ALL THE LAWS AND RULINGS

“And you are to take care to follow all the laws and rulings I am setting before you today.”
Deuteronomy 11:32 CJB

Allow me to first confess that in no way am I a learned Jewish scholar. I am far from it to be honest. With that said, I want to share a lesson I am finding from reading the Torah portion, spanning from Deuteronomy 11:26 thru 16:17, titled RE’EH, or ‘see’. As I have been studying this section, He has indeed been helping me to ‘see’.
Deuteronomy 11:26 begins by stating, “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse.” Reading on we learn that the blessing Moshe was speaking of would come from listening and heeding the commands, or mitzvot, of Adonai. The curse would come from doing the opposite and turning aside from Adonai to follow other gods. Haven’t we read this before? As part of the Ten Commandments, Adonai commanded His people not to bow down or serve other gods, but rather to serve Him only. And Adonai also gave both throughout the forty year journey and here again right before their entry, His commands concerning their practices and behaviors. So off hand, this choice seems pretty black or white. And while I would suggest that many, if not all of us, would declare that we would choose the way of blessing, I would question if we have.
The command continues, however, and we read that when Isra’el was to have entered the Promised Land they were to place the blessing on Mount G’rizim (Gerizim) and the curse of Mount ‘Eival (Ebal). In my own study I questioned the significance of these two Mounts? In researching this I found that Mount G’rizim means “cuttings off”. Now please notice, I did not make a typo by writing “cuttings”. This term alludes to pruning. In order for a tree to flourish and grow fruit, it goes through times of pruning, cutting off the dead so that the living can continue. It was on this Mount that the pruning of Adonai’s people would happen so that the living and fruit bearing would continue. And it was the opposite on Mount ‘Eival. Mount ‘Eival was known as barren, bald, and bare. No tree flourished on this mount, and therefore no fruit either. Whether due to climate issues or simply just a curse on this mount prior to the Isra’elites, the fact remained that nothing flourished physically on this mount.
This chapter of Deuteronomy ends with a final command for both the Isra’elites and all those who will follow. “And you are to take care to follow all the laws and rulings I am setting before you today.” As we know, there will come a time when each of us will be judged. Our actions will determine whether we are found on Mount G’rizim or Mount ‘Eival. I pray that it is the Mount of blessing. But the end decision in where we are found rests in the decisions we make now. Do we follow all the laws and rulings? Do we follow enough to get by? Do we follow any at all? Hebrews 10:26-31 states that if we continue to sin after we know the truth of our sin, we should not be surprised when Adonai judges us. Mount ‘Eival is not the place I want to find myself in the end, so I must begin to make better choices now. Life and death has been set before us all. Let us choose life. Let us stand on the blessed Mount G’rizim.

Deuteronomy 11:26-32