40 Minutes In The Old Testament - Episode 178 (Deuteronomy 27:1-28:68)

Episode Date: August 16, 2019

The words of the law are to be written on stones. Why is iron not allowed to be used when building the altar? Why does God love feasts and parties? There are a lot of ways to become accursed. And we see just how accursed and sinful Christ had to become. Chad and Daniel discuss all of this. Have a listen! 1517 Podcast Network HWSS Conference Donate

Welcome to another episode of 40 Minutes in the Old Testament. 40 Minutes in the Old Testament is a 1517 Podcast Network podcast. you can go to 1517.org slash podcast. Check out all the things that we got going on over there at, of course, the new 1517.org. Also, while you're over there, click on that Here We Still Stand. I think there's about 30 tickets left, just 30.

You could be one of the final 30. Do that, get in on it. You can get in on it for $25 less than everyone else who doesn't listen to podcasts because you can enter in the promo code PNET19 in the promo box, get $25 off each and every ticket you buy. Chad, what is going on, man? Going to start a new chapter today.

We're going to talk about mountains. Yeah, we're going to talk about mountains and altars and inscriptions. And once we do that, we're going to dive into a few curses. It's always fun. Love it. And then chapter 28, which I think is the longest chapter in Deuteronomy. It's like, goodness, 68 verses. We're going to get a lot of curses and a few blessings thrown in there as well.

so that's what's that's what's coming up uh i keep saying this and it keeps being true but we're not getting to the end quite as fast as i as i thought we uh thought we might but that's right we are we're not in reverse anyway we are moving forward well you know i i'm glad that i can be the guy potentially that has a reputation of uh of slowing everything down everyone like everyone thinks they're gonna get something done and then i enter the scene i'm like oh you're not going to get that done it's your spiritual gift yeah well we'll see uh we'll see what happens today uh so last time at the end of chapter 26 as i as i mentioned in the last episode we we did finalize the main body of deuteronomy which is chapter 2 through 26 so we finished

that up and uh we're going to start out here with chapter 27 with a uh it's sort of a it's it's a temporary kind of altar and a temporary kind of uh i guess you could call it a thanksgiving sacrifice it's made so what happens is moses and all the elders of israel say that we say the same thing we've heard i don't know how many times in deuteronomy to keep all the commandments which i command you today so a reiteration of this ongoing theme of deuteronomy to hear the word of the lord to keep his commandments to follow his statutes so on and so forth then it says that what what moses wants him to do of course moses isn't going to be there this is going to be what joshua actually has done and it's recorded for us in joshua chapter 8 so when you when you cross the

jordan moses says i want you to set up large stones and i want you to coat them with lime or with a sort of plaster and after you've done that so you get these big stones you you coat them you make it as smoothly outside as you can and then i want you on these stones to write all the words of this law and that is going to be kind of a uh a ceremony of thanksgiving and remembrance upon entering into the land of israel so we it's not completely certain like how much are supposed to be written on these on these particular stones i mean you could it could have been like he wants him to write all the Deuteronomy, which is a lot, I know, but it could also be that he wants him to write maybe some section Deuteronomy. He really doesn't say it, just says all the words of this

law. Now, this is not my area of expertise, but in the expert that I consulted on this, a Jewish commentator, he says that, for instance, if you were to take the two stones, which are called steles s-t-e-l-e-s the two steles that the that the code of Hammurabi was written on which is an ancient law code big stones uh and these law codes are written on these stones he says if you had two stones that size actually it would they would be big enough to contain the whole text of Deuteronomy so which is you know it's pretty impressive so maybe that actually is what was intended they were supposed to get there find these large stones coat them with with lime and then to write on them all the words of Deuteronomy or most of the words of Deuteronomy or certain

