The Need for a Monument, an Altar, Silence, and Obedience -- Deuteronomy 27:1-10

[photo: dkfindout.com -- check them out; no, this monument was not what God wanted]

Having Heard God's Laws Isn't Enough -- Deuteronomy 27:1-10

In this 27th chapter of the book of Deuteronomy Moses is joined by the "elders of Israel" in what they charge the Israelites with. Moses had done his job. The elders were convinced and now it was a team project from here on in.

To begin with (verse 1), the people are told to "Keep all the commandments." Now, that's quite an assignment.  According to tradition, there are only 613 O.T. laws and commandments that needed to be kept. Boy, did Israel ever need someone to save them from this drudgery as well.  (And they got someone who could and did complete that task about 2,000 years or so later in the person of Jesus Christ.) But for now, they thought Egypt was bad, but having to observe 613 commandments -- that's hard. Nevertheless that is the assignment that God through Moses and the elders had placed on the Israelites and by extension for anyone who would call Him Lord at that time.

Secondly in verses 2-3, we see that the people had to set up for themselves large stones, coat them with lime, and write on them "all the words of this law".  That's a lot of words.  And actually verse 8 says this writing needs to be clear, i.e. "very distinctly" written. Secondly, they had to do this "in order that you may enter the land your God gives you . . .  as promised."

Why the lime? David Guzik suggests the following:

"So the words could be easily seen, they were to whitewash them with lime. Anything we can do to make God's word more accessible to others is a good thing, as long as the integrity of God's word is preserved.Any time God's word is presented, it must be presented very plainly. Every preacher and teacher must endeavor to make the Word of God plain."

Verse 4 tells us that these stones would be set up on Mount Ebal. In addition to that, verses 5-6 indicate they had to build there "an altar of stones not using any iron tool on it, using uncut stones, and there make your offerings to the Lord." Can you believe all the details that God was still providing? There is no way that anyone today can argue successfuly that God does not care about the details in our lives. Period. Full stop. We have so much evidence in the Torah to the contrary.

Chuck Smith on God's instructions at this point:

[God desired] "that the place that they make for the worship of God be simple and natural. God did not want them building ornate places of worship. Why? Because when you come into an ornate place of worship your mind is drawn to the ornateness of the place. And you begin to glory in its architecture or in the fine carvings or in the beauty of the place itself. But God wants you when you come to worship Him not to be distracted. To stand in awe of gorgeous architecture or whatever but that your place of worship be just a simple place, that does not attract attention to itself but allows you to give your full attention unto the Lord to worship Him."

Robert Jamieson adds, "The stones were to be in their natural state, as if a chisel would communicate pollution to them. The stony pile was to be so large as to contain all the conditions of the covenant, so elevated as to be visible to the whole congregation of Israel."

Verse 7 says that site is also where they were to make their peace offerings, where they would eat and rejoice before God. That's part of both remembering and worshipping. We tend to forget that in many of our churches. Instead, when restaurants were open (pre-Covid) we remembered the eating part and then headed out to our different restaurants, usually by ourselves as couples or small families, as soon as the benediction is given. 

Now what was the difference between the erection of the stones and the separate altar? Why both? Only Matthew Henry addresses this directly. The first very large (nay, humongous) structure was to be a monument by which they would remember what God did for them and the Laws He gave them. The second structure, the altar, was a means by which they and God would communicate and relate with each other.  They would sacrifice to Him and give Him glory, and He would accept their sacrifices.

Finally in verses 9-10, the Israelites were told to "Be silent and listen!" That's the day they would become a people for the Lord their God. And that was to be followed by obedience to God's commands.

As I read this verse today I thought of what is going on in our world. Many politicians today tell us the same thing "be silent, listen, and obey". They do it with respect to the Great Reset the Global Economic Forum elites want for the world, the lockdowns and restrictions that our leaders want because of the virus, the culture cancels that are taking place because minorities don't like us, the silencing of free speech where it does not meet the agenda of the progressives, and so much more.

Should we just be silent, listen, and obey? I'm sure our answers will differ. Some of my friends say we should.  Others say only if it does not contradict the Word of God. Of course the problem arises in coming to a joint or common understanding of what kind of orders from governments and others contradict the Word of God today.  That can be tricky.  Let me give you an example.

The government says churches cannot hold services because of the virus. Yes, obey your government. What they are saying does not directly contradict the Word of God as I read it. The reason being you can still worship God on-line or alone in your home. Agreed. Now, your pastor, after much prayer with his elder group decides that God wants the church to be open; He wants His people to stand up to this introduction of tyranny as mild as it may seem at this point. There are lots of verses and passages in Scripture that say we are to heed the words of our "shepherds and pastors" as they have been appointed by God and have a grave responsibility in their leadership of us. In fact, the very passage we are studying today supports that to a certain extent. So now what do you do?  Do you show up Sunday morning?

