Deuteronomy 26
There are instructions here about giving the first fruits of your harvest to God, in it the person is to remember the history of Israel.
Every third year the tithe is given to the Levites and for the poor so that they do not starve in the towns along with a promise to God that the tithe has been made.
We are also encouraged to bear in mind to keep the Biblical law - keeping (or trying your best to keep) God's law is commended.
Deuteronomy 27 & 28
The path of Israel across the Jordan river would lead them between 2 mountains, mount Gerazim and Mount Ebal. Israel was to build a symbolic alter at the top of each mountain and from the top of Mount Gerazim the promises of God's blessings would be proclaimed for those who follow the law, while from the top of Mount Ebal curses would be proclaimed for those that do not follow the law
The curses are quite similar to the 10 commandments including thieves, idolators, murderers, those who have sex with animals, those who withhold justice, trip the blind, and assassins.
The blessings are quite mundane really - health, peace, plenty, any attacking army will not succeed and anything that the people put their hand to will be a success.
The curses are just as mundane, but the other way around, illness, death, famine, invaders, any project will go wrong and basically it all gets rather unpleasant,
I wonder why the blessings take 14 verses while the curses take the rest of the 68 verse chapter - I calculate 44 verses of curses
I wonder if it is partly due to the way that we have seen the Israelites behave since the exodus and God really wanted to ram home the point that the curses are really so much worse than the blessings in the hope it would lead to faith?
There are instructions here about giving the first fruits of your harvest to God, in it the person is to remember the history of Israel.
Every third year the tithe is given to the Levites and for the poor so that they do not starve in the towns along with a promise to God that the tithe has been made.
We are also encouraged to bear in mind to keep the Biblical law - keeping (or trying your best to keep) God's law is commended.
Deuteronomy 27 & 28
The path of Israel across the Jordan river would lead them between 2 mountains, mount Gerazim and Mount Ebal. Israel was to build a symbolic alter at the top of each mountain and from the top of Mount Gerazim the promises of God's blessings would be proclaimed for those who follow the law, while from the top of Mount Ebal curses would be proclaimed for those that do not follow the law
The curses are quite similar to the 10 commandments including thieves, idolators, murderers, those who have sex with animals, those who withhold justice, trip the blind, and assassins.
The blessings are quite mundane really - health, peace, plenty, any attacking army will not succeed and anything that the people put their hand to will be a success.
The curses are just as mundane, but the other way around, illness, death, famine, invaders, any project will go wrong and basically it all gets rather unpleasant,
I wonder why the blessings take 14 verses while the curses take the rest of the 68 verse chapter - I calculate 44 verses of curses
I wonder if it is partly due to the way that we have seen the Israelites behave since the exodus and God really wanted to ram home the point that the curses are really so much worse than the blessings in the hope it would lead to faith?
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