Deuteronomy. Day 103, Curses For Disobedience, Part Four

Today we finish Chapter 28 which has been dealing with blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience. This is our fourth day of looking at the consequences for disobedience.

At first the consequences were smaller, though still unpleasant. They involved things like lack of success in their occupations and poor crop harvests. We talked about how the goal of discipline is repentance, so we can assume that if the people repented and turned back to the Lord as soon as the consequences of their disobedience began to fall, they would be restored not only to their close relationship to the Lord but also to the blessings of the Lord. But if time went on and they did not repent, the consequences of disobedience became more and more serious. Lack of fertility in humans and in animals would ensue. Plagues of locusts would consume everything they grew in the fields. Invaders would be successful in their raids against Israel. If these things still did not foster a widescale turning back to the Lord, another nation would come and defeat them and take many of their people captive. This is where we pick up with our study today.

"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." (Deuteronomy 28:49-50) The nation of Assyria would later conquer the ten northern tribes of Israel. The nation of Babylon would conquer the two southern tribes. The Lord allowed this to happen because of the idolatry His people had fallen into, but which of these nations is the "fierce-looking nation" whose language the people will not understand? It could be either Assyria or Babylon or both of them, for they were both very formidable enemies with languages the Israelites did not speak. The reference to a nation "without respect for the old or pity for the young" fits Assyria better than Babylon; the Assyrians were well known for torturing their captives just for the fun of it. They had no respect for the elderly, for women, or for children. They even decorated the walls of their palaces with artwork depicting the various methods of torture they inflicted upon the peoples they conquered, including such atrocities as burning captive children alive. There is some evidence that the Babylonian judges inflicted various types of torture on defendants found guilty in court, but there is less available documentation for the use of torture upon captives in Babylon than there is for it in Assyria. 

But whichever nation is in view here, or whether the Lord was speaking of an event much farther down the line (the fall of Jerusalem to Rome in 70AD, for example), in whichever era the Israelites would have fallen into disobedience or idolatry there would have been a heathen nation ready to swoop in and overpower them. There have always been nations who have hated Israel and who have wanted to destroy her. With this in mind, the Lord may not have been speaking of a specific nation/nations when He spoke the words of verses 49-50. If at any time He needed to bring this type of judgment upon Israel, there would always be some heathen nation ready and willing to attack Israel. 

Food will become so scarce while being attacked by the enemy that the people will resort to cannibalism. "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 olive 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 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 and daughter the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For in her dire need she intends to eat them secretly because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of your cities." (Deuteronomy 28:51-57)

The portion of Scripture above is graphic and shocking. It's difficult to imagine it coming true. But it did come true as we will see when we reach the books of 2 Kings and Lamentations when we find the besieged people eating their own infant children. (There is some disagreement among scholars as to whether the infants died of natural causes and then were eaten or whether their parents killed them in order to eat them.) Also, though this took place after the books of the Bible were written (with the exception of Revelation), cannibalism happened during the Roman siege of Jerusalem according to the ancient historian Flavius Josephus. After they ran out of food the people started eating those who had died of natural causes. The weaker ones would have succumbed to starvation the soonest and no doubt starvation was the cause of death for many of Jerusalem's citizens at that time. But as their hunger grew more and more fierce, Josephus states that women were even killing their infant children, roasting them and devouring some of the meat right away and hiding the remainder. They were hiding the remainder not out of shame for what they had done; they were hiding it to save it all for themselves. They were hiding it so their other family members could not partake of it, just as was predicted in our study today. The citizens of many nations throughout history have resorted to cannibalism while under siege---not just the citizens of Israel---and the Israelites would have heard of such things. They knew it had happened in other nations and I think they knew what Moses was talking about when he relayed these warnings to them. 

