“26 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, west of the road, 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.
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Our culture readily accepts warning signs—“Danger: high voltage.” “Danger: radiation risk.” “Caution: falling rocks.” Our culture accepts these warnings, but we have no invitation signs – “Invitation: ice cream ahead.” “Invitation: beautiful sunsets on this beach nightly.”
Our culture accepts warning signs, it would probably welcome invitation signs, and yet it recoils at the idea that God puts up both signs. He puts up warning signs. Warning: curses ahead—turn back. He puts up invitations. Invitation: blessings ahead—keep going.
If you readily accept signs warning you of danger, do you accept such warnings from God? If you would love to live in a world filled with signs marking honest invitations to blessings, are you thankful that God gives clear signs to mark the way to blessing?
“I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse,” Moses told Israel at the edge of the Promised Land. This morning’s study is made up of warnings and invitations. Warning: curses this way. Invitation: blessing that way. You will turn one way or the other.
You have already been moving in one direction or the other. This morning might be a literal turning point in your life. You might recognize that you have been taking the wrong path and that you need to turn around. That is what is called repentance. This morning you might find the encouragement you need to continue moving towards blessings. You are on one of those two paths.
God gives warnings of curses and invitations to blessings. Consider both and choose blessing. That is the claim of this sermon: God gives warnings of curses and invitations to blessings. Consider both and choose blessings.
We will study this in two points. First: the blessings and curses. Second: visible reminders of blessings and curses. We see the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience in verses 26-28. We see the visible reminders of blessings and curses in the form of mountains in verses 29-32.
First: the blessings and curses. The blessings and curses of the covenant agreement between God and His people are recorded in Deuteronomy 27 and 28 from which some of our high school students read. Listen to some of the blessings, “the Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.”
Listen to some of the curses, “if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all His commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you. You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country… You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.”
Like a good parent, the Lord did not want His children to be in any confusion as to what would happen if they obeyed and what would happen if they disobeyed.
Now, what is interesting is that many people who have no problem with parents laying out consequences for obedience and disobedience are offended by the fact that God lays out such consequences. They will say that they can’t believe in such a God. What they are really saying is that they don’t believe in any God to whom they are accountable. They don’t like the idea of God laying out consequences for the same reason that children don’t like the idea of their parents laying out consequences; they don’t like it because it demonstrates that they answerable to an authority above themselves.
Now the people who are offended by God spelling out these consequences for obedience and disobedience in such detail are very likely the same people who, on the final day, will complain that the consequences were not clear enough. Many adults are living their lives like children who refuse to listen to any explanation of the consequences and then find themselves surprised and outraged to be facing consequences.
Now you either appreciate God’s straightforwardness in laying out these blessings and curses or you scoff at it. Either way, you cannot do other than acknowledge that God’s servant Moses was straightforward with Israel, “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God.”
The manner in which you respond to Moses’ straightforwardness will correspond to your response to straightforwardness from preachers today. It will correspond to how you respond to Jesus’ preaching. Jesus was straightforward. He didn’t hide the curses of disobedience in an attempt to attract more people. He abhorred that sort of deception. No one spoke more about judgment than Jesus because he wanted to turn people from the path to destruction. People who care about others don’t hide consequences; they make these consequences clear.
The blessings and the curses that God delineates are not arbitrary rules. Sin very naturally leads to death and obedience naturally leads to life as it should be. Deuteronomy scholar Peter Craigie is right, “it becomes clear that the commandments were not simply a body of legislation which was to be obeyed for its own sake. The commandments reflected a way of life, the good way of life which God determined for His people; therefore to disobey the commandments was to turn aside from the way that alone could lead to happiness and prosperity in relationship with God, and to take a false trail that could only lead to separation from God and disaster.”
People who wonder why God holds sin accountable in the first place might as well wonder why one minus one equals zero. How could it not? How could one minus one equal anything other than zero? How could that which can only lead to destruction not lead to destruction?
As you consider the consequences for sin, please recognize that God was and is not eager to punish sin. He didn’t speak these words in order to give Himself an opportunity to condemn. He spoke these words to keep people from being condemned. He gives these warnings because, “He is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. He will not always accuse, nor will He harbor His anger forever; He does not treat us as our sins deserve or repay us according to our iniquities. For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His love for those who fear Him; as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” God is far more patient with you than you are with anyone you know. If you know the Bible and you know yourself, you know that.
Now we’ve spent more time thinking about the warnings because our flesh focuses upon the warnings out of fear of judgment; we must, however, remember that Moses spoke of both blessings and curses. This language of blessing and cursing finds its origin in Eden. There was the blessing of the tree of life for obedience and there was the curse that came with the tree of knowledge of good and evil. There were two choices in that garden.
Those same two choices are, in so many ways, with us today. The language of blessings and curses runs throughout Scripture. They reach their full expression in the two destinations of mankind.
The curses for disobedience which Moses laid out find their full expression in hell. The curses of Deuteronomy 27 to 28 are cycles of sword, pestilence, and famine. The book of Revelation uses these same curses of sword, pestilence, and famine to warn people of the danger of the coming judgment. Both Deuteronomy and Revelation warn people of the curses of disobedience. Revelation’s images of the horsemen, stars falling from the sky, and smoke rising from the abyss are a reworking of the curses Moses lays out. It is just a different way of warning people that curses are ahead for disobedience and that they should turn around. The language of curses doesn’t go away in the New Testament. This warning is for you too.
