Deuteronomy 27 – 31; Luke 12 

Deuteronomy 27 - 31

Build an Altar on Mount Ebal

27 Moses stood together with the leaders and told the people of Israel:

Obey all the laws and teachings that I am giving you today. 2-4  Soon you will enter the land that the Lord your God is giving to you. He is the God your ancestors worshiped, and he has promised that this land is rich with milk and honey.

After you cross the Jordan River, go to Mount Ebal. Set up large slabs of stone, then cover them with white plaster and write on them a copy of these laws.

5  At this same place, build an altar for offering sacrifices to the Lord your God. But don't use stones that have been cut with iron tools. 6 Look for stones that can be used without being cut. Then offer sacrifices to please the Lord,[a] burning them completely on the altar. 7 Next, offer sacrifices to ask the Lord's blessing,[b] and serve the meat at a sacred meal where you will celebrate in honor of the Lord.

8 Don't forget to write out a copy of these laws on the stone slabs that you are going to set up. Make sure that the writing is easy to read.

Curses on Those Who Disobey

9 Moses stood together with the priests[c] and said, “Israel, be quiet and listen to me! Today you have become the people of the Lord your God.[d] 10 So you must obey his laws and teachings that I am giving you.”

11 That same day, Moses gave them the following instructions:

12-13  After you cross the Jordan River, you will go to Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal.[e] The tribes of Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Ephraim, Manasseh,[f] and Benjamin will go up on Mount Gerizim, where they will bless the people of Israel. The tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali will go up on Mount Ebal where they will agree to the curses.

14-26  The people of the Levi tribe will speak each curse in a loud voice, then the rest of the people[g] will agree to that curse by saying, “Amen!” Here are the curses:

We ask the Lord to put a curse on anyone who makes an idol or worships idols, even secretly. The Lord is disgusted with idols.

We ask the Lord to put a curse on all who do not show respect for their father and mother.

We ask the Lord to put a curse on anyone who moves the rocks that mark property lines.

We ask the Lord to put a curse on anyone who tells blind people to go the wrong way.

We ask the Lord to put a curse on anyone who keeps the poor from getting justice, whether these poor are foreigners, widows, or orphans.

We ask the Lord to put a curse on any man who sleeps with his father's wife; that man has shown no respect for his father's marriage.

We ask the Lord to put a curse on anyone who has sex with an animal.

We ask the Lord to put a curse on any man who sleeps with his sister or his half sister or his mother-in-law.

We ask the Lord to put a curse on anyone who commits murder, even when there are no witnesses to the crime.

We ask the Lord to put a curse on anyone who accepts money to murder an innocent victim.

We ask the Lord to put a curse on anyone who refuses to obey his laws.

And so, to each of these curses, the people will answer, “Amen!”

The Lord Will Bless You if You Obey

Moses said to Israel:

28 1-2  Today I am giving you the laws and teachings of the Lord your God. Always obey them, and the Lord will make Israel the most famous and important nation on earth, and he will bless you in many ways.

3 The Lord will make your businesses and your farms successful.

4 You will have many children. You will harvest large crops, and your herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats will produce many young.

5 You will have plenty of bread[h] to eat.

6 The Lord will make you successful in your daily work.

7 The Lord will help you defeat your enemies and make them scatter in all directions.

8 The Lord your God is giving you the land, and he will make sure you are successful in everything you do. Your harvests will be so large that your storehouses will be full.

9 If you follow and obey the Lord, he will make you his own special people, just as he promised. 10 Then everyone on earth will know that you belong to the Lord, and they will be afraid of you.

11 The Lord will give you a lot of children and make sure that your animals give birth to many young. The Lord promised your ancestors that this land would be yours, and he will make it produce large crops for you.

12 The Lord will open the storehouses of the skies where he keeps the rain, and he will send rain on your land at just the right times. He will make you successful in everything you do. You will have plenty of money to lend to other nations, but you won't need to borrow any yourself.

13 Obey the laws and teachings that I'm giving you today, and the Lord your God will make Israel a leader among the nations, and not a follower. Israel will be wealthy and powerful, not poor and weak. 14 But you must not reject any of his laws and teachings or worship other gods.

The Lord Will Put Curses on You if You Disobey

(Leviticus 26.14-46)

Moses said:

15 Israel, today I am giving you the laws and teachings of the Lord your God. And if you don't obey them all, he will put many curses on you.

16 Your businesses and farms will fail.

17 You won't have enough bread[i] to eat.

18 You'll have only a few children, your crops will be small, and your herds of cattle and flocks of sheep and goats won't produce many young.

19 The Lord will make you fail in everything you do.

20 No matter what you try to accomplish, the Lord will confuse you, and you will feel his anger. You won't last long, and you may even meet with disaster, all because you rejected the Lord.

