Read Deuteronomy 26:1-27:26 at Bible Gateway.
I have been studying the triennial cycle Torah portions since the beginning of the year.
The Hebrew paragraph divisions:
Deu 26:1-11 {s} Do not withhold the firstfruits that are justly due
Deu 26:12-15 {s} Do not withhold the tithe of the 3rd year that is justly due
Deu 26:16-19 {p} Conclusion: walk in His commandments + YHVH your God; you His people
Deu 27:1-8 {s} Write this law at the entrance to the Land
Deu 27:9-10 {s} Take heed, listen, and observe His commandments
Deu 27:11-14 {s} Bless on Mount Gerizim, curse on Mount Ebal
Deu 27:15 {s} Cursed is he who makes an image as an idol
Deu 27:16 {s} Cursed is he who treats father or mother with contempt
Deu 27:17 {s} Cursed is he who moves a boundary stone
Deu 27:18 {s} Cursed is he who leads the blind off the road
Deu 27:19 {s} Cursed is he who perverts justice due to stranger, fatherless, or widow
Deu 27:20 {s} Cursed is he who lies with father’s wife
Deu 27:21 {s} Cursed is he who lies with an animal
Deu 27:22 {s} Cursed is he who lies with his sister
Deu 27:23 {s} Cursed is he who lies with his mother in law
Deu 27:24 {s} Cursed is he who attacks his neighbor secretly
Deu 27:25 {s} Cursed is he who slays the innocent for a bribe
Deu 27:26 {p} Cursed is he who does not conform to all the words of this law
The strong themes:
Deu 26:1-19 {s+s+p} The obedience of YHVH’s people is His just due
Deu 27:1-26 {sx14+p} The Law, with its blessings and curses, to stand at the entrance to the Land
The chiastic structure:
1a.1) Deu 26:1-15 {s+s} Firstfruits, tithe of the land of milk + honey/ worship + rejoice before LORD;
1a) Deu 26:1-10a, Giving the firstfruits of the land of milk + honey 3x per year;
central axis) Deu 26:10b-11 {s} Give + worship + rejoice before the LORD for every good thing He has given you;
2a) Deu 26:12-15 {s} Giving the tithe of the land of milk + honey every third year;
1a.2) Deu 26:13b-15 {s} Bless your people who have done according to Your commandments;
central axis) Deu 26:16, “This day the LORD your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments; therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul;”
2a.1) Deu 26:17-27:10 {sx3} Whitewashed stones inscribed with the Law upon entering the land of milk + honey/ worship + rejoice before the LORD;
1a.1) Deu 26:17-19 {s} Today the LORD is your God + you will obey Him/ you are His people + He will exalt you;
1a.2) Deu 27:1, Keep all the commandments which I command you today;
central axis) Deu 27:2-8 {s} Whitewashed stones inscribed with the Law upon entering the land of milk + honey/ worship + rejoice before the LORD;
2a.1) Deu 27:9, This day you have become the people of the LORD your God;
2a.2) Deu 27:10 {s} Therefore you shall obey the voice of the LORD your God + observe His commandments;
2a.2) Deu 27:11-26 {sx12+p} Cursed are those who have not done according to Your commandments.
Deu 26:1-15 {s+s} concludes the section of the book explaining the 10th Commandment, You shall not covet. The next paragraph which follows the explanation of the Tenth Commandment, is a strong paragraph:
Deu 26:16-19 {p}
“This day the Lord your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments; therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. Today you have proclaimed the Lord to be your God, and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments, and that you will obey His voice. Also today the Lord has proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He promised you, that you should keep all His commandments, and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to the Lord your God, just as He has spoken.” Deu 26:16-19
Close quote! In other words, verse 19 concludes the speech that has continued unbroken since Deu 5:1.
“This day the Lord your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments …” Which statutes and judgments? The statutes and judgments Moses has been explaining since Deu 5:1 – the Ten Commandments (Deu 5); and the explanation of what it means to keep the Ten Commandments (Deu 6-26).
“Therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul.” My old pastor used to say, whenever you see a “therefore” in Scripture, you have to go back and find out what it is there for. We are to be careful to observe them with all our heart and soul, because it is the Lord our God who commands us to observe them. He is our God. We humans serve and obey whoever or whatever is our god, whether it is money, success, fame, or God, no matter who we say with our mouth is our God.
The last time we had language similar to “all your heart and all your soul” in Deuteronomy, was here:
“If there arises among you a prophet or a dreamer of dreams, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, ‘Let us go after other gods’—which you have not known—‘and let us serve them,’ you shall not listen to the words of that prophet or that dreamer of dreams, for the Lord your God is testing you to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul.” Deu 13:1-3
“Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.” Deu 11:18
‘And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,’ Deu 11:13
“And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,” Deu 10:12
“You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your strength.” Deu 6:5
To love the Lord our God with all our heart and all our soul, is to obey Him. Conversely, the one who obeys Him, loves Him. This is why Jesus said:
“Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven. Many will say to Me in that day, ‘Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in Your name, cast out demons in Your name, and done many wonders in Your name?’ And then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness!’” Mat 7:21-23
Lawlessness, is Torah-lessness. It is God’s Law that Jesus is speaking of, for it is the one who does His Father’s will who enters the kingdom of heaven. Jesus is not preaching a gospel of salvation by works of obedience. He is saying that the one who loves Him, obeys Him. Obedience does not save us. But obedience merely reveals which company we are with, like a uniform. The one who obeys Him is the one who loves Him.
(It is the one who practices lawlessness or Torahlessness who is commanded to depart from Jesus — the one who makes it their practice to flaunt God’s Law. Not the one who slips once in a while.)
And the one who loves Him, obeys Him: love looks like obedience.
“If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Joh 14:15
The paragraph then concludes, saying today the people have proclaimed the Lord to be their God (vs. 17), and today the Lord has proclaimed the people to be His special people (“segullah,” vs. 18). They entered into a covenant with each other, and each side has promised something. In fact the covenant made on Mt Sinai is in the form of a Hebrew marriage covenant, and both the “husband” (YHVH Elohiym) and the “wife” (Israel) have promised something to the other.
Israel has proclaimed the Lord to be their God, and promised as a result of that, that they would keep His commandments and walk in His ways. The Lord has proclaimed Israel to be His people (who are the children of Israel?), and promised as a result of that, that He would set them high above all the other nations, as a set apart (holy) people to the Lord. When we do our part, He does His part.
Nation, would you be restored to the place of blessing you have formerly enjoyed?
If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land. 2 Chr 7:14
Then let the people who have proclaimed the Lord to be their God – not the atheists, unbelievers, and wicked – humble themselves, pray and seek His face, and turn from their wicked ways, in that they have not kept the Ten Commandments that the Lord has commanded His people to keep, and let them begin to walk in them. And He will hear from heaven, He will forgive our sin, and He will heal our land.
the roadmap to national restoration
learning righteousness and wickedness from the ten commandments
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