Week 3: Blessings and Curses

Objective: 

• Moses' final sermon
  After a long review of all the law, we are approaching the end of the book

• Discuss the contrast between the blessing of obedience and the curse of disobedience
• The covenant at Moab 

Resources:

• Fr Tadros Y Malaty Commentary
• Catena Bible Commentary
  

Reading:

• Deuteronomy 27
• Deuteronomy 28
• Deuteronomy 29

Key verse(s):

• "“Keep all the commandments which I command you today." Deuteronomy 27:1

Comments:

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Review/recap questions:
**Servant may add more questions

1.  How was the altar on Mount Ebal to be constructed?
2. Which curses referred to which of the Ten Commandments?
3. List six things that would be BLESSED if the Israelites were obedient to God.
4. “An eagle swooping down” may be symbolic of what?
5. . Briefly list the 12 curses the Levites recited to the people of Israel.
6. What does it mean to be cursed and what did the “Amen” represent?
7. What are “All the diseases of Egypt” and what were they a reminder of?
8. In what sense would the sky be bronze and the ground iron?
9. If an Israelite invokes a blessing but persisted in going his own way, what disaster would await him?
10. What is the theme for this chapter 29?
11. “Root...bearing bitterness or wormwood,” Explain
12. What are the secret things and the things that are revealed?

Homework:
**Servant may add more questions

1. Cursed is the man who makes the ____________ to wander off the road.
2. Cursed is the man who perverts the justice from the _______, _________, or the _________.
3. Give an example of the good things the Lord would give an obedient Israelite.
   a) children b) increase in livestock c) increase in crops d) all of these
4. If the Israelites do NOT obey the Lord and carefully follow His commands, what would come upon
   them? a) curses b) blessings c) Moses wrath d) fire and brimstone
5. AMEN after the curses meant the people agreed and accepted the Covenant and its curses. In verses 15
   through 26, how many “amen” are there?
6. What were the names of the two mounts where the blessing and the curse took place?
7. The blessings for obedience are the opposites of the curses for disobedience. Write one blessing for
   obedience.
8. How is “Heaven” described in verse 12?
9. During the 40 years of desert wanderings the Israelites' clothes and sandals did not wear out. True or
   false?
10. What did the Israelites not eat or drink during their desert journey?
    a) bread b) wine c) fermented drink d) all of these
11. Name two things that would happen to an Israelite who follow his heart and go his own way?
12. The “secret things” belonged to whom?