The Liturgy of the Land: Deuteronomy 27:1-8
Introduction: Covenant and Place
We live in a deracinated age. Modern man is a tourist everywhere and a citizen nowhere. He believes that places are interchangeable, that geography is irrelevant, and that history is a burden to be shed. The result is a profound sense of alienation, a rootless anxiety that haunts our culture. We are told to find our identity within ourselves, which is like telling a man to find north by looking at his own navel. This is a spiritual sickness, and the cure is found right here, in a passage that our sophisticated age would dismiss as primitive and strange.
God is not a gnostic deity. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is the God who creates dirt, mountains, and rivers. And He is the God who ties His covenant promises to a particular place. The land matters. Geography is not incidental to theology; it is the stage upon which God’s redemptive drama unfolds. And as Israel stands on the precipice of the Promised Land, Moses gives them instructions for a grand, national, liturgical act. This is not a mere memorial service. This is a covenant renewal ceremony, a national re-dedication, that is to be physically embedded into the very landscape of their new home.
What they are about to do on Mount Ebal is a public declaration of how the world works. It is a statement that God's law is the foundation of reality, that worship is central to life, and that every nation lives and dies by its response to the Word of God. The modern world thinks that laws are created by human consensus, that worship is a private hobby, and that blessings and curses are the stuff of fairy tales. This passage confronts that entire worldview head-on. It tells us that a nation's life is not determined by its GDP, its military might, or its political philosophy, but by its public orientation to the living God. Israel is being taught to think covenantally, to see their entire national existence as a transaction with God, played out in real time, on real soil.
This is not just for them. This is a paradigm for all nations. The choice set before Israel on Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim is the same choice set before every culture in every generation: obedience, which leads to life and blessing, or disobedience, which leads to chaos and cursing. There is no neutral ground. There is no third way. Every nation is either building on the rock of God's law or on the sand of human autonomy. And the rains, you can be sure, are coming.
The Text
Then Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, “Keep the entire commandment which I am commanding you today. So it will be on the day when you cross the Jordan to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, that you shall set up for yourself large stones and coat them with lime and write on them all the words of this law when you cross over, so that you may enter the land which Yahweh your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as Yahweh, the God of your fathers, promised you. So it will be when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up on Mount Ebal, these stones, as I am commanding you today, and you shall coat them with lime. Moreover, you shall build there an altar to Yahweh your God, an altar of stones; you shall not wield an iron tool on them. You shall build the altar of Yahweh your God of uncut stones, and you shall offer on it burnt offerings to Yahweh your God; and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and eat there and be glad before Yahweh your God. And you shall write on the stones all the words of this law very distinctly.”
(Deuteronomy 27:1-8 LSB)
Public Law, Publicly Displayed (vv. 1-4, 8)
We begin with the central command to make God's law inescapably public.
"Then Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people, saying, 'Keep the entire commandment which I am commanding you today. So it will be on the day when you cross the Jordan to the land which Yahweh your God gives you, that you shall set up for yourself large stones and coat them with lime and write on them all the words of this law... So it will be when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up on Mount Ebal, these stones... And you shall write on the stones all the words of this law very distinctly.'" (Deuteronomy 27:1-4, 8)
The first thing to notice is the gravity of the command. This is given by Moses and the elders. The entire leadership structure is reinforcing this. And the command is to "keep the entire commandment." God does not grade on a curve. His standard is comprehensive and total. This is the foundation of their national life.
Upon entering the land, their first great public work is not to build a fortress or a palace, but to erect a monument to the law of God. This is a profound statement of priorities. A nation's true constitution, its foundational legal text, is the Word of God. They are to take large stones, coat them with lime or plaster to create a smooth, white surface, and then write "all the words of this law" on them. This was to be done "very distinctly." This was not fine print. This was billboard evangelism for the whole nation.
This act demolishes the modern liberal idea that religion is a private matter. For Israel, and for God, the law is the most public thing there is. It is the basis for justice, commerce, family, and government. By setting up these stones, they are declaring that this land, the land of Canaan, is now under new management. The old gods and their corrupt laws are herewith served their eviction notice. The law of Yahweh is now the law of the land, and it is written in stone, in public, for all to see.
The location is also significant: Mount Ebal. This is the mountain from which the curses of the covenant will be pronounced. By placing the law and the altar on the mountain of the curse, God is teaching them a profound lesson. The law, by itself, brings a curse because we cannot keep it perfectly (Gal. 3:10). It exposes our sin and condemns us. But right next to the written law, which condemns, they are to build an altar, which atones. The problem and the solution are placed side-by-side. The law shows us our need for the gospel. The curse drives us to the sacrifice.
