Deuteronomy 3

Chapter 3. Moses’ Third Address On the Plains of MoabProspectiveDeuteronomy 27-30In this shorter address Moses seeks to hind them to their sacred obligations, by pointing them forward to the blessing and the curse which are to be dependent upon their obedience or disobedience, and which are here solemnly added as the sanctions of the divine law. Monumental Records

1. He provides for the writing of the law on monuments of stone after they enter the land of promise. Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people: “Keep all these commands that I give you today. 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. 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 fathers, promised you. And when you have crossed the Jordan, set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I command you today, and coat them with plaster…. And you shall write very clearly all the words of this law on these stones you have set up.” (Deuteronomy 27:1-4, Deuteronomy 27:8) This was to be done in the valley of Samaria, that lies between Mounts Ebal and Gerizim. The former was to be the mount of cursing; the latter, of blessing. It was very significant that the law was to be written upon the mount of cursing. This suggests that the predominant idea in the ancient covenant was judgment and condemnation. Therefore it is called by the apostle, “The ministry that condemns” (2 Corinthians 3:9). It was to be recorded on the face of great stones, plastered over so as to bring out the characters in bolder outlines, and to afford a smooth surface on which to make the inscription. Such monuments and inscriptions are still to be found in ancient ruins. The law written on these stones may have been the entire Mosaic code. Undoubtedly it was the principal portion of it, moral and civil. All the words of this law are distinctly specified, and it is added, “You shall write very clearly” (Deuteronomy 27:8). God has made His will most explicit, and He expects His witnesses to proclaim it unmistakably. Mercy Amid Judgment
2. In the midst of this paragraph there is a beautiful provision, right on the mount of cursing, for the setting up of an altar of sacrifice. “Build there an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. Do not use any iron tool upon them. Build the altar of the Lord your God with fìeldstones and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. Sacrifice fellowship offerings there, eating them and rejoicing in the presence of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 27:5-7). This passage shines with all the light and glory of the cross, and corresponds, most signally, to the beautiful provision for the altar of sacrifice at the close of the 20th chapter of Exodus, just after the terrors of the giving of the law on Mt. Sinai had been recorded (Exodus 20:24-26). There, we have already seen, the meaning was typical of God’s gracious provision in the gospel for the transgression of His law. Here also it is assumed that the law would be broken and the curse incurred; yet, notwithstanding, under the shadow of Ebal, there was an altar of sacrifice where the sin could be expiated, and they could still enter into the fellowship of a reconciled God, and “sacrifice fellowship offerings there, eating them and rejoicing in the presence of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 27:7). Responsive Service
3. A still more impressive ceremony was then provided for (Deuteronomy 27:11-26). The whole camp of Israel was to be assembled in the valley, and divided into two sections, one-half consisting of the tribes descended from Rachel and Leah, representing the firstborn rights, who were to stand on Mount Gerizim, the mount of blessing. The other half, representing the tribes descended from the bondwomen whom Rachel and Leah gave to Jacob, with the addition of Reuben, the cursed son of Leah, and Zebulun, representing the youngest born, were to stand on Mount Ebal, the mount of cursing, and respond alternately, in chorus, the blessing and the curse, and the mighty host on the mountain, in a voice of thunder to say, “Amen!” It is very remarkable that the words of the curse only are recorded here, the formula of the blessing being omitted. This, too, is significant of the Old Testament spirit of condemnation under the law. The curses are arranged in a series of 12, corresponding with the 12 tribes. The first 11 represent special acts of sin, standing for the other sins of the same class. Deuteronomy 27:15 represents the first table of the law; Deuteronomy 27:16-25 the second table of the law; Deuteronomy 27:16 representing the fifth commandment; Deuteronomy 27:17-19, the sixth commandment, all offenses against the civil rights of others; Deuteronomy 27:20-23, the seventh commandment; Deuteronomy 27:24, the eighth commandment; Deuteronomy 27:25, the ninth commandment; and Deuteronomy 27:26 covers the whole law by pronouncing a curse upon everyone that does not carry out all the words of the law. The Blessing and the Curse
4. Moses’ exhortation to obedience was founded upon this announcement of blessing and cursing (Deuteronomy 28:1-68). This is divided into two parts: Deuteronomy 28:1-14, the blessing; 15-68, the curse. Here again the blessing occupies 14 verses only, and the curse 54, nearly four times as many. The blessing is repeated six times, the curse as often. The blessing is personified in the strong figurative language as a pursuer, and as following close behind and overtaking them. The Blessing “All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 28:2). It covers all the relationships of their life as individuals, families and the covenant people. Of course this was, primarily, a temporal blessing, and in this respect it differs from the terms of the gospel, but their earthly blessings were types of our higher spiritual welfare. The promise was to cover all possible blessings both in the city and the field. It was to include all fruitfulness in their body, their grounds and their flocks. It was