After the Sermon: Deuteronomy 26-27

6/8/26 | Will DuVal | DEUTERONOMY: Remembering God's Faithfulness; Responding in Obedience

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Welcome to the After the Sermon podcast. Pastor Will answers follow-up questions and we share your personal applications from the sermon for the benefit of the church. My name is Brian. I'm here with our lead pastor, Will. Hey, hey. We want to remind you with this podcast that sermons are not just a Sunday thing. So as always, we get a just quick recap of the sermon from yesterday.

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Yeah. Yesterday we were in Deuteronomy chapters 26 and 27. Title of the message was responding rightly or rightly responding to the Lord. So that was kind of the unifying theme, tying those two chapters together as we kind of close out this big middle section of the middle of the book of Deuteronomy on the law. So the first four chapters of Deuteronomy remember Moses reminds Israel of their history and how far God's brought them. Middle most of Deuteronomy is because of it, here's how you're supposed to live. Deuterteronomy, second law. So second time recapping the law for them. Hey, remember these 40 years in the wilderness we didn't always do so great remembering God's law. Now we're going into the promised land here in a minute, or you're going in, I'm going to die. And when you do, remember God's law, like really this time.Don't do like your fathers did in the wilderness out here and reject him.

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Remember the law, obey the law, follow the Lord. And here it is all over again. Oh, and by the way, and this is part of what we covered yesterday in chapter 27 is like, oh by the way, you're going to need this recap multiple times, not just the second time of Deuteronomy. But when you go in and cross into the land, you're going to create a big monument of stones, cover it with plaster and write all the words of this law on there so that with that symbolism of the stones of permanence, what's more unchanging than a rock? And so you're going to write God's law on it. It doesn't change. It's not going anywhere. Put it in the Mount Ebaugh middle of the whole promised land so that all the tribes can come and see and be reminded that the center of our communal life as God's people is his word and obedience to it.

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So anyway, but yeah, the sermon is really about responding to God's law and to God himself and to all that God has done and is yet to do, is about to do bringing us into the land. And so that was a lot of it actually is when Go brings you into the land, here's what you do. You thank him for it by worshiping him. You thank him for it by offering your first fruits of the harvest that when you take your first harvest, reap it in the new land, make sure you take the very first of it to the priest and take it to the altar and give it back to the Lord and so on and so forth. So here's how we respond to the Lord for all that he's done for us. So yeah, that was yesterday in a nutshell.

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Wonderful. Thank you. First one is from Matt. He wrote at the beginning of chapter 26, why does it refer to Israel as Asyrian? Asyrian.

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Asyrian. Yes. So that's chapter 26. This is verse five when Moses is saying, okay, when you bring your gift to the altar, here's what you do. Give it to the priest, put it in a basket, give it to the priest. He's going to take you to the altar. And then there's this sort of ritual where Moses, and you shall make response before the Lord, your God, and stand up and publicly, almost like a statement of faith, profession of faith. And it opens with, "A wandering Aramian was my father." Or in Matt's translation, a wandering Syrian from Syria. And no, no, no. Syria, I'm not talking to you. Go away. Sorry, my AI stalker. Always

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Listening.

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So yes, Syrian is where modern day Syria is where Pedan Aram, the old kind of nation state back in Israel's day, Jacob's day, it says back in Genesis it says, and so Jacob was fearful of his brother Esau, and so he fled to Padan Aram. And there he gets hooked up with his mother, Rebecca's old family peeps, Laban, and ultimately ends up again falling in love with Rachel and getting tricked into marrying Leah. And anyway, you can go back through that whole story, but that's all modern day Syria. And so that's why it says, and I guess some translations, a Syrian was my father, but it's emphasizing I think the point is it's emphasizing Jacob's Israel's lostness, his fugitiveness, his outcastness, his neediness, his vulnerability. That's the point is that Moses wants future Israelites, even when they are established in their promised land to not get too fat and happy and comfortable and self-assured and entitled and, "Oh, this land belongs to me and I've got some kind of right to it or whatever." Moses is saying, "No, even your namesake, Israel, your forefathers, the only reason you're in this land is because God brought you here.

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He rescued you. He chose you and not because there's anything great about you or great about your ancestors. No, he was a trickster. Jacob was a shyster. He was a conman and a liar and a cheater. And yet by no virtue of his own, God in his mercy redeemed him, chose him, saved him from his mess of his own making. He's out here without a homeland and God just kind of like Abram, his grandfather, where Abram is a pagan guy living an ura of the Chaldeans, presumably worship and pagan God. Nothing special about him that God just says," I'm going to make a covenant with you. I'm going to choose you. I'm going to make you in a great nation. "And so anyway, yes, that's what's going on there. More info than Matt

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Wanted,

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But give lots of context.