It isn't a problem with a slam-dunk solution. Many would struggle if put in that spot. I have decided I would show up. The pastor and the elders are not telling us to do anything contrary to God's will for us as His people. And I do believe in the safety of numbers.  I've traditionally gone to a big church -- so I believe the chances of throwing two thousand of us in jail all at once are slim.  Even if they issue us tickets and we all refuse to pay them -- prosecuting all 2,000 of us would be difficult.

The only thing going against the pastor and leadership team in this case (from a Scriptural perspective) is that they may be advising us to go against the local government -- and Jesus did say "render unto Caesar the things that are his and unto God the things that are His".  So, where are we?

You can see the problem.  There's no easy solution. But there is a course of action that needs to be taken and that is this: Each and every one of us must do what is right for him or herself as he or she believes God would want them to react or act. That's all I can offer in this case. We need to be right with God individually.  And the Holy Spirit has a way of being able to relate whether we are or not -- if we listen and seek Him.  Perhaps some of our readers have another or a better solution.

Bottom Line For Us -- God wants us to remember. God wants us to worship. God wants us to be silent, listen, and obey. What the outcomes of that remembering, worshipping, being silent, listening, and obeying look like for you dear sister or brother may be different from what it looks like for someone else. But I can unequivocally say two things:  First, if we are really listening and obeying what each of us is called to do will be in God's will for us.  Secondly, as long as we are consistent with Scriptures, we need answer to no other authority. Getting to that point with humility and in total dependence on God is the hard part. 

Note to reader: If you like the way we are studying scripture, why not subscribe to our posts by providing us just with your email? You can do that to the right of this column in the "Subscribe to" section.  You can also search our earlier studies in the "Blog Archive" section below that.  Finally, please encourage others to study along with us by sharing this link with your family and friends. Thank you and God bless.  Ken G.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

In this decision, not deciding results in the bad choice default.

Walk Thru Deuteronomy 11

[photo by adents.com -- check them out]

Deuteronomy Chapter 11: Victory Depends on Studying and Obeying the Commands

Deuteronomy 11:1-32 – Highlights of The Passage and Some Thoughts

I like verse 2 where Moses says, “And know this day that I am not speaking with your sons...” and then verses 7 and 8, “...but your own eyes have seen…You shall, therefore, keep every commandment…”. This spoke to me. Moses was speaking to those sons of Israel that had witnessed firsthand what God had done for them. And he was saying, “Look, regardless of what your sons and daughters believe in now, you are to keep the commandments.”

We need to hear that today as parents and grandparents. It doesn’t matter what our children and grandchildren proclaim or know or believe, we who know what God has done for us, are to keep the commandments. This morning a friend reminded me of another verse in Scripture, 2 Thessalonians 2:15, which says, “Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.” That’s our job no matter how others react. Obey the commandments; follow the traditions.

In verse 10, Moses is describing how the Israelites’ new land is different than the land of Egypt. It drinks water from heaven. God cares for it. His eyes are on it. And He’s always watching it all through the year, not just in the autumn and spring when rains normally fall.

In verse 18, he reminds them to teach these commands to their children, for all the reasons he had repeated earlier.

Then comes verse 26. “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse.” Listen to God’s commands and be blessed. Don’t listen and be cursed. Chuck Smith reminds us that “That’s always the way it is. God sets before you the blessing and the curse; it’s your choice.” And he adds, “Now if you go to destruction it isn’t that God sent you there. It’s that you deliberately went there against all of God’s endeavors to keep you from there.”

In verse 29, he tells them that once they enter the land, they are to “place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.” Now, what’s that all about? This is what Smith says about it:

And when they came into the land some of the men were to go up to the top of Mount Gerizim and they were to shout to the people who were in this valley between these two mountains, shout down to them the blessings of the land and the conditions of blessings.

And as these men would shout down, "Blessed be ye in the fields" the people say, "Amen". "And in your cities" "Amen" and they would shout down these blessings. But on Mount Ebal there's another bunch of guys that were shouting the curses that would come to them if they disobeyed. So on Gerizim the blessing was placed and they would shout down to the people in the valley, the people would consent "Amen, Amen". And from Ebal the curses were pronounced and again the consenting "Yes, that's right. That's right, amen, amen. So be it". So that must have been quite an experience.

David Guzik says that this is Moses telling the people (and us) that God wants this “choice” that we have to be shared with all the people. We need to tell then that it’s a choice they have to make. That’s part of sharing the gospel today. That’s what a missionary is all about. The name Gerizim is supposed to be associated with fruitful harvests, and the name Ebal is supposed to be associated with barrenness.