sections of it. But that's beside the point. The point is to get these stones and to write on them the law. Now, of course, when we hear that, we cannot but think of what happened at the foot of Mount Sinai, right? Or at the peak of Mount Sinai, actually, where the words of the Torah, the 10 words, were inscribed on the two tablets of stone. So this is a little bit different, but it also echoes that and so this is kind of like you could sort of think of it as mount sinai all over again except this time they're going to be on mount evil not mount sinai and they're not going to be outside the promised land they're going to be in the promised land and they're not going to be looking forward to what god is going to do for them as they journey but they're

actually in many ways looking back to what god has already accomplished for them as they've journeyed from egypt to to the promised land and i might add this by the way just of it i find it of interest anyway they as archaeologists have found at least at least two locations uh dating back uh into even into this time period where stones were covered with lime and there were uh either either drawings or text that were inscribed on these stones covered in lime and they've survived to this day we actually talked about one of these when we when we discussed balaam because there's a place called dear allah d-e-i-r-a-l-l-a-h where archaeologists have uncovered this long text that mentions uh balaam as as a prophet and some of the things

that he did. So if you go back to the episode where we talked about Balaam, we discussed it a little bit more. But in that archaeological find, that's what they had. They had stones that were covered in lime, and they were actually painted on, and it's survived to this day. Now, that was covered up. These stones, presumably, that are going to be at Mount Ebal are out in the open, and so eventually rain is going to wear this out. But the point is, get the stones cut, covering with lime, write the words of the law on there as sort of a reaffirmation of what God did with the two tablets of stone at Mount Sinai. And not only that, but he says that you are to build an altar. This is like Mount Sinai all over again. So we have stones with God's words on them.

Then he says, I want you to build an altar to the Lord of stones. And he says, you should not wield an iron tool on them. And this is basically lifted from Exodus 20, verse 25. So the context of the giving of 10 commandments. And we had the same commandment there. So build an altar of earth and put stones around it, but you can't use stones that are cut by iron. They're supposed to be uncut stones. So that, by the way, is something we hear more than once in the Old Testament. We heard in Exodus 20, we hear it here in Deuteronomy 27, when the temple is built under the supervision of Solomon, it says that no tool was heard in the temple precincts. Instead, they took care of all of the stonework at the quarry, and then they hauled the stone in and

set it up there. So those iron tools weren't heard in the vicinity of the temple, just like iron tools were not supposed to be used in the cutting of these stones now i know you're all wondering why right why no iron tools and i wish i had the answer for you but i'm sure dan does you got to you get the resolution to the mystery there as to why no iron tools were to be used i have no idea oh man it's counting on you i do have a quote here i actually like this quote sometimes i like quotes from the uh from the early rabbis sometimes not but you know sometimes they're actually actually quite insightful let me see if i can find it here okay so this is from what's called the mishnah which was the the writing down of the let's usually call the oral

law of the other rabbis and this would have been written down about 200 a.d but uh circulated orally for for a long time so when they're talking about this here's what they say quote iron was created to shorten man's days through its use in weapons while the altar was created to lengthens man's days by means of sacrifice what shortens may not rightly be lifted up against what lengthens i don't know i kind of like that hey it sounds sounds as good as anything sounds as good as anything yeah i mean it kind of makes sense when you think about iron and its use not only with with uh with tools but with with weapons well actually this is one of these cases where god doesn't say why he just says this is the way it's uh well there is there

is references in uh especially in the old testament to iron and when there is references to it this happens in the psalms and uh in some other places it is referenced as a tool for war as far as i can remember iron is not typically spoken of in positive terms right yeah and there's no iron found uh in uh anywhere in the temple either that's i think that's that's significant you have gold you have gradations of the uh the value of of metals so gold is closest to the holy of holies and then you have silver as you move farther out and then you have copper or bronze uh in the in the kind of the precincts of the temple like the altar but you don't have any aren't so uh and that could be because yeah it's connected with uh bloodshed with warfare with

basically uh with negativity and so uh that's the reason it's not used to cut these stones that are made for the altar but whatever the reason is that's what they are to do and they're to offer sacrifices and eat and rejoice before the lord their god so it's this is uh as i mentioned this is kind of like exodus 20 again israel uh is not now at sinai but they're at mount ebel and they're no longer looking forward but now they're looking back so this is sort of a way in which they are ritually enacting once more commemorating what happened at mount uh at mount sinai so i i was when i was reading through this i was really i was reminded of something uh uh i heard i heard recently so that what the israelites are to uh to eat and to rejoice they've been rescued from

