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two summits

Deuteronomy 11:29 When Yahveh your God brings you into the land you are entering to take possession of, you are to proclaim the empowerment at Mount Gerizim and the affliction at Mount Ebal.
Deuteronomy 11:30 Aren’t these mountains across the Jordan, beyond the western road in the land of the Canaanites, who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, near the oaks of Moreh?

two summits

There is something majestic and surreal about a mountain summit. After all that toil and sweat and exertion, when you finally reach the summit, and see the surrounding country from the advantage of superior elevation, you cannot help but feel different about life.

The Lord chose two mountain summits as the location for the Israelites to perform their first public dramatic presentation of the empowerments and afflictions. The mountains were located within the boundaries of the land they were to conquer. So, all the time they were busy assuming ownership of the land, they were also preparing for this show. What better way would there be for them to learn the consequences of covenant obedience and disobedience?

There is another way, but it is certainly not the better way. We can learn the consequences by failure to live up to our covenant. Then we will experience the covenant afflictions and lose the covenant empowerments.

Christian, listen to the words of Christ concerning our covenant with God through him. Memorize his words. Recite them aloud to yourself and your family. Take the covenant seriously.

Lord, thank you for the covenant of grace, bought by the blood of Christ.