"If you do not carefully follow 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 on 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." (Deuteronomy 28:58-63) In the Old Testament we find Israel witnessing the destruction of a number of heathen nations and tribes. The Lord brought judgment on those nations and tribes because of their sin and idolatry and abominable deeds. When the Bible says it will "please Him" to bring destruction, I don't think it means that the Lord actually wants anyone to be destroyed, for the Bible assures us that He is patient with mankind, giving them many opportunities to repent, "not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance". (2 Peter 3:9) But if people will not come to repentance, a holy God must judge sin. Judging sin satisfies the Lord's sense of justice, and His sense of justice is perfect and without error unlike man's code of justice which can miss the mark. The Lord always judges true. The Lord always administers the right type and the right amount of judgment. I don't think He ever enjoys having to bring judgment on anyone, but if repentance never occurs then He has no choice. He cannot be a holy and righteous God if He does not judge sin.

The Lord warned the Israelites that He will uproot them from the land just as He uprooted those who lived there before them if they fall into idolatry. If they choose the false gods of other nations, He will send them to other nations where they'll see nothing but the abominable practices of idolatry. He will say to them, just as He says to anyone who keeps insisting on going in the wrong direction, "Have it your way then." If the Israelites choose the gods of other nations over the one true God of Israel, He will send them where they'll see so much idolatry they'll be sickened by the sight of it. They'll have to face the fact that no matter how long they pray to these gods and no matter how many pagan rites and rituals they perform, those gods are incapable of hearing them or helping them. "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 ancestors 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 28:64-68)

These curses sound like hell on earth and they are meant to sound like hell on earth. The Lord doesn't want anyone ending up this way and He takes care to fully outline in terrible detail what will happen if the people forsake Him. There is truly no worse thing that can happen to any human being than to reject the Lord. Even if none of these curses ever fell on anyone for their rejection of the Lord, an even worse fate awaits them after death---eternal separation from the One who created them. Forsaking the Lord and reaping earthly consequences (the hellish conditions listed in our chapter) is bad enough, but there are eternal consequences for the person who rejects the Lord all his life long. We shouldn't want this to happen to anyone. The Lord doesn't want this to happen to anyone either, which is why so many warnings are included in the Scriptures to help people avoid making these dreadful mistakes. This is why the Lord spends more time talking about the curses for disobedience than He spends talking about the blessings for obedience. This is why Jesus talked more about hell than about heaven. Human beings need to be told, in graphic and unpleasant detail, just precisely why they should not want to go a particular route. A terrifying picture has to be painted for us. We don't need to be convinced that heaven is a good place; we need to be convinced that hell is a bad place. We don't need help understanding why blessings are a good thing; we need help understanding just how severe the discipline for disobedience can be.

Deuteronomy. Day 102, Curses For Disobedience, Part Three

Originally I thought we'd go through the remainder of Chapter 28 in two days but there's so much material in this chapter I didn't want to feel like we were rushing through it. We will look at Part Three today and conclude with Part Four tomorrow.

The Lord is warning the congregation of Israel what will happen if they forsake Him and turn from His commands. As we noted yesterday, He spends far more time talking about the curses for disobedience than He spends talking about the blessings for obedience. I believe this is because He wants to impress upon them the seriousness of violating His commands and turning to false gods. Just as Jesus talked more about hell (because He didn't want anyone to go there) than about heaven, God the Father goes into great detail about the consequences of disobedience because He doesn't want anyone to experience these consequences.

For their obedience the Lord promised success in all the work of their hands but being disobedient will have the opposite effect. "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." (Deuteronomy 28:38-42) This is a picture of futility. Just as a life lived apart from the Lord produces nothing of spiritual value, it will also produce nothing of material value in ancient Israel. 

We've discussed before how some of these principles are specific to ancient Israel alone. We cannot honestly say in modern times that people who have rejected the Lord never experience material success. Some of the wealthiest people in the world today obtained their wealth through dishonest dealings and sinful enterprises. Spiritually, however, they are completely destitute and the work of their hands is futile because it has no eternal value. They are like those about whom the Lord says in Revelation 3:17: "You say, 'I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.' But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked." 

