Deut.11: 26 – 16:17. By Raphael ben Levi
In this incredible parasha, God offers the Israelites the choice of two pathways: the narrow path that leads to abundant blessings, or the broad path that leads to destruction: “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse – the blessing, if you listen (actively) to the mitzvoth of Adonai your God that I am giving you today; and the curse, if you don’t listen to the mitzvoth of Adonai your God, but turn aside from the way I am ordering you today and follow other gods that you have not known.”
Yeshua also spoke of two paths in life—the same thing – the narrow path that leads to abundant life and blessings, and the broad path that leads to destruction. Surely the choice is a no-brainer yet many people still choose the broad path partly because as Yeshua explained “narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life…” And few are willing pay the price. Matt.7:14
In ch13:4 God highlighted 5 things Ito the Israelites: “…to follow Adonai your God, fear Him, obey His mitzvoth, listen to what he says, serve Him and cling to Him.” (13:4)
God urged the Israelites to do things His way in the nitty-gritty of daily life, because the world will always contest the cost of discipleship and seek to shape and mould us via the broad path that leads to destruction. The Israelites faced choices with inescapable consequences without any middle ground and we find these opening words repeated for emphasis in Deut.11, 27 and on a third occasion when Joshua addressed the new generation in Canaan. The entire narrative far exceeds other primary events in Deut. in length and detail compared to the Creation, the Exodus, or the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai and one reason for this is because the choices we make in our day-to-day life reflect who we are and therefore needs to be clearly defined. The Israelites discovered that although they wanted the blessings of Mt Gerazim they frequently ended up choosing the curses of Mt Ebal. And so God took the initiative in the fullness of time to ‘repair the world’ (tikun olam) through Yeshua “so that he who believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”
God’s timing is always perfect and Scripture states that God created both time, space and human history before even the world ever existed. Every living thing contained within generations, nations, empires have unfolded on earth since the beginning of what we call “time.” God pre-existed before “time” when “time” did not exist because He’s eternal. Gen.1:1 begins with the words, “In the beginning …” A more precise translation would be “In the dateless past,” meaning there was a period preceding Gen.1:1 that was timeless until God spoke into existence the physical universe. This knowledge reassures us amid the mayhem and chaos surrounding us in the world today – the fact that God has pre-determined everything from the dawn of creation until the end of this age and beyond.
All of this is accompanied by God’s infinite love which He has lavishly poured out upon us through Yeshua who is “…able also to save forever those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to intercede on their behalf .” (Heb.7:25) And events reached a climax when Yeshua prayed in the Garden of Gethsemane on the night before His crucifixion. The garden contained an oil press for processing the olives grown there for producing oil used to consecrate items in the Temple, and to anoint and bless the priests and people. Knowing that the end of His earthly ministry had drawn near, Yeshua interceded with great intensity three times and each occasion connects with the three accounts representing Mt. Ebal and Mt. Gerazim, Yeshua had to make a choice about regarding His crucifixion, and He chose the narrow path. On each occasion His agony grew more intense so that by the third hour of prayer, His sweat was like drops of blood due to the overwhelming intensity and spiritual warfare He was engaging in and His soul became sorrowful and weary even unto death. (Matt 26:38).
The oil press in the garden of Gethsemane was used three times to extract the oil from the olives. Each time they were pressed, more weight would be added to get more oil until the final stones were added at the third pressing, and every last drop was removed from the olives. It was symbolic of the cost of redemption willingly paid by Yeshua by His life laid down for us without which we would forever be stained with the curse of Mt. Ebal. Instead, He has filled us with the ”oil” of gladness as so we rejoice in our salvation with thanksgiving. Unto Him we give glory, honour and praise!
Mount Gerizim, has been held sacred by the Samaritans for thousands of years, based upon this specific portion of Scripture where they erroneously claimed it to be more sacred than Jerusalem. There they built their own temple of worship that all the Northern kingdom were required to use instead of the temple of Jerusalem. The Jews during the time of Yeshua despised the Samaritans almost as much as they hated the Romans. Yeshua made that clear in His Parable of the Good Samaritan. But His approach to the Samaritans was qualitatively different and this is well illustrated with His dialogue with the Samaritan woman found in Jn.4:5-8. The incident took place in the small Samaritan town of Sychar, For Yeshua to be in this location was unthinkable for the Judeans would by-pass Samaria whenever they travelled from Judea to the north despite the long detour. But not so with Yeshua who past through Samaria and rested at Jacob’s Well while the disciples went to buy provisions. From His vantage point, Yeshua watched as a Samaritan woman approached the well and request a drink from her. All cultural protocols were broken but for Yeshua it posed no problem and through the conversation that ensued it led to the salvation of the Samaritan woman and many more from her home town and beyond.
This incident holds profound meaning as we consider Mt. Gerazim and Mt. Ebal – The Judeans’ fear of becoming defiled through association with a Samaritan was overruled by Yeshua by the higher commandments to love the Lord God with all ones mind, heart, and strength and one neighbour as oneself. Yeshua broke all the accepted social barriers by approaching a woman in public which He did because social norms and personal reputations which in themselves may hold value are overridden by the love of God that reaches out to those desperately in need of salvation.
