The Great Divide Text: Deuteronomy 11:26-28
Introduction: Reality's Fork in the Road
We live in an age that despises ultimatums. Our culture is allergic to antithesis, to sharp lines, to black and white. It is a culture that wants to have its cake and eat it too, a culture that wants to sin and call it righteousness, a culture that wants to build its house on the sand and pretend that it is rock. Modern man wants to stroll casually down the middle of the road, picking flowers from both sides of the fence, utterly oblivious to the fact that the middle of the road is where you get run over.
Into this mushy, relativistic, and sentimentalist fog, the Word of God cuts like a sword. God does not offer suggestions. He does not present a buffet of spiritual options for our consideration. He sets before us the fundamental, unalterable choice that governs all of existence. He sets before us a blessing and a curse. This is not one option among many. This is the only choice there is. Every decision you make, every thought you think, every word you speak is a step toward one of two mountains: Gerizim, the mountain of blessing, or Ebal, the mountain of cursing.
The modern secularist, and even the squishy evangelical, recoils at this. They want a God who only blesses, a God who is all affirmation and no negation, a divine teddy bear. But a God who cannot curse is a God who cannot truly bless. A God whose "yes" has no corresponding "no" is a God whose "yes" means nothing at all. The very structure of reality, the very fabric of the cosmos, is woven with this great antithesis. Light and darkness, life and death, heaven and hell, obedience and rebellion. You cannot erase one without erasing the other.
Here, on the plains of Moab, as Israel stands poised to enter the Promised Land, Moses brings them to the ultimate fork in the road. This is not just for ancient Israel. This is for us. This is for every man, every family, every church, every nation. God is setting before you today a blessing and a curse. There is no third way. There is no neutral ground. You are either walking in the way of blessing or you are walking in the way of the curse.
The Text
"See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I am commanding you today; and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by walking after other gods which you have not known."
(Deuteronomy 11:26-28 LSB)
The Sovereign Presentation (v. 26)
The declaration begins with a demand for attention.
"See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:" (Deuteronomy 11:26)
The word is "See." Behold. Pay attention. This is not fine print in a contract; this is the headline. God is the one doing the setting. This choice is not something Israel invented, nor is it a product of evolutionary social development. This is a sovereignly administered reality. God defines the terms of the covenant. A covenant, we must remember, is a solemn bond, sovereignly administered, with attendant blessings and curses. God sets the table. He determines the menu. Our only choice is to eat what is set before us.
And what He sets before them is not complicated. It is stark in its simplicity: a blessing and a curse. This is the fundamental nature of our relationship with God. He is the Creator; we are the creatures. He gives the law; we are to obey it. When we align ourselves with His created order, with His revealed will, the result is blessing. It is like swimming with the current. When we set ourselves against His created order, against His revealed will, the result is a curse. It is like trying to swim up a waterfall. The waterfall is not malicious; it is simply operating according to its nature. The curse is not God being arbitrary; it is the collision of a finite, rebellious creature with infinite, holy reality.
Notice the word "today." This is a perpetual present. This choice was not just for that generation on the verge of Canaan. Every day is "today." Every morning when you wake up, God sets before you a blessing and a curse. Every time you open your Bible, every time you gather for worship, every time you are faced with a temptation, the choice is renewed. Will you walk in the way of blessing or the way of the curse? There is no coasting in the Christian life.
The Condition of Blessing (v. 27)
Next, God defines the path of blessing. It is not mysterious or hidden. It is wonderfully straightforward.
"the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I am commanding you today;" (Deuteronomy 11:27 LSB)
The condition for blessing is to "listen." The Hebrew word is shama. It means more than just auditory reception; it means to hear and to obey. It is an active, submissive hearing. It is the hearing of a soldier who hears a command from his officer and immediately acts upon it. It is the opposite of the modern approach, which is to hear God's commands as suggestions, to take them under advisement, and to form a committee to discuss their cultural relevance.