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Yeah. Victoria looks like she has a question as well as an application. She asked," What are some of your trustworthy sources to look up your questions about ancient texts/history of Israel?

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"Well, thanks, Victoria. I know I've mentioned all these sources many times, but in general, just kind of go- to sources for me for all things Bible questions are gotquestions.org specifically with regard to ancient Israelite culture, text, things like that. If you're going to do an in- depth study of a book of the Bible and be in it for many months like we have been with Deuteronomy, for instance, I think it's really helpful to have a really good commentary or multiple one. Certainly if you're preaching it like me, multiple commentaries, I like to have some that are more scholarly, technical, nerdy for very specific kinds of word studies or a question like Matt's about Syria or whatever. But then I like to have preaching commentaries where it's just an example to me of here's how someone actually preached this passage and how they broke it down and how many verses they put together in one sermon and how they outlined it and what the kind of main idea was, things like that.

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But yeah, sounds like with Victoria, if she's looking for more the kind of technical ancient Israelite context and culture and text and manuscripts and things like that, I think a good, but I would say emphasize a good commentary that's written by someone who's biblically faithful, which can be hard to always discern. Although nowadays I'm really grateful for, I don't even know what you would call them. I guess reviewers of common commentaries, folks like, oh my gosh, of course now I'm blocking on his name. What's the Christian blogger? Oh, I'm going to try and look it up.

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  Not sure.

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  I bet he's the first one that comes up when I type in Christian blogger because the guy, his son died a few years ago, this is Tim Challies. Yeah, Tim Challis. Basically, he's reviewed the best commentaries for every book of the Bible and he's nerdy so he favors the more scholarly ones. So check out Tim Challis' favorite commentaries because he's going to make sure that as an evangelical believer that he's only recommending commentaries that are put out by, again, faithful Bible believing scholars folks and TGC does the same gospel coalition, has list of top five, top 10 commentaries for every book of the Bible. But beyond that, you really can get good free stuff a lot of times online these days.

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  One of my favorite go- tos is David Guzik Enduring Word Commentary series. So I think Guzik's done the entire Bible now, which again, not a lot to have. Another of mine is that I am always referencing every sermon and quoting often as Warren Weirsby. Again, his is more of a preaching type commentary so he won't necessarily answer all your questions when it comes to, again, the nerdier technical details, but then with any given book of the Bible, you can just bet that you can know that there's always going to be a lot of folks that really love and trust in God's word and want people to understand it and they want to understand it and they've written to that end. And so yeah, there's no shortage. It's just a matter of finding narrow on your list, which anyway, it would depend on the book of the Bible.

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  I will say for now that I've preached through, I don't know, I think we've been through 13 or 14 books of the Bible, including six or seven of the Old Testament, seven.

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  I've got a favorite different commentary. I don't even think ... There are certain series of commentaries like Kent Hughes preaching the word series or the ESV Reformation study series, but even then they can be hit or miss. And with one scholar who wrote the Deuteronomy one, it might be great and then the Joshua one might not be really great. So anyway, that's a lot of talk for not a lot of answer, but reach out, Victoria, if you're curious about a particular kind of book of the Bible or if you're just wanting, "Hey, I just want not necessarily a book or a certain passage, but just I want to really get inside the mind and the culture of what it would have been like to be an Israelite 3,400 years ago. I'm happy to give recommendations."

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  Then her application, she wrote, "Listen to quote unexpected roads and really let it sink in and then sing it and really mean it.

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  " I guess that is a song, Unexpected Roads, Mosaic, Mosaic MSC. I'm just Googling right now. I mentioned yesterday in the sermon ways that we can practically apply this call to worship that Moses left Israel with, that part of our response, actually our primary number one response to all that God's done for us should be worship and I mentioned- That's

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  Really good.

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  Not that worship is just singing, but that's a part of it and that's over and over again in scripture is this literal call to worship to sing. You got a whole book, the salter of songs. Brian, you know more than me, like just how many great Christian worship songs have been and are being put out now. Yeah, I'll have to give that one a listen. Thanks for the recommendation.

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  Yeah, me too. I haven't heard it. Yeah. Yeah, it'd be good to listen to.

