Deuteronomy 27:1-8--The Altar on Mount Ebal

Deuteronomy 27:1-8
English Standard Version

The Altar on Mount Ebal
27 Now Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep the whole commandment that I command you today. 2 And on the day you cross over the Jordan to the land that the LORD your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them with plaster. 3 And you shall write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over to enter the land that the LORD your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the LORD, the God of your fathers, has promised you. 4 And when you have crossed over the Jordan, you shall set up these stones, concerning which I command you today, on Mount Ebal, and you shall plaster them with plaster. 5 And there you shall build an altar to the LORD your God, an altar of stones. You shall wield no iron tool on them; 6 you shall build an altar to the LORD your God of uncut stones. And you shall offer burnt offerings on it to the LORD your God, 7 and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and shall eat there, and you shall rejoice before the LORD your God. 8 And you shall write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly.”

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This again is something specific for these people in this place at this time, but it is something that they would remember and come back to for future generations as well.  The people would split into two groups--six of the tribes would stand on Mount Ebal and the other six tribes on Mount Gerizim.  Those on Mount Gerizim, the same mountain the Samaritan woman would refer to when she said that their ancestors worshiped on "this mountain," would proclaim the blessings of the Law, while those on Mount Ebal would proclaim the curses of the Law.  It is the mountain on which they read the curses where the altar to the LORD went and where sacrifice needed to be made because the sacrifices were necessary to take the curses they deserved and to put them on their substitutionary offering (their propitiation) so that atonement could be made.

We'll see the reading of the blessings and curses in the next couple chapters and we'll see that Jesus took all of the curses of the Law that we deserved when He died in our places, so that we could receive all the blessings that He deserved.  While we as a people do not go to this natural amphitheater to read the blessings and curses of the Law anymore, it was something that the nation of Israel was to do regularly as it was to remind them of their need for the Lamb of God who would take away the sin of the world.  The people of the LORD longed for His blessing, but every generation knew they earned the curses of the Law.  How then would things be restored to the way that God intended where He wanted to bless His people?  That's pretty much the entire story of the Bible and we see the culmination of the gospel in Revelation 21 and 22 when the LORD gathers His people together in the heavenly temple city of the New Jerusalem where there will be no more darkness and no more curses--only the light of God's presence as the people and the LORD will once again live together without sin, and this time without the ability to sin (there will be no more Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, only the Tree of Life will be there).  Keep this in mind as we read the blessings and curses of the Law.  In this time and place, we still face many of the consequences of sin, but one we will be free from the very presence of sin and from the curse of the Law.