21-23 The Lord will send terrible diseases to attack you, and you will never be well again. You will suffer with burning fever and swelling and pain until you die somewhere in the land that you captured.

The Lord will make the sky overhead seem like a bronze roof that keeps out the rain, and the ground under your feet will become as hard as iron. Your crops will be scorched by the hot east wind or ruined by mildew. 24 He will send dust and sandstorms instead of rain, and you will be wiped out.

25 The Lord will let you be defeated by your enemies, and you will scatter in all directions. You will be a horrible sight for the other nations to see, 26 and no one will disturb the birds and wild animals while they eat your dead bodies.

27 The Lord will make you suffer with diseases that will cause oozing sores or crusty itchy patches on your skin or boils like the ones that are common in Egypt. And there will be no cure for you! 28 You will become insane and go blind. The Lord will make you so confused, 29 that even in bright sunshine you will have to feel your way around like a blind person, who cannot tell day from night. For the rest of your life, people will beat and rob you, and no one will be able to stop them.

30 A man will be engaged to a woman, but before they can get married, she will be raped by enemy soldiers. Some of you will build houses, but never get to live in them. If you plant a vineyard, you won't be around long enough to enjoy the first harvest. 31 Your cattle will be killed while you watch, but you won't get to eat any of the meat. Your donkeys and sheep will be stolen from you, and no one will be around to force your enemies to give them back. 32 Your sons and daughters will be dragged off to a foreign country, while you stand there helpless. And even if you watch for them until you go blind, you will never see them again.

33 You will work hard on your farms, but everything you harvest will be eaten by foreigners, who will mistreat you and abuse you for the rest of your life.

34 What you see will be so horrible that you will go insane, 35 and the Lord will punish you from head to toe with boils that never heal.

36 The Lord will let you and your king be taken captive to a country that you and your ancestors have never even heard of, and there you will have to worship idols[j] made of wood and stone. 37 People of nearby countries will shudder when they see your terrible troubles, but they will still make fun of you.

38 You will plant a lot of seed, but gather a small harvest, because locusts[k] will eat your crops. 39 You will plant vineyards and work hard at taking care of them, but you won't gather any grapes, much less get any wine, because the vines themselves will be eaten by worms. 40 Even if your olive trees grow everywhere in your country, the olives will fall off before they are ready, and there won't be enough olive oil for combing your hair.[l]

41 Even your children will be taken as prisoners of war.

42 Locusts[m] will eat your crops and strip your trees of leaves and fruit.

43 Foreigners in your towns will become wealthy and powerful, while you become poor and powerless. 44 You will be so short of money that you will have to borrow from those foreigners. They will be the leaders in the community, and you will be the followers.

More Curses for Disobedience

Moses said:

45 Israel, if you don't obey the laws and teachings that the Lord your God is giving you, he will send these curses to chase, attack, and destroy you. 46 Then everyone will look at you and your descendants and realize that the Lord has placed you under a curse.

47 If the Lord makes you wealthy, but you don't joyfully worship and honor him, 48 he will send enemies to attack you and make you their slaves. Then you will live in poverty with nothing to eat, drink, or wear, and your owners will work you to death.

49 Foreigners who speak a strange language will be sent to attack you without warning, just like an eagle swooping down. 50 They won't show any mercy, and they will have no respect for old people or pity for children. 51 They will take your cattle, sheep, goats, grain, wine, and olive oil, then leave you to starve.

52 All over the land that the Lord your God gave you, the enemy army will surround your towns. You may feel safe inside your town walls, but the enemy will tear them down, 53 while you wait in horror. Finally, you will get so hungry that you will eat the sons and daughters that the Lord gave you. 54-55 Because of hunger, a man who had been gentle and kind will eat his own children and refuse to share the meal with his brother or wife or with his other children. 56-57  A woman may have grown up in such luxury that she never had to put a foot on the ground. But times will be so bad that she will secretly eat both her newborn baby and the afterbirth, without sharing any with her husband or her other children.

Disobedience Brings Destruction

Moses said to Israel:

58 You must obey everything in The Book of God's Law. Because if you don't respect the Lord, 59 he will punish you and your descendants with incurable diseases, 60 like those you were so afraid of in Egypt. 61 Remember! If the Lord decides to destroy your nation, he can use any disease or disaster, not just the ones written in The Book of God's Law.

62 There are as many of you now as the stars in the sky, but if you disobey the Lord your God, only a few of you will be left. 63 The Lord is happy to make you successful and to help your nation grow while you conquer the land. But if you disobey him, he will be just as happy to pull you up by your roots.

64 Those of you that survive will be scattered to every nation on earth, and you will have to worship stone and wood idols[n] that never helped you or your ancestors. 65 You will be restless—always longing for home, but never able to return. 66 You will live in constant fear of death. 67 Each morning you will wake up to such terrible sights that you will say, “I wish it were night!” But at night you will be terrified and say, “I wish it were day!”