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  Then we got a handful here that are really similar, including one that was submitted online. We could just lump them all in. First one is from Dalton. He wrote, "How did Israel make plaster? Why uncut stones? Will you give some more background/info on the six tribes of blessing versus the six tribes of curses, sort of a refresher on why that happened in the past and how it affects Israel in the future." So I'll just keep going, I guess. All good. Next one's from Catherine who wrote, "Can you discuss the questions that you laid out during the sermon tied to point number six?" And then lastly, we got a question from Jared. Wrote, "Today's sermon on Deuteronomy 27 included an instruction to use "uncut stones. I was curious about the significance or meaning of using uncut stones and building an

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  Altar." Yep. So you're right. I think most of all those questions were kind of ones that I had hand fed y'all in particular as Catherine mentioned in point number six of six when I'm looking at the clock and kind of at my word count already and got to wrap this up, but just some really interesting details to think through with this, again, call to when you go into the promised land, build an altar of stones and plaster it and write all the words of the commandment. So let's try and quickly get through these. So how did they make plaster? According to my research here, it was typically out of lime, limestone. They'd burn limestone or even animal bones in high heat kilns to create a chalky, smooth and easily written on surface. So that's interesting. What else did I read about that? Fresh lime plaster chemically transforms into a marble-like shell when it hardens that resists rain and wind.

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  So there you go. If you need a primitive way to be able to make a plaster limestone is your go- to, or I guess animal bones too, if you got that.

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  So yes. And then another one of the ... And that was just practically speaking, that's a lot easier obviously than chiseling the, gosh, you imagine how much time of work it would take to hand chisel the law onto the stones, into the stones themselves. And then you're dealing with depending on the stones and how brittle they are and stuff, you're trying to chisel and you're halfway through the 10th commandment or whatever and then you accidentally hit the hammer too hard and the whole rock face breaks off and you lose it all. So I think that plaster thing was a much better way to do it that still had certainly the symbolism of the permanence with the rock being the thing underneath it. But even it sounds like that limestone, that plaster itself was pretty durable. So that's cool. I had also asked myself, which laws were they to write?

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  I mean, this is something that just came up in listening to other people preach it is like, did they really write all 613 commandments of the Old Testament or just the top 10, impossible to know. I don't know. I don't even necessarily think it matters or try and speculate or make a guess at that, but it's just one of those kind of interesting to think about again, gosh, just the time that it would take to ... But I do think that one thing that's clear if I go over real quick and read that account for us of Joshua eight when they actually go in and they, not on the day that they've gone in, but later after they've done their thing with the trumpets, God knocks down the walls of Jericho, defeat Jericho, same thing AI, I think it's just I. It's spelled AI. And I always want to say- It's confusing.

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  ... AI, but especially now that with artificial intelligence, I should start calling I instead of AI because then people are thinking about robots. I never know for sure

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  How to pronounce that.

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  Yeah, but maybe there's hope there that they were able to defeat AI even with God's help 3,400 years ago. There you go. So maybe AI won't conquer us these days. Okay. So Joshua eight, starting in verse 30, it says, at that time, Joshua built an altar to the Lord on Mount Ebal just as Moses had commanded the people of Israel and as is written in the book of the law of Moses, an altar of uncut stones upon which no man has wielded in an iron tool. So you've got Joshua eight actually quoting directly from Deuteronomy 27, and they offered on at burnt offerings and sacrificed peace offerings, just like God told him to. And there in the presence of the people of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the law of Moses, which he had written and all Israel sojourner as well as native born stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priest who carried the arc of the covenant of the Lord, half of them in front of Mount Gerizam.

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  Oh, so that's interesting. They were in front of Mount Garazim instead of on it and then half of them in front of Mount Ebal it says, "Just as Moses, the servant had commanded them to bless the people of Israel." That would be another question. Why the mountains? What's that all about? So we could anyway, I forgot to even kind of list that as a question, but I think again, from what I picked up from some other pastors speculating on that, mountains again, obviously the idea of permanence, I think that's where all the language and revelation for instance, and even in the prophets and the Old Testament with God's going to pick up this mountain and cast into the sea and Jesus saying, "If you've got faith like a mustard seed, you can move mountains." What's more unmovable, more permanent, been here forever, going to be here forever than a mountain, and yet at the sound of God's voice, mountains tremble and jump in the sea and that kind of thing.

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  So I think that you got, man, if rocks are permanent, how much more so a giant rock that mountain. So I think that's certainly part of it. I think another part of it is you have this and any of us who love the outdoors and love hiking and what inspires more kind of awe and this sense of just kind of God's bigness other than maybe looking out into outer space and the stars that we can see with our naked eye than the mountains. You stand in front of the mountains and you just feel so small and you're reminded of, "I'm so small. God is so big." And so I think that was a huge part of it is the mountains have this humbling effect like putting us in our place. And then the last one I'll mention is judgment that there's other biblical passages that similar to kind of mountains falling jumping in the ocean kind of thing is like talking in terms of judgment and if you disobey, here's what's going to happen where it's like, and the mountains are going to fall on you so almost like ... And so obviously if you're doing this recitation of the law and this ceremony of saying amen to the curses, like, I want to be, God, please curse me if I don't obey all the words of your law.

