“When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses.”-Deuteronomy 11:29
From verses 29-30, the subject matter in Deuteronomy Chapter 11 changes.
Here a totally different agenda is presented.
We’re told that once the Israelites enter the land, they are to perform a ceremony reaffirming the Mosaic Covenant that was ratified a year after they departed from Egypt.
This ceremony is discussed in much more detail in chapter 27 of Deuteronomy and chapter 8 of the Book of Joshua testifies that this ceremony actually did occur.
“Afterward, Joshua read all the words of the law
—the blessings and the curses—
just as it is written in the Book of the Law.
There was not a word of all that Moses
had commanded that Joshua did not read
to the whole assembly of Israel,
including the women and children,
and the foreigners who lived among them.”
-Joshua 8:34-35
What’s interesting is that this will be the third time the Covenant of Moses was officiated in public.
The first time was at Mount Sinai.
The second time was in the land of Moab (we went over this a couple of chapters back in Deuteronomy).
And the third time was after Israel had actually set foot INSIDE the Promised Land.
Why were all of these reaffirmations of the covenant necessary anyway?
There are a couple of theories as to why.
One theory is that it was simply customary of most covenants and treaties during those times.
When the leader with whom the covenant was first made passed away, it was considered necessary to re-validate the covenant under the authority of the new leader.
Since the leadership torch had now been passed onto Joshua, in the eyes of the Middle Eastern people of those times, a re-affirmation was required.
Another theory is that since Israel was moving from one territory to another (from Mount Sinai to Moab), a reaffirmation of God’s spiritual authority over the new territory was considered necessary.
Admittedly, this was more in align with the superstitious beliefs of the people that the Lord went along with rather than having any basis in truth.
Remember, in those days the ancients really believed that certain territories of land were controlled by different gods.
And one of the requirements of all covenants was that a vow had to be made.
What was a vow according to ancient Middle Eastern protocol?
A vow was nothing more nor less than invoking the name of the god who held power over a certain area.
For example, if one was in Egypt, one called upon the gods of Egypt and in our case here in Deuteronomy, if one was in Moab, one had to call upon the name of the god of Moab.
By reaffirming the Mosaic Covenant in the land of Moab, HASHEM’s authority was being extended to that territory…
…thus making that land safe for the Israelites to dwell in.
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