Gethsemane literally means “oil press,” and is situated on the Mount of Olives just outside the “East Gate” of Jerusalem” which Yeshua visited many times as a place to pray and rest.
The historian Josephus noted that at this particular Passover which Yeshua celebrated contained around two million Jewish pilgrims who brought their offerings for the priests to sacrifice in preparation for the Passover. Massive volumes of blood from the animals sacrificed flowed from the Temple Mount down into the Kidron Brook as a river of blood. (cf: One Path Research) And it would have been this brook that Yeshua needed to walk through in order to reach Gethsemane that would have stained His sandals and robe red en-route to the garden.
The manner in which we as believers choose to pour out our lives for God can be likened to the Jordan River and the Dead Sea. In one, its waters are sweet and fish live there. The Jordan River brings sparkling water to the sea from the hills. But the Jordan River continues to flow south into another sea where there are no trace of fish, (until most recently) and no-one drinks from the waters of the “Dead Sea.” This represents two types of believers; those who are truly living for the Lord, pouring out what He has freely given and those who don’t – Mt Gerazim or Mt. Ebal.
Mt Gerizim and Mt Ebal stand opposite each other in the ancient city of Shechem (now modern-day Nablus) that lies in a huge valley between the two mountains.
When Yeshua’s proclaimed the Gospel of salvation, His message of hope was not an exemption from following God’s commands (His Law/Torah) but rather to free us from the impossibility of attaining righteousness through its observance. Paul makes this point continually throughout the NT. no more strongly than in the Book of Romans: “23 You see, all have sinned, and all their futile attempts to reach God in His glory fail. 24 Yet they are now saved and set right by His free gift of grace through the redemption available only in Jesus the Anointed.”
What’s absolutely clear is that following God’s commandments outside of a godly relationship with Him invariably degenerates into something empty, rigid and legalistic that will ultimately morph into a tyrannical monster. This is why the Scriptures emphatically state that loving God with all our heart mind and strength and our neighbour as ourselves are the greatest commandments by which all the others stand or fall.
Yeshua brought hope to people who the religious hierarchy scorned and rejected – the “sinners” and tax collectors. But as Yeshua told the religious hierarchy, “ Healthy people don’t need a doctor — sick people do. I have come to call not those who think they are righteous, but those who know they are sinners.’” (Mk.2:17)
Yeshua was citing an old Jewish proverb where the sages made the point that ”If they are not sick, why do they need a physician?”
What Yeshua was implying was that those who obey the Law of Moses perfectly will never be sick or experience illness. But, since no-one has ever attained this perfectly other than Yeshua Himself, the religious hierarchy’s understanding of righteousness was base on a false premise.
On one level, Yeshua was a friend of sinners who came to save those who are lost – all of fallen humanity – including those who were custodians of the Law. However, His words also subtly rebuked the religious leaders because they already viewed themselves as righteous and therefore had no need of His salvation.
“See,” says Moses to the people of Israel, “I place before you today a blessing and a curse.” Blessings come through obeying God’s commandments within the framework of relationship because it was the intent of the Israelites that God was primarily concerned about, not how perfectly they obeyed Him. And in the fullness of time, permanent provision became available for the whosoever through the shed blood of Yeshua. This is why the apostle Paul could declare, “And in Him you have been made complete [attaining spiritual stature through Messiah Yeshua], and He is the head over all rule and authority [of every angelic and earthly power].” (Col.2:10)
God’s grace is an incredible feature that demonstrates the reality of His love to a world lost in sin.
Mt Gerizim was lush and fertile while Mt Ebal was rocky and barren, even though they stood next to each other, and prophetically portrayed the consequences which would shape the Israelite’s choices. And these choices remain no less true for every believer in the here and now. Each one of us must choose daily which path to walk in – the broad or the narrow path. In a world filled with so much darkness, God is at work seeking to teach us a forgotten language that will steer us through every obstacle we encounter in life. But we alone must make the choice. Gerazim or Ebal?
God’s abundant blessings are uniquely packaged for each one of us as individuals even though they may sometimes be concealed. Although everything works together for good for those who love Him and are called according to His purposes (Rom. 8:28) it is presented as a conditional promise, as with the Israelites whereby it’s the choices and responses we make in life that define our lives!
The closeness in which one follows in the footsteps of the Master identifies those who are greatest in His Kingdom – covered in the dust of His sandals. Yeshua said: “He who wishes to be greatest amongst you should be the servant of all.” He demonstrated it perfectly throughout His earthly life, the King of Kings who became the Servant King graphically described in Isai.53. First love is the well-spring that nourishes this relationship and finds expression in our worship of Him in body, soul and spirit. Let’s take what God has blessed us with today in both hands and release it as a sweet-smelling aroma unto Him and Him our best rather than the scraps under the table, filled with living water poured out into the hearts and lives of others.
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