And when you have crossed the Jordan, you are to set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I am commanding you today, and you are to coat them with plaster. Sermons
1. That the Law could not give life. 2. That it was not designed to give life. 3. That its real aim was to convince of sin, and so to shut men up to the faith that would afterwards be revealed (Galatians 3:23). Three topics in these verses - I. THE ERECTION OF THE STONES. (Vers. 2, 8.) Stones were to be set up, coated with plaster (a custom of Egypt), on which were to be written, "very plainly," "all the words of this Law" (ver. 8) - either the Law in Deuteronomy, or the Pentateuchal laws generally. The stones were: 1. Significant reminders of the tenure on which the land was held. 2. Witnesses against the people in case of disobedience. 3. A testimony to the plainness with which the Law had been made known to them. The last point reminds us of our own privilege in possessing a clear and full revelation of the will of God in the Bible. Copies of the Bible are like these stones, witnesses against us if we disobey the gospel. "Light has come into the world" (John 3:19). We are not left to the natural conscience, sufficient though that be to convict men of sin (Romans 2:14, 15). We are servants who know our Lord's will (Luke 12:47). We have the light both of Law and gospel. Supremely great are our privileges, and equally great are our responsibilities. II. THE STONES ERECTED ON EBAL. (Ver. 4.) But why on Ebal? Why on the mount of cursing? Had there been a Law which could have given life, "verily," Paul says, "righteousness should have been by the Law" (Galatians 3:21). In that case, the appropriate place for the erection of the stones would have been Gerizim - the mount of blessing. But the Law could not give life. In itself considered, as requiring perfect obedience, it could only condemn. Its principal function - its economic scope and purpose - was not to bless, but to give "knowledge of sin" (Romans 3:19, 20; Romans 7:9-14; Galatians 3.). Hence the appropriate place for the stones being planted was on the mount of cursing. III. THE ACCOMPANYING SACRIFICES. (Vers. 5-7.) 1. As the Law testified to sin, so the sacrifices testified to grace - to the provision in mercy which lay within the covenant for the removal of guilt. Burnt offerings and peace offerings, as well as the sin offerings, included the idea of propitiation. This was shown at the first forming of the covenant by the action of sprinkling the blood (Exodus 22:6-8; cf. Hebrews 9:19-28). Without sacrifice, without the means of removing, or at least covering guilt, Israel's position under the Law would have been a mockery. 2. The altar of unhewn stones testifies to the subordinate place which art ought to have in the worship of God. There was a special suitableness in the altar of propitiation being built of undesecrated materials. Himself sinful, man's art would have polluted it. Only when propitiation had been made was art permitted to resume its function of ministering to the beauty of Divine service. But art, in religion, needs to be carefully guarded. It is false art when it drowns other thoughts in admiration of the finish, injuring worship by that which draws away the mind from worship. 3. The burnt offerings and peace offerings testified - the one to the entire consecration of heart and life which is the condition of acceptable service; the other, to the peace and fellowship with God which, on the ground of sacrifice, are attained through consecration and obedience. - J.O.
That thou shalt set up great stones. On the boundary line between European and Siberian Russia there is a square pillar of brick bearing on one side the coat-of-arms belonging to the province of Perm in Europe, and on the other side the coat-of-arms belonging to the province of Tobolsk in Asia. That pillar has more sorrowful associations than any other pillar in the world. For many years the exiles to Siberia had to pass it, and there bade a long farewell to home and country. Strong men wept; some pressed their faces to the loved soil they were leaving, some collected a little earth to take with them to their new abodes, and some passionately kissed the European side of the pillar. The plaister on the bricks was covered with inscriptions, plaintive and pathetic as the epitaphs in a graveyard. Moses thought of pillars which were to have not a mournful, but a joyful significance. The stones were afterwards set up by the people as memorials of God's work on their behalf. The stones were to be a perpetual memorial of indebtedness to God for rescue from slavery and guidance to prosperity and honour. The disciples of Christ have experienced a change wonderful as that experienced by the Israelites. They have passed from bondage to liberty, from darkness to light, from moral debasement to spiritual glory. They are not to boast as if by their own endeavours they had wrought out the salvation in which they rejoice, but gratefully to confess that God has made them what they are. They are themselves to be monuments of God's power such as all can see and understand. Something more is needed from them than activity in setting up great stones as abiding witnesses of the great revolution in their life. They are to stand before the world as witnesses of God's saving, hallowing work in the human soul. The stones the Israelites were to set up were to be plaistered, and the law written on the plaister. There was a deep significance in the words thus inscribed. The people would be reminded by them that though they were out of the wilderness they had not ceased to be under the law. The horrors of Egyptian slavery would have been better for them than luxurious life in Canaan unrestricted by Divine precepts. The written stones were an attestation of God's supremacy over them, and as a restraint from the moral laxity to which they would be tempted when at ease amid "the limpid wells and orchards green" and all the other charms of the land "where Abraham fed his flock of yore." The disciples of Christ are to be as pillars inscribed with the law of the Lord. They do not bear the words of the ceremonial law, nor are they under direct obligation to bear those of the social law enacted in the wilderness. It is the moral law they bear as a sacred inscription on their life. Special prominence is to be given to the two great commandments, love to God and love to man, which, according to the teaching of Jesus, include the whole of the Decalogue. Faith in Christ does not mean freedom from the law as a rule of life. Truth, honesty, amiability are as much required in members of the Church as if those qualities were the sole condition of salvation: evangelical righteousness implies practical righteousness.(J. Marrat.) People Asher, Benjamin, Dan, Gad, Issachar, Joseph, Levi, Levites, Moses, Naphtali, Reuben, Simeon, ZebulunPlaces Beth-baal-peor, Jordan River, Mount Ebal, Mount GerizimTopics Building-paste, Coat, Coated, Command, Commanding, Cross, Ebal, Hast, Jordan, Lime, Mount, Passed, Passing, Plaister, Plaistered, Plaster, Raise, Stones, To-dayOutline 1. The people are commanded to write the law upon stones5. and to build an altar of whole stones 11. The tribes to be divided on Gerizim and Ebal 14. The curses to be pronounced on mount Ebal Dictionary of Bible Themes Deuteronomy 27:1-8Library ObedienceTake heed, and hearken, O Israel; this day thou art become the people of the Lord thy God. Thou shalt therefore obey the voice of the Lord thy God, and do his commandments.' Deut 27: 9, 10. What is the duty which God requireth of man? Obedience to his revealed will. It is not enough to hear God's voice, but we must obey. Obedience is a part of the honour we owe to God. If then I be a Father, where is my honour?' Mal 1: 6. Obedience carries in it the life-blood of religion. Obey the voice of the Lord … Thomas Watson—The Ten Commandments In Judæa and through Samaria - a Sketch of Samaritan History and Theology - Jews and Samaritans. How Christ is Made Use of for Justification as a Way. Gilgal, in Deuteronomy 11:30 what the Place Was. In Galilee at the Time of Our Lord Meditations of the Misery of a Man not Reconciled to God in Christ. Jesus' Last Public Discourse. Denunciation of Scribes and Pharisees. Differences in Judgment About Water Baptism, no Bar to Communion: Or, to Communicate with Saints, as Saints, Proved Lawful. 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