The language of blessings doesn’t go away in the New Testament. This invitation is for you too. These blessings find their full expression in the new creation. Let’s spend more time on these. The blessings for obedience which Moses laid out in Deuteronomy 27 and 28 are described as delightfully unavoidable; “you will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country;” in other words, ‘you will be blessed everywhere all the time. You will have no reason to fear.’ The new creation is described as a place of unavoidable blessings, “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the Lamb is its lamp… On no day will its gates ever be shut, for there will be no night there;” in other words, there is nothing other than light and safety; the blessings are unavoidable and nothing will interrupt them. “You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.” That is how every single person alive today wants to live.
The blessings for obedience which Moses laid out in Deuteronomy 27 and 28 are also described in terms of abundance; “The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land He swore to your ancestors to give you.” The new creation is described in terms of abundance. It is described as constructed with walls composed of jewels, gates of gigantic single pearls, and streets of gold as symbols of abundance. All you need or want and more is available and it cannot be exhausted in the new creation as in Moses’ blessings. That is how every single personal live today wants to live.
The blessings for obedience which Moses laid out in Deuteronomy 27 and 28 are described in terms of prestige for the people of God; “you will always be at the top, never at the bottom.” The new creation is described in terms of prestige for the people of God; “they will reign for ever and ever.” There is no group that could be better off than those who reign over everything forever and ever.
Everyone wants these blessings for obedience that Moses laid out. Moses told those Israelites the way to these blessings. “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse—the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God.”
Now it is important to note that there is no halfway point between the two. Moses didn’t set before people a blessing, a curse, and a combination of the two or a halfway point between obedience and disobedience. There are only two ways. You see that in the fact that not even the confusion of purgatory dared to blend heaven and hell.
There are only two ways and each of us here this morning is walking one of these two ways. Everyone you know is walking in one of these two ways. Jesus said as much, “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.”
Now you might be thinking, “I’m on that road that leads to destruction right now. I’ve lived a life that is worthy of judgment. I don’t want those curses. What can I do?” You can’t do anything, but Jesus did something. ‘Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: “Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree.”’
In the Ancient Near East, they would hang the bodies of men who did particularly heinous acts on trees so that everyone would know that this man must be accursed by God. They did it as a warning. Jesus was hung that way. He was hung from a cross; “cursed is any man who hangs on a tree.” Jesus suffered this accursed status not because of anything he had done, but because of what we have done. “He was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was on him, and by his wounds we are healed. We all, like sheep, have gone astray, each of us has turned to our own way; and the Lord has laid on him the iniquity of us all.”
This man who always obeyed the commands of the Lord suffered the curse for disobedience so that you, who have disobeyed the commands, can enjoy the blessings for obedience. Luther put it well, “this is the mystery of the riches of divine grace for sinners; for by a wonderful exchange our sins are now not our but Christ’s, and Christ’s righteousness is not Christ’s but ours.” That is available to all who become disciples of Jesus. It is available to you.
These blessings and curses are quite serious to God. The choice between the way of blessing and the way of curse was so important that Moses named visible reminders for generation after generation to see. You could go to Israel and see them today. This makes up our second point: visible reminders of blessings and curses.
These visible reminders are part of nature and so this text is appropriate as we worship our God outdoors. Please don’t feel sheepish about the time we’ve spent considering blessings and curses out here in public. Moses named public places as reminders of these realities. If we can say and hear certain things inside a sanctuary that we cannot say outside where others might hear, we are quite confused about the nature of blessings and curses. If we think that the blessings can be public and the curses must be hidden so as not to offend, we are confused about the nature of evangelism.
Moses established a public reminder of these blessings and curses; verse 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.”
I arranged the high school students in a fashion similar to those mountains. Some of the tribes of Israel stood on Mount Gerizim and declared the blessings. Some of our high schoolers stood in one place and declared the blessings. The other tribes of Israel stood on Mount Ebal and declared the curses. Other high school students stood in another place and declared the curses.
Mount Gerazim and Mount Ebal are formed in such a way that there is a valley between them which forms a rather perfect amphitheater. Each group could hear the other as they stood on the mountains.
When any Israelite saw Mount Gerizim or Mount Ebal they would remember that there were blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. Those two mountains continued to be a place of public testimony. After Israel came into the Promised Land, Joshua took the people to those two mountains to renew the covenant. They read the blessing and curses again. It was a public place with a public message.
Don’t be ashamed that we are speaking of blessings and curses in a public place. Paul wasn’t. “I am not ashamed of the gospel for it is the power of God for salvation to all who believe.” Jesus wasn’t. He came with a message for the public which means it must reach the public. Look at his life. How is your life like his?
Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal were public places; they were also a place with a history. You see that in their proximity to yet another spot of nature in verse 30, “As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, west of the road, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh.”
Those mountains were near the great trees of Moreh. This is where the Lord first appeared to Abraham in the Promised Land. ‘Abram traveled through the land as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. The Lord appeared to Abram and said, “To your offspring I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the Lord, who had appeared to him.’
The promise of God was given between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal and the promise of God was fulfilled there as Israel assembled. The promises of God are given and fulfilled in the real world—the world in which Mount Gerizim was and is located, the world in which Mount Ebal was and is located, the world in which you are sitting right now.
The promises of God are given and fulfilled in this world into which the Son of God was born. Bethlehem is as real a place as this and as real a place as those mountains. The son of God took on real flesh in this real world to save real people.
You can go to Mount Ebal. You can go to Mount Gerizim. You can go to Bethlehem. You will either go to the new creation or to hell. God has warned you this day to turn away from hell. God has invited you this day into the new creation. You see His invitation in making His Son a curse so that you might be blessed. Amen.