A HEAVY PRICE TO PAY

Can I pray for you in any way?

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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.