Covenant Topography: Where Blessing and Cursing Are Set Text: Deuteronomy 11:29-32
Introduction: The Geography of Obedience
We live in an age that despises boundaries. Our culture is committed to the grand project of erasing every line that God ever drew. They want to erase the line between male and female, between good and evil, between the sacred and the profane, and ultimately, between the creature and the Creator. They want a world without cliffs, a world without consequences, a world where every man does what is right in his own eyes and receives a participation trophy for it. But this is not the world God made, nor is it the world He governs.
The Christian faith is inescapably geographical. It is a faith of places, of boundaries, of historical events that happened on particular patches of dirt. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, on a specific plot of land, under a particular Roman governor. He was crucified outside a certain city gate. And here, in Deuteronomy, as Israel stands on the cusp of the Promised Land, God commands them to enact a great, topographical object lesson. He is going to teach them, and us, that the covenant has a geography. Obedience and disobedience have consequences that are as real as mountains, as solid as stone.
God does not deal in abstractions. His covenant is not a set of ethereal principles floating in the air. It is a binding, legal, and historical relationship that works itself out in the dust and sweat of real life. And so, before they even cross the Jordan, God instructs them to prepare for a solemn ceremony. They are to publicly declare and memorialize the two paths that lie before them, and before all mankind: the path of blessing and the path of cursing. This is not a private matter of the heart. It is to be a national, public, liturgical act. They are to shout the terms of the covenant across a valley, from two mountains. One mountain for blessing, another for cursing. God wants to make the choice facing them as plain as two mountains in the center of their new home.
This is the nature of God's covenantal dealings. He sets before us life and death, blessing and cursing, and He commands us to choose life. But in our fallen state, we are constitutionally incapable of choosing rightly. We are drawn to the curse as moths to a flame. This ceremony, then, is not just a lesson in ethics; it is a profound prophecy of Israel's future failure and the necessity of a better covenant, a better Mediator who would stand in the valley between the two mountains and absorb the curse for His people.
The Text
"And it will be, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. Are they not across the Jordan, west of the way toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God is giving you, and you shall possess it and live in it, and you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am setting before you today."
(Deuteronomy 11:29-32 LSB)
Two Mountains, Two Ways (v. 29)
Moses begins by tying this command directly to their successful entry into the land.
"And it will be, when Yahweh your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal." (Deuteronomy 11:29)
Notice the certainty: "when Yahweh your God brings you in." Their entrance is not contingent on their own strength or military prowess. It is a gift of God. He is the one who brings them in. But their conduct within that land, their ability to remain and enjoy its fruits, is entirely contingent on their covenant faithfulness. The gift of the land is by grace; the keeping of the land is by obedience.
Once they are in, they are to perform a great liturgical act. They are to "set" the blessing and the curse on two specific mountains. The word for "set" here means to give, to place, to put. This is a formal, public declaration. Six tribes would stand on Mount Gerizim to pronounce the blessings that come from obedience, and six tribes would stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce the curses that come from disobedience (Deut. 27:12-13). This is a national "amen" to the terms of the covenant. They are accepting the terms and conditions of living in God's land.
Why mountains? Mountains in Scripture are places of divine revelation and governmental authority. The law was given on a mountain. The Temple would be built on a mountain. Jesus preached His great sermon on a mountain. Mountains are high, visible, and permanent. God is embedding the reality of His covenant into the very landscape. Every time an Israelite would look at those two peaks, he would be reminded: there is a way of blessing, and there is a way of cursing. There is no third way, no middle ground, no neutral territory in the kingdom of God.
Mount Gerizim, the mountain of blessing, is, by tradition, the more fertile and verdant of the two. Mount Ebal, the mountain of cursing, is said to be more barren and rocky. God makes the lesson obvious. Obedience leads to life, fruitfulness, and flourishing. Disobedience leads to barrenness, judgment, and death. The land itself will preach to them.
A Specific Place for a Specific People (v. 30)
Moses then gives them the precise location, lest they think this is some vague, spiritual metaphor.
