DEUTERONOMY 27
“The elders of Israel” are here associated with Moses in commanding the people; they identified themselves with what was enjoined by God. The elders would represent the intelligent responsibility of the people, and it was here seen as in full accord with Moses. Paul’s address to the Ephesian elders reminded them of his own faithful ministry, with a view to their being thoroughly identified with it, so that the “inheritance among all the sanctified” might be held according to God. It is this which is in view, typically, in Deuteronomy 27.
Both the first tables of the covenant, which Moses broke, and the second which were afterwards hewn by him, were written with the finger of God. But, as having passed over Jordan, the people were to set up “great stones”, and to “write upon them all the words of this law”. The blessedness of the will of God concerning His people as in the land had been presented to them in the ministry of Moses. Now on their part, having come into the land, they had to write it on “great stones” suggestive of their giving expression to it in a stable and permanent way.
Historically this was carried out immediately after the destruction of Ai (Joshua 8: 32). Typically it would intimate that the saints understand the will of the Lord, and are able to give expression to it intelligently. It is written very plainly in Scripture, but one of our first exercises as “over the Jordan” is to write it “very plainly” as giving intelligent and intelligible expression to it. Only as having put on the new man could we do so, but the new man is “renewed into full knowledge according to the image of him that has created him” (Colossians 3: 10), and “according to God is created in truthful righteousness and holiness” (Ephesians 4: 24). The stable and imperishable character of the new man as a divine creation is set forth, I believe, in the “great stones”. There is no looking to the flesh for anything; that has been cut off, typically, in circumcision. We look only to that which is created “according to God” as able to carry “very plainly” what is in His will for His people.
Both Colossians and Ephesians address the saints as having put off the old man, and having put on the new. As having done it, there is material suitable to carry in permanent expression all that is in the will of God. The prayer of Epaphras for his beloved Colossian brethren was that they might “stand perfect and complete in all the will of God” (Colossians 4: 12), and if we link with this Paul’s prayer for them in Colossians 1: 9 - 11 we shall get a good idea of a company of saints who, as over Jordan, can bring into expression “very plainly” God’s pleasure regarding His people.
[p. 328] The stones being plastered is suggestive of the fact that in “one new man” a collective idea comes in; the saints are not in view separately, but as set together to form one great and legible expression of the will of God. In the “one new man” expression can be given very plainly to the spiritual force of “all the words” that have come before us in this book.
It might be well to ask how much of the words of the Deuteronomic law have we written “very plainly”? Some part of that great tablet on which “all the words” are to be written today is, so to speak, under our hand. Are we concerned that the will of God should come definitely and unmistakably into expression in us, and in our relations with His people? It was enjoined that the king should “write for himself a copy of this law”, but we do not know that any king of Israel ever did it. In Josiah’s time “Hilkijah the priest found the book of the law of Jehovah by Moses” (2 Chronicles 34: 14), and it was quite new to the king. It was probably the original copy written by, Moses. The kings had not written it for themselves, and hence their grievous failures. But we, like them, may fail to write the law. We have to write it by becoming ourselves the expression of what is in God’s mind concerning His people; it is to be seen in us in a practical and legible way. Then we can take up happily our place of acceptance with God in offering burnt offerings, and we can also take up happy relations with our brethren in sacrificing peace-offerings, and eating together with joy before God.
It is a beautiful touch of divine grace that on mount Ebal, where the curse was to be put, according to chapter 11: 29, we see the great stones, the altar, burnt-offerings, peace-offerings, and eating and rejoicing before Jehovah. It indicates clearly that conditions have come in which are exempt, from curse. Viewed as in the flesh “[p. 329] the handwriting in ordinances ... stood out against us”, and “was contrary to us”. But as such it has been “effaced” — a legal term used for annulling a decree of law (see Colossians 2: 14 margin). But we should not like to think of the Deuteronomic law, expressing the good pleasure of God for His people as in the land, being “effaced”; on the contrary it is to be written “very plainly” by a people who delight in it, and love to give It abiding expression. Many believers are so accustomed to think of the law in its condemning relation to man as in the flesh that they do not regard it sufficiently as the expression of God’s will, in answering to which His people can be before Him in liberty and joy for His pleasure. The answer in Israel was only in type; the spiritual reality of it awaited new covenant conditions, which have not yet, for them, come to pass. But, typically, we see in Deuteronomy 27 a people risen with Christ, and quickened together with Him, and able to set up all that is in God’s will for such a people, as having intelligently apprehended it, and being identified with it in their affections. They can give permanent expression to it “very plainly”.