egypt uh they've been taken through the wilderness and here they are and so they're to have a feast they're to to rejoice in this feast before before the lord and what i was reminded of is this uh it's off it's an off repeated summation of jewish history it's it's real short this is like sums up almost the recurring themes of jewish history they tried to kill us we survived let's eat it kind of fits you know egyptians tried to kill us we survived so let's eat uh i mean you have the same thing uh later in esther when uh you have you know the uh through the uh uh through the evil intentions of hayman he tries to kill the jews they survive and so they have a celebration so it's it's kind of this idea that uh they're always under threat danger in the old testament

especially and god pulls them through and so the way that they rejoice is by by having having a feast and that's what they do here at uh at mount evil i'll tell you this man there is something like deeply theologically correct about uh feasts and parties and this kind of thing like this is there is no denying that all throughout scripture including in the new heavens and new earth that But God seems to be into massive feast-like celebrations. I mean, they're everywhere. A wedding? Well, that's going to be just crazy.

It's like they're constantly looking for a reason to have a massive party. And it's not just a massive party with, like, tons of flowing wine, which it is that. But it's a massive party with an insane amount of food. and so this sort of like eating and drinking together is something that uh god thinks is not just kind of cool but is sort of deeply symbolic and important it's actually one of the reasons why and this is gonna sound weird but like at something like here we still stand the the one of the central things that we do is this is tons of eating together and that's not just because everyone likes to eat which they do and like the food's great which it is but it's

It's actually because we think there's something theologically important going on, which is that there's a lot of fellowship around the sort of goodness of the things that God has given us. And that's why we do it that way. It's different than like everyone just wanders off and goes and gets their own food. There's something about having a big party together that God is actually very pleased with, and Israel does it all the time. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, there's a few things more biblical than rejoicing in the midst of a feast.

Yeah. Oh, yeah. You have it over and over and over again. I mean, when you look at the biblical narrative, basically the first story about humanity revolves around food, right? What you are to eat and what you're not to eat. And that just multiplied time and time again throughout Scripture until you get to the end of Revelation,

and now you have the marriage feast of the Lamb in his kingdom. So that theme of feasting and rejoicing, of people getting together the people of god are getting together to to enjoy food and drink together ties the whole story together from genesis to revelation yeah i mean i'll tell you this i love the lord's supper but i assure you the marriage supper of the lamb is not going to be like a little bread like wafer and a little sip of wine that's not how that's going down no it's gonna be like the wedding in cana right where even the water's turned into wine it talks about how uh you know there's gonna be wine on the leaves and and fat and uh a lot of

good stuff and i'm pretty sure there's gonna be guinness there too well maybe so at least a keg keg so i can enjoy it on occasion all right so uh that's what happens at mount ebel so i mean there's gonna be more to the story of mount ebel in just a minute but uh this is the first thing that they're supposed to do and as i said they do this uh we have in joshua chapter 8 verses 30 through 32, this is precisely what they do. All right, then it goes on, and verse 9 and 10, Moses and the Levitical priest say, be silent and listen. He says, this day you will become a people for the Lord your God. The Hebrew there is a better translation, I think, more literal translation, and a more theologically accurate translation would be, this day you were caused

to become a people for the lord your god so this is uh in hebrew there's a there's a verbal aspect that's called a hyphil which is uh uh usually causative so if verbs are in the hyphil that's usually like god caused or someone caused something to happen there's a causative nature to whatever the action is and that's the form here so this day you were caused to become so god caused you to become a people for himself, for the Lord your God. You shall therefore obey the Lord your God and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today. All right. Now, what's going to happen with these two mountains? That's where the mountains come up. So Moses also charges the people, this verse 11, says, when you cross the Jordan, you shall stand on a couple of different