"Are they not across the Jordan, west of the way toward the sunset, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh?" (Deuteronomy 11:30 LSB)
This is not "once upon a time" in a "galaxy far, far away." This is real history, real geography. Moses pins it down. It is west of the Jordan, in the heart of the land they are about to conquer. It is near the oaks of Moreh. Where have we heard of that place before? It was the very first place Abraham stopped when he entered the land, and it was there that God first appeared to him and promised, "To your offspring I will give this land" (Genesis 12:6-7).
This is profoundly significant. The place where the covenant promises were first given to Abraham is now the place where the covenant stipulations are to be formally accepted by his descendants. The promise and the demand are joined together in the same location. Grace and law are not at odds; they are two sides of the same covenantal coin. The promise to Abraham is the foundation for the demands placed on Israel. Because God graciously promised them the land, they are now obligated to live according to His law in the land.
This also serves as a direct confrontation to the Canaanites. Israel is to march into the heart of their territory, near a significant pagan site (oaks were often used for idolatrous worship), and declare that Yahweh, not Baal, is the God who sets the terms for life in this land. This is a declaration of spiritual warfare. They are planting the flag of God's kingdom in the central highlands of the enemy's territory.
Possession and Obedience (v. 31-32)
The final verses summarize the situation and reiterate the central demand.
"For you are about to cross the Jordan to go in to possess the land which Yahweh your God is giving you, and you shall possess it and live in it, and you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments which I am setting before you today." (Deuteronomy 11:31-32 LSB)
Here we see the logic laid bare. First, God gives the land. Second, they are to possess it and live in it. Third, because of this, they are to be careful to obey. Their possession of the land is the basis for the obligation to obedience. You cannot separate the gift from the giver, or the privileges of the covenant from its responsibilities. The modern evangelical mind often wants to do this. We want the blessing without the obligation. We want the inheritance without the law of the kingdom. But that is a fantasy.
The word "careful" is crucial. It means to watch, to guard, to keep diligently. This is not a casual, half-hearted obedience. It is a focused, intentional, and comprehensive commitment to "all the statutes and the judgments." The statutes are the permanent, binding laws. The judgments are the applications of those laws in specific cases. In other words, they were to obey God's law in principle and in practice, in the big things and in the small things. Their entire life as a nation, their politics, their economics, their family life, their worship, was to be governed by the Word of God.
This is the foundation of a Christian civilization. When a people are brought by God into a place of blessing, a place of inheritance, their response must be to establish their society on the bedrock of God's revealed law. To do otherwise is to build on sand. It is to stand on Mount Gerizim and pretend that Mount Ebal does not exist. And that is a fatal mistake.
Christ, Our Gerizim and Ebal
As with all such things in the Old Testament, this ceremony is a giant, flashing arrow pointing to the Lord Jesus Christ. Israel, as we know, failed spectacularly. They stood on the mountains, they recited the words, and then they proceeded to live lives that invited the full weight of the curse from Mount Ebal. Their history is a long, sad story of disobedience leading to exile, just as God warned.
So where is the gospel in this? The gospel is that God sent His Son to stand in the valley for us. Jesus Christ is the true Israel who obeyed perfectly. He lived a life that merited all the blessings of Mount Gerizim. Every blessing of fruitfulness, life, and divine favor belonged to Him by right of His perfect obedience.
But on the cross, He willingly climbed Mount Ebal. He who knew no sin was made sin for us. He who deserved all blessing took upon Himself the full, unmitigated curse of the law that we deserved. As Paul tells us, "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us, for it is written: 'Cursed is everyone who is hung on a tree'" (Galatians 3:13). He absorbed the curse of Ebal so that He could give us the blessings of Gerizim.
Through faith in Him, we are brought into the true Promised Land, the kingdom of God. We are given an inheritance that can never perish, spoil, or fade. And because God has brought us into this land, what is our obligation? It is the same as Israel's: "you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the judgments." Our obedience does not earn our place in the land; it is the grateful response of those who have already been given it. We do not obey in order to be saved; we obey because we are saved.
The choice is still before us, as it is before every generation. The two mountains still stand. Will we live by faith, embracing the blessings of Gerizim that Christ has purchased for us, and walking in grateful obedience to His law? Or will we, by unbelief and rebellion, attempt to place ourselves back under the curse of Ebal? The geography of the covenant is now written on our hearts. By the Spirit, God has given us a new nature that desires to walk in the way of blessing. Let us therefore choose life, that we and our children may live in the land the Lord has given us.