In Malcolm Gladwell’s book, Outliers, he tells of a study done by a psychologist and two colleagues at Berlin’s elite Academy of Music. They took the school’s violinists and divided them into three groups. In the first group they put those who were remarkably good, certainly on their way to becoming world-class soloists. In the second group, they put those violinists who were good, but not outstanding. And in the third group, they placed students who would most likely never be professional musicians but intended on becoming music teachers in the public school system.
Then, they began investigating those in the groups a little more, and they found out that everyone in all three groups had started playing about the same time. Each had picked up a violin for the first time around age five. However, when they asked how much each individual had practiced, the differences really started showing up. At the start, they all practiced about the same amount (about two to three hours a week). However, as they got older, certain students started practicing more than others, and the trend continued on so that the researchers discovered that by the age of twenty, those in the elite group had totaled ten thousand hours of practice, while those in the group labeled “good students” had totaled eight thousand hours of practice, and those in the last group had totaled about four thousand hours of practice.
What was odd is that there were no exceptions to this discovery. There were none in the elite group who were simply naturals, had not put in the ten thousand hours of practice time but were simply amazing. Nor were there any in the other groups who had put in more time but simply couldn’t get better. Practice hours had determined everything.1
Now, you could hear about that study and think, “Well, that’s a neat little story. I wish that applied to other disciplines than playing the violin.” But that’s the thing. When these researchers applied the same study to the pianists, they found the same thing. In fact, studies based on this initial study have proven that the key to amazing success as a violinist (10,000 practice hours) is true in every other discipline. It’s basically impossible to find someone in any discipline who has mastered that discipline to an amazing degree who hasn’t logged at least ten thousand hours of practice. The reason Gladwell recounted this study in his book is to point out that the three groups of violinist isn’t a neat little story at all; it’s a microcosm of how life works. According to Gladwell, hours of practice is the number one determinant of success in any discipline in the world, period.
I think that when we come to Deuteronomy 27-30 we can be tempted to dismiss its significance the same way we might have been tempted at first to dismiss the discovery the study showed concerning the violinists. We might be tempted to say, “Well, these chapters show a really interesting setup for Israel in their covenant with God, including the blessings and curses that would come whether they obeyed or disobeyed, but its significance stops with them.” But if we thought that way when we approached this text, we would be missing something that’s key for us, namely, that these chapters function as somewhat of a microcosm of a truth that bears on all people at all times in all places throughout the history of the world – including us!
Now, this morning, I want to show you why I’m saying that. And I think the best way to do this is to approach this text on three levels. First, I want us simply to make some observations about the text concerning its original context. That is, let’s see what God wanted the Israelites to see and understand during the time of the events themselves – when these words were first being spoken, while Israel was under the Mosaic covenant, about to enter the land of Canaan. Second, I then want to try to bridge the gap between the events and teaching in Deuteronomy 27-30 and today. That is, I want to show why I think the truths God declares in this text have some bearing on all people today as well. Finally, I want to then ask how we should respond to these truths right now, highlighting some contemporary application of what we see in these chapters. So, first, let’s make some observations.
This is an easy observation from these chapters. Chapter 27 opens with Moses telling the people that when they come into the land, crossing the Jordan, they are to set up large stones, plaster them, and then “write on the stones all the words of this law very plainly” (27:8).
But the point doesn’t stop there. Not only were they to write all the words of the law on stone tablets so that they’d be always there to be read and known, but Moses reminds them again that the Lord is gracious to reveal these things to them. After noting how the Lord would respond if the people disobeyed his law, Moses notes in 29:29, “The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.”
Now, we like to quote this verse on most occasions noting the first part of it. When there are things the Lord hasn’t revealed and we want to know answers (e.g. will our sick loved one get well, why did this tragedy happen, etc.), we sometimes quote this to remind ourselves of the secret providence of God. He knows, but he hasn’t revealed the answer to us. But interestingly, the stress in this verse is the latter half, namely, that God has revealed so much to his people. He’s told them clearly what he expects, what will happen if they obey, and what will happen if they disobey. This is gracious, isn’t it?
It isn’t gracious if a parent decides to discipline a son for rules the parent never revealed and the child had no way of knowing. However, when the parent takes the time to explain rules and consequences, that is a gracious act, isn’t it?
Finally, the Lord makes the point that he has graciously revealed his word to Israel again in 30:11-14. There, he says to them, “For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear and do it?’ Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it.”
n this text, the point is explicit, isn’t it? The Lord hasn’t given his commandment to his people, only they have to cross the see to get it or decipher some code to understand it. The Lord has revealed himself clearly, made his commandments readily available, and they are reasonable commands. So, that’s the first observation: God graciously revealed his law to all of Israel. Now, a second.
