Blessings and Curses

Good morning church family!

Have you ever had to make a decision? To choose one option over another? Life is full of choices isn’t it! And these choices can be small and relatively insignificant, or they can radically shape the future of our lives and the direction that each of us may go. As we continue in our exploration of Deuteronomy we will see that along with a call to listen and love the Lord God, is a call to make a choice. As we have seen in earlier weeks, the lense through which Moses is retelling the stories of Israel’s forefathers and they way he applies that to the current generation creates a deliberate blurring between past and present, emphasizing the reality that every generation, we could indeed say every individual, is called to make a choice to follow Yahweh, the God of all creation, or to pursue other gods or passions opposed to him. And this was a choice that not only people of past generations had to make, or even the current generation present with Moses, but every generation into the future was to be challenged to engage with this story as their own, and called to declare loyalty to God, forsaking all others. Perhaps the most well known statement about this choice was made by Joshua, the one who actually led the Israelites into the promised land, where he declared: “Choose this day whom you will serve...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Josh 24:15.

As we will see in the passages we reflect on this morning, the constant thrust and focus is on the importance of choice...the benefits of the right choice and the potential disasters resulting from the wrong choice. And the Scriptures describes these consequences in two distinct and yet interwoven ways. Blessings and Curses...Life and Death. Let’s pay attention and listen for parallels and similarities with what we will hear in Deuteronomy and allow our minds to connect dots between this story and the narrative way back in Genesis with Adam and Eve in the garden. The connections are powerful, and they are a call to every generation, including ours today...will you choose the way of blessing, or the way of curse? Choose Yahweh the one true God, or some other gods that the culture around us embraces? Choose life, or choose death. There is no greater choice for us to make than this! Let’s listen to the words of Scripture together now.

Deuteronomy 11:8-31.

I wonder, do any of you have particular possessions that serve as reminders of something special or significant in your lives? Could be a photo of a loved one, a trinket from a certain trip you went on, a particular place you go to to relive certain memories.

My eldest daughter Charlotte discovered one such place recently! As most of you know, we recently moved over here from the foreign land of Morwell to plant new roots in this beautful community. And of course with a family shift this can be met with some resistance! Well, Charlotte understandibly was one such person that struggled with the prospect of being taken away from what was familiar and from friendships long established. So it took some ‘perks’ to win her over...things such as the master bedroom with the ensuite. Well, so it happened, one evening a couple weeks ago, she came running into the study where I was writing an assignment and said “Dad, Dad! You have to come outside and see this right away!” So I go out with her to an open space in the yard and she points to the sky and says “Look at the stars! I have never seen anything so beautiful!” And as we were gazing into this clear night sky not hampered by town lights or buildings, and commenting on how God’s beautiful creation serves as a reminder of how big and marvelous he is...Charlotte then says to me with a voice still captured by the beauty of what she was seeing, “I would have moved out here just for this Dad!” After all we sacrificed...all it took was a night sky!

We each in different ways have things that serve as reminders or sacred moments where we can reflect and appreciate something or someone significant in our lives don’t we! Well for the ancient Israelites visual reminders were hugely important in their rituals and relationship with Yahweh, the God of their fathers. And these visual symbols or signs were to both serve as an encouragement to God’s people not to forget or grow complacent in their loyalty to him, but would also serve as a witness against them of the covenant they had made to their Lord, and the consequences of unfaithfulness.

We see parallels in this passage that remind us of the Shema in Deuteronomy 6, where God instructs his people to listen to his instructions, to love him with faithful loyalty... with all their hearts, or as we considered a few weeks back “all their innerness,” with all their souls, their entire self, and all of their strength...or all of their substance. And they were to do this because it was God who had first loved them and resued them from slavery and persecution in Egypt, through the waters of the sea, through the bareness of the wilderness, and now to the border of the promised land. They were God’s covenant people, set apart for good works that would bring life and blessing in the land God would give them, to proclaim the glory of Yahweh God to the nations, and invite others into covenant loyalty to the one true God.

And here Moses begins to unpack the repercussions of remaining faithful to the covenant, or turning around and abandoning God. As verses 26-28 in Deuteronomy 11 states: “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God that I am commanding you today, and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but rather you turn from the way that I am commanding you today to go after other gods that you have not known.” And what were to be the signs of blessing and cursing that would serve as a reminder to the people? Deuteronomy 11:29–30 “And it will happen that when Yahweh your God has brought you to the land that you are going to, to take possession of it, then you shall pronounce the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. (Are they not beyond the Jordan, toward the west, in the land of the Canaanites living in the Jordan Valley, opposite Gilgal beside the oak of Moreh?)”

