NOTES for Deu 27:1-26
On the threshold of the Promised Land, as Israel crosses the Jordan, the people must once again remember the terms of the Covenant. The whole people must answer “Amen,” meaning “True, indeed,” to the ritual curses pronounced upon those who break it. There are things that cannot be taken into a new life in a new land. This is worth considering. We have heard that “neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor thieves will inherit the Kingdom of God,” and we are ready to repent when the Kingdom appears on the horizon. But the Kingdom begins here and now, and many of us have already entered a new life; the first Christians understood the Jordan as the waters of baptism. So, after repeating the solemn “Amen” with the Israelites, let us throw our heavy bundles into the water—they will not be needed in the new land—and move on without fear or heaviness in our hearts.