And what are they to listen to? "The commandments of Yahweh your God." Not the commandments of Baal, or Molech, or the spirit of the age. Not the dictates of their own hearts. Not the consensus of the surrounding nations. The standard is objective, external, and revealed. It is the Word of God. Blessing is found in conformity to the Creator's instruction manual. This is not legalism; it is realism. God made the world, He made us, and He knows how things work. His commandments are not arbitrary restrictions designed to ruin our fun. They are the pathways to human flourishing, to joy, to peace, to life. To obey God is to be in harmony with reality itself.
The blessing is conditional, but the covenant is gracious. God does not command them and then stand back with folded arms to see if they can measure up. He commands them as "Yahweh your God." He has already redeemed them from Egypt. He has already entered into a covenant relationship with them. His commands are given in the context of His grace. He is their God, and they are His people. Therefore, they are to live like it.
The Nature of the Curse (v. 28)
Just as the path of blessing is clear, so is the path of the curse. It is a path of deviation and idolatry.
"and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, but turn aside from the way which I am commanding you today, by walking after other gods which you have not known." (Deuteronomy 11:28 LSB)
The curse is triggered by a failure to shama, a failure to hear and obey. But it is more than a passive failure. It is an active rebellion. It is to "turn aside from the way." God has established a path, a road, a way of life. Sin is deviation. It is wandering off the path into the swamp. The curse is the natural consequence of leaving the safety of the road God has paved.
And where does this deviation lead? It always leads to the same place: "walking after other gods." All disobedience is ultimately idolatry. When you disobey God's command about sexuality, it is because you have made your own desires a god. When you disobey His command about money, it is because you have made wealth your god. When you disobey His command about the Sabbath, it is because you have made your work or your leisure a god. You cannot disobey the one true God without simultaneously obeying a false god, even if that false god is simply your own autonomous self.
Moses adds a crucial detail about these other gods: they are gods "which you have not known." Yahweh is the God who has revealed Himself. He spoke to Abraham. He rescued Israel from bondage. He gave them His law. He has a history with them. He is a known quantity. The other gods are strangers. They are fabrications of the fallen human imagination. To turn from Yahweh to these other gods is the height of folly and ingratitude. It is to abandon a faithful, covenant-keeping husband for a worthless lover who promises much and delivers only ruin.
Christ, the End of the Curse
Now, as we read this, we should feel the weight of it. Who among us has always listened? Who has never turned aside from the way? If we are honest, we all have. We have all chased after other gods. We have all earned the curse. By the standard of Deuteronomy 11, we are all standing on Mount Ebal.
This is why the gospel is such glorious news. The choice of blessing or curse is still set before us, but the terms have been gloriously fulfilled in the person and work of Jesus Christ. Jesus is the true Israel who perfectly listened to the commandments of Yahweh His God. He never once turned aside from the way. He walked the path of perfect obedience, the path of blessing, on our behalf.
And then, having earned the blessing, He went to the cross and took upon Himself the curse that we deserved. Paul tells us this plainly: "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree'" (Galatians 3:13). He took Mount Ebal upon Himself so that He could give us Mount Gerizim. He absorbed the full, unmitigated wrath of God against our idolatry and rebellion so that we could receive the full, unmitigated blessing of His perfect obedience.
Therefore, the choice set before us today is no longer, "Will you obey perfectly and be blessed, or disobey and be cursed?" The choice set before us is, "Will you receive Christ?" Will you, by faith, unite yourself to the one who obeyed for you and was cursed for you? To receive Him is to receive the blessing. To reject Him is to remain under the curse.
This does not abolish our need for obedience. Rather, it establishes it on a new foundation. We do not obey in order to be blessed. We obey because, in Christ, we are already blessed. Our obedience is not the anxious striving of a slave trying to earn his master's favor. It is the grateful response of a son walking in the love of his Father. The choice is still before us today. See, God is setting before you a blessing and a curse. The blessing is found in Christ alone. The curse is found everywhere else. Choose Christ. Choose life. Choose the blessing.