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  And you're standing right by this giant mountain where all the other prophets are using that imagery, that language of, and God will cause the mountains to fall on you kind of thing. And I think that was obviously, I think the most common way that they executed the death penalty in the Old Testament was what? It was being stoned, right? And how was someone stoned? It wasn't like tiny little pebbles that you're throwing at somebody. It's like a slap on the wrist. It was like boulders, so typically they go underneath like a cliff and they roll these boulders on top of them. So again, if you're talking about these curses and in the backdrop is this giant mountain looming over you like, oh my gosh, you're feeling that weight, you're seeing the visible literal weight of like being stoned and receiving the due penalty of your sin if you disobey.

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  So anyway, again, probably more than anybody wanted to know, but just hopefully interesting for those taking the time to listen to this after the fact, the after party, that that's all interesting. What else? Where am I in our questions? How'd they make the plaster? Which walls are they right? Why mountains? Oh, let's do Dalton's while we're talking about the mountains. Six tribes. Yeah. Where is it? Thank you. This one right here. Six tribes. Okay. Will you give some more background info on the six tribes of blessing, six tribes of the curses? Interesting. And again, I was going to maybe mention this and then I'm like, I don't want to have time to get into it. But Simeon, Levi, Judah, Isikar, Joseph and Benjamin, they get to stand on Mount Garazim and bless the people. Again, we don't hear the ritual blessings recited in Deuteronomy 27 that the second half only records the curses that were going to be recited.

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  Curse would be the man who makes a carve cast metal image. By the way too, I mean, we should have questions about how exactly, and Brian, you and I will especially appreciate this because when you do ... I think what we've got here is a very rough high level overview, rough draft of a sketch of the kind of order of worship for this ceremony, right? You don't get the details, which would be really interesting because when you're leading a funeral together like you and I do or doing a wedding together, like you need to know transitions and like, okay, then you're saying that, that's my cue to come up and then I start talking. So when he says here that I just as a worship planner think it's interesting to think about, okay, so they're on Mount Ebaugh and according to, again, Deuteronomy, it says they're supposed to be on the mountain.

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  Then Joshua says in front of the mountain, so there's some confusion there. And you always get this with weddings and funerals too. Like you tell people, here's where the groomsmen line up and then they're like a little off and whatever. So you roll with it, but what are they actually doing? What are these tribes actually even doing? Because they stand on one mountain, Gerazim, the other six, Reuben Gad, Asher, Zebulon, Dan naturally stand on the other mountain, eball facing each other and they're there in Israel and one day I hope to go and see it. It'll be really cool if you've gone, I'm sure it's really cool. And so you can see the valley in between it and I think it's Shecham is ... No, is it Shecham that's kind of the town, the ancient town that was between them there in Samaria. Anyway, I believe the woman at the well in John four that talked with Jesus, the Samaritan woman, that this would have been like the location of it, which means it was also the location of Jacob's well where therefore Father Israel drew water.

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  So there's probably lots of rich symbolism with all that that I, again, just skirted completely over that would have had so much meaning for these people actually doing this ceremony. But anyway, what are they actually even saying? Because it says, these tribes stand on this mountain to bless the people. These tribes stand on Ebal for the curses, not to curse the people but for the curses. So what does that mean? Are they actually ... We know they say amen, but it sounds like the Levites are the ones who are doing most of the talking because it says in verse 14, "And the Levites shall declare to all the men of Israel in a loud voice. Curse would be the man." And then it says, "And all the people shall answer and say amen." So maybe their declaration of the curses, their declaration of the blessings was just their amen and the Levites are the ones actually doing all of the recitation of the law.

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  Anyway, going back to it, what I found interesting about the ... I was going to make a joke too about like, how do you think those six tribes that got the curses felt?

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  Wait, do we get a vote in this or like do we get the draw straws to see who gets to stand on ... I want to be on Mount Garazim. I don't want the curses.

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  Definitely.

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  But anyway, they didn't get a vote, did not. But interestingly, so the six that are on Mount Garazim are Leah and Rachel's children minus Reuben and Zebulon. Reuben and Zebulon. So if you remember the story, Jacob wanted to marry Rachel, got tricked by Layman into marrying the ugly sister first, Leah and God, Jacob didn't want to be married to her and so he didn't like her and so God loved her more and because of that, and so God gave her children first and more of them, six of them. Rachel only had two, Joseph and Benjamin, who of course were Jacob's favorite kids because his favorite wife, Rachel. And then you remember all the back and forth too with Rachel getting a maid servant. I can't remember if hers was, was it Zilba and Bilba or something like that? They had kind of those rhyming, silly names.

