Deuteronomy 27:14-26 Bible Study | Episode 944

May 22, 2025

Hope Alive: Applying God’s Word to Your Daily Life

Deuteronomy 27:14-26  Bible Study | Episode #944

I am Chad Harrison, and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and had been serving as a pastor for 25 years. I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life. The purpose of studying scripture is that you might know the character of Jesus Christ, and that you might see the world from the Father's perspective. That you gain wisdom that changes your life. I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open His word to you and allow you to see Him and to know Him. To know His will, that you might glorify Him and that you might walk in faith and power each day, especially today. In Jesus name.

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Transcript

This is Chad Harrison, and you're listening to Hope Applying God's word to your daily life.

Hi, this is Chad Harrison and I am the teaching pastor of Lake Community Church and have been serving as a pastor for 25 years.

I'm also a practicing attorney. This podcast is designed to help you study God's word and find God's will for your life.

I pray in the name of Jesus right now that God would open up.

His word to you and allow you.

To see him and to know him and to know his will, that you might glorify him and that you might walk in faith and power each and every day, especially today in Jesus name.

Well, good morning. Welcome to Lake Community Church's morning Bible study. We are In Deuteronomy, chapter 27.

Deuteronomy, chapter 27. And we are.

Well, we're in the second half of the chapter, which is the cursings.

When they go up on the two mountains and they face each other,

Mount Ebal and Mount Gerasene.

When they go up on top of those two mountains and they begin to speak back to each other, one side is going to speak blessings and the other side is going to speak cursings and blessings mean it is a blessing is.

Well, I mean, what it is, is a blessing. It's a free gift from God.

It's a gift from God based off of. Based off of your acts of faith. And so to be blessed is to be one who is. Who is walking in faith and receiving the richness of God's grace and his love.

And so when we deal with the blessings, that's what we're going to be dealing with. But today we're not dealing with the blessings.

Today we're dealing with the cursings. Now the cursings are going to come from God's law. But remember,

before we just get whole sail into this, because oftentimes we like rules.

All people like rules because rules get in the way of relationship.

I don't have to have a relationship with God if I just can live by rules. And I'm gonna tell you, men are terrible at this.

They have certain understandings of what it is to be a father or what it is to be a husband, what it is to be a friend. And. And usually those are a set of rules.

And if you live by those rules, you're a good father, good husband, good friend. And the truth is, all three of those things are very intense relationship things. And if you're intensely into relationships,

rules will not help you in relationship. Relationship requires interaction. Relationship requires a genuine Concern and desire to know the other person, to know their heart, to know how they're living their life, to know who they are and to walk alongside them and to be a source of encouragement, strength,

advice, love,

compassion, all those things.

That's relationship. I mean, men oftentimes would like, you know, a friend does this, a friend does this, a father does this, a father does that. And notice, it's all do, do, do.

And it's not relationship, relationship, relationship. And so when we get to the law,

especially for men,

you're going to run into men who want to do relationship by rules.

That does not work, okay? And it doesn't work in the New Testament with our relationship with God. It doesn't work in the Old Testament. Now, the rules can define the boundary of the relationship, and they absolutely ought to.

The law defines the boundaries of God's holiness.

If you're on this side of the law, you're within the boundaries of God's holiness. If you're on that side of the law, you're outside the bounds of God's holiness. Now,

that being said, God wants you to be in the center of his will. And that's true life. Okay?

So if we're going to talk about the boundaries, that's the outer limits of what God would say would be a godly or ungodly life,

a sinful or unsinful life. But we don't want that. We want to be in the center of God's will. We want to be in the middle of that so that we can receive the best of his blessings.

And we're going to talk about his blessings tomorrow. And those are the things that you would do that you would be.

It would be characteristic of somebody who would be blessed.

So the cursings bind you up. And the cursings are, I'm outside of God's will and I'm bound up. And I'm kept from getting in the middle of God's will or getting into the area of God's blessing.

And so if I do these things, I'm going to be cursed. I think I've explained that pretty well this morning, and I think it's important that you see it that way.

All right?

So the Levite shall speak in a loud voice, verse 14, and say to all the men of Israel,

cursed is the one who makes a carved or molded image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman,

and sets it up in secret meaning. Don't make idols, don't make idols.

Don't make anything to worship God that would cause you to be worshiping the actual,

a physical thing rather than worshiping the spiritual God who made the universe.

All the people shall answer and say amen,

which means so let it be.

That's the way it is.

He said cursed is the one who treats his father, his mother, with contempt.

All right, that's the fourth commandment. I mean, we got to get in there and do it right.

Maybe fifth. I might be wrong about that. It's fourth or fifth commandment. I mean, it is an important commandment. Why? Because. Because our parents represent our,

in many ways represent our relationship with our heavenly Father.

They're the physical manifestation. They're the physical representation of a spiritual truth. Our physical relationship with our heavenly Father is embodied in our relationship with our mother and Father.

So don't treat them with contempt.

And all the people shall say amen, which means so shall it be. Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor's landmark. That means you're moving property lines. Let me tell you something.