to be in their basket, or wallet, and in their kneading trough. It was to be with them in coming in and going out. It was to give them victory over their enemies and prosperity in all to which they should set their hands. It was especially to separate them unto God as a holy and peculiar people in the sight of all the nations, to be crowned with all the fullness of His good pleasure, the bounty of His Providence, abundance of wealth and preeminence above all other peoples. The Curse The curse, however, is amplified still more fully until it becomes an awful and literal prediction of the calamities that have actually come upon Israel. There seem to be five panoramic pictures of the curse, in as many distinct paragraphs, corresponding to the stages of judgment threatened in Leviticus 26. a. The curse is to rest upon all they do, to bring upon them the pestilence, disease in every form known to us, including consumption, fever, inflammation. It is to fall upon their land, by the sword of their enemies and the elements of nature in the form of blasting, mildew, skies of brass, rain of dust and sand, defeat before their enemies and dispersion among all peoples. b. The next series is pictured from Deuteronomy 28:27-37. The curse falls with the plague, the scourges of Egypt, revolting disease, madness, blindness and astonishment of heart, disappointment in their tenderest affections, disaster in all their business and property, the captivity of their children, the oppression of their enemies, madness because of their grief and sorrow and such horrors and calamities as shall make them an astonishment and proverb above all nations (Deuteronomy 28:37). c. The next series extends from Deuteronomy 28:38-48, and portrays the failure of all their work, their harvests through locust, their vineyards through the worm, their olive trees through casting their fruit, their very children through their shameful captivity, their subordination to the alien and the stranger in their midst, until they shall become the tail and not the head, and shall suffer hunger, thirst, nakedness, and want of all things, and a yoke of iron upon their necks. d. The next picture is a vivid description of the horrors of foreign invasion, and their subjugation and captivity under the Chaldeans. They are described as a nation of fiercest countenance and without mercy to young or old. They shall sweep away the fruit of their land and their cattle shall perish in their cities until parents shall eat their very children for hunger, and the ties of human affection shall be changed into unnatural hatred until they strive for a morsel of each other’s flesh. And even the tender and delicate mother shall be glad to eat her newborn babe and her very own flesh in the horrors of famine. e. The last picture gives the climax of the curse, and seems to be a literal prediction of the later calamities of Israel since the last destruction of Jerusalem and their dispersion among the Gentiles. How solemn are some of the awful words! The closing picture of their slavery in Egypt was literally fulfilled in the Middle Ages, in the case of the multitudes of Hebrews driven from Spain to northern Africa and sold as slaves by their oppressors. The Covenant Renewed
5. The solemn renewal of the covenant was done in view of these threatening and promises (Deuteronomy 29-30). a. Brief recital of their past mercies. He reminds them of all that God has done for them, and yet stops to bewail their blindness and stupidity to understand all His teachings and blessings. b. Solemn renewal of the covenant. All degrees and classes of the people are solemnly united in this great covenant—the captains, the elders, the officers and all the men of Israel, their wives, their little ones, the stranger in their midst and the very bondmen that waited on them. The covenant was expressed in the most imperative language, not only a covenant, but an oath of the most solemn and binding obligation, but no less sacred than the pledge which He Himself had sworn unto their fathers. The question of how far we should enter into such personal covenants with God is a very important one. If we rightly understand the nature of God’s covenant relation with us as individuals, and the divine ground on which the covenant rests, namely, the mediatorial work of the Lord Jesus Christ, we cannot too impressively seal our engagements with Him. It is delightful to know that to each of us in Christ, God has sworn His oath of eternal faithfulness, and that in the strength of Christ we may enter into the covenant with equal definiteness and sacredness; and that He will accept our plighted vow and become in us the power to keep it, if we enter into it with intelligent faith, not as the covenant of the law, but as the covenant of grace, of which Christ is the sponsor and the pledge. “See, I have made him a witness to the peoples” (Isaiah 55:4). If our covenant is thus in Him, it will be eternal and unbroken, and our part will be kept through Him as well as His unchangeable promises to us. c. Warnings against unfaithfulness to the covenant, or omission on their part, with respect to these obligations, and terrible intimations of the retribution which will follow unfaithfulness. Especially are the warnings directed against all whose heart is even already turning away from the Lord, and beginning presumptuously to say, “‘I will be safe, even though I persist in going my own way.’ This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry” (Deuteronomy 29:19), that is, perhaps, not only desiring evil, but satiating himself with evil. This he calls a root that bears bitter poison. This is the passage which the apostle quotes in Hebrews 12:15, “See to it that no one misses the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many.” The threatenings denounced against the soul that dares thus deliberately to calculate upon the pleasures of sin, quiver like the fiery lightnings in their consuming blaze. “The Lord will never be willing to forgive him; his wrath and zeal will burn against that man…. The Lord will single him out… for disaster” (Deuteronomy 29:20-21). The same judgments are denounced against the land if it shall become apostate, until it shall be made a frightful monument before the eyes of all nations of the Lord’s displeasure. d. Exhortation to faithfulness. “The secret things belong to the Lord our God; but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29). The meaning of this verse seems to be that the reason why Moses is so plainly and practically speaking to them the word of the law instead of merely entertaining them with curious revelations is because the very purpose of God’s Word is not to minister to our speculative curiosity, but to guide our feet into the path of obedience, and to preserve us from the snares of sin and death. Therefore we are not vainly to inquire into the secret things with which we have no concern, or use our Bibles for the mere gratification of the love of novelty, but to treat God’s Word as a plain and faithful message from a loving Father of “the things revealed [which] belong to us and to our children forever, that we may follow all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 29:29). e. Promises of restoration even to those who should depart from the law, on condition of their sincere repentance. Moses here assumes that they shall apostatize from God, and be scattered among the nations, and that the words that he is speaking to them now shall come into their hearts in the days of their captivity. He tells them that even then, if they shall return unto the Lord with all their heart, and with all their soul, Then the Lord your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you into the land that belonged to your fathers, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your fathers. (Deuteronomy 30:3-5) Not only so, but still better, “The Lord your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, so that you may love him with all your heart and with all your soul, and live” (Deuteronomy 30:6). And this spiritual restoration will bring the fullness of temporal prosperity and national blessing. “Then the Lord your God will make you most prosperous in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your land. The Lord will again delight in you and make you prosperous, just as he delighted in your fathers” (Deuteronomy 30:9). This blessed promise still awaits repentant Israel, and shall be literally fulfilled in the spiritual revival and national restoration of God’s ancient people. f. Concluding appeal in which Moses applies God’s message solemnly to their hearts and consciences, and sets before them for personal decision, the blessing and the curse, the evil and the good, the way of death and the way of life. First, he meets the possible excuse that the word he has spoken is too hard, too mysterious, too far off, or too high up. It is not in heaven, nor is it beyond the sea, but it is very near them, even in their mouth and in their heart. Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, “Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, “Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?” No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart so you may obey it. (Deuteronomy 30:11-14) This is the foundation of the Holy Spirit’s appeal to us even in the gospel (see Romans 10:6, etc.). For us the meaning is that God’s message is not impracticable, or His demands impossible, requiring some long preparation, some lofty height of experience, some profound depth of feeling or meaning. It meets us just where we are and as we are, and may be accepted and acted upon by every one of us the very instant we hear it. And so, secondly, Moses demands of each of them an immediate decision: “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses” (Deuteronomy 30:19). It is a personal matter, not with the nation now, but with each man, woman and child. It is not something to be put off, but to be decided this day. And according to the spirit in which we are willing to meet the decision promptly and fully, shall be the issue of our future life. The soul that hesitates in making this choice will be very apt to hesitate in executing it, and in each emergency demanding promptness in the future, will be almost sure to falter and parley until even the act of obedience is frustrated by indecision. Very solemnly does he call to witness both heaven and earth in this momentous covenant, and very really does the universe thus witness every man’s decision. Eyes innumerable are looking down at every crisis of our lives; tablets, more enduring than stone, are receiving the record of our conduct, and even as some of us read these lines it may be that the years of eternity are being determined for us. “This day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore to give your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20). Let the voice of the lawgiver, long silent in Nebo’s grave, speak to us with the added witness of the gospel, these ancient words in their New Testament light: “I have set before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life, so that you and your children may live and that you may love the Lord your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years” (Deuteronomy 30:19-20). “Do not say in your heart, ‘Who will ascend into heaven?’” (that is, to bring Christ down) “or ‘Who will descend into the deep?’” (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? “The word is near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart,” that is, the word of faith we are proclaiming: That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. (Romans 10:6-10) More deeply than we sometimes think, the heart of Moses understood the spiritual meaning of God’s covenant. There is nothing more profound in the New Testament than the words, “the Lord is your life, and he will give you many years” (Deuteronomy 30:20). It is the very heart of Christianity, nay, rather, the very heart of Christ.