68 I told you never to go back to Egypt. But now the Lord himself will load you on ships and send you back. Then you will even try to sell yourselves as slaves, but no one will be interested.

The Agreement in Moab

29 So Moses finished telling the Israelites what they had to do in order to keep the agreement the Lord was making with them in Moab, which was in addition to the one the Lord had made with them at Mount Sinai.[o]

The Third Speech: Israel Must Keep Its Agreement with the Lord

The Lord Is Your God

2-3 Moses called the nation of Israel together and told them:

When you were in Egypt, you saw the Lord perform great miracles that caused trouble for the king, his officials, and everyone else in the country. 4-6 He has even told you, “For 40 years I, the Lord, led you through the desert, but your clothes and your sandals didn't wear out, and I gave you special food.[p] I did these things so you would realize that I am your God.”

But the Lord must give you a change of heart before you truly understand what you have seen and heard.

7  When we first camped here, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan attacked, but we defeated them. 8  Then we captured their land and divided it among the tribes of Reuben, Gad, and East Manasseh.

Keep the Agreement

Moses said:

9 Israel, the Lord has made an agreement with you, and if you keep your part, you will be successful in everything you do. 10-12 Today everyone in our nation is standing here in the Lord's presence, including leaders and officials, parents and children, and even those foreigners who cut wood and carry water for us. We are at this place of worship to promise that we will keep our part of the agreement with the Lord our God.

13-15 In this agreement, the Lord promised that you would be his people and that he would be your God. He first made this promise to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and today the Lord is making this same promise to you. But it isn't just for you; it is also for your descendants.

16-17 When we lived in Egypt, you saw the Egyptians worship disgusting idols of wood, stone, silver, and gold. Then as we traveled through other nations, you saw those people worship other disgusting idols. 18  So make sure that everyone in your tribe remains faithful to the Lord and never starts worshiping gods of other nations.

If even one of you worships idols, you will be like the root of a plant that produces bitter, poisonous fruit. 19 You may be an Israelite and know all about the Lord's agreement with us, but he won't bless you if you rebel against him. You may think you can get away with it, but you will cause the rest of Israel to be punished along with you.[q] 20-21 The Lord will be furious, and instead of forgiving you, he will separate you from the other tribes. Then he will destroy you, by piling on you all the curses in The Book of God's Law, and you will be forgotten forever.

22 The Lord will strike your country with diseases and disasters. Your descendants and foreigners from distant countries will see that your land 23  has become a scorching desert of salt and sulfur, where nothing is planted, nothing sprouts, and nothing grows. It will be as lifeless as the land around the cities of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, after the Lord became angry and destroyed them.[r]

24 People from other nations will ask, “Why did the Lord destroy this country? Why was he so furious?”

25 And they will be given this answer:

Our ancestors worshiped the Lord, but after he brought them out of Egypt and made an agreement with them, they rejected the agreement 26 and decided to worship gods that had never helped them. The Lord had forbidden Israel to worship these gods, 27-28 and so he became furious and punished the land with all the curses in The Book of God's Law. Then he pulled up Israel by the roots and tossed them into a foreign country, where they still are today.

29 The Lord our God hasn't explained the present or the future, but he has commanded us to obey the laws he gave to us and our descendants.

The Lord Will Bring You Back

Moses said to Israel:

30  I have told you everything the Lord your God will do for you, and I've also told you the curses he will put on you if you reject him. He will scatter you in faraway countries, but when you realize that he is punishing you, 2 return to him with all your heart and soul and start obeying the commands I have given to you today. 3-4 Then he will stop punishing you and treat you with kindness. He may have scattered you to the farthest countries on earth, but he will bring you back 5 to the land that had belonged to your ancestors and make you even more successful and powerful than they ever were.

6 You and your descendants are stubborn, but the Lord will make you willing to obey him and love him with all your heart and soul, and you will enjoy a long life.

7 Then the Lord your God will remove the curses from you and put them on those enemies who hate and attack you.

8 You will again obey the laws and teachings of the Lord, 9 and he will bless you with many children, large herds and flocks, and abundant crops. The Lord will be happy to do good things for you, just as he did for your ancestors. 10 But you must decide once and for all to worship him with all your heart and soul and to obey everything in The Book of God's Law.

Choose Life, Not Death

Moses said to Israel:

11 You know God's laws, and it isn't impossible to obey them. 12  His commands aren't in heaven, so you can't excuse yourselves by saying, “How can we obey the Lord's commands? They are in heaven, and no one can go up to get them, then bring them down and explain them to us.” 13 And you can't say, “How can we obey the Lord's commands? They are across the sea, and someone must go across, then bring them back and explain them to us.” 14 No, these commands are nearby and you know them by heart. All you have to do is obey!