God's Altar, Not Man's (vv. 5-6)
Next, Moses gives specific instructions for the construction of the altar.
"Moreover, you shall build there an altar to Yahweh your God, an altar of stones; you shall not wield an iron tool on them. You shall build the altar of Yahweh your God of uncut stones..." (Deuteronomy 27:5-6a)
This is a critical point that runs throughout Scripture. When man approaches God in worship, he must do so on God's terms, not his own. The altar, the place of mediation and sacrifice, must not be improved upon by human ingenuity. The stones are to be "uncut." No iron tool is to be used on them. Why? Because to shape the stones, to "improve" them, would be to add a human work to the place of salvation. It would be to suggest that our craftsmanship can make God's provision more acceptable.
This is a direct assault on all forms of idolatry and man-made religion. The pagan nations would carve elaborate idols and build ornate altars, showcasing the skill of the craftsman. But God will not be worshipped with things made by human hands in that way. To strike the stone with a tool is to profane it (Ex. 20:25). Our salvation is not a cooperative effort. We do not meet God halfway. He provides the means of approach, and our job is to come as He has prescribed, without adding our own improvements. The altar is of God's creation, not ours. This points directly to Christ, who is the rock of our salvation, not shaped or improved by human hands, but provided entirely by God.
Worship, Atonement, and Joy (vv. 6-7)
On this divinely-specified altar, two types of offerings are to be made, resulting in covenantal joy.
"...and you shall offer on it burnt offerings to Yahweh your God; and you shall sacrifice peace offerings and eat there and be glad before Yahweh your God." (Deuteronomy 27:6b-7)
First come the burnt offerings. The burnt offering was wholly consumed on the altar. It represented total consecration and dedication to God. It was also an offering of atonement, covering the sin of the worshipper and making it possible for him to be accepted into God's presence. Before there can be fellowship, there must be atonement. Before there can be communion, there must be consecration. Sin must be dealt with first.
After the burnt offerings, which ascend completely to God, come the peace offerings. The peace offering was a communion meal. Part of the animal was burned on the altar for God, a portion was given to the priests, and the rest was eaten by the worshipper and his family in a joyful feast "before Yahweh." This is the goal of redemption. Atonement is not the end; it is the means to the end. The end is restored fellowship, joyful table-fellowship with God Himself.
Notice the sequence: Law, Altar, Atonement, Fellowship. The law reveals our sin and the curse we are under. The altar of uncut stones shows God's gracious provision. The burnt offering secures our atonement and acceptance. And the peace offering brings us into His presence to eat and be glad. This is the logic of the gospel in a nutshell. We do not come to God with our joy in order to be accepted. We come with our sin to His provision, and as a result of His acceptance, we are made glad.
Conclusion: The True Ebal and the Ultimate Altar
This entire ceremony on Mount Ebal is a magnificent type and shadow of a greater reality. It is a physical drama pointing to the work of Jesus Christ. The law was written on stones, but that law could not give life. It could only point out sin and pronounce the curse. As Paul says, it was a "ministry of death, written and engraved on stones" (2 Cor. 3:7).
Jesus Christ came and stood on the ultimate Mount Ebal, the hill of Calvary. There, the full curse of the law, which we deserved, was pronounced upon Him. He became a curse for us (Gal. 3:13). He is the true altar, the "living stone," not fashioned by human hands, upon which the final sacrifice was made. He is the ultimate burnt offering, wholly consecrated to the Father's will, whose sacrifice provides a true and final atonement for sin.
And because of His sacrifice, He is also our peace offering. Through Him, we now have peace with God (Rom. 5:1). We are invited to the covenant meal, to "eat and be glad before Yahweh." The Lord's Supper is our peace offering, our covenant renewal ceremony, where we feast in fellowship with the God who has saved us. We remember the curse He bore, we celebrate the atonement He made, and we rejoice in the communion He has secured.
The law is no longer written on stones, coated with plaster. For those who are in Christ, God has fulfilled His promise to write His law on our hearts (Jer. 31:33). The external word has become an internal reality by the power of the Holy Spirit. And so, as we enter the land of our inheritance in Christ, we do not build an altar of stone. We come to the altar that is Christ Himself. We do not post the law on monuments. We proclaim the gospel of the law-keeper, Jesus Christ, who has satisfied all its demands and taken all its penalties. And we do so with gladness, feasting before our God, who has turned the mountain of the curse into the place of our salvation.