, how does all this apply to you and me? Do these two chapters of this old Jewish book have anything to do with us? Are we to just look at this as a Jewish history lesson? No! In fact, I believe there are some practical applications we can see today for our country for the church and for us as individuals, as well. I believe the application for us nationally is that God staked out this country long before Columbus ever sailed across the Atlantic. I believe God has had His hand on America from its very founding. And I believe God has blessed our country because we have been a blessing to the Jewish people and because we have sought to evangelize the world for His Son. God has blessed us in our cities He has blessed us in the country He has blessed the fruit of our land And He has allowed us to never want for food But, we have flaunted God s blessings in His face and morally and spiritually we are a bankrupt nation. And I believe we saw on September 11, that our beloved country is not immune to attack from our enemies. We should pray for our president, and for our vice-president. We should pray for the members of the Cabinet.and all the presidential advisors. We should pray for the Congress and the Senate But most of all we should pray that the people of America will come to God through the Lord Jesus Christ. We, as God s people, should humble ourselves and pray and we should turn from our wicked ways because God has promised if we do this, then He will hear from heaven and forgive our sin and heal our land. But, not only is there a message for Israel and America in this Scripture, there is also a message for the church Just like Israel of old, the church is made up of God s chosen people. Jesus said, You didn t chose Me, I chose you We have been greatly blessed by God. And we are here to be what Israel was supposed to be salt and light in a dark and corrupt world. We are to here to advertise the goodness and grace of the Lord and to glorify God and to obey His Word. But, the church as a whole, is not doing that! I m afraid many churches have turned into social clubs. They invite folks in so they can feel good about themselves. The preachers don t preach the Word and the singers don t sing to the glory of God and the members of the congregation don t go out and witness in a lost and dying world. Page 5 of 7
Peter said in 1 Peter 4:17: For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? If God chastens His own people for their sins, what will He do to those who don t belong to the family and have resisted His will? God s Word tells us very plainly that judgment will begin in God s family and the only way we can avoid it is to turn from our sins and obey His will. In closing, I believe this lesson applies to you and me individually. God wants His children to walk a pure and holy walk. I don t believe all these curses will necessarily fall upon us God s Word says there is therefore no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. But, that doesn t let us off the hook. Being God s people demands a distinctive lifestyle for us just as it did for the children of Israel. God wants us to be clean vessels fit for His service. And you know, vessels don t clean themselves, do they? I mean think about it When was the last time your dishes got up off the table and ran over and got into your sink and washed themselves? When was the last time your house vaccumed and dusted itself? You know, it s an amazing thing to me that a house gets dirty even when there s no one there! Even a vacant house collects dust, doesn t it? But, fill that house with a family with activity, and you really have some dust and clutter and dirt! And the same is true in the spiritual realm polluting influences are everywhere on the printed page on TV on radio in the conversations you overhear. And unless we exercise care unless we exercise obedience our hearts and minds will be as soiled as the world around us. And even with great care even with real diligence to be obedient, we will still stumble and fall and need to be cleaned up. Do you remember when Jesus washed the feet of the disciples? Why did He do that? Because they were dirty! Yes, He was setting an example of humility and servanthood, but He was also setting the example for us of the fact that we can walk with Jesus every day as the disciples did, but because we re still walking in this dirty old world, our feet will still get dirty. And when that happens we will have to confess our sins to God and know that He is faithful and He is just and He will cleanse us from all unrighteousness! Page 6 of 7
See, we don t become clean vessels all by ourselves He does the cleansing, doesn t He? Let me say one more thing that I believe we can apply to our lives from this passage of Scripture We should be obedient, yes but not just for reward not just for blessing. We should be past that! We should be obedient to please God! I know of godly, obedient servants today who suffer and are going through tough times and some of them are sitting right here in this room and on the outside we would say You know, they don t seem to be blessed by God their health is bad their finances aren t good their marriage has failed their children have wandered they ve lost the dearest person in life But, because they have remained obedient to the Lord through all their trials and tribulations, then these tribulations have brought about perseverance and their perseverance has brought about proven character and their character has brought about hope and their hope has not disappointed them because the love of God has been poured out within their hearts through the Holy Spirit! I hope we take away much more than a Jewish history lesson, or even a lesson on curses and blessings from the book of Deuteronomy today. My prayer is that we learn that God loves us and He expects us to know Him better and better each and every day just as He loved those folks on Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerizim. We look back on these Jewish people and we wonder why they couldn t have chosen blessings instead of curses, but if we were honest today, we d have to say that many times you and I do the same thing. May we choose obedience simply because it pleases our Heavenly Father, simply because it brings Him joy and simply because it proves to those around us that we love the Lord Jesus Christ and when we do that, the blessings will come they may not be blessings as the world sees blessings but they will be blessings upon our lives! Page 7 of 7