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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
“However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all His
commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you
and overtake you:”
“You will be cursed in
the city and cursed in the country.”
“Your basket and your
kneading trough will be cursed.”
“The fruit of your womb
will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and
the lambs of your flocks.”
“You will be cursed when
you come in and cursed when you go out.”
“The Lord will send on
you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you
are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in
forsaking Him. The Lord will plague you with diseases until He has destroyed
you from the land you are entering to possess. The Lord will strike you with
wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought,
with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. The sky over
your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. The Lord will turn the
rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies
until you are destroyed.”
“The Lord will cause you
to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction
but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the
kingdoms on earth. Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the air and
the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away. The
Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores,
and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. The Lord will afflict you with
madness, blindness and confusion of mind. At midday, you will grope about like
a blind man in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day
after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.”
“You will be pledged to
be married to a woman, but another will take her and ravish her. You will build
a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will
not even begin to enjoy its fruit. Your ox will be slaughtered before your
eyes, but you will eat none of it. Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you
and will not be returned. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one
will rescue them. Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and
you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift
a hand. A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor
produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression all your days. The
sights you see will drive you mad. The Lord will afflict your knees and legs
with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet
to the top of your head.”
“The Lord will drive you
and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your fathers. There
you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone. You will become a thing of
horror and an object of scorn and ridicule to all the nations where the Lord
will drive you.”
“You will sow much seed
in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it. You
will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or
gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. You will have olive trees
throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will
drop off. You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because
they will go into captivity. Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees
and the crops of your land.”
“The alien who lives
among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and
lower. He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head,
but you will be the tail.”
“All these curses will
come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed,
because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees
He gave you. They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants
forever. Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the
time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire
poverty, you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. He will put an
iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.
The Lord will bring a nation
against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping
down, a nation whose language you will not understand, a fierce-looking nation
without respect for the old or pity for the young. They will devour the young
of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will
leave you no grain, new wine or oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of
your flocks until you are ruined. They will lay siege to all the cities
throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall
down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the Lord your God is
giving you.”
“Because of the
suffering that your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat
the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God
has given you. Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no
compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children,
and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is
eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will
inflict on you during the siege of all your cities. The most gentle and
sensitive woman among you—so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to
touch the ground with the sole of her foot—will begrudge the husband she loves
and her own son or daughter the afterbirth from her womb and the children she
bears. For she intends to eat them secretly during the siege and in the
distress that your enemy will inflict on you in your cities.”
“If you do not carefully
follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not
revere this glorious and awesome name—the Lord your God - the Lord will send
fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and
severe and lingering illnesses. He will bring upon you all the diseases of
Egypt that you dreaded, and they will cling to you. The Lord will also bring on
you every kind of sickness and disaster not recorded in this Book of the Law,
until you are destroyed. You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will
be left but few in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God. Just as
it pleased the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will
please Him to ruin and destroy you. You will be uprooted from the land you are
entering to possess.”
“Then the Lord will
scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There
you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your
fathers have known. Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting
place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind,
eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. You will live in constant
suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life. In the
morning, you will say, "If only it were evening!" and in the evening,
‘If only it were morning!’ - because of the terror that will fill your hearts
and the sights that your eyes will see. The Lord will send you back in ships to
Egypt on a journey I said you should never make again. There you will offer
yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will
buy you.”
Deuteronomy 28:15-68
This ends our reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
53 verses.
That’s how many verses
are in our passage today as we close out the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy, all centered
on the consequences that the Israelites could expect if they decided “not obey
the Lord”, failing to “carefully follow all His commands and decrees”.
So what could they
expect if they chose disobedience?
Curses…loads of them…curses
that would come and overtake them. Contrast this with the mere 14 verses at the
beginning of this chapter that highlighted the blessings that Israel could
expect if thy remained obedient to God’s commands once in Canaan. This large
disparity in verses dealing with judgment over blessings sent a clear message
to Israel and to us:
There’s a heavy price to
pay for disobedient living.
As we can see, God was
definitely up front with Israel, just as He is with us today through His Word.
Stay obedient and you
will be blessed.
Decide to turn away from
Him and expect judgment.
It was only going to be
one way or the other.