mountains. So you got Mount Gerizim and you got Mount Ebal. Mount Ebal, we've already encountered the first part of the chapter mount gerizim we're now hearing about this was actually alluded to earlier in the book of deuteronomy i think it's chapter 11 but here we have it spelled out more more clearly as to what's what's supposed to happen so you're going to have basically half of israel at mount gerizim and about half of israel at mount evil and it lists out list out the various tribes there and it says that the ones on mount gerizim are there to bless the people and the tribes that are on mount evil are there to for it says for the curse so that kind of sets up a scenario that's going to be going to be played out here and we'll actually again see this played

out in the book of joshua there's a little bit of confusion as to what to do with verses 14 through 26 because here's the reason for the confusion verses 14 through 26 list 12 curses and that's the end of the chapter and then chapter 28 picks up with blessings and curses so it's almost like this seems sort of out of place uh i don't exactly know how to to work it in here uh commentators vary on their on their viewpoints as to exactly how this fits in there i don't think it's that big a deal but just wanted to point that out because it makes it makes it seem as the chapter is going along okay you got half the tribes here is him for the blessing half the tribes on mount evil for for the curse and then the rest of the chapter is all about curse cursed be he who does

this cursed be he who does that and then it picks up in 28 with blessings and curses so however you want to work that out just wanted to point out that uh the kind of odd structure of the chapter but here's what happens verses 14 through 26 list out uh 12 different instances in which a person is pronounced cursed if he does such and such a thing. Now, we've encountered every single one, I think, every single one of these laws before. It starts out with the most obvious, the one that we've heard the most about, and really the one that undergirds all the other curses, and that is, cursed is the man who makes an idol or a molten image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret, and all the people shall answer and say, Amen.

But there does seem to be a common thread through these 12 curses. And that is a lot of these things are not like out in the open. They're like, like, in fact, it explicitly says in verse 15, he's got an idol in secret. And then verse 24, it explicitly says, cursed is he who strikes his neighbor in secret. So a lot of these things that are spelled out in 14 through 26 are, they wouldn't be like out in the open. Maybe something that's easily covered up, or maybe that happens behind the walls of one's house. So maybe that's what pulls all of these together. So just to run through these really quickly, you've got cursed is basically the idol makers or idol worshipers.

Verse 16, the one who dishonors his parents. Verse 17, the one who moves his neighbor's boundary mark. We talked about that. Verse 18. I know this isn't funny, but I can't help but laugh. Cursed is he who misleads a blind person on the road. I mean, that's just, that's bad. I mean, that's pretty rough.

Yeah, that's pretty rough. There's a, let's see if I have it there. Yeah, Leviticus 19 talks about this too, about those who like set up something to trip a blind person. Yeah, it's just, that's pretty low down stuff there. But I often refer to these verses as like an indication of just how bad people can be you know what i mean like when you have to make a law saying hey don't trip blind people or mislead blind people well that that kind of lowers your anthropology right

i mean it gives you pretty pretty uh pretty honest uh but at the same time pretty negative view of the the potential of humanity for doing bad things yeah that's uh yeah it's it it is a testament to the depravity of man for sure if you have to make a law that says if a blind guy comes up to you and says which direction is the well and you're like oh it's back that way and it's not this is this is pretty bad that's it's pretty bad yeah so that's one of these i mean that's actually made explicit here um 19 cursed is the one who distorts justice due to an alien orphan widow uh then we have some sexual sins the one who lies with his father's wife we talked about that i think a couple of episodes ago or the one we have a prohibition of bestiality somebody lies

with an animal uh there are there actually this is not unique to israel's law codes there were i believe hittite law codes which uh also prohibited carnal relations with with an animal but what's really what's really really weird about the hittite law codes in this regard it actually spells out exactly which animals this is not supposed to happen with so it's like some weird some weird kind of stuff going on there with the with the hittite with the hittite laws so with the jews it's just period straight across the board yeah right yeah just this is wrong totally wrong any animal uh then we have more sexual sins someone delights with the sister uh who whether the sister is uh is a full sister or a half sister so whether she's the daughter of