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  Bilja and Zilha or something. Anyway, the maid servants. And so they had two kids each from their two. So the Gad Asher, Dan Naftali were all the slave children kind of thing. And so how Reuben and Zebulon got demoted to Mount Eball, we're not sure, but it does seem like the six tribes that got to stand on Mount Gerazim were probably again, historically Israel, Jacob's own favorite kind of sons because that's Joseph and Benjamin and Judah.

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  Now Levi is an interesting one because Levi remember was the one in Genesis 32. I think it is when ... Or no, sorry, 34. What's the chapter where 35? 39, final answer. I don't know. No, 40. It's in the 40s somewhere in the 40s coming to me where Jacob gives his final quote unquote blessing to his 12 kids. And you remember Reuben's blessing is not so much of a blessing because you slept with my 49. There you go. Yeah, that it is. I'm like, wait a minute. Genesis got 50 chapters. Yeah, 49. So the very penultimate chapter right before Jacob dies. And Reuben loses kind of his firstborn privileged status because he slept with his stepmom. And so then you go to the next one, Simeon and he and Levi remember had the whole thing where they defended their half sister Dinah's honor and killed all the Shekemites and made Jacob stink in the side of the Shekhamites.

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  And so he got mad and kind of cursed them. So then it's like Judah's the next one. And so anyway, all that to say, maybe there's some redemptive aspect of Simeon and Levi here getting to stand on Mount Garazim and not getting demoted. But anyway, that's an interesting kind of little tidbit about ... I found that interesting that there is some seemingly kind of rhyme and reason order to which tribes stood on which mountain, Jacob's favorite kids. All right, what else do we got? Not sure.

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  Oh, the uncut stones. A lot of people asking about the uncut stones and kind of repeated twice from the standpoint of Moses saying, "You shall wield no iron tool on them." The symbolism there and actually if you go all the way back to Exodus, interestingly, right after the 10 commandments in Exodus chapter 20, the very next commandments that we hear God give Moses on Mount Sinai after the 10 that Moses comes down and he's relaying them to the people as he starts talking about their worship and how they got to build an altar and make sacrifices on it. But part of what he specifies about that altar as well, again, this is even before they're in the promised land is same thing, uncut stones. Why? What's so important? I think the symbolism, the point is that it is not that our worship is not acceptable to God on any kind of basis of our abilities or craftsmanship or excellence.

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  We have no ability to manipulate God, to curry favor with God by virtue of anything period, that we can do.

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  And God wants to make sure that even this ... I can't remember which theologian or pastor, whatever it was that said the holiest things make the most natural, it might've been Tim Keller. The holiest objects, things in any religion make the most natural targets for idolatry. And so I think if you think about this altar being the place where I'm coming and I'm bringing my sacrifice and I am winning, earning atonement for myself, forgiveness for myself, for my sin, I'm accomplishing reconciliation with my God here, right here at this spot, I think there would be a natural inclination to, in a sense, idolize the altar itself to turn, which again, debatably whether you want to make comparisons with altars today and Catholic churches, Eastern Orthodox churches and iconography and imagery and the way that these shrines are built to marry or this or that saint or whatever and you come and you light these candles and you got relics.

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  And anyway, just this idea that ...

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  And so I think God knows that about us and God is saying, "I'm going to make it as difficult as possible for you to ever be tempted to worship this pile of rocks by making sure that it stays just a pile of rocks." You think of all the commandments, the second one and many others related to it, against idolatry, against carving, shaping a God in your own image that you would worship instead of the real true invisible God. And so I think it's all related to that. It's like as soon as you touch that pile of rocks with a hammer or whatever, a chisel, just try and start making it look some other way than it looks, you're getting into really dangerous territory that God wants him to stay away from idolatry and making it in your image and something that you're comfortable with worshiping as opposed to approaching me on my own terms.

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  I'm God, you're not. I made these rocks, you didn't. I made these rocks way before you got here in the beginning of time. They're going to be here long after you're here. And so anyway, could say more about that, but hopefully that's enough.