We may remark at this point that, in Joshua 8: 30 - 35, where we read how Joshua carried out what is here enjoined, we find an added feature of the greatest spiritual importance. “And all Israel, and their elders, and their officers and judges, stood on this side and on that side of the ark before the priests the Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant of Jehovah”. They all stood, whether towards mount Gerizim or mount Ebal, “on this side and on that side of the ark”. They were, typically, identified with Christ in the most blessed way as risen and quickened together with Him. It is only as being so that we can truly carry out Deuteronomy 27. As having passed over the Jordan we are identified with a risen Christ, who has rendered null the power of death [p. 330] that we might be for the pleasure of God as risen with Him.
The “altar of stones” — whole stones on which no iron tool was to be lifted — indicates how such a people regard their whole position and blessing as having been secured without any works of theirs, without a touch of the strength of nature, on the ground of the death of Christ. We are not viewed here as needing to bring sin-offerings or trespass-offerings, but as in conscious acceptance, and in the communion and satisfaction of what has been effected in the death of Christ.
In verses 9, 10 it is no longer Moses and the elders who speak, but “Moses and the priests, the Levites”, The elders giving commandment in conjunction with Moses indicate that the people, as identified with their elders, are now intelligently committed to the responsibility of carrying out what was enjoined. But the priests speaking along with Moses typifies priestly concern that those who have definitely taken the place of being the people of God should hearken to His voice and do His commandments. Such a concern was found in Paul and Epaphras about the Colossians. See Colossians 1:3; Colossians 1:9-11; Colossians 2: 1; Colossians 4: 12. The elders without the priests will not secure the abiding pleasure of God in His people. To take things up responsibly without prayerful priestly exercises will only result in failure. The prayers of Paul and Epaphras for Gentile believers are intended to impress us with the urgent necessity that we should “persevere in prayer, watching in it with thanksgiving” (Colossians 4: 2). Only thus can the will of God be secured and maintained in His people.
Then Moses speaks alone from verse 11 onwards, and the instruction is as to the government of God. That government involves curse upon what is contrary to His will as surely as it secures blessing where there is obedience to Him. The fact that six tribes stand to [p. 331] bless and six to curse shews that both sides are to be held in even balance amongst God’s people. It was so with the Lord Jesus. He loved righteousness, but He also hated lawlessness, and on account of this He was anointed with the oil of gladness above His companions. He has companions who also, like Him, love righteousness and hate lawlessness, and true gladness is found on this line.
God will surely bless His people on condition of obedience, but He will ever disapprove in the strongest way of what is contrary to His will. What is abhorrent to God should be also abhorrent to His people. If we do not say Amen to His curses we shall not be morally qualified to say Amen to His blessings. It is a mistake to suppose that the principle of curse has no place in Christianity, and it leads to laxity. Perhaps the most solemn curse in Scripture is a peculiarly Christian curse. “If any one love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha” (1 Corinthians 16: 22). And Hebrews 6 speaks not only of blessing, but of being “nigh to a curse”. If I am bringing forth thorns and briars — things which are a source of trial and suffering to the people of God — I am “nigh to a curse”.
Blessing and curse are everywhere in Scripture, in the New Testament as well as the Old. We get them, in principle, in such scriptures as, “For if ye live according to flesh, ye are about to die; but if, by the Spirit, ye put to death the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8: 13). “For he that sows to his own flesh, shall reap corruption from the flesh; but he that sows to the Spirit, from the Spirit shall reap eternal life” (Galatians 6: 8). These are unchanging principles in the government of God. The Lord’s woes are to be taken account of as well as His beatitudes.
In “the land” the curses were to be uttered with a loud voice, and twelve times it is said, “And all the people shall say, Amen”. God would have all His people in full accord with Himself in detesting and repudiating everything that is contrary to His mind, as well as in communion with the altar in the joy of obedience and blessing. Indeed it is essential to our communion with God and with one another that we should reprobate everything that is displeasing to Him.
It has often been observed that the blessings upon mount Gerizim are not given. Israel under divine government as in the flesh never did, nor could, on that ground inherit blessing, and no doubt the Spirit of God in Moses, who was about to declare prophetically that the curse would come upon them, had this in mind when He gave the curses, but kept silent as to the blessings. But the fact that the great stones, and the altar, and the burnt-offerings and peace-offerings were on mount Ebal declared plainly that where disobedience and curse had been God would secure through the death of Christ, and by His working in His people, a full answer to all that was in His mind concerning them. But this was as yet among the hidden things which belonged to God. Publicly and dispensationally He was dealing with a people in the flesh, and on that line His blessing could not be secured. But He gave at the same time an intimation of what was in His mind, which we can read clearly now that His thoughts have been revealed. And the instruction is most helpful to those who are now spiritually in the position over Jordan where they were typically when they came to Ebal and Gerizim. As on the principle of works of law, a people in the flesh, they were under curse, as all are who are on the ground of their own works for righteousness before God. See Galatians 3: 10. We must distinguish between what they were in themselves and what happened to them as typical of what is true now on a new ground and in a spiritual way.