his father or his mother or cursed as he lies with his with his mother-in-law so those are the sexual sins that are talked about a lot of incest prohibitions bestiality prohibitions then uh cursed as he strikes his neighbor in secret cursed as he accepts a bride a bribe and then verse 26 which is the last verse just kind of is a more general prohibition cursed is he who does not conform confirm the words of this law by doing them and all the people said amen by the way that that particular verse that that last verse 26 is what paul i believe that's what that qual that's what paul quotes in galatians 3 right galatians 3 when he talks about cursed is he who does not do everything that's written in the book of the law yeah so yeah so

this is this is paul reading the torah reading deuteronomy specifically in this context keep in mind this is the 12th of these 12 curses and of course paul knew that i mean he he knew the torah he knew he knew that which he was quoting he knew the context and paul quotes that in galatians to talk about the person who doesn't do the law, who's under the law, who doesn't keep the law, then if he doesn't, then he's cursed. So this is that from which Paul draws when he wants to talk about what it's like to live outside of Christ and to attempt to live under the law. All you're doing is inviting a curse upon yourself because you don't do that which is written in the law. Yeah, this is also how you know that Paul is not making a distinction between the Ten Commandments and the rest of the law, because he pulls a quote from this part of the law.

He's obviously including Ten Commandments because he does this in multiple places, but he's talking about the whole thing, which is, of course, consistent when he's like, look, you want to mess around with the law? Then you got to do all of it. yeah it's in the same context uh galatians 3 by the way uh that he talks about how christ became a curse for us right so if if we live under the curse if we're if by not keeping the law we live under the curse then christ became a a curse for us and i gotta i gotta read this uh this is from luther's commentary on galatians 3 this is some uh this is some fantastic stuff so if you if you happen to have luther's works this is volume 26 page 27 he's talking about how christ became a curse for us and uh he says all the prophets saw this that christ was to become the greatest thief christ was become the greatest thief murderer

adulterer robber desecrator blasphemer etc there has ever been anywhere in the world he's not acting in his own person now he now he is not the son of god born of the virgin he's a sinner who has and bears the sins of paul the former blasphemer persecutor and assaulter a peter who denied christ of david who was an adulterer and a murderer and who caused the gentiles to blaspheme the name of the lord in short christ has and bears all the sins of all man and his body, not in the sense that he committed them, but in the sense that he took these sins committed by us upon his own body in order to make satisfaction for them with his own blood. And then one more, I got to read one more line. Whatever sins I, you, and all of us have

committed or may commit in the future, they are as much Christ's own as if he himself had committed them. In short, our sin must be Christ's own sin, or we shall perish eternally. Some pretty good stuff. Yeah, this is, Luther is great on the, on the difference between, you know, sort of having your, you know, the Bible does speak this way, like our, you know, transgressions were laid on him. But Luther is great on Christ becoming sin, because it's one thing to say, like, okay, I was going to like take this debt but this is not exactly how paul talks about it paul talks about becoming and luther is great on that where they are identified with him like he's he's the sinner and i mean i know we've said this before you have to hold kind of two things in tension where of

course you and i are sinners in a sense jesus is has become the only sinner that there is well yeah that's uh that is that's that's what the gospel is there is no condemnation for those were in christ jesus and the only way that's true is if he became our condemnation for us so that in him we might be justified forgiven cleansed sanctified all of these works of the spirit in us so that we're made the way god desires us to be yeah like so of course chad you're a sinner but that revisionist history of the gospel says well actually there's this one center yeah yeah that's right yeah everything becomes one and jesus like is one baptism so yeah i mean you and i both been baptized people listening been baptized but there's not a lot of

baptisms there's just one baptism right it's christ baptism when we are baptized into him just like there's not a lot of crucifixions there's just one crucifixion and we are incorporated into that so that's the reason i like biblical math everything goes down to one yeah i mean i can deal with that paul talks about this for death itself i mean everybody dies but really just just christ dies because we're all going to live again so we're all this is we're all baptized into his death i'm going to die but really just christ dies if we thought in old testament terms this wouldn't be quite maybe as difficult for for people to grasp because if you think back well in adam all humanity was present it's like every all humanity was was