This might well be the earliest reference to sharing the good news.

Wrap-up

Study the commands of God. Obey the commands of God. Share the commands of God and the choice that people have. And be victorious.

If our study in Deuteronomy does nothing else, it has certainly helped me understand how simple and easy God really made it for us all. It is us who have complicated things as we try to replace Him in all matters. My hope is that you too can see the solidness of God’s plan for us.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Thinking Twice Before Promising God Anything.

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Our Rash Promises to God

Exodus 24:3: Then Moses came and recounted to the people all the words of the Lord and all the ordinances; and all the people answered with one voice, and said, “All the words which the Lord has spoken we will do!”

After God tells Moses what He wants Him to do next, Moses goes down the mountain and tells the Israelites all that God has said from Exodus 20:1 to 24:2. Then verse 3 tells us that ‘all the people’ answered with ‘one voice’ saying, “We will do all that God said.”

God had given them all His instructions, His laws, and His ordinances.  What we have here in verse 3 of this chapter is the people accepting the conditions for the promises. (Collectively and as one which is interesting in itself – did anyone have a differing opinion?)  In short, here we have a “Covenant between God and His People” that really needed as much thought put into accepting it as God had put into offering it.  Later in the chapter, we will see the preparations for a ratification of the Covenant celebration. Let us for the moment stick to this verse and the utterance of the people.

Commentator David Guzik suggests, “Israel here is perhaps guilty of tremendous over-confidence. The way they seemed to easily say to God, "we will keep Your law" seems to lack appreciation for how complete and searching God's law is.” But Guzik also goes on to explain why they may have been so.  He writes, “However, a nation that had been terrified by God's awesome presence at Sinai was in no state of mind to do anything but agree with God.”  I am not so sure. I believe had the “awesomeness” of God been met with humility by the Israelites, they may well have said, “God we want to obey your words and keep your Covenant but we need your help to do so.”

Matthew Henry adds some interesting insights. Henry points out Moses did not snow the Israelites but rather explained all that God had said in detail and then “fairly put it to them whether they were willing to submit to these laws or no.”  And he continues, “The people unanimously consented to the terms proposed, without reservation or exception.”

Back in Exodus 19:1-8 they had already consented to be under God’s government (to be His people and He would be their God), but now they needed to agree to His laws.  Henry says, “Many consent to the law, and yet do not live up to it; they have nothing to except against it, and yet will not persuade themselves to be ruled by it.” Yet in so doing, they had signed on the dotted line – if they observed His requirements, He would fulfill His promises. They just had to obey.

Chuck Smith on the other hand, is much harder on the Israelites. He says “The Children of Israel lied to God when they said that they would do all that God commanded them to do.”  I would challenge him on this.  When does a failure to comply become a lie? For example, if a man said to his beloved, “I love you with all my heart and always will”, did he lie at the point when he said that, or does that turn into a lie at the point when he leaves her for someone else? I think the latter but we’ll leave Smith alone for the moment as he was trying to make a point. And that being, that we too have often had our words become lies when we have not kept our promises to God.

He goes on to point out that God knew that we would be lying when we promise to keep His laws or make other promises we have broken. Sometimes we say we will “do” something and don’t.  Sometimes we promise “not to do” something again and do. We have a natural bent and history in behaving that way. So why do we make promises to God?

Unfortunately, it is often to make a deal with God. Smith would agree with us that the problem is not a lack of sincerity.  We mean it when we promise something to God and that is proven by the fact that we are often so very disappointed with ourselves when we “blow it again”. But Smith says there’s a bright side to this whole thing:

“God is never disappointed when you break your promise. He knew all the time that you could not keep it. You see, making a vow is to put trust in our flesh, and Paul said, I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, there dwells no good thing.”

He suggests one possible answer to our failures to keep our promises to God is simply not to make them. Instead, we need to ask God to help us do what is right and to help us overcome the flesh. But we cannot do nothing. It is not okay to simply fail and leave things at that and just go on merrily being, or calling ourselves, Christians. If that were the case, Christianity would be no different than other religions. So, another provision was made for us.  Smith continues:

“Jesus not only taught the right way to live, He fully practiced what he preached. He made provisions for forgiveness for failure. He then promised to come and indwell your life to give you the power to live the way God wants us to live. He said, ‘You will receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you shall be witnesses of me. In that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you.’”

Finally, Smith writes, “God has not changed His laws to accommodate our weakness. But He has taken residence within us to empower us to keep His ideal. Paul explains this in Romans 8.”

If we do nothing else about failures from here on in, may we think twice before we rush to promise God anything? But better still, may we realize that when we do fail, God does not want us to remain in the “failure” category in anything that we do. He has provided a way for us.