You wouldn't, you wouldn't think this would be a major problem today, but it is.

It is a major problem. And it happens all the time. And people try to take property, especially on the lake, people try to take property from other people all the time.

He said cursed is the one who does that. You're a thief.

Okay, don't do that.

That's just from a judges slash former lawyer perspective. Don't do that.

That is stealing from someone else. All right. He says, he says cursed, the one who moves his neighbors landmark and all God's people said amen. Curses is the one who makes the blind to wander off the road.

What he's saying is don't do things to people who, who are struggling, people who are less people. And when I say less, I don't mean less in the, in the, in the value.

I'm talking about less in, in certain situations. If I'm. If I can see and you're blind,

according to Psalm chapter 41, you know, blessed is a man who, who has regard for the weak. They're weaker than me in sight. They're lesser than me, weaker than me.

They're not. They're not able to see.

If I can hear and you can't, I'm greater than you in hearing.

If, If I. If I have more intelligence than you and you have less, I'm greater. But that doesn't mean I'm greater than you. It just means that in that area I'm more.

I have more skill. I might have more ability in that area. And what he's saying is, do not make a blind man wander off the road. Why? Because if he wanders off the road, he'll never know where he's at.

He's staying on the road for a reason, because he knows the road will lead him somewhere. That's got a lot of spiritual implications also.

And so if somebody is walking along the road,

if you see them walking on the road chasing after God,

don't.

Don't lead them off the road.

Don't lead them off the road.

All right? And all God's people said, amen.

Cursed is the one who perverts the justice. Justice due to the stranger, the fondness of the widow.

Another.

Well, we've got people who are physically impaired in some way. Now we have people who are positionally impaired as far as their relationship. They're a stranger. They're not from here.

They don't have friends and family in this area. That's impaired as far as relationship.

Fatherless, they lost their parents.

Orphaned,

that impairs them because they don't have that special relationship growing up. Widow,

they've lost their spouse, their. Their closest friend, the one they made the covenant relationship with.

He says,

don't pervert justice due to them.

Make sure they get things that are done right for them also.

That's the right way to do it. And all God's people said,

amen. Curse is the one who lies with his father's wife because he's uncovered his father's bed.

Now, this is pretty much important, okay?

Real important.

I think it speaks for itself.

In Corinthians,

this took place with a guy whose father died. He took his mother in law as his wife. And the Bible says that that is a well, that's cursed. Okay,

that's not right. And he said, expel the moral brother. In 1 Corinthians, chapter 5. Curse is the one who lies with any kind of animal.

All right, well, ********** is wrong.

I think we know that. All God's people said amen. Cursed of the one who lies with his sister or the daughter of his father or a daughter of his mother.

Okay,

we're into,

you know, some things about sexuality that God says is bad. Curse is the one. All God's people said, amen. Curse is the one who lies with the mother, with his mother in law.

All right,

Makes sense, right?

All the people shall say amen. Curses. One who taxes neighbors secretly.

Well, that means that you're sneaking around doing things.

This could be physical attack. And it has a connotation of Physical attack.

But you know, this could be any kind of way, this could be gossip, this could be making up lies about someone.

This could be in any kind of way where you attack them, you attack them physically, you attack them morally, you attack them spiritually.

Don't attack your neighbor, don't secretly undermine your neighbor. Don't do that. And all the people shall say amen. Curse is the one who takes a bride to slay an innocent person.

Hmm.

What does that mean?

Well,

this could mean, and it's a little bit not, not well known. This could be to kill someone so you can get their girlfriend.

I think it has more to do. More. It's more important than that.

I'm sorry, Take a bribe to slay an innocent person, not the bride. I don't know why I said that. Anyway.

That's wild. I just said that. I read bride.

Obviously,

no paying for murder.

And all God's people said amen. Cursed. And one who does not confirm all the words of the law by observing them.

Now this is a really general statement and you know, when we get to this,

when we get to this,

it's a catch all.

What God's saying is you're going to be cursed if you do not live. If you don't live in obedience to him,

you're going to be cursed. That's the way it's going to be. That's how you're going to live out your life. You're going to be cursed.

You're going to be bound up by your sin.

And then if you, if you, if you do that,

you will. Well,

you'll have less, you'll be least, you'll not, you'll not have God's best. You'll be bound up from having God's best.

And all God's people. And all the people shall say amen. All God's people says amen.

These are pretty obvious things too, by the way,

except for the why. When I was studying this, I thought it said bride,

but bribe is the word and I know what a bribe was. But other than that,

all the other things are pretty obvious and they're important.

And apparently they were really, really important because before the end of the promised land, God wanted to make sure that they knew these things so that you would specifically not be doing these things so that you specifically would not be destroying the relationships that you have in the community.

And obviously these things would cause you to destroy those things in the community.

That being said,

it's a obvious not to do list. Not the to do list, but the not to do list.

And.

As you go today, I pray that the Lord will bless you and keep you that he'll make his face to shine upon you he'll make and that he will give you hope and peace today in Jesus name.