BREAK ONE, BREAK ALL!
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Opening Prayer
Thank you, Father, for your Word. I ask that your Spirit speaks to me through it, enabling me to lay hold of its truths and empowering me to apply them.
Read DEUTERONOMY 27
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
The Altar on Mount Ebal
27 Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people: “Keep all these commands that I give you today. 2 When you have crossed the Jordan into the land the Lord your God is giving you, set up some large stones and coat them with plaster. 3 Write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you. 4 And when you have crossed the Jordan, set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I command you today, and coat them with plaster. 5 Build there an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. Do not use any iron tool on them. 6 Build the altar of the Lord your God with fieldstones and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. 7 Sacrifice fellowship offerings there, eating them and rejoicing in the presence of the Lord your God. 8 And you shall write very clearly all the words of this law on these stones you have set up.”
Curses From Mount Ebal
9 Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, “Be silent, Israel, and listen! You have now become the people of the Lord your God. 10 Obey the Lord your God and follow his commands and decrees that I give you today.”
11 On the same day Moses commanded the people:
12 When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin. 13 And these tribes shall stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce curses: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali.
14 The Levites shall recite to all the people of Israel in a loud voice:
15 “Cursed is anyone who makes an idol—a thing detestable to the Lord, the work of skilled hands—and sets it up in secret.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
16 “Cursed is anyone who dishonors their father or mother.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
17 “Cursed is anyone who moves their neighbor’s boundary stone.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
18 “Cursed is anyone who leads the blind astray on the road.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
19 “Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
20 “Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his father’s wife, for he dishonors his father’s bed.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
21 “Cursed is anyone who has sexual relations with any animal.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
22 “Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
23 “Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his mother-in-law.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
24 “Cursed is anyone who kills their neighbor secretly.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
25 “Cursed is anyone who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
26 “Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.”
Then all the people shall say, “Amen!”
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
As the people of God, the Israelites agreed to obey all of his commands and suffer the consequences of any disobedience.
In today’s reading, instructions are given to the Israelites for a dramatic ceremony for ratifying their covenant with God after they enter Canaan. By publicly pronouncing curses on themselves for breaches of the law, followed by loud amens, they are expressing agreement with whatever penalties God will impose for disobedience. These penalties, as well as blessings for obedience, are itemized in detail in chapters 28 and 29.
The final curse mentioned in verse 26 does not refer to the violation of any particular command but to any breach of the law in general. In the New Testament, James picks up on the same idea by stating that ‘whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.’1 Thus every single one of us is a lawbreaker for, in spite of our best efforts, we will never be able to obey God’s commands perfectly and at all times.
The apostle Paul quotes verse 26 to explain that trying to gain acceptance with God by relying on our own obedience to the law is doomed to failure.2 Quite simply, the law can only show us our shortcomings. It has no power to help us overcome them. Like a mirror, it reveals what we look like, but it cannot change our appearance. That is why God gave Israel a sacrificial system, whereby national and individual sins were forgiven exclusively through the blood of animals offered in substitution for the repentant sinner. These sacrifices had to be repeated over and over again. A permanent solution was needed. It came in the person of Jesus Christ, who was able to keep the law perfectly and bear the curse for humanity! Have you trusted in him as your substitute?
Apply
Consider your plight if any sin of commission and omission—even in a single day—were not covered by the blood of Jesus.
Closing prayer
Thank you, Father, for the gift of your Son, Jesus, who bears our sins for us and sets us free.
1 James 2:10 2 Gal 3:10
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