This is really just fleshing out the implications of that first point, as you can see. Yes, God is gracious to reveal his law, but that also means that Israel is without excuse to obey it. Taking the first three texts we looked at, we can say, Israel has no excuse because the Lord had them write the law on stones. You can’t claim you don’t know it when you can go right over to the stones and read it. Also, it’s not part of the secret things of God, but the revealed things. So, you can’t use the excuse that God kept it secret. And, finally, it’s not far off but near and not difficult to understand but clear. So, again, Israel has no excuse.
Not only do they have no excuse because God’s commands are clear, but they have no excuse should they face consequences as they obey or disobey because those were clear as well. Moses not only told the people to write the law on stones once they crossed over the Jordan but also to declare the blessings for obedience and the curses for disobedience very clearly. In a bit of an odd fashion, they were supposed to divide the twelve tribes in half, with six standing on Mount Gerizim to bless the people and six standing on Mount Ebal for the curse. Then, what follows, from 27:15 to 28:68 are the curses for disobedience (27:15-26), some blessings for obedience (28:1-14), and another group of curses for disobedience (28:15-68). Again, these are clear so that Israel is without excuse. Now, let’s add a third observation:
We see this throughout these chapters as well. Chapter 27 ends and chapter 28 begins on this note. We read, “Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them. And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.’ And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above the nations of the earth” (27:26-28:1). Notice how in both verses the people are expected to obey all the commands of God.
And this isn’t an exception in these chapters. We read in 28:15, “But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.” Again, in 28:58-61, we read, “If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the LORD your God, then the LORD will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting. And he will bring upon you again all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. Every sickness also and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, the LORD will bring upon you, until you are destroyed.” Israel was commanded to obey God’s law perfectly, lest they be cursed. Observation 4:
Let me just point to one example of this. In 28:52-57 the Lord describes what they will face if they disobey, and he notes that their enemies would come and lay siege to their land. And what it would result in is the people starving to death because they’re trapped in their besieged walls without food. In fact, the Lord says, they’ll get so hungry that they’ll eat their own children. We read in 28:53, “And you shall eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your sons and daughters, whom the LORD your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies shall distress you.” And the point is, this is God’s personal, furious judgment. When the enemies lay siege to the city, bringing them to the point of starvation so that they commit these atrocities, then Israel should say, “This is the Lord’s promised judgment for our disobedience to his law.” Now, one final observation:
In chapter 30, Moses basically tells the people that they will fail. He says in 30:1, “And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse [they’ll see blessings, but they’ll also know God’s curse], which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among the nations where the LORD your God has driven you . . .”
Do you see that already the Lord is telling them that they’ll be driven to other nations? They’re going to face his judgment for their sin, not keeping his commandments provided in the law. It’s certain. Now, I know there’s one final observation we could make about the word of hope in chapter 30. And I’m not ignoring it. We’ll get to it in a bit, but I do want to put it on hold for a second, and I want to try to bridge the gap between Israel’s place in Deuteronomy 27-30 and us today.
Now, I think this is fairly easy to do if we simply understand one point: Israel’s situation in Deuteronomy 27-30 is simply a microcosm of all people everywhere before God. Let me show you what I mean by this in a few statements.
Probably the easiest place to see this is in the early chapters of Romans. First, Paul argues that the Jew, who was given God’s law (as we read with Israel) is condemned because he didn’t obey it. We read in Romans 2:12b-13, “All who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified.”
Therefore, Jews bear the curse (God’s judgment against them). It wasn’t enough that they received the law from God, Paul reminds us. They weren’t blessed for hearing the law but for doing the law. And all Jews have not kept God’s law perfectly and therefore bear the curse of his judgment. Are Gentiles then in a better situation? Can we at least plead that we never received the law and therefore can’t be held liable to it? Paul answers in Romans 2:12-16 – “For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law. . . . For when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do what the law requires, they are a law to themselves, even though they do not have the law. They show t hath the work of the law is written on their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness, and their conflicting thoughts accurse or even excuse them on that day when, according to my gospel, God judges the secrets of men by Christ Jesus.”
So, the Gentiles can’t claim ignorance of God’s demands. We have the law written on our hearts. And we show it every time we excuse our own actions or accuse another of doing wrong. When we do something wrong and feel the need to excuse ourselves or defend our actions it reveals that God’s law is written on our hearts, and we know our actions are wrong. Similarly, every time someone does wrong against us and we accuse them of wrong, it shows that we have God’s law written on our hearts so that we understand that person’s actions are wrong.
Therefore, all Jews and all Gentiles (that is, all people everywhere) know God’s demands and yet none of us have kept the law, so we are all guilty before God, deserving of his curse. The reading of Romans 3:9-20 confirms this. Paul tells us, “None is righteous, no not one. . . . Now we know that whatever the law says it speaks to those who are under the law, so that every mouth may be stopped, and the whole world may be held accountable to God.”
All people are therefore in the place of bearing God’s terrible judgment (his divine curse), and the final manifestation of that judgment in hell is far worse than any manifestation of the curse we read of in Deuteronomy 27-30.
