seekeroftruth
Well-Known Member
Deuteronomy 27:1 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.”
This is from the easy English site.
Moses tells the people how they must remember God’s covenant with them. They must put up some stones. They must write parts of the law on the stones so that everyone could read them. People who came in the future would be able to read them also. The Israelites must put up an altar at Mount Ebal. They must make it of stones that they did not cut. Other nations made their altars out of stones that they cut. Israel must be different. They must read the curses publicly from Mount Ebal. (That is where Abraham built his first altar.) They must read the blessings from Mount Gerizim. The burnt offerings showed that the Israelites were completely loyal to God. With the fellowship offerings, they thanked for what God had done on their behalf. Verses 9-10 may be part of a speech that urged the people to obey the covenant. God gave the covenant to them first. It was his free gift. They did not have to do good works to obtain the Covenant. They obeyed God because they were grateful for his blessings.
This is the description form bibletrack.org.
Remember the Gerizim/Ebal service we talked about in Deuteronomy 11 with 2,000,000+ Hebrews shouting their acceptance of the cursings and blessings of the law? Here are some more specific instructions about how this event is to take place, which doesn't actually happen until Joshua 8. Hey! Be patient; it takes time to put together a 2,000,000-voice choir. The actual event takes place in Joshua 8:29-35. It'll be an earth-shaking vocal experience!
The advance team will write "all the words of this law" upon stones on the other side of Jordan before this big event. These two mountain tops are about one mile apart over on the Canaan side of the Jordan River. Half of the Hebrew tribes will stand on Mount Ebal (Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali); the other half will stand on Mount Gerizim (Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin
. The Levites will read the curses, and the people on the mountains will cry "amen." Verses 15-26 list those curses which are to be read at that big gathering. We'll see the reading of the blessings with additional curses in Deuteronomy 28.
The advance team will write "all the words of this law" upon stones on the other side of Jordan before this big event. These two mountain tops are about one mile apart over on the Canaan side of the Jordan River. Half of the Hebrew tribes will stand on Mount Ebal (Reuben, Gad, and Asher, and Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali); the other half will stand on Mount Gerizim (Simeon, and Levi, and Judah, and Issachar, and Joseph, and Benjamin
. The Levites will read the curses, and the people on the mountains will cry "amen." Verses 15-26 list those curses which are to be read at that big gathering. We'll see the reading of the blessings with additional curses in Deuteronomy 28.Did you notice? The town that is in the valley between the two mountains? It's Shechem.... where Simeon and Levi, avenged their sister Dinah's rape by "Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, the prince of the land" of Shechem by killing all of the city's male inhabitants. Remember? That was the story where the two brothers told Shechem that if he wanted to marry Dinah... everyone had to be circumcised... then while all the men couldn't fight because they were hurting from their private parts.... Simeon and Levi came back with their troops and killed them all.... Now the Israelites are back in the same place.... and two million people will be yelling on both sides of the town.
Can you imagine just how loud a million people can be? Football fans talk about how the fans are so loud at the stadium in Seattle. There are only 67,000 seats at the stadium. Now.... add 1,933,000 more voices.... That has got to be a game changer.
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