Now before we unpack this, here is a little tip for study as you read the Bible, especially the narratives through the Old Testament. Pay attention that very often place names and indeed names of people groups are little sign-posts to a theme or thread that will weave its way through the story and is an invitation for us to follow and connect the dots for a richer appreciation of what this meant to the original audience and how it shapes the overall theological messaging of the Bible. In exploring the theme of blessing and cursing as related to God’s covenant relationship to his people, we will see that Mt. Gerazim and Mt. Ebal served as important visual signposts of the choice each generation was called to make that would bring about life and flourishing, or risk death and exile from the promised land.

The mention of these mountains and the ceremony that Moses was instructing the people to participate in when they entered into the promised land is filled out in greater detail in chapters 27-28 of Deuteronomy. And this bookends neatly the instructions and rules set out through chapters 12-26 that the Israelites were to follow as God’s covenant people in faithful obedience and as a witness to the other nations around them.

In chapter Deuteronomy 27:2–8 we read: “On the day that you cross the Jordan to the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you, then you shall set up for yourselves large stones, and you shall paint them with lime, and you shall write on them all the words of this law at your crossing, so that you may come into the land that Yahweh your God is giving to you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your ancestors, promised to you. And when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up these stones that I am commanding you about today on Mount Ebal, and you shall paint them with lime. And you shall build an altar there for Yahweh your God, an altar of stone, but you shall not use an iron tool to shape the stones. You must build the altar of your God with unhewn stones, and you shall sacrifice on it burnt offerings to Yahweh your God. And you shall sacrifice fellowship offerings, and you shall eat them there, and you shall rejoice before Yahweh your God. You shall write on the stone all of the words of this law very clearly.”

Here is a photo of the region in which these two mounts are situated. On the left (congregation’s left!) is Mt. Gerazim and to the right is Mt. Ebal. And nestled in between is the city of Shechem, a hugely important region in Israelite history. If we jumped forward to the book of Joshua we would discover in chapter 8 that upon reaching Shechem the Israelites did in fact fulfill Moses’ instructions to carry out this covenant ceremony with half the tribes standing on Mt. Gerazim shouting blessings, and the other tribes on Mt. Ebal shouting curses. What an occasion that would have been! But just consider the visual reminder that this would have provided for the people across the generations. Mt. Ebal to the north contained these large stones with the Torah or law written upon them, and it also was a mount that was dry and barren, serving as a witness to what would happen if any generation rejected the Lord God. Then to the south was Mt. Gerazim, representing blessing, and in contrast to Mt. Ebal, the slopes were covered with trees and fertile vegetation, watered by springs filtering through its rock layers which then flowed down to create a lush valley where Shechem was located. Before king David conquered Jerusalem, it was traditionally at Shechem that the tabernacle was placed, signifying God’s presence that dwelled with his people. Consider the parallels to Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden. While Genesis 2-3 doesn’t explicitly use the terms ‘blessing’ and ‘curse,’ this is what the trees in the garden represented. The Tree of Life symbolized blessing and life through obedience, while the Tree of the Knowlege of Good and Evil whose fruit would yeild death, symbolized curse as a consequence of disobedience.

What a poweful visual of God’s commitment to his people, his desire to be in covenant relationship to them, and the reminder that God’s promises were contingent on his people’s following him in obedience and gratitude, resulting in ongoing blessing...rather than giving credit to and following after other gods, which is the height of ingratitude and rebellion, resulting in suffering the consequences of curse and exile. Old Testament scholar Chris Wright expresses it well when he writes: “The purpose is to impress on this generation of Israelites that it is their responsibility to obey Yahweh here and now, neither relying on the obedience of previous generations nor passing off the responsibility to the next generation.”

Before we consider its relevance in light of the New Covenant, and what Jesus achieved on our behalf at the cross, let’s remind ourselves of some overall principles that are being presented in Deuteronomy.

First Israel’s relationship with God is grounded in his gracious act of deliverance from slavery in Egypt.

Secondly, this covenant primarily involves a devoted relationship with the Lord rather than a commitment to a particular code of conduct.

Third, God’s call to covenant relationship has an important purpose: Israel would be his treasured possession, a set-apart holy people, who would serve as agents of grace and blessing to the surrounding nations.

And finally, Israel’s enjoyment of the blessings of the covenant and their fulfillment of the divine mission were dependant on a faithful response to the voice of God.

Now, as we continue through the narrative of Scripture leading up to the New Testament we see that on the whole God’s people unfortunately failed spectacularly didn’t they! The chosen people that were meant to be a light and blessing ultimately rejected God and turned their own way...leading to them suffering the curses resulting in being driven out of the promised land into exile. God’s own covenant people, just like the rest of humanity, was in need of rescue.

