Dt. 27: That Mountain is Ebal, I Tells Ya...Eballllll!

Deuteronomy 27:9 "Then Moses and the priests, who are Levites, said to all Israel, "Be silent, O Israel, and listen! You have now become the people of the LORD your God."

The Israelites may finally be ready to cross into the Promised Land. Moses appears to have wrapped up his speech, his review of the life and times of Israel...he has given out the commands and decrees from God that Israel is to follow in order to uphold their end of the covenant.

The first instruction when Israel crosses Jordan is to set up some field stones, coat them with plaster, and then write down all the laws God gave through Moses. Kind of like, these are the house rules. Anyone who enters the land will know what Israel is all about. Then Israel is to build an altar. In reading through Deuteronomy 27:1-8, I wonder if the altar and the law stones are the same thing. I guess it's two separate rock formations. How can you burn animals on a plaster coated pile of rocks?

Would the blood not run down and blot out the laws? Would the fire not consume the plaster with the law written on it?

Anyway, Moses informs Israel that now they are God's people. Finally. With being God's people, comes great responsibility. They must keep the decrees (v. 10).

Moses has six tribes (Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin) go up to Mount Gerizim to bless the people, and six tribes (Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali) go up to Mount Ebal to pronounce curses. This is more information on these two mountains first mentioned back in Deuteronomy 11.

In Deuteronomy 27, there are 12 curses given. These must be the big time offenses...

Ten Commandments-related:
1. Casting an idol and setting it up in secret
2. Dishonoring Mom and Dad

Meanness-related
3. Moving a neighbor's boundary stone.
4. Leading the blind astray on a road.
5. Withholding justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow.

Sexual purity-related
6. Sleeping with his father's wife, for he dishonors his father's bed.
7. Having sexual relations with any animal.
8. Sleeping with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.
9. Sleeping with his mother-in-law.

Murder-incorporated
10. Killing his neighbor secretly.
11. Accepting a bribe to kill an innocent person.

And...basically the capstone:
12. Not upholding the words of this law by carrying them out.