15  Today I am giving you a choice. You can choose life and success or death and disaster. 16-18 I am commanding you to be loyal to the Lord, to live the way he has told you, and to obey his laws and teachings. You are about to cross the Jordan River and take the land that he is giving you. If you obey him, you will live and become successful and powerful.

On the other hand, you might choose to disobey the Lord and reject him. So I'm warning you that if you bow down and worship other gods, you won't have long to live.

19 Now I call the sky and the earth to be witnesses that I am offering you this choice. Will you choose for the Lord to make you prosperous and give you a long life? Or will he put you under a curse and kill you? Choose life! 20  Be completely faithful to the Lord your God, love him, and do whatever he tells you. The Lord is the only one who can give life, and he will let you live a long time in the land that he promised to your ancestors Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Final Speeches and the Death of Moses

Joshua Is Appointed the Leader of Israel

31 Moses again spoke to the whole nation of Israel:

2  I am 120 years old, and I am no longer able to be your leader. And besides that, the Lord your God has told me that he won't let me cross the Jordan River. 3-5  But he has promised that he and Joshua will lead you across the Jordan to attack the nations that live on the other side. The Lord will destroy those nations just as he destroyed Sihon and Og, those two Amorite kings. Just remember—whenever you capture a place, kill everyone who lives there.

6 Be brave and strong! Don't be afraid of the nations on the other side of the Jordan. The Lord your God will always be at your side, and he will never abandon you.

7 Then Moses called Joshua up in front of the crowd and said:

Joshua, be brave and strong as you lead these people into their land. The Lord made a promise long ago to Israel's ancestors that this land would someday belong to Israel. That time has now come, and you must divide up the land among the people. 8  The Lord will lead you into the land. He will always be with you and help you, so don't ever be afraid of your enemies.

Read These Laws

9 Moses wrote down all of these laws and teachings and gave them to the priests and the leaders of Israel. The priests were from the Levi tribe, and they carried the sacred chest that belonged to the Lord. 10-11  Moses told these priests and leaders:

Each year the Israelites must come together to celebrate the Festival of Shelters at the place where the Lord chooses to be worshiped. You must read these laws and teachings to the people at the festival every seventh year, the year when loans do not need to be repaid.[s] 12-13 Everyone must come—men, women, children, and even the foreigners who live in your towns. And each new generation will listen and learn to worship the Lord their God with fear and trembling and to do exactly what is said in God's Law.

Israel Will Reject the Lord

14 The Lord told Moses, “You will soon die, so bring Joshua to the sacred tent, and I will appoint him the leader of Israel.”

Moses and Joshua went to the sacred tent, 15 and the Lord appeared in a thick cloud right over the entrance to the tent. 16 The Lord said:

Moses, you will soon die. But Israel is going into a land where other gods are worshiped, and Israel will reject me and start worshiping these gods. The people will break the agreement I made with them, 17 and I will be so furious that I will abandon them and ignore their prayers. I will send disasters and suffering that will nearly wipe them out. Finally, they will realize that the disasters happened because I abandoned them. 18 They will pray to me, but I will ignore them because they were evil and started worshiping other gods.

19 Moses and Joshua, I am going to give you the words to a new song. Write them down and teach the song to the Israelites. If they learn it, they will know what I want them to do, and so they will have no excuse for not obeying me. 20 I am bringing them into the land that I promised their ancestors. It is a land rich with milk and honey, and the Israelites will have more than enough food to eat. But they will get fat and turn their backs on me and start worshiping other gods. The Israelites will reject me and break the agreement that I made with them.

21 When I punish the Israelites and their descendants with suffering and disasters, I will remind them that they know the words to this song, so they have no excuse for not obeying me.

I will give them the land that I promised, but I know the way they are going to live later on.

22 Moses at once wrote down the words to the song,[t] and he taught it to the Israelites.

23  The Lord told Joshua, “Be brave and strong! I will help you lead the people of Israel into the land that I have promised them.”

24 Moses wrote down all these laws and teachings in a book, 25 then he went to the Levites who carried the sacred chest and said:

26 This is The Book of God's Law. Keep it beside the sacred chest that holds the agreement the Lord your God made with Israel. This book is proof that you know what the Lord wants you to do. 27 I know how stubborn and rebellious you and the rest of the Israelites are. You have rebelled against the Lord while I have been alive, and it will only get worse after I am gone. 28 So call together the leaders and officials of the tribes of Israel. I will bring this book and read every word of it to you, and I will call the sky and the earth as witnesses that all of you know what you are supposed to do.

29 I am going to die soon, and I know that in the future you will stop caring about what is right and what is wrong, and so you will disobey the Lord and stop living the way I told you to live. The Lord will be angry, and terrible things will happen to you.

The Song of Moses

30 Moses called a meeting of all the people of Israel, so he could teach them the words to the song that the Lord had given him. And here are the words: