Yesterday we took a look at a list of sinful behaviors that could put a person under a curse. Today the Lord speaks of blessings that will be granted to the Israelites if they are obedient to His commands.
Moses says to the congregation of Israel: "If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth." (Deuteronomy 28:1) The word rendered as "obey" in the NIV is rendered as "hearken" in various other translations of the Bible. In the original language the word literally means "to hear" but it refers to the type of hearing that leads to action. It's the type of hearing that is taken to heart. It does a person no good to hear the word of the Lord if he does not allow the word of the Lord to minister to him and compel him to do what the Lord says. To use a quote from one of the New Testament authors, Jesus' brother James issued this warning to the church, "Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says." (James 1:22) Moses is saying the same thing to the congregation of Israel. The blessings will come from doing what the Lord says, not from merely listening to a sermon. A person is deceiving himself if he thinks hearing the law makes him godly; it's obeying the law that pleases the Lord.
"All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God: You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country." (Deuteronomy 28:2-3) They will be blessed wherever they go.
They will be blessed in their families, in their homes, in their occupations. "The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock---the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out." (Deuteronomy 28:4-6) These verses remind me of an old hymn called "I Am Blessed". Some of the lyrics go: "I am blessed, I am blessed. Every day that I live, I am blessed. When I wake up in the morning, til I lay my head to rest, I am blessed, I am blessed." The Israelites who obey the Lord could easily sing such a song, for this is what the Lord is promising them: that every day of their lives, everywhere they go, they will be blessed.
"The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but will flee from you in seven." (Deuteronomy 28:7) Though the Lord wants to bless the Israelites abundantly, He does not promise them that everyone is going to love them. On the contrary, there will always be those who hate the children of the Lord. Why? Because there are people who hate the Lord Himself. They make themselves the enemies of the Lord and the enemies of the Lord's people. So the Lord doesn't promise the Israelites that they will never have any enemies in this fallen world. He does promise them victory over their enemies. If the Israelites are faithful and obedient to the Lord, no one will ever be able to stand against them. They will send their enemies running for the hills in terror.
The work of their hands will be blessed if their lives are committed to the Lord. "The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land He is giving you." (Deuteronomy 28:8) Moses is the author of Psalm 90 and in it he prayerfully says, "May the favor of the Lord our God rest on us; establish the work of our hands for us---yes, establish the work of our hands." (Psalm 90:17) Human beings naturally want their efforts to be successful. No one enjoys feeling like their work has been in vain. A person who spends their life serving the flesh, living in sin and not caring about the Lord, will have to look back on their life in the judgment and admit that nothing they did has served any eternal purpose---not for themselves or for anyone else. But the person who has spent their life loving and serving the Lord will hear Him say, "Well done, good and faithful servant!" The work of their hands has meant something. It has honored the Lord. It has lifted up His name. It has been an example to others. It has perhaps led others to the Lord so that they too can hear Him say, "Well done!"
"The Lord will establish you as His holy people, as He promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to Him. Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you. The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity---in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground---in the land He swore to your ancestors to give you." (Deuteronomy 28:9-11) We must take note that many of the promises of the Bible are meant for Israel alone. The Lord did not promise the land of Canaan to anyone else. The Lord has not necessarily promised material prosperity to the Christian church for being obedient to Him. Material prosperity may come from obeying the Lord, but in the church age (where we live under grace, not under the law) spiritual prosperity is mainly what we're promised.
In the church age we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us---whom the Apostle Paul referred to in 2 Corinthians 4:7 as the "treasure in jars of clay" (the jars of clay being our human bodies)---and this treasure far surpasses anything that any Old Testament character could ever have imagined. We have a closeness with the Lord that no one ever had before the life, death, burial, and resurrection of Christ. Imagine how quickly the great spiritual leaders of the Old Testament would have thrown aside their earthly wealth for a treasure such as this! If they could have had the Holy Spirit living inside them every second of every day, I don't think men like Moses or David or Job or Elijah or Isaiah (just to name a few) would have thought twice about considering their earthly wealth nothing but "garbage" as the Apostle Paul put it. (Philippians 3:8) They'd have given it all up in a heartbeat in exchange for what we have in the church age: knowing Christ and "the power of His resurrection". (Philippians 3:10)
Today's portion of Scripture concludes with this beautiful promise, a promise that is conditional. These things can be theirs if the Israelites are faithful to the Lord and are obedient to His commands. "The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of His bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but borrow from none. The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them." (Deuteronomy 28:12-14)
Though many promises of the Bible are specific to Israel, the principles are applicable to everyone. The Lord does not bless disobedience. The Lord blesses obedience, and though these blessings may take various forms, we can be sure of the Lord's help in every circumstance if we love Him and are faithful to Him. To the faithful He shows Himself faithful. (Psalm 18:25a) We can have the assurance that the Lord loves us and is with us at all times.
Join us tomorrow as we study what will happen if the people decide not to be faithful to Him.
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