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  And then let's see. Is that

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  All of them? Or what other

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  Ones did you have? Oh, one other really interesting one I'll just say quickly, okay, two other interests. One quickly is the burnt offerings and the peace offerings. I need to find my ... Where do I get to my downloads? I downloaded a copy of a previous copy of, there we go, of my sermon that I, again, I had to cut. So let me pull this up real quick. My old copy of my sermon that has my notes on that just to remind myself. But the burnt offerings, you'll remember from the very beginning, I think it's chapter one of the book of Leviticus. He right out of the gate and Leviticus Moses is relaying God's commandments related to the burnt offerings the very first type, but the overall symbolism there is total dedication to God. That's what the whole burnt offering, you put the whole animal on the altar, burn the whole thing up, you're not saving it, you're not eating it, you're not ... And the symbolism is total devotion, total dedication, my whole heart, mind, soul, strength, God, all of it you deserve.

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  All of it I give. I bring you. I'm not holding back any for me. So that's that. And then the peace offerings was a few chapters after that in Leviticus, I want to say chapters five, six, seven, somewhere in there, was a symbolized joyful celebration of God's blessings and in particular the blessing of being at peace with God, being reconciled, being in relationship with him. So oftentimes a peace offering would be offered after a sin or guilt offering to aton for sin. And then you have the peace offering of like, not only am I not in bad relationship with God because of my sin, I actually can enjoy good, hell, a positive, loving relationship with God because we are now at peace. And so it's a celebration of that. And so anyway, those are the two offerings that God commanded to be offered on this new altar in the new land.

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  And I think again, the symbolism of that is, especially when you're first coming into this land and you're dedicating it all this ceremony in Joshua eight, it's like, what's more important than that recommitment of our whole lives to you, God, and then just a celebration that you are our God, that we are at peace with you, what we are joyfully worshiping, responding to you. All right, last one, how did they set up? So if you read Deuteronomy 27: two, it says, "On the day that 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 and you shall write on them all the words of this law when you cross over." Then you go to verse four, "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 and there you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones, da, da, da." So my question was that I found interesting and thinking about this is, okay, how should we interpret verse two's phrase on the day that you cross over the Jordan?

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  It seems like most commentators say, "Well, that's just kind of a Hebrew phrase that doesn't mean on that literal day. It just means once you've crossed over, maybe they probably are better at Hebrew than me, but it's certainly not ... I mean, if a literal translation ... I mean, it certainly sounds like Moses is saying like, Hey, the very first thing you do when you cross over on that very day should be to set up these stones and dedicate it to the Lord this land in remembering his law and how you are to live there if you want to stay in the land." So I like that, but then we can't square that with the Mount Ebaugh thing in verse four because Mount Ebaugh is, again, it's in Samaria in the middle of the land, it's further inland Israel had to conquer, fight the battle of Jericho, the battle of I and some others before and the first eight chapters of the book of Joshua before they could make their way in to Mount Ibal.

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  And it was weeks, months later that they actually got there and built that altar. So I find it interesting and I wonder, we don't hear of Israel building a second altar in like Joshua chapter one the day that they crossed over and when ... Actually Joshua one, they didn't cross over. Remember there's a couple chapters where they got to figure out how to cross over and it's kind of like the Red Sea part two where the priests come with the Ark of the Covenant, they stand in the Jordan River at parts and then they walk through. I can't remember which chapter in Joshua that is, but so it takes a couple of chapters to actually get in the land, but then they have a couple chapters of fighting these battles, Jericho. And so anyway, my short kind of question is I do almost kind of wonder, and again, hopefully maybe they understood Moses better and clearer than what I am in trying to interpret what he says here.

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  It almost sounds to me though like Moses was telling them from God that you ought to set up two piles of stones. Okay, now while I say this, I'm realizing they do set up the stones, remember right on the other side of, I just don't know why I didn't come across this. And none of the pastors or commentaries that I read in researching for this mentioned that there might be two stone heaps, two monuments, a verse two one the day they entered and another one a few months later after they made it inland to Mount Ebaugh. But I kind of interpret it that way that that first stone pile is actually the Ebenezer that they erect in, let's see, Joshua Stones,

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  Jordan- They take the stones out of the river and

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  Out of the center. Where was that? 12 memorial stones, Joshua chapter four. So you've got an altar in Joshua chapter, or not an altar. And interestingly, that one's not an altar. I don't think you have that language of altar, just like in verse two, you don't have the language of altar. So I think there's two stone heaps, on chapter four that was the Deuteronomy 27: two, and then another on Mount Ebal later. And that was the one, although interestingly, they were supposed to plaster them both. Verse two specifically says, "Set up large stones and plaster them with plaster and write on them all the words of this law." And then it repeats that language and then goes beyond it to say, and also build an altar with the second one on Mount Ebaugh. And I don't think we ... I got to reread Joshua four now.

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  I don't think you hear anything about plaster and writing the words of the law on that first stone heap in Joshua chapter four, which makes me wonder, is there some symbolism in that?

