Context No. 2485 of 4322 · Deuteronomy
Context · Reflection
Deuteronomy 27:9-15: in context
9Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel, saying, “Be silent and listen, Israel! Today you have become the people of the LORD your God. 10You shall therefore obey the LORD your God’s voice, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today.” 11Moses commanded the people the same day, saying, 12“These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you have crossed over the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. 13These shall stand on Mount Ebal for the curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. 14With a loud voice, the Levites shall say to all the men of Israel, 15‘Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image, an abomination to the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’ All the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen.’
On the day the covenant is renewed, Moses tells Israel, today you have become the people of the LORD. Then the tribes are divided across two mountains, some to pronounce blessings, some the curses, and the whole nation is to answer each one aloud. The first curse the Levites call out is this: cursed is anyone who makes a carved image and sets it up in secret. And all the people say, Amen.
Notice the word secret. The very first thing the assembled nation agrees to be cursed is not a public scandal but a hidden idol, something set up where no one can see it. And they say Amen to it, out loud, together, calling down the curse on their own concealed compromises. It is a striking act of honesty: to name the sin no one else knows about and agree that it is under judgment. Public reputation can hide a private idol for a long time. The covenant asks the people to bring even the hidden one into the light and own the verdict against it.
What have I set up in secret that I would have to say Amen against, if I were honest before God about my hidden compromises?
Sources
- Deuteronomy 27:15: Cursed is the man who makes an engraved or molten image... and sets it up in secret. All the people shall answer and say, Amen.
- Deuteronomy 27:9: Be silent and listen, Israel! Today you have become the people of the LORD your God.
- Psalm 90:8: You have set our iniquities before you, our secret sins in the light of your presence.