Bible Commentaries
Deuteronomy 27

Verses 1-13

(See the Deuteronomy Book Comments for Introductory content and Homiletic suggestions).

XIV

THIRD, FOURTH, AND FIFTH ORATIONS

Deuteronomy 27:1-31:13

It is customary to classify the words of Moses in Deuteronomy into three orations, a song and a benediction, but this classification is not exact. His third address is contained in Deuteronomy 27-28. A fourth distinct address with its introduction is contained in Deuteronomy 29-30. A fifth address distinct in introduction and matter is to be found in Deuteronomy 31, covering only thirteen verses. So that there are at least five distinct addresses, besides the song and benediction, each with an appropriate historical introduction. We consider in this discussion the third, fourth, and fifth addresses.

THE THIRD ORATION

This oration first provided for a most elaborate and impressive renewal and ratification of the covenant when Israel shall have entered the Promised Land, and closes with a most earnest exhortation to obedience, including a notable and far reaching prophecy of the curses that will certainly follow disobedience. The parts of this third oration are very distinct:

(1) Associating with him the elders of Israel, he directs that on entrance into the Land of Promise, plastered monumental stones shall be erected on Mount Ebal and thereon plainly inscribed all the laws of the covenant, as a perpetual memorial and witness of their possession of the land by Jehovah’s power and grace, conditioned upon their observance of the terms of the covenant. What a lasting library of stone! What a witness to the grounds of their tenure of the land!

(2) The erection of an altar after the model given in the original covenant at Sinai (Exodus 20:24-26) and the sacrifice thereon of burnt offerings as originally provided, thus renewing the ratification of the covenant.

(3) The sacrifice of peace offerings followed by a Joyful communion feast showing forth peace with Jehovah (arising from the blood of the covenant) and their enjoyment of him.

(4) Then associating himself with the priests and Levites, he provides for the solemn announcement that they are Jehovah’s people and must obey him.

(5) He then charges the whole people that on this great day they must take their places in two great divisions, six tribes on Gerizirn and six on Ebal, prepared to repeat after the Levites the responsive blessings and curses of the law.

He directs that on this great day the Levites shall stand in the valley between the two mountains and solemnly pronounce alternatively twelve blessings and twelve curses, the first eleven of each special statutes as specimens of the whole, and the twelfth of each touching the whole law as a unit. That as each course on disobedience is pronounced by the Levites, the six tribes on Ebal shall repeat it, and as the alternate blessing on obedience is pronounced, the other six tribes on Gerizirn shall repeat it, and when the twelfth blessing and curse touching the whole covenant are repeated, then all the tribes on both mountains in one loud, blended chorus shall say, "Amen." We shall find in Joshua all these directions becoming history. The history of the world furnishes no parallel in solemnity and sublimity to this great transaction in conception here, and in fulfilment later.

Deuteronomy 28 is devoted to exhortation based upon these directions and prophecies. It is difficult to summarize this awful exhortation, but we may profitably emphasize the following points of the exhortation:

(1) If you keep this covenant you shall be blessed in national position and with God. Jehovah shall be your God and ye shall be the head and not the tail; shall be above and not below. Jehovah shall smite all your enemies. Coming against you in one way, they shall flee in seven ways. All other nations shall see that you are called by Jehovah’s name and shall be afraid. Jehovah will establish you as a holy people unto himself.

If ye keep this covenant ye shall be blessed in all places: in the city, in the field, in the home, in the barn, and in the kitchen.

Ye shall be cursed in all things: in children, in crops, in herds, in vineyards, in the seasons, and in business (lending to others but not borrowing), in health, in your outgoings and incomings, and especially in peace of mind and joy of heart.

(2) But if you disobey this covenant and break it, all these groups of blessings shall be reversed into their opposites: Ye shall lose your exalted position among the nations, and with God. Ye shall be outcasts from God; ye shall be the tail of all nations and not the head. Ye shall be beaten in wars; ye shall flee in all battles; ye shall be dispersed seven ways where you went out one. Now you see this curse is national, just like the corresponding blessing was national. Ye shall be cursed in all places: in the city, in the home, in the field, in the barn, in the kitchen, and in all lands of dispersion.

Ye shall be cursed in all things: in children, in crops, in herds, vineyards, wars, outgoings, incomings, and especially shall ye be cursed in your mind and heart. Ye shall have neither peace of mind nor joy of heart. Here is the curse of mind and heart; it is as awful a thing as I ever read in my life:

“And among these nations shalt thou find no ease, and there shall be no rest for the sole of thy foot: but Jehovah will give thee there a trembling heart, and failing of eyes, and pining of soul; and thy life shall hang in doubt before thee; and thou shalt fear night and day, and shalt have no assurance of thy life. In the morning thou shalt say, Would it were even I And at even thou shalt say, Would it were morning! for the fear of thy heart which thou shalt fear, and for the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see" (Deuteronomy 28:65-67). Note particularly the awful picture of their disaster when besieged by enemies, as set forth in Deuteronomy 28:49-57, so literally fulfilled when Jerusalem was taken by Titus in A.D. 70, and so fearfully depicted by Josephus. The prophecy closes with a reversal of their deliverance from Egypt since as captives they again shall be transported back in ships to become once more a nation of slaves in Egypt. This going into Egyptian bondage we shall find verified in the closing days of Jeremiah. His book of Lamentations furnishes the commentary on a part of this fearful prophecy. Poor man! he himself was carried there, and died there at the downfall of the Jewish monarchy.

FOURTH ORATION

The fourth address is contained in Deuteronomy 29-30, according to our chapter divisions. The occasion of this address as set forth in the introductory verse is a special present renewing of the Sinaitic covenant by oath, but it is not followed by ratification by sacrifices. The address recites again their miraculous deliverance from Egypt by Jehovah with signs and wonders, his merciful providence in miraculously supplying all their needs throughout their wanderings even though they had not eyes to see nor heart to appreciate. These blessings were light by night and shade by day, guidance in travel, water from the rock, bread from heaven, clothing and shoes that did not wax old or wear out, oracles for perplexities, forgiveness of sin through faith in the antitype of sacrifices, healing when poisoned, health so miraculous that there was not a feeble one in all the host, deliverance in battle. And now after reciting the Egyptian deliverance and the providential miracles while wandering, he tells them that they all stand before Jehovah to renew the oath of the covenant. Particularly note how comprehensive the statement of the human parties to the covenant:

"Ye stand this day all of you before Jehovah your God; your heads, your tribes, your elders, and your officers, even all the men of Israel, your little ones, your wives, and thy sojourner that is in the midst of thy camps, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water; that thou mayest enter into the covenant of Jehovah thy God, and into his oath, which Jehovah thy God maketh with thee this day; that he may establish thee this day unto himself for a people, and that he may be unto thee a God, as he spake unto thee, and as he sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. Neither with you only do I make this covenant and this oath, etc."

Elders, tribes, officers, men, women, children, sojourners, and slaves and their children to the latest posterity, and as a national unit, and all touching every individual are bound by this covenant. Now later after that statement of the case he commences his exhortation:

(1) He warns against the arising of any root or germ of bitterness (Deuteronomy 29:18). How radical the law! It does not wait to condemn the stem, or branches, or flowers, or fruit, but strikes at the root hidden from sight. So our Saviour interprets the law condemning the heart fountain from which flow all the streams of blasphemy, murder, adultery, and other overt actions. And so the wise man: "Keep thy heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." And so the letter to the Hebrews quotes this very passage (Hebrews 12:15) warning them "lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby the many be defiled."

(2) The second point in his exhortation is that he warns them against the vain confidence of security, even though the law be broken. He describes a man or a woman in confidence saying to the heart: "I am all right if I did break the law," that vain confidence of feeling secure with the law broken, and then he goes on to show that nothing under the heavens is so certain as that Jehovah saw that breach of the covenant and will punish it.

(3) He foretells that other nations in future days, seeing the awful desolation of their once beautiful land, shall count it a land accursed of God on account of the sins of Israel. That is just exactly what you would say if you were to go there and look at the country. You would be astonished that such a land was ever described as flowing with milk and honey; you would not be able to understand how such a land ever was so beautiful and fruitful as described. You would see it under a curse.

(4) He warns them that while some things are hidden, inscrutable, the property of God, the revealed things touching both blessing and curse belong to them and to their children. Whatever God reveals, that is worthy of study; whatever he hides, let it alone.

(5) Then he graciously unfolds this special mercy of God, that if when smitten and scattered and oppressed by all other nations they will in far-off lands of exile and dispersion repent and turn to God, he will forgive and restore them. It was this promise of restoration that prompted the notable paragraph in Solomon’s prayer at the dedication of the temple (1 Kings 8:33-40), and encouraged the later prophets, like Zechariah, Ezekiel and Daniel in days of exile, and still later the Apostles, like Paul in his discussion, Romans 11, concerning the restoration of the Jews.

(6) He then assures them that obedience to this law is neither too hard nor too far off, but very nigh to them. Alas, it was both too far off and too hard to be obeyed by unrenewed and unbelieving hearts without faith in Christ. It remained for Paul, a later Jew, and the only other man in all show how by faith alone this salvation was both nigh and easy. (See Romans 10.)

He closes with a most touching invocation to both heaven and earth to bear witness that he that very day set before them these awful, inexorable alternatives: Life and good go together; death and evil are indissoluble.

FIFTH ORATION

This, the last and shortest address, is contained in Deuteronomy 31:1-13. The first part, verses Deuteronomy 31:1-8, touchingly refers to his age, "I am now one hundred and twenty years old," and to the vacation of his office. The great leader can no more go out and come in before them. But they need neither despair nor fear on that account. God’s cause does not die with its great advocates. Moses indeed will be gone, but Jehovah himself will remain their guide and protector. And even a human successor, Joshua, has already been trained to be their captain.

The second part of this last oration directs that every seventh year, the year of release, the great Land Sabbath, a sabbath a year long, the whole people must be assembled, men, women and children, and that very year in which they have to do no work because the land lies idle, is to be devoted to studying and understanding the entire Pentateuch. I am sometimes blamed for devoting so much time to the Pentateuch. Here is my warrant. The year of the Land Sabbath was to be so devoted. It calls for a year. Happy the man who can master it in one year. What a Sunday school is here, men, women and children devoting a year to the study of the Law! Let us here find the original Sunday school idea; that it is not a school for only little children. The Sunday school idea is that men, women, and children shall come together and hear and be made to understand that Word of God. For example of fulfilment, see the remarkable history in Nehemiah 8:1-8. Illustrations may be given of the tremendous power of even a month’s concentration of mind on one study, viz.: the case of a thirty days’ school in geography, arithmetic, writing or mathematics. I would suggest the trial of one summer month devoted to the Pentateuch, the Gospels, Paul’s Letters, Eschatology, the Prophets) the Poetical Books, or the Monarchy.

QUESTIONS

1. What chapters contain the third oration and of what does it consist?

2. Itemize the provisions for a renewal of the covenant after entrance into the Promised Land.

3. Of what does the twenty-eighth chapter consist?

4. Give a summary of the exhortation based on the required renewal of the covenant.

5. What the blessings promised for obedience?

6. What the curses threatened for disobedience?

7. What chapters contain the fourth oration?

8. What its occasion?

9. In what does it consist?

10. Wherein does this retaking of the oath of the covenant in Oration Four, before they cross the Jordan, differ from the full renewal of the covenant required after they cross the Jordan, aa set forth in Oration Three?

11. What blessings recited here?

12. Who were the human parties to the covenant?

13. Give a summary of the exhortation of the Fourth Oration.

14. How does he close this oration?

15. Where do we find the Fifth Oration?

16. In what does it consist?

17. Did they ever, apart from the one case cited in Nehemiah, attempt even to keep any part of this Land Sabbath, or its culmination, the Year of Jubilee?

18. What exact and awful judgment in their later history became the penalty for disregarding the seventh year, or Land Sabbath, and its accompanying year-study of the Law?

19. Cite the scriptures that prove the enforcement of the penalty for not keeping it.