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God's Special Formula for Blessing Works

The Richness of God’s Promises

Exodus 23:25-26: “But you shall serve the Lord your God, and He shall bless your bread and your water; and I will remove sickness from your midst. There shall be no one miscarrying or barren in your land; I will fulfill the number of your days.”

God basically told the Israelites that He would protect them from their enemies and they would be part of the battle by their “utterly overthrowing” them and breaking their “sacred pillars”. And in the process or rather while doing so, they were also to serve the Lord.

What was God saying to them? What is He saying to us, in essence, in these verses? It appears like a complex formula for success – but it can really be boiled down to three simple things: dependence on God; doing our part; and serving Him. If we’re struggling in life, it’s not always because we have sinned or made bad decisions. It’s not always about Him teaching us more things and making us stronger, although that happens in the process almost always.  It just may be that we really, I mean really, have not come face-to-face with what it means to fully depend on Him, fully obey Him through our actions, and fully serve Him.

Full dependence on Him sometimes requires more patience than we have; sometimes more faith and trust; and sometimes it means giving up what we are pursuing because He does not considerate it to be good for us, at least at this time. Are we ready to do that?

Fully obeying by doing our part may sometimes mean taking actions that cost something – our job, our friends, our assets, our comfort, our reputation, you name it.  I am in the process of reading that classic book by A. B. Bruce, written in 1877, entitled The Training of the Twelve.  In it, he writes, “They (the disciples) were animated by a devotion to Jesus and to the divine kingdom which made them capable of any sacrifice.” (brackets and emphasis mine)  I often wonder how many of us living in the western world possess that drive today.

And fully serving Him would require a conscious effort to begin each day having dedicated each moment, each conversation, each action, to Him, ensuring that it is pleasing to Him and a help to those He has brought into our lives – our spouse, parents, children, friends, associates, and even strangers.

I don’t know about you, but I have a long way to go to be able to fully ‘expect’ the kind of blessings God promised the Israelites in this passage. For in it, He talks about things that really would make any life much more desired.

God says He will bless our bread. He will see to it that we do not die of starvation. And we will have enough water and not die from thirst or poisoned water.  Matthew Henry points out that God did not promise a “feast of fat things and wines on the lees”.  But our simple bread and water will be “more refreshing and nourishing” with His blessing than such a fatty feast without. The availability of food was important to the Israelites for their survival and this has not changed for us.

While we need food to stay alive and healthy, we also need health to be able to eat and to enjoy our food.  God promised the Israelites would have that as well. In fact, He would “remove sickness” from them.  Imagine no sickness to continue and no new sickness to come. No diseases in the land that would kill off many or desolate the land. It is interesting that this same promise is made to us in the book of Revelation where the Apostle John is describing heaven where there will be no sickness or death. That which God promised His children in the wilderness, we ourselves, may not see until we get to heaven.

But wait, it does not end there. God promises the Israelites that He will increase their wealth, assumedly through the multiplication of their cattle (Henry says the animals would not “cast their young”.) And the number of Israelites shall also grow as “no one will have a miscarriage or be barren” in the land. People shall live to their full life expectancy. We know, by that phrase, that this is not just about “heaven” as people do not die in heaven – it was for the Israelites, for them, right there and then, if they claimed it and obeyed God. The question we would ask is whether or not any of it applies to us today, and if so, how?

Simple observation of our own lives, those of our relatives and friends, and the world around us, would tell us that this part of the promise was strictly for the Israelites at that time and only a symbolic glimpse, of what is in store for us in eternity.  Clearly man’s sin and his own greed for authority and control of his life, have made such a promise of God’s to be difficult to fulfill as we often do not keep our side of the bargain – we do not fully depend on Him, we do not obey Him totally, and we do not serve Him thoroughly.

But it need not be like that. (I do not mean to imply by my next statement that I am anywhere near where I should be in any of these regards [I stated that above], but simply to share that I am inching my way closer.) What I have discovered is that as I draw closer to God, as I rely more on Him, as I obey Him more, and as I serve Him more willingly, my life is indeed better. No, neither I nor my family members and friends stop having challenges in life, our material wealth is not multiplied, and I know there is no guarantee any of us will live to our full life expectancy; some have not. But yet life is less stressful and more enjoyable, and I am more content than before.

So can this precise promise that applied to the Israelites apply to us? Certainly, its key principle and lesson can, and I believe you will find that it does.

Thanks for dropping by. Sign up to receive free updates. We bring you relevant information from all sorts of sources. Subscribe for free to this blog or follow us by clicking on the appropriate link in the right side bar. And please share this blog with your friends. Ken Godevenos, Church and Management Consultant, Accord Consulting.  And while you’re here, why not check out some more of our recent blogs shown in the right hand column.  Ken.

 

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.