The Meaning of the Two Mountains At Shechem

[Various Sources]

Deuteronomy 11:29

וְהָיָה כִּי יְבִיאֲךָ יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ אֶל הָאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר אַתָּה בָא שָׁמָּה לְרִשְׁתָּהּ וְנָתַתָּה אֶת הַבְּרָכָה עַל

עֵיבָל גְּרִזִּים וְאֶת הַקְּלָלָה עַל הַרהַר

We will study the implications of these two mountains to Israel yesterday and today:

  1. E
    bal: The Mount of Curing-Faces north away from Jerusalem and to paganism; Those on Mount Ebal, the mount of cursing, are the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali, sons of Bilhah and Zilpah handmaids-servants.Means LOST, BARREN, STONY-HARD OR RUINED.
  1. Gerizim: The Mount of Blessing Faces South towards Jerusalem- Those on Mount Gerizim are Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. Those on Gerizim, the mount of blessing, are children of Jacob’s wives, Leah and Rachel (Gen 35:23-26). Reuben is the exception—though he was one of Leah’s legitimate sons, he was cursed because he had sexual relations with Bilhah, his father’s concubine.Means cut from limestone.Josephus relates (Ant.11:8, 2-4) that Sanballat built a temple for the Samaritans on this mountain, and instituted a priesthood, as rivals to those of the Jews at Jerusalem. This temple was destroyed after it had stood two hundred years. It was afterwards rebuilt by Herod the Great. There is a Samaritan tradition that it was the scene of the incident recorded inGen. 22. There are many ruins on this mountain, some of which are evidently of Christian buildings. To this mountain the woman of Sychar referred inJohn 4:20. For centuries Gerizim was the centre of political outbreaks. The Samaritans (q.v.), a small but united body, still linger here, and keep up their ancient ceremonial worship.BOTH HOUSES CAME FROM GERAZIM the mount of blessings.Judah and Joseph being the chief tribes.
  1. The Pass & City of Shechem-Faces west the road back to Eden and YHWH in the Tabernacle and theTemple. Straight and narrow way! The place where the Ark stood between the shoulders of blessing and cursing. Shechem means between the shoulders or to saddle connect! The place of the ancient town of Shechem where Jacob dug wells and Melchezedek met Abraham. Also the place where Rehoboam went to be coronated as 1 Kings 12:1.

Ebal: The Mount of Cursing=Mt. Calvary

InJoshua 8:30-35, we read more details about how the covenant renewal at Shechem took place after they crossed the Jordan River and conquered that part of the Promised Land. The twelve tribes divided themselves into two groups, six tribes on the slopes Mount Ebal, and the other six on Mount Gerizim. The two groups straddled the narrow mountain pass between the two mountains, with the Ark of the Covenant surrounded by the Levites in their midst. The tribes on Mount Ebal listened to YHWH’s curses for disobedience; the tribes before Mount Gerizim listened to YHWH’s blessings for obedience. In the hearing of all the people, together with all sojourners, Joshua and the Levites read the whole Book of the Covenant “with a loud voice” (Deut 27:14), and the people responded with their vows.

In the history and drama of redemption, these places and the ceremony itself are significant in their symbolism. Shechem is the place where YHWH first repeated his promises to Abraham when he arrived in Canaan (Gen 12:6-7). Under the leadership of Moses and Joshua, YHWH again makes his promises of blessing to Israel, Abraham’s descendants.

Gerizim is also the site of the temple that the Samaritans built as their counterpart to the Jerusalem temple. They believed that Joshua built the altar on Gerizim and not on Ebal. When the Samaritan woman mentioned that her people worshiped on this mountain, she was probably including Abraham and Jacob who built altars in the same region. But Yahushua countered by declaring that“the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father”¦“when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth” (John 4:21-24).

The higher portions of Mount Ebal are barren rock—the name means “bald stone” —where only thistles and shrubs grow. Gerizim’s lower slopes are abundant in fountains and are beautifully cultivated with much olive and fig trees.Perhaps the group to whom the curses where shouted were made to stand onthe barren and fruitless slopes of Mount Ebal, while the group to whom blessings were read stood on the fertile and fruitful slopes of Mount Gerizim.

The list of tribes inDeuteronomy 27:12-13composing the two groups is also striking. Those on Mount Ebal, the mount of cursing, are the tribes of Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali, sons of Bilhah and Zilpah, slave women of Jacob’s wives. Those on Mount Gerizim are Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin. Those on Gerizim, the mount of blessing, are children of Jacob’s original wives, Leah and Rachel (Gen 35:23-26). Reuben is the exception—though he was one of Leah’s legitimate sons, he was cursed because he had sexual relations with Bilhah, his father’s concubine-wife.

(Gen 35:22; 1Chron. 5:1).

After they arrive at Mount Ebal, Joshua was to build an altar for burnt and peace offerings to YHWHto atone for their sins and to thank YHWH for his blessings. But YHWH added a command about the building of the altar,“You shall wield no iron tool on them; you shall build an altar to YHWH of uncut stones”(Deut 27:5-6). Why uncut stones? YHWH is saying that the Israelites should not think that they could make the worship of YHWH better by making an elaborate altar. Even one mark of a cutting tool would corrupt the worship of YHWH.At Mount Ebal, the Levites shouted a list of twelve curses on the people for disobedience that included idolatry, dishonoring father and mother, dishonesty, stealing, lying, sexual immorality, and murder.