Time doesn’t permit us this morning but if you get to read chapters 27 and 28 of Deuteronomy you will feel the weight of the curses as they go on and on, to the point that you may feel… ‘alright God we get the idea, did you really need to lay it on that thick’...and perhaps it feels a little bit harsh! This is especially felt in chapter 28...a short 13 verses of blessings followed by 55 verses of curses! It kind of magnifies the tragic reality that so often it doesn’t matter how many times we get told not to do certain things or not to follow our own passions, we still tend to do them! However, a huge help in appreciating and understanding the rhetorical nature of these cursing texts is in learnig the culture and context into which these cursing passages took place. I can’t address that here but if you’d like to ask questions or get some helpful readings about that I sure Ian and I would be very happy to walk with you through that.

But what significance does this have for us today as people of the New Covenant? While there is much that can be drawn from these texts I will suggest two things...one very practical but relevant in light of recent events in the Middle East...and most importantly what it means spiritually for us in light of Christ.

How do we as followers of Christ navigate and evaluate what is an appropriate response to Israel, Palestine and the violence happening more broadly at this time, in a way that models the sacrificial love of Jesus, and his command to care for the weak, vulnerable and oppressed? This is not an easy thing to wrestle with and it is very controversial in our time, even amongst brothers and sisters in Christ. The existence of the state of Israel testifies to God’s faithful commitment to the physical descendants of Abraham, and in light of the horrors witnessed in the previous World War we praise God for his incredible mercy and provision. The very real danger for us today is for the pendulem to swing radically the other way to the point that we express wholehearted support and defence of a nation who at this time have rejected Jesus their Messiah and are living in rebellion to God. Deuteronomy and indeed all of Scripture warns us of the consequences of such decisions. Apart from the Lord Jesus, there is no life. Apart from the Lord Jesus, there is no covenant blessing. As Christians we must guard ourselves ever so carefully against defending one ethnicity against another when acts of great violence are carried out. The moment we do that, we ourselves have implicitely stated that not all people are made equally in the image of God, equally precious in his sight, whether Jew or Gentile, whether slave or free. Far be it for us to be a people where it may be said ‘they declared evil to be good’ when it comes to the deaths of any humans, no matter the justification that may be given. All this to say, it is so so complicated, and no matter how much we would like neat and tidy categories like ‘this nation is good, and that nation is evil,’ it is rarely if ever that straight forward and we need to intercede in prayer to God on behalf of all who are suffering in that region, and seek forgiveness if and when we have forgotten our brothers and sisters in Christ suffering in people groups labelled as the enemy. “Love your enemy” Jesus teaches us...and that is perhaps one of the most difficult commands to faithfully live out. This is such a heavy topic, and one that we must engage with in gentleness, truth and compassion, regardless of where we may disagree.

But finally, in considering the theme of blessing and cursing through the lens of the New Covenant established in Christ Jesus, let us come to the foot of the cross. Because it is here where we see the most beautiful, powerful, transformative sign of God’s loving faithfulness and divine mercy.

It was upon this tree, on the cursed mount of Golgotha that the Son of God drew all our suffering, all the evil and sin of this world, all the force of the devil and the powers of darkness upon himself...and as Isaiah 53 states… “he was the one who lifted up our sickness, and carried our pain, and yet we ourselves assumed him stricken, struck down by God and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions, crushed because of our iniquities; the chastisement for our peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed.” The one who we looked upon as cursed, was in fact the one who would bring about the greatest blessing the world has ever seen. Buried in a garden tomb, (think again of the first garden where sin came into the world) and here again we see every sign death had had the final word...but praise God Jesus’ resurrection on the third day shattered the chains of the greatest curse that entangled humanity...death itself.

And freedom from this curse is available to all who hear, believe, and put their trust in the risen King! That is the choice we are called to today...will we choose life or choose death? Will we choose blessing or choose cursing? And what are the blessings we receive as covenant people of the kingdom of God? Well, just as God held the land of the Canaanites in reserve for his people as their special inheritance, so too he holds an eternal inheritance in reserve for those who believe in Christ Jesus! And we have been given the Holy Spirit as the pledge of this inheritance such that we can say, just as Paul says with all excitement and exuberance in Ephesians 1:3–4, 13-14: “Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as he chose us “in him” before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless before him in love...in whom also when you believed you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is the down payment of our inheritance, until the redemption of the possession, to the praise of his glory.”

May that be the blessed hope for each and every one of us!