seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Deuteronomy 11:6 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known. 29 When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses. 30 As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, westward, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh, in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal. 31 You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you have taken it over and are living there, 32 be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today.
This is from the blueletterbible.org site.
The three great elements to the Old Covenant were the law, the sacrifice, and the choice. Israel had a choice - to obey and be blessed, or to disobey and be cursed. It was a cause and effect relationship with God.
It was up to Israel. If they wanted to be blessed, then they should walk in obedience (as they were in the days of David and Solomon), but if they disobeyed, they would be cursed (as they were in most of the days of the later kings)
Inherent in Israel's disobedience was idolatry. Whenever we walk in disobedience, we exalt ourselves against God - and declaring that our rules, our standards, our desires, are all more important than His. This is idolatry in its most base - and common - form.
The recitation of the blessings on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal will be detailed in later chapters. Yet it is plain that God wanted the word to get to the entire nation, because the entire nation was part of this covenant with Him.
The name Gerizim is supposed to be associated with fruitful harvests, and the name Ebal is supposed to be associated with barrenness.
It was up to Israel. If they wanted to be blessed, then they should walk in obedience (as they were in the days of David and Solomon), but if they disobeyed, they would be cursed (as they were in most of the days of the later kings)
Inherent in Israel's disobedience was idolatry. Whenever we walk in disobedience, we exalt ourselves against God - and declaring that our rules, our standards, our desires, are all more important than His. This is idolatry in its most base - and common - form.
The recitation of the blessings on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal will be detailed in later chapters. Yet it is plain that God wanted the word to get to the entire nation, because the entire nation was part of this covenant with Him.
The name Gerizim is supposed to be associated with fruitful harvests, and the name Ebal is supposed to be associated with barrenness.
I was reading a quote from another site about Gerizim and Ebal and what will be happening concerning that location later in Deuteronomy and Joshua. The commentary reminded me that there were over 2,000,000 people who left Egypt. There have been a lot of deaths and a lot of babies were born since they started on this journey. Still, there would be around 2,000,000 people listening. Even if there were only half of the people left that's still 1,000,000 people listening.
I did a google search for cities with 1,000,000 people.... ok get this.... Dallas, according to the site, has a population of 1,006,877 and San Diego has a population of 1,110,549.
Imagine.... Even if only half of the original number of people who left Egypt were standing there listening to Moses talking.... that would be equal to the entire population of Dallas or San Diego. That's a huge audience. If we're talking about a sustained population of over 2,000,000 + that would be about the same as Dallas and San Diego combined. In comparison.... Redskins Stadium only holds 82,000 people seats. It would take over 24 Redskins Stadiums to hold all those people... and Moses didn't have a microphone to drop!