Christ was already present, as it were, in this one man. That's the reason Paul in Romans 5 can talk about this Adam-Christ typology or this correlation between the two. So Christ is the second Adam, is the one who establishes a new humanity by recreating us in himself so that he who made man in his image becomes that image so that in him we might be re-imaged to reflect who he is and in that way uh become just the way that god desires us to be as his new creation yeah all right so that's uh the end of chapter 27 now chapter 28 chapter 8 is is nothing but two sections one rather short one rather long and there's there's direct parallels between some of the verses in these sections.

When I say parallels, I don't mean they say the same thing. They're parallel in the sense that they share the same language, except one is all about blessing and one is all about cursing. That's what this entire chapter is about. So it starts out this way. Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments, which I command you today. So if you'll do this, then here's what's going to happen.

uh by the way add a little bit of a little bit of hebrew insight here i don't know how various translations do this mine has if you will diligently obey the lord your god uh hang on a second let me find the hebrew i just was looking at it earlier it's basically it's what it's one of these cases whether what they'll do is they'll double the verb so literally be something like if you will hearingly hear the voice of the Lord your God. So anytime that the Hebrew wants to use

a superlative, a lot of times that's what they'll do. They'll double the verb up. So here, Shema is used twice here. So it's really not diligently obey. It's like if you'll really, really hear the voice of the Lord your God. So if

you will hearingly hear the voice and then be careful to do all commandments then here's what's going to happen and then we begin with the blessings so verse 2 through 14 are a description a beautiful and just magnificent description of all the good things just unbelievably good things that israel would receive if they will do that if they will hearingly hear the voice to the lord be careful to do everything that that he commands that it says all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you so let me just kind of give you a feel for some of these you're going to be blessed in the city and in the country your offspring are

going to be blessed and not just like your children but also the offspring of your livestock you're going to be blessed in your basket and your kneading bowls so your you know your food stuffs blessed when you come in and when you go out so there's a lot of kind of material and family blessings that are talked about here but not only that it says but if your enemies come and they attack you and you respond by by attacking them they're going to flee like seven different ways before you you're going to you're like you're going to barely step out with your sword in your hand they're going to run away with the tail between their legs not only that but verse eight there's going to be blessings in your barns and everything you put your hand to god is going to

bless you. And then it goes on, talks about how God's going to open up the storehouses of heaven to give you rain. So in the Israelite mind, heaven was pictured as full of these barns or storehouses. And anytime that God gave rain or snow or anything like that, he just like opens the barn door and out it goes. So he's going to open up the storehouses of the heavens to give you all these things. And then we have this imagery of the Lord will make you the head and not the tail so you're going to be like above and not beneath it's all these good things are going to are going to happen to you and they're spelled out there in basically 13 verses verses 2 through 14 so if we could stop there it'd be great right i mean all these blessings if you

if you will do this i mean all you gotta do is do all that stuff yeah i mean it's simple right that's all you gotta do i mean and and not just do it like you have to faithfully do it yeah diligent right do it you really gotta do it all the time without fail do it that's right and all these good things will happen to you that's all you gotta do if you do this then that will that will happen and so we we have this is you know this is this is actually not uncommon at all in a lot of kind of ancient uh near eastern treaty formulas there'll be like a list of good things that are going to happen to you if you're if you keep the covenant say there's a a real powerful king and then a not so powerful king like a big nation and a little nation sometimes they'll make

a treaty and the big powerful king of the big powerful country will say you know what to keep the treaty i'm gonna do a lot of good things for you here's what i'll do you know if you basically follow my will, then I'll do all these good things for you. But if you don't, but if you don't, then let me tell you what's going to happen. Now we've got, uh, what? 13 verses of blessings promised to those who actually keep the law. But, oh man, we started verse 15 with, with curses. Now, if you, if you have trouble sleeping at night, or if you've been have a lot of bad dreams i wouldn't recommend reading uh the rest of the chapter from deuteronomy 28 because some pretty bad stuff i mean this is this is a scary this is a scary chapter