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  Well, we'll go to Joshua maybe next year and I'll preach on it, but like the fact, excuse me, that they were supposed to right out of the gate dedicate this land that they're going into. This is a land set apart for the Lord and for doing things his way and the fact that they don't have his word on the stones like they were supposed to was maybe foreshadowing of Israel's disobedience in the land. So let's go to Dalton's last question then when he asks refresher on why this happened in the past and how it affects Israel in the future.

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  And I guess I would just say quickly that all of this, again, it foreshadows Israel's disobedience. I can't answer the question without thinking of Paul's words in Galatians chapter three again, which I quoted yesterday in the sermon where Paul picks up and quotes that very last verse of chapter 27 that we ended with and Paul says, "All who rely on works of the law are under a curse for it is written Deuteronomy 27:26. It is written, curse would be everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law and do them." And so I think those rocks, those words and plaster, the ceremony, like I said yesterday, I think that ceremony, it's interesting Go read Joshua chapter eight, the end of it. You don't hear anything about the emotion of what was going on in people's hearts. And I think that's telling because so often we'll hear about like in the book of Ezra or Nehemiah when the people come back out of exile and they rebuild the temple and they rebuild the walls and they redicate it and they were all and Ezra opened the book and read it and they were all cut to the heart and they were repented, they were weeping.

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  Then by the end they're all dancing and celebrating and singing and joyful. So you get a lot of emotion. It's interesting that in Joshua eight, you don't hear any of that emotion. They did this ceremony, but you don't hear ... You think about Exodus 20 and Mount Sinai and Exodus 19 and you hear about the mountains shaking and Moses is up there, they're freaking out. You hear the emotion. It's like Israel told Moses, "We're not going near the mountain. You go up and talk to God, we're peeing our pants over here." So you get a lot of emotion. It's just interesting to me that you don't hear, we don't know exactly what's going on in their heart during this ceremony of the blessing and the curses. I want to read into it and believe how could you hear the whole law being written recited and reminded and curses and curses and amen, amen and think and say it with gusto and just confidence.

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  And I mean, maybe they did though because you do get other stories of that where Israel's like, "Oh yeah, totally we belong to you, God, of course." And like at Mount Sinai and Moses is like, "All right, we'll see." So I think with this rededication ceremony in Joshua eight, I don't know, it'd be interesting obviously to have been there and to see what was the tone of the amens, but I can tell you what the tone would have been for me and I can tell you what it would have been for Paul according to what he says in Galatians three is just like, oh my gosh, the weight and the mountain and the background and the gloom and doom is just like, "I can't live up to this. I know it's good. I know it's how I should live, but I can't and how am I going to be saved from my disobedience to the law and praise God for Jesus." So yeah, I don't want to get to ... I'll just leave it at that, I guess, and say with modern day, how would a modern day Israel Israel life Jew interpret all this?

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  I just think you have to do such mental and theological, spiritual gymnastics to get anywhere positive. Again, the apostle Paul, who is a Pharisee amongst Pharisees, zealous for the law, he knew it better than anybody and Paul's takeaway is, "Guys, don't you see the law brings only condemnation for those of us who don't keep it. " So I think about my neighbors six doors down who we love and these sweet Jewish couple who go to synagogue every Saturday or whatever they do and they're still trying to, and they're still living under the law and I just think, gosh, if they were to really feel the weight of what God's people 3,400 years ago did in a ceremony like this with the curses and saying amen to it. And yeah, God, send me to hell if I don't follow all 613 of these commandments. It's like, it's not good enough.

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  I know your rabbi is creatively reinterpreting the law and we don't even have to do sacrifices anymore because, oh, by the way, we can't because there's no temple and killing animals just for their blood is barbaric these days. But it's like you cannot practice your religion the way that God designed it to be practiced because it was by definition always supposed to be a precursor to Jesus. And so if you're going to reject Jesus, your religion doesn't make sense anymore. It just doesn't. And maybe that sounds very uncharitable

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  Or antisemitic or whatever, but it's not. I mean, like I said, I have Jewish friends I love, but it's just, I think your heart has to break for people who are still living under MS Daws when, like I said yesterday, there's new terms and conditions to God's covenant. There's an update to the software that you desperately need and it's not working running it on. And so you try and again, they've tried to repackage it and reinterpret so much of the Old Testament to make it practiceable. And again, I mean, I don't want to be so dismissive. I mean, there's people way smarter than me that are Jewish that I think you have, frankly, it's like being an atheist, like how smart do you have to be to look out your window and not believe in a God? It's like how smart do you have to be to come up with the gymnastics to justify the way you're practicing your religion that is at odds with the book You are at odds with the Old Testament and the way that God laid it out to be practiced as a precursor purposely to Christ.