Indeed, as we read
through the verses in this passage, we see where Israel wouldn’t be punished a
little. Rather, they would crash and burn as a nation, hitting rock bottom
because that’s where we go in life when we aren’t connected to God. Frankly, I
don’t think we come to have a full and proper appreciation for God in our lives
until we try to live without Him. We quickly learn that we can’t possibly make
it without having Him alongside us.
This is a lesson that
Israel had yet to learn. Despite God’s warnings, we will see how Israel goes on
to become a stubborn, disobedient people who earn God’s wrath and punishment.
The twelve tribes will
stop living in harmony and divide into two kingdoms. Those two kingdoms will be
attacked and overthrown by the Assyrians (the northern kingdom) and the
Babylonians (the southern kingdom). They (the Assyrians and Babylonians) would
be the promised eagles who would swoop down and show no “respect for the old or
pity for the young”. These foreign, powerful nations would freely take from
Israel, devouring “the young of (their) livestock” and “the crops of (their)
land” until they were totally overthrown and destroyed. They would “leave…no
grain, new wine or oil, nor any calves of (their) herds or lambs of (their)
flocks” until Israel was ruined. The Assyrians and Babylonians would lay siege
to all of Israel’s cities “until the high fortified walls” in which they placed
their trust had fallen.
Then, after everything
was destroyed, the Israelites would be taken away from their blessed Promised
Land into foreign lands where they would face lengthy and difficult exiles.
They would be uprooted from Canaan and scattered among all nations, from one
end of the earth to the other. There, they would worship other gods…gods of
wood and stone…gods which neither Israel nor their fathers had known.
In captivity among the
foreign nations, Israel would find “no repose” or “resting place”. Instead of
blessings, the Lord would give them “an anxious mind” and “eyes weary with
longing”. Their hearts would be in despair and they would live in constant
suspense, “filled with dread both night and day” while never being sure of
whether they would live or die. Terror would fill their hearts from the
horrific sights that their eyes would see.
Now, let’s make sure we
keep in mind that the Lord was telling His people all this up front…and yet they
still decided to test Him and whether He was truly serious about all that He
said.
Maybe Israel was just
disbelieving.
Maybe they arrogantly thought
they were above God’s reproach.
Maybe they
underestimated God, thinking He wouldn’t possibly bring such great hardship on
a people He cherished and loved so much.
Maybe…just maybe…we’re a
lot like the ancient people of Israel.
Because how often do we
go through life feeling like we’ll get a free pass for our sinfulness?
How often do we test God
and whether He was serious about sending punishment on those who chose to break
His commandments?
How often do we feel we
can get away with being disobedient to God’s word and will for us?
How often do we arrogantly
live our lives as if we are beyond God’s reproach?
How often do we think
that God wouldn’t possibly bring judgment on us, His children who He loves so
very much?
Friends, hear me on
this. Our God will correct us - sometimes severely - if we choose to turn from
Him and embrace the sinful world we live in.
And trust me when I say
I have been there, living in nine years in exile away from Him. It was just a
fraction of the seventy years that the Israelites were separated from Him while
captive in Babylon but I can say with full certainty that they were the hardest
years of my life. Looking back in hindsight, that period was fully necessary
because I had to live without my Father to fully understand how much I couldn’t
live without Him and thanks be to Him that He took this prodigal back into His
arms and showed me the way to righteousness and holiness, to be the man that I
needed to be, the man He wanted me to be all along.
Friends, our God has
blessed us with everything we could ever hope for, everything we could ever
need. This includes giving us His all which included offering up His Son, our
Savior Jesus to ensure we won’t perish eternally if we would simply believe in
Him for salvation.
Our Lord fully expects
that we give Him our all in gratitude for all He has done for us and this
includes our absolute obedience. And we should want to do this for when we do,
we can and will fully experience all the best that He can give, drinking fully
from the cup of His abundant blessing.
Conversely, if we opt to
turn from God, we should stand by for the worse. For just like Israel, we will
learn that there’s a heavy price to pay for disobedience, a truth that is
underscored by these words from Hebrews as I close:
“If we deliberately
keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice
for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire
that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died
without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses.”
“How much more
severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of
God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant
that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace?”
“For we know Him who
said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, ‘The Lord will
judge His people.’"
“It is a dreadful
thing to fall into the hands of the living God.” Hebrews 10:26-31
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you
feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
