Daily Thoughts from Deuteronomy 27:4-13: Cursed (Arur)

29 Cursed (Arur)

When you have crossed the Yarden, you are to set up these stones, as I am ordering you today, on Mount ‘Eival; and put plaster on them.  There you are to erect an altar to Yahweh your God, an altar made of stones. You are not to use any iron tool on them, but are to build the altar of Yahweh your God of uncut stones; and you are to offer burnt offerings on it to Yahweh your God.  Also you are to sacrifice peace offerings, eat there and be joyful in the presence of Yahweh your God.  You are to write on the stones all the words of this Torah very clearly.”

Next Moshe and the priests, who are Levites, spoke to all Isra’el. They said, “Be quiet; and listen, Isra’el! Today you have become the people of Yahweh your God.  Therefore you are to listen to what Yahweh your God says and obey his mitzvot and laws, which I am giving you today.”

That same day Moshe commissioned the people as follows:  “These are the ones who are to stand on Mount G’rizim and bless the people after you have crossed the Yarden: Shim‘on, Levi, Y’hudah, Yissakhar, Yosef and Binyamin; while these are to stand on Mount ‘Eival for the curse: Re’uven, Gad, Asher, Z’vulun, Dan and Naftali.

(D’varim 27:4-13)

The energy he felt the day before had left him.  He woke to yet another day of solitude and of water as his only diet.  It was a quiet day, pleasant of weather, but he was wearying of this pilgrimage.

“Father, open my heart to hear Your words in Moshe.  I am here to do Your will but I am weary.  Would that it could end today.  I am at Your command.”

He opened the scroll to read and for some reason was having trouble focusing with his eyes.  It seemed too blurry to read.  Perhaps he was in more physical distress than he realized.  He drank some more water and prayed for his eyes to be opened to see Moshe’s words.  He traveled through his several memorized passages from Torah and meditated for some time on what they said and required of him.

When he opened the scroll again it was better.  His eyes were functioning better now.  The sacred words were readable and he was encouraged that he wasn’t dying yet.

The curses!  Yahweh had made it so clear to Yisrael what the consequences would be for disobedience to the covenant.  This dramatic representation of it for the sake of the people must have solidified it in their hearts.  But generations in the land had seen a failure to remember, or maybe it was also that they learned not to care.  When things were going well, of course, it was tempting for forget that God was the One who had provided this for them.  And if they saw their foreign neighbors prospering it might have caused them to foolishly think that it was their gods who brought that about.  Maybe in their minds they lost respect for Yahweh.  He reminded them, naturally, over and over, allowing their enemies to gain the upper hand over them to push them toward crying out to God and returning to Him.  It happened over and over until they finally were expelled from the land as Yahweh had warned them He would.

They were back now, but his people had found new ways to forsake their God.  Their way of establishing their own righteousness, making rules that his Father had not made, sometimes in order to do what they wanted under cover of holiness, all this was sickening and worthy of reprimand.  The general way in which ritual was observed without really paying attention to God was becoming the norm rather than the exception.  Their compromises with Roman and Greek ways was a harkening back to their days before the exile.  But worst of all was their general failure to take care of those who were in need and their failure to provide justice for those with no influence or means.  Mammon was the new god.

The curse!  He was here to take the curse for them.  He was here to be exiled from his Father as he took on the sins of the nation.  They would esteem his stricken of God but in reality he would be wounded for their transgressions and crushed for their iniquities.  His chastisement would mean their peace.  For all those who had gone astray, and that was everyone, Yahweh would lay on him the iniquity of all.  Like a lamb he would be led to slaughter and cut off from the land of the living, making his grave with the wicked and with a rich man, even though he would do no violence nor utter any deceit.  It would be his Father’s will to crush him and put him to grief, making his soul an offering for guilt.  But he would see his offspring and prolong his days and Yahweh’s will would prosper in his hand.  A portion with the many would be divided to him and he would divide the spoil with the strong for pouring out his soul to death.

He had read this passage so many times.  It encouraged him while at the same time scaring him.  How could those two feelings exist side by side?  But they did.  What he was going to have to go through terrified him, but the outcome promised by his Father should make it worth it.  Would that suffice in the midst of suffering?  He could not know until he went through it.

What he was going through now was unpleasant enough.  But his Father was sustaining him through this.

He did no activities the whole day, his energy lagging.  But he asked his Father’s grace to continue faithfully in what he was tasked with.  The Father spoke peace to his soul and he rested.