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  So I'll just leave it at that.

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  Next one's from an anonymous congregant who wrote, why would God hate Esau before he was born?

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  Yeah. Well, we touched on this with God's choosing of gracious choosing of Jacob in chapter 26, verse five. And I brought it up, opened the can of worms so it's on me because I brought it up with Romans chapter nine. I don't apologize for it because I think it ... I mean, I love Romans chapter nine and also I think it is the point of what God's trying to remind his people of there in verse five with reminding them of Israel and Jacob and his being graciously chosen, not because he was a great guy, but because God is great and because he's loving him and sovereign and merciful toward those on, like Romans nine says, "I'll have mercy on those I have mercy and I'll have justice on those whom I have justice." And there's just no good quick way that I'm going to come up with in the next couple minutes to answer this question of why God chose to love Jacob and choose Jacob and set his favor and blessing on Jacob and hate and not choose Esau.

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  And I think it's also in Romans nine where you get even more kind of language around Esau specifically and about it gets even harder to swallow where it's like Esau cried and sought to repent and find God's favor and God hardened his heart and he just couldn't. He couldn't even find repentance. It's just even worse than like Pharaoh because Paul also talks about, uses Pharaoh as an example in Romans nine of God's predetermining election of those he chooses those he doesn't, or if you're a double predestination might say even more strongly, God chooses both. He just either chooses you for heaven or he chooses you for hell. But anyway, there's no good way to answer other than I think what I said very briefly in the sermon, which I'll just say again, which is not going to satisfy a lot of people and it's going to maybe sound like a cop out or whatever, but it's true and it's the most important thing to be said, which is that most of us because we're human and we think we're special and lovable, most of us get very hung up on that language of God hating Esau and we think, how could you God?

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  Whereas if we saw things rightly through God's eyes and through the lens of holiness and justice and what is truly deserved, we wouldn't be looking at Esau and saying, "God, how could you? " We would be looking at Jacob and saying, "God, how could you? " Because we would see ourselves, Romans three as none have done good, no one's good, we're like snakes, all our ways are evil and gross and we've all fallen short of the glory of God and rightly deserve condemnation and death and judgment and punishment and hell forever. And so again, the better question is, God, how could you love set your love and mercy in favor on Jacob and on me and on Brian and on Paul and on ... And again, I don't want to totally just skip skirt over and minimize and yet God, it seems like you didn't with Esau, you didn't with Pharaoh and with most of people throughout human history, set your love and mercy and forgiveness and blessing on them.

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  I don't understand that either. But again, I'm just a human and I don't understand anything. I don't think this is like Isaiah 55 territory like God's ways are higher than my ways. His mind is higher than mine. I can't understand. But anyway, just to reframe it, I do want to reframe it and say just reemphasize for this congregant and for all of us, the better question really is not why would God hate Esau, but why would God love Jacob? That's the better question because the simple answer to why would God hate Esau is because he's a sinner and you could say, well, the full question was, well, why would God hate Esau before he was born? And again, could say then because he was a sinner. It's original sin. That's Romans five. I mean, we're not just sinners because we sin. We sin because we're sinners.

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  Original sin is that sin is written into our DNA. So Esau was a sinner when he was in the womb. I was a sinner, you were a sinner, Paul, we have all deserved God's wrath since the day we were conceived. And so again, yeah, that's why God would hate a sinner. I just read family devotionals this morning with my kids. Proverbs three, I think it was 23, four ... Where is it?

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  No, 34, 35. "The Lord's curse is on the house of the wicked towards the scorners he is scornful." Is that it? I felt like it was even stronger than that. Basically in my daughter's translation, kids' translation said, "God hates sinners." In Proverbs three, "God hates sinners." And so that's how God hated He saw. That's how God ... Yeah, Psalm five, I know has that language too. God hates sinners, but It ought to really blow our minds that God loves sinful saints. Is that all of them?

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  Lastly, an application from Deb. She wrote, "Caring for least of these and be willing to meet needs as we become

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  Aware." Well, that was one of the six sub points. We're blessed to be a blessing to others. If all of the law can be summed up in those two, love God, love others, then I think that's an apropriate takeaway too from wrapping up this middle section of the law of Deuteronomy. How are we called to respond? Love God. Love others. Bless others. Thanks for listening. Anyone, I'm not sure if anyone made it this far, but

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  We're in. Yeah. Yeah. We hope that this has been edifying for you as you seek to be changed and to love God more as you apply God's word after the sermon. So go apply the sermon and continue to make disciples and Lord willing, we'll catch you right back here next week.