A Curse and a Blessing

Review

Last week we started our new series as we took a prophetic look at 2023. The one thing that God told me was we were to prepare to leave the desert. Last week we talked about what that entailed and we learned that primarily it had to do with obeying His mitzvot, or commandments. We looked specifically at what He was requiring and we found that the requirement of God, the first two things we were to have locked down in order to get ready to go into the promised land were love and obedience.

We learned that obedience to His word was the way we show love to God, and that loving each other and showing compassion toward our fellow man, especially the downtrodden and disaffected demonstrated the kind of heart and the kind of sacrifice that God was seeking.

I want to reiterate that I don’t know if we are going to enter into the Promise Land in 2023, nor do I know what that even looks like, all I know is that God told me that 2023 was to be a year of preparation.

Next Steps

Deuteronomy 11:26–32 TLV

“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse— the blessing, if you listen to the mitzvot of Adonai your God that I am commanding you today, but the curse, if you do not listen to the mitzvot of Adonai your God, but turn from the way I am commanding you today, to go after other gods you have not known. Now when Adonai your God brings you into the land you are going in to possess, you are to set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. Are they not across the Jordan toward the west, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah—opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? For you are about to cross over the Jordan to go in to possess the land Adonai your God is giving you—you will possess it and dwell in it, and you will take care to do all the statutes and ordinances that I am setting before you today.

God is directing the children of Israel to consider the totality of His word. What do I mean by that? Well, you know how in the past, we’ve done a whole series on the promises of God? Well something like that, but included in this inventory that God was asking them to do would be to remember the warnings that God gave concerning the negative consequences of not obeying His word. He pointed out that they would come to a place in the promise land - two mountains to be specific upon which they were to go and recall the promises and warnings of God.

While the Israelites didn’t know it then, God actually was preparing for them something very specific in the promise land and there was a reason that he chose one mountain upon which to declare curses and another to declare blessings. So let’s jump forward in time to when Joshua and the nation of Israel arrive at Ebal and Gerizim.

Joshua 8:30–35 NKJV

Now Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the Book of the Law of Moses: “an altar of whole stones over which no man has wielded an iron tool.” And they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord, and sacrificed peace offerings. And there, in the presence of the children of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written. Then all Israel, with their elders and officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of the Lord, the stranger as well as he who was born among them. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded before, that they should bless the people of Israel. And afterward he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the Book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, with the women, the little ones, and the strangers who were living among them.

What was so significant about this? Well, I believe that God was instructing this so that the Israelites would understand that they were not going to be automatically blessed just by being in the promised land. They had to continue to obey God, and act upon His word when they got to where they were going. When they finally did get there, God had a very surprising illustration for them that perfectly explained this concept. You see Gerizim and Ebal are right next to each other. the children of Israel would have come upon Ebal first. and they would have immediately seen why this was a mountain upon which they were to build an altar and there, proclaim the curses. Let me show you why this was such a big deal.

A Stark Contrast

Joshua’s altar on Mount Ebal

As you can see Ebal was desolate. There was no green thing that grew upon it. It was nothing more than a bunch of dry sand and stone. There was no life coming from that mountain, and it remains pretty much the same to this day. This barren lifeless hill in a land “flowing with milk and honey” would have been a very striking example of the consequences of being cursed by God. Gerizizm on the other hand, looked quite different.

Joshua’s altar on Mount Gerizim

Notice how green Gerizim was? Well, there was life and there was water and there was sustenance on Gerizim. And the crazy thing is, these two mountains are right next to each other. Both are in the promise land, a perfect picture of how it’s not about where they were geographically, but where they were spiritually and relationally with God.

So what does this mean for us? It means that we need to take some time to consider our relationship with God. Are we honoring the commands of he lord? Review them now that you’re in the desert because when you’re in the promise land, you don’t want to be discovering that you are not living a fruitful life in the promised land because you neglected some aspect of your relationship with him.

Put Away Your Idols

You see, God was allowing them to enter the promised land, but the promised land was not a vacant empty land just waiting for the Israelites to sign the deed and move in. No sir, there were people living there already and the children of Israel were going to have to go in there and fight some battles to claim their right to the land. In doing so, they were not to forget who they were, and begin to take on the characteristics of the very enemy they were getting rid of.

Deuteronomy 12:1–3 TLV

“These are the statutes and ordinances that you are to make sure to do in the land that Adonai, the God of your fathers, has given you to possess—all the days that you live on the earth. You must utterly destroy all the places where the nations that you will dispossess served their gods—on the high mountains and on the hills and under every green tree. You are to tear down their altars, smash their pillars, burn their Asherah poles in the fire and cut down the carved images of their gods, and you are to obliterate their name from that place.

Build a Strong Worship Life

Deuteronomy 12:4–7 TLV

“You are not to act like this toward Adonai your God. Rather you are to seek only the place Adonai your God chooses from all your tribes to put His Name to dwell—there you will come. There you are to bring your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes, the offering of your hand, your vow and freewill offerings, and the firstborn of your herd and of your flock. There you and your households will eat before Adonai your God and rejoice in every undertaking of your hand, as Adonai your God has blessed you.

This point actually pairs with the previous point, and although God is telling them that these are the things which they are to do when the get into the promised land, they really ought to have been doing that prior. Think about their short history since leaving Egypt. They had experienced both extravagant worship as well as catastrophic idolatry.

Remember this:

Exodus 33:7–10 TLV

Now Moses used to take the tent and pitch it outside the camp, far off from the camp, and he called it the Tent of Meeting. So it happened, everyone who sought Adonai would go out to the Tent of Meeting, which was outside the camp. Whenever Moses went out to the tent, all the people would arise and stand, everyone at the door of his own tent, and look after Moses, until he had gone into the Tent. After Moses entered, the pillar of cloud descended, stood at the door, and He would speak with Moses. When all the people saw the pillar of cloud standing at the entrance of the Tent, they all rose up and worshipped, every man at the entrance of his own tent.

I mean, really, let’s imagine the scene. They are out in the middle of the desert, they had suffered all kinds of hardships from which God had delivered them time and time again, and when Moses went to the tent of meeting to hear from God, the very shekinah glory of God would move and meet with Moses at the tent of meeting, and the whole nation of Israel would stand a the entrance of their tents and worship God! What an amazingly powerful picture that must have been. An entire nation worshipping God while beholding His glory! Yet these are the same people who also did this:

Exodus 32:1–4 TLV

Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said to him, “Get up, make us gods who will go before us. As for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what’s become of him!” So Aaron said to them, “Break off the golden rings that are in the ears of your wives, your sons and your daughters, and bring them to me.” So all the people broke off the golden rings that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. He received them from their hand, and made a molten calf, fashioned with a chiseling tool. Then they said, “This is your god, Israel, which brought you up out of the land of Egypt!”

God was telling them right then and there, don’t make the same mistakes over and over again. He was asking them to prepare their hearts. Why? Saints, why would God be belaboring the point? Did they not already learn their lesson? And I mean, after all, the Israelites were suffering a lot of hardship. They were scared right? And those are good points. They were scared, and they were under pressure, and they were just learning to trust God, and so God was merciful to them. Remember, Moses had to beg and plead for their life.

Exodus 32:7–14 TLV

Then Adonai said to Moses, “Go down! For your people, whom you brought up out of the land of Egypt, have become debased. They quickly turned aside from the path that I commanded for them. They have made a molten calf, worshipped it, and sacrificed to it, and said, ‘This is your god, O Israel, that brought you up out of the land of Egypt.’ ” Adonai said to Moses, “I have seen this people, and behold, it is a stiff-necked people. Now therefore, leave Me alone, so My wrath may burn hot against them, and so I may consume them—and make from you a great nation!” Then Moses sought Adonai his God and said, “Adonai, why should Your wrath burn hot against Your people, whom You have brought forth out of the land of Egypt with great power and with a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘He brought them out to do evil, to slay them in the mountains, and to annihilate them from the face of the earth?’ Turn from Your fierce wrath, and relent from this destruction against Your people. Remember Abraham, Isaac and Israel, Your servants, to whom You swore by Your own self, and said to them, ‘I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, and all this land that I have spoken of I will give to your offspring, and they will inherit it forever.’ ” So Adonai relented from the destruction that He said He would do to His people.

But see, here’s the thing, like them, when we enter the promised land, we are not going to check in to a posh, luxury hotel. We are not going to stroll in to a vacant house. We’re going to have to go in and evict the previous tenants! Saints, lest we forget, the whole reason the children of Israel were wandering in the desert was that there were giants in the land and they feared for their safety.

God, in His mercy had to let them wander about in the wilderness, being constantly led by His Glory, until that fearful generation had passed away, and the only people who remained no longer knew what it was to live as slaves, and instead had been led by God those 40 years. They knew what it was to walk with God!

Putting it All Together

The Children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years waiting for the slave mentality to be cleansed from among them, but now they had a new challenge.

They were about to experience a massive paradigm shift. Whereas, their sojourn through the desert had been together as a mass of people wandering about until such a time as this, where God was to bring them into the promise land, now they were going to be separated and they would not have the instant guidance of God. They would have to lean on their desert experience with God and learn to trust Him and to remember His faithfulness in the desert.

Whereas today they could simply stand at the entrance of their tent and see the glory of God, in that day, they might be far away from the Temple and would have to hearken back to the desert days and remember the Shekinah glory of God as it came to rest in the Temple. Were they going to be blessed? Yes! Were they going to enjoy rest? Absolutely! But they were going to have to fight the giants in the land to get it, and they were going to have to remain faithful to God to keep it.

Deuteronomy 12:28 NKJV

Observe and obey all these words which I command you, that it may go well with you and your children after you forever, when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God.

Remember both Mt. Gerizim and Mt. Ebal were in the promise land. There was both curses and blessing. If want to have a Mt. Gerizim kind of life - a fruitful experience in the promised land, then we are to do the things that bring about the blessing, then we need to shore up our worship life, and to take heed of all that God has done for us in this desert time. God is indeed calling us to prepare to enter the promised land, yet we must make our hearts ready for it. Because while situations and circumstances change, God does not so we must take also purpose in our heart, that we will also remain unchanged and set our face like flint toward God.

Let us pray.