(Deut 27:15-26). This is also what we find in the Decalogue. The last curse is a summary of all the other curses,“Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this Torah by doing them.“

The severity of curses is emphasized in Deuteronomy Chapter 28 where 54 verses (15-68) are devoted to curses, while only 14 verses list the blessings (1-14). All kinds of curses proceed from disobedience—pestilence, famine, disease, barrenness, sword—ending in destruction and exile by Assyria in 722 BC and Babylon in 586 BC. “YHWH will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me“(Deut 28:20). Even their Temple was destroyed. Finally, like sheep without a shepherd, they were scattered all throughout the earth:

And the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other Elohim of wood and stone, which neither you nor your fathers have known. And among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place.(verses 64-65).

Because they became profane and unclean, YHWH spit them out of his holy land. Their numbers decreased so greatly that only a tiny remnant of 50,000 returned to Canaan after their exile to Babylon and Persia. Such was Israel’s misery and destruction for disobedience.

But the terror and misery of the curses on Israel as a result of YHWH’s wrath for their disobedience was just a foretaste of the terror and anguish of hell that Yahushua suffered in his life and death on the cross. On Mount Ebal, Israel sacrificed burnt offerings for their sins, a foreshadow of the final sacrifice that YHWH himself will offer for our sins: Messiah’s death on the cross. A SACRIFICE FOR EVIL!

Like the tribes on Mount Ebal, the lost are children of slaves, and we ourselves were slaves of sin. The altar of good works that we build is not a sacrifice that rises as a pleasing aroma to YHWH, because without faith in YHWH’s final sacrifice of his only-begotten Son, our good works are filthy rags, a bad taste, and a repulsive stench before YHWH. But Messiah’s sacrifice removes the curse from us,“Messiah redeemed us from the curses of the Torah,[not the cursed Torah] by becoming a curse for us”(Gal 3:13),“a fragrant offering and sacrifice to YHWH”(Eph 5:2).Our own Mount Ebal is Mt. Calvary in Jerusalem where our sacrifice was offered once for all, hanged on the cross for our disobedience and curses.

“For whoever keeps the whole Torah but fails in one point has become accountable for all of it”(Jas 2:10). Not only do we violate the whole Torah, but when Yahushua made the Torah stricter, we not only sin when we actually do evil things, but we sin even in our words and thoughts.

So how shall we escape from these curses and receive YHWH’s blessings when we can never perfectly obey YHWH’s Torah? We are to march from Ebal, the Mount of Cursing, to Gerizim, the Mount of Blessing, through the perfect obedience of another Man. Mountains represent authority. In Messiah we move from our own evil demonic authority to His authority by entering the straight and narrow way of Shechem.

Gerizim: The Mount of Blessing=Mt. Hermon Sermon on Mount-The Mt. of Reversal

At Mount Gerizim, the blessings are introduced inDeuteronomy 28:1-2:

And if you faithfully obey the voice of YHWH your Elohim, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, YHWH will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the YHWH your Elohim.

While disobedience results in pestilence, famine, disease, barrenness, sword, destruction and exile, obedience results in a fertile land, abundance, prosperity, victory over enemies, a place of honor among nations, peace, and a great number of children. Not only that, YHWH will be with them–they shall be his people, and he will be their YHWH. Because of this, every aspect of their life in the Promised Land will be blessed by YHWH who will dwell with them (Deut 28:1-6). [Heaven and the millennial kingdom]. This is very readily seen all of Israel’s history. During the reign of the judges, Israel had peace and prosperity when they were governed by righteous judges such as Gideon, Barak and Jehthah. During the reign of David, Hezekiah and Solomon, when they were faithful to YHWH, the kingdom was united, prosperous and victorious over their enemies.

This peace, rest and abundance were but a foretaste of life in the kingdom of YHWH. In the new Mount Gerizim where Yahushua preached a long sermon inMatthew 5-7, Yahushua pronounced his blessings on kingdom citizens as long as they were poor in spirit, mourn over sins, meek, righteous, merciful, and pure in heart, had peace with YHWH, and persevere in persecution for righteousness’ sake. Our reward is not earthly, but heavenly (Matt 5:2-12).They are very difficult words. But in the Sermon on the Mount, Yahushua challenges us with practical ethics to live by in our life in this imperfect world while we await the perfect world that he would give us when he returns.

YHWH’s Torah is still with us as believers. They regulate our lives as Yisrael. They regulate our civil society so that earthly citizens can also have a semblance of peace, order and prosperity. We point our unbelieving family and friends to Messiah our Savior by telling them about YHWH’s holy character through the teaching of the Torah. Without the Torah, they will not comprehend their sin and misery and their absolute need for a Savior.

And without Messiah being sacrificed on the Mount of Calvary to remove the curse from us, we can never receive any eternal blessings from YHWH. Because we can never obey YHWH’s Torah perfectly and be self righteous before YHWH, our only hope for blessing is only through Messiah, who gives his perfect obedience to us—obedience all the way to an accursed death. Only by trusting Messiah can we be redeemed from the curses contained in theTorah and then receive blessings from YHWH.

Unlike the Samaritans and the Jews, we do not have to go to Gerizim or Jerusalem to worship and receive blessings from YHWH, because Messiah has been sacrificed on his Mount Ebal, the altar of Calvary. This is why after his sacrifice for all the elect from the whole world, Yahushua commanded his disciples to go and teach all nations because salvation has expanded from Jerusalem, to Judea and all Samaria, and to the end of the earth.

Through Messiah’s sacrifice, YHWH“has blessed us in Messiah with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places”(Eph 1:3). But the perfect blessings of Mount Gerizim would only come when we finally dwell in the new heaven and new earth, where we will dwell with YHWH forever.

Conclusion

Beloved in Messiah, all of you still dwell between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim. You look back to Mount Ebal when you remember Messiah’s sacrifice to remove YHWH’s curse on you when you were still lost sinners. But then you also remember Mount Gerizim as you enjoy your blessings in this life while you wait for the fullness of your blessings in the life to come.