it's like uh yeah like your your worst nightmare come true is verses 15 and following in deuteronomy 28 i remember walking into a revival and a guy was preaching on this text and i was like how is just gonna work and and uh and i thought maybe what he was doing was like oh man he's just gonna go like law like i mean just cranked up but then he's gonna bring it in yeah he did not bring it in i mean it was more just like so watch it wow and uh it was fairly horrifying yeah sounds horrifying because this is this is some horrifying stuff i mean it starts out by basically reversing the blessings, right? So the, let's see, verse three said, blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the country. Verse 16 says, cursed shall you be in the city and cursed

shall be you be in the country. And then it goes on to reverse the first, I guess, four blessings into four curses. And it's everything. I mean, it's like, there's no aspect of your personal life or your family life, or your national life, or your crops, or your offspring, or your freedom, or even your conscience and your heart, your body. There's absolutely no aspect of life that's left out of this. I mean, even to talk about like the boils and the tumors and the scab and the itch. That's verse 27. All the stuff of Egypt is going to come upon you. In fact, Egypt comes up, I think three or four times in this chapter, verse 68, verse 60, and verse 27.

So it's kind of like, you know, I brought you out of Egypt. I did a lot of bad things to Egypt. I gave them the 10 plagues, but I brought you out of there. Now, if you want to forsake me and go serve other gods, what I'm going to do is I'm going to take all that bad stuff I did to Egypt and I'm going to compound it a hundredfold. And I'm going to do it to you. i mean some of this stuff is horrifically bad oh yeah like i mean i mean like i'm talking about

you guys i mean if you read the thing i mean i'm talking about like kidnapping and rape and like all of the things like it's horrible uh you know building houses that get taken away from you uh your family gets blown apart it's it's rough yeah it's it's very rough i mean yeah some of we have records for instance verse 53 hope no one is uh is like listening to the podcast while they're while they're having lunch or something because it talks about how like the city will be besieged and things will get so bad starvation will be so horrible that people will actually eat their own children and we actually have instances of this recorded in the old testament go read it read lamentations yeah lamentations talks about it yeah just uh anyway i think

everybody gets a point uh and notice yeah there's there's 13 verses of blessings but there's 53 verses of curses from 15 all the way to the end of the chapter to 68 uh that they're gonna happen here so this is uh the full accusation of the law that's like dropping like a ton of bricks on israel well this is this is why you don't want to live under the law because there's no there's no wiggle room like you either do this stuff and it's great or you don't do this stuff and it's absolutely horrible and that's and that's how this works if only chad there was someone who was perfect whom we could be blessed in if only if only like when god said to abraham in your seed all nations will be blessed if there was only a way to get in that seed

yeah well oh wait turns out there is turns out there is yeah and this is by being baptized into that seed which of course is christ uh i mean this is that you do sort of have like this here's the blessings here's the curses and you know that you're completely screwed when you read this like because you know you haven't done the things there's no there's no way for you to get those blessings there's no way it's going to happen except for those blessings all belong to christ and you do get all of them like this they're all yours if you are in him that's a good way that's a good way to wrap it up i mean so if you're if you redo it on my 28 and uh it it scares the hell out of you well then that's what the law does but thank god that uh in christ like we said

earlier he became all these curses in order that in him we might receive all the blessings and even more than are talked about here in the first part of the chapter yeah at the end of the day yes obedience to the law as god puts it forward has blessings attached to it but you're you don't obey the law there is no way for you to be blessed by god apart from being in christ there's there's no other way and he knows this is why he comes oh amen amen that is it guys if you like the podcast if it's been helpful we can use your support

you can go to 1517 go to the donate page and you can become a contributor thank you so much to those of you who do that

you make all this stuff possible Chad I will see you next week alright man