Read Deuteronomy 27
Focus on verses 2-3 & 8
I don’t know about you, but I am at the age where if I don’t write it down, the chances that I will remember it accurately are pretty low. It is for this reason that it is common practice to write laws down, because once it is written down, the words don’t change, and there is no question about how a law is or should be worded.
In todays reading the people are about to cross over into the land, and Moses instructs them to set up standing stones upon which they are to clearly write all the laws He has given them regarding how they aught to live and remain faithful to God.
And on the day you cross over the Jordan to the land that the Lord your God is giving you, you shall set up large stones and plaster them with plaster. And you shall write on them all the words of this law, when you cross over to enter the land that the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord, the God of your fathers, has promised you. (v. 2-3)
The People were to cover large stones with plaster and then write all the words of the Law that God had given Moses on them and then set them up on the other side of the Jordan in plain sight. They were to build an altar of uncut stones upon which to offer sacrifices to the Lord and to rejoice before Him. He specifically state that they are to write the law “plainly” not in legalistic mumbo jumbo that only lawyers can understand and twist around to make it mean something other than what was intended by God.
I would observe that we have departed from that simplicity by quite a margin in the way we currently implement the law. First of all we have so many laws on record that it is impossible for any one person to be familiar enough with all of them to know if any are being broken. On top of that most are written in a legal language that even lawyers have trouble understanding clearly what is meant by it. Then this convoluted legalese is twisted and reinterpreted by judges to mean something that was never intended to be.
I suspect God’s response to the way the law is being implemented currently much the way He responded to the Pharisees of Jesus day who were doing the same thing — abusing the law to expand their power over people who they are supposed to be using the law to defend.
Perhaps we should not then be surprised if we find ourselves experiencing some of the curses that Moses instructed the leaders to call down upon anyone who broke the law God had given them?
it all Enns here! 