Deuteronomy 27:19

A fifth curse is against one who perverts justice in regard to the stranger, fatherless and widow (v.19). Such victims have no means of protecting themselves, and to take advantage of them is again cold hearted cruelty which God will judge.

Obvious crimes bring the legal penalty, but the more secret and polished wrongs meet with the curse. This shows that God will visit such sinners in any case. It also strikes the hypocrite with terror about his works done in the dark.

He is high over all — the great, the mighty, the One to be feared. But He has a heart for the widow and the fatherless: people left helpless, stripped of every earthly and natural support, the poor grieving, broken-hearted widow and the orphan left all alone. God thinks of such people and cares for them in a very special way. They have a claim on His loving heart and mighty hand.

This great God of Israel shows no partiality and takes no bribe. He administers justice for the fatherless and the widow, and shows love toward strangers. Most rulers in the world today are the complete opposite! Law courts often show a sad disregard for justice. The poor usually suffer gross injustice, while the wealthy use their money to twist court rulings in their own favor.

The Levites read the curses out in a loud voice. As each curse for disobedience sounded in Israel's ears, the hundreds of thousands gathered on Mount Ebal answered with one united "Amen." Twelve times they said "Amen" to the twelve curses, and the twelfth — "Cursed be anyone who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them" — covered every possible neglect or failure they could be capable of. They read the blessings too (Joshua 8:33-34), but Scripture says nothing about any Amens sounding from Mount Gerizim.

Where are the blessings? Nowhere. Nothing remains but the curses. Isn't that solemn?... Moses told half the tribes to take one mountain and pronounce the blessing, and the other half to pronounce the curse. But once it was all carried out, Scripture had nothing to record except the curse, without a word of the blessing. When we come to the law's actual working out, man cannot find blessing from it in God's presence.

So right beside this monument of the law — as if God would not have the connection mistaken even then — they were to build their altar. They were to offer their burnt offerings and their peace offerings, and to rejoice before God on that dreaded mountain itself. They could do this, because the law itself sanctified this worship: the death of the victim upheld the righteousness of the law.

Above all, Christ has redeemed us from the curse by being made a curse for us; for it is written, "Cursed is everyone who is hanged on a tree" (Deut. 21:23). Christ bears our curse that we might receive blessing, and the promise of the Spirit, through faith in Christ.