Therefore, I think we can see that the situation in which Israel found themselves under God’s law in Deuteronomy 27-30 is simply a microcosm of all people everywhere. But what then do we do? How can a cursed people become a blessed people? Is that even possible. Let’s consider the Bible’s answer here in our present day.
First, we can see that God did promise hope. Even to Israel, after the Lord declared that they were disobey his laws and bear his curse, being driven from the land, he held out hope. He promised that he would respond should the people turn to him in faith and repentance.
He says in Deuteronomy 30:2-3, “Return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have mercy on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you.”
There is hope, if they’ll return to the Lord. It stands to reason, then, that there is hope for all people as well, then. But what’s our route to move from being cursed to being blessed?
Well, we can rule out trying to obtain blessing just by doing good, obeying God, and trying to keep his commands. And the reason why this must be ruled out as an option is because God still demands perfect obedience.
This is why Paul says in Galatians 3:10, “For all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse; for it is written, ‘Cursed be everyone who does not abide by all things written in the Book of the Law, and do them.” Paul quotes Deuteronomy 27:26 (adding in other verses that stress obedience to all of God’s commands is demanded, and says to us that if we go that route, we are bound to be cursed.
Therefore, throw away the idea that you can be good enough, do enough good, or avoid enough bad to be right before God. That is nonsense unless you can obey God perfectly, and none of us can. Every time you’re tempted to go down that road of thinking that you’re standing before God is dependent on how good you are or how much bad you’ve avoided, remind yourself that God demands perfect obedience if you’re going to look to your righteousness as a basis of your acceptance before God. That God demands perfect obedience is a sword we can take up and slay the temptation to go down the road of thinking our obedience or good works merits our standing before God.
But if that’s not our route to go from being a people cursed by God to being a people blessed by God, then what is? Is there hope? Well, certainly there is. God promised hope in Deuteronomy 30. But how? Because again, by way of reminder:
1.God demands perfect obedience if we’re to be blessed.
2.If we do anything less than perfect obedience we’re cursed.
3. None of us has or can obey perfectly.
4. Therefore, all of us deserve a curse.
Do you see the weight of this dilemma? How can we remove the curse, let alone attain blessing? Well, Paul gives us the answer in two parts:
Paul writes in Galatians 3:13, “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.’”
That is, when Christ was hanged on that tree, dying on the cross for our sins, he was bearing the curse for those whom God would redeem. There can be a temptation to think of the violent nature of his suffering, the abandonment he must have felt, etc. And that no doubt is true. But fundamentally when we think of the cross, we need to think of Jesus bearing the curse that our disobedience to God’s commands merited. He bore the curse that our sins merited and that we deserved. And he did it in our place.
But how do we appropriate that payment? Or, how do we benefit from Christ’s payment so that we can know that it counts for us? After all, people in the end will go to hell, bearing the curse of God’s judgment for eternity.
The answer is given in Galatians 3:14. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us “so that in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised Spirit through faith.”
There it is in those last two words: “through faith.” Here’s the good news. This is why Israel could have hope. This is why all men today, who are under God’s curse of divine judgment can have hope. This is the good news. When we realize that we can’t do enough good – that the route of relying on our good works (or obedience to God’s law) is simply going to leave us always cursed, and we instead trust in Christ’s work for us, then three miraculous things are true of us:
1. Christ’s curse bearing death counts for us so that we no longer bear the curse of divine judgment that we deserve.
2. Christ’s perfect obedience that merits God’s blessing is credited to us so that his perfect righteousness counts for us as well.
3. His resurrection counts as our declaration of righteousness so that we will be raised on the last day to know God’s blessing forever.
The promise God made to any Jew who would repent and believe was certain because that promise was founded on the finished work of Christ. And our hope is certain if our faith is in the finished work of Christ. Therefore, this morning, repent and believe. And if you’re a believer, don’t fall back into the notion that you’re standing before God is in any way dependent on your righteousness. If you go that way, it’s all on you, and God demands perfect obedience. But if you rest your faith in Christ alone, then you can be credited with his perfect righteousness.
I know that’s hard to accept sometimes. Sometimes the good news feels too good to be true. Sometimes we feel like if we really accept that truth that it’ll send us into a downward spiral of sin. I know that many of us have lived as if we’re under the law for a long time, continually heaping condemnation on ourselves, trying to do better, in hopes of regaining a good standing with God. But all of that is dishonoring to Christ. Faith in the finished work of Christ is not only the only means by which we can be justified before God but it is the greatest motivation toward holy living you’ll ever know.
This was even foreshadowed in Deuteronomy. It’s why the Lord continually told Israel, “Remember” what I did to redeem you. It’s why he gave them the Passover meal. And it’s why for us the Lord gave us the Lord’s table, so that we might remember that we’re justified by faith in the finished work of Christ alone. Realize we’re free from condemnation. Remember, rejoice, and live in obedience to Christ. Let us then come to the table this morning, rejoicing in the sufficiency of Christ work for us, delighting in his work for us as we sing, “Nothing but the blood of Jesus.” Amen.