Page 129 - Pentateuch - Student Textbook

The setting is vivid. Thousands of people are
gathered together, men and women and children.
Each person hears the curses. From each mouth
comes the Amen. Even though Moses is just giving
instructions from the other side of the Jordan, we
can envision with his listeners this event that would
occur weeks later. (See Joshua 8:30-35.) The curses
are pronounced on Mount Ebal, the blessings on
Gerizim. We wonder if the list of curses in 27:15-26
is read a second time expressed as blessings with a
Fig. 83: Gerizim - Ebal second “Amen” in response to each. We reflect also
on the presence of an altar on Ebal where the
curses are pronounced. Is God teaching Israel even in the placement of the altar? Knowing the sinful
nature of the people, is God warning them in advance of their continued need for sacrifice?

We read on and are greatly encouraged by the blessings listed in 28:1-14. City and country, children and
livestock, home and work will all be blessed (vv. 3-5). The rewards of obedience are so great that other
nations will see (v. 10). When the bounty of heaven is opened and Israel becomes a lender instead of a
borrower, the head instead of the tail, how can they help but see and be impressed with YHWH! The
only thing required is obedience. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left (v. 14). All of this sounds
great, until we read the curses.

The opposite of the blessings are listed and then considerably more. City and country, children and
livestock, home and work will be cursed (vv. 16-19). These “rewards” seem both gruesome and endless:
disease (vv. 21, 22, 27), natural disasters (v. 23, 38-42), invasion (vv. 25, 26), mental illness (vv. 28, 29),
the overturning of all hopes (vv. 30-38), and even slavery (v. 48). Yet a once-over description isn’t
enough. More details are coming. A foreign nation will lay siege to the cities (vv. 49-53). The siege will be
so bad that people will resort to cannibalism (vv. 53-57). The result will be exile from the land with no
rest. “In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening, ‘If only it were morning!’
– because of the terror that will fill your hearts and the sights that your eyes will see (v. 67).”

The future is not pretty. Disaster waits solely due to disobedience (27:1, 4, 8, 10, 11, 26; 28:1, 9, 12, 14,
15, 45, 58, 61). We know that all these things happened to Israel. Jeremiah records some of the worst in
the book of Lamentations. “With their own hands compassionate women have cooked their own
children who became their food when my people were destroyed (4:10).” How could this be? Why
would God set up a system doomed to fail in such an obvious and painful way? Is this really the
intention of the covenant established at Sinai?

The history of Israel confirms the impossibility of following the covenant. Yes,
Joshua and the generation of Israelites who entered the Promised Land experienced
a measure of success. They defeated the nations living in the land and divided it for
themselves. Yet “after that generation had been gathered to their ancestors,
another generation grew up who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done for
Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD and served the Baals (Judg.
2:10-11).” The book of Judges is a record of the downward spiral of the nation. Even
though God sent judges to deliver them time after time, the nation became worse and worse. Toward
the end we read about a gruesome incident of a woman abused all night long (19: 20-26) in a clear

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