The Lord told the ancient Israelites that they would not experience material success in this world if they turned away from Him, and this is because their material prosperity for obeying Him was intended to be a testimony to the heathen world that He is God, that He is the only God, and that He provides for and protects those who honor Him. If the ancient Israelites fell away from Him and fell into idolatry, He could not continue to bless them materially. For one thing, this would be rewarding disobedience, which is something a good father cannot do. For another thing, it would dishonor His holy reputation; other nations would conclude He did not care about sin and did not judge sin. Other nations would also conclude that He is not the only God if He kept blessing people who were engaging in worship of other gods. This would only bolster the belief of pagan people that their gods were real too. 

Earlier in our chapter the Lord promised the people if they'd remain faithful to Him they would lend to other tribes and nations but would never need to borrow from anyone. He promised them they'd be the head and never the tail. The opposite will happen if they are unfaithful to Him. "The foreigners who reside among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. They will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. They will be the head, but you will be the tail." (Deuteronomy 28:43-44)

"All these curses will come on 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." (Deuteronomy 28:45-48) It should be easy to love and serve the Lord in a land of plenty. It should be easy to sing His praises in a time of prosperity. If a person cannot find it in his heart to be grateful in good times, the Lord will allow hard times to fall because it's sometimes during the worst circumstances that the hardest hearts begin to soften toward Him. But if a person cannot be persuaded to turn to the Lord out of thankfulness in the good times or out of a need for help in the bad times, what more can the Lord do? What more remains to be tried? The one whose heart is this hard has destruction (judgment) coming his way. 

A hard heart is a terrible thing. Each time a person hardens his heart against the pleading of the Lord to repent and turn to Him, it's like the shell around his heart grows another layer. Eventually nothing gets through. He stops feeling any guilt for his sins. He stops feeling any shame for his actions. The Apostle Paul referred to people who've hardened their hearts against the Lord and turned to worldly things (or to idolatrous things) as people whose consciences have been "seared as with a hot iron". (1 Timothy 4:2b) What happens when we sear a piece of cloth with a hot iron? It gets holes in it. Nothing will get caught in a conscience full of holes; any guilt or shame a person would normally feel will just fall through the holes instead. To prevent ourselves from becoming hard hearted or developing holes in our consciences, we must remain close to the Lord by daily communing with Him and studying His holy word. We cannot know Him or know His godly principles if we never spend any time with Him and never read the Scriptures. And if we spend time with Him and spend time reading His word, it will be difficult to develop hard hearts or consciences that never bother us when we make mistakes.

Deuteronomy. Day 101, Curses For Disobedience, Part Two

In Chapter 28 we've been studying a list of things that will go wrong for the Israelites if they forsake the Lord and do not obey His commands. Yesterday we learned that things would go wrong in the home and in the workplace, things would go wrong with the health of those who live in sin, and the nation would begin being defeated in battle.

Our passage today picks back up on the theme of enemy attacks that will occur as a result of turning away from the Lord. When the heathen marauders and enemy armies invade the land, much loss will take place and so will many atrocities. "You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and rape 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." (Deuteronomy 28:30-31) 

These things are a sharp contrast to verses 1-14 of our current chapter in which success in every area of their lives was promised to the Israelites as a reward for their obedience to the Lord. The Lord said if they remained faithful to Him, no enemy could stand against them. No one could take what was theirs. But the penalty for disobedience is failure instead of success. It's invasion rather than security. It's loss rather than gains. 

We will find situations later in the Old Testament when the Lord allows enemies to plague the people due to idolatry rising up in Israel. For example, in the book of Judges we'll find a generation of Israelites turning toward idolatry and we'll be told, "They aroused the Lord's anger because they forsook Him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths. In His anger against Israel the Lord gave them into the hands of raiders who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out to fight, the hand of the Lord was against them to defeat them, just as He had sworn to them. They were in great distress." (Judges 2:12b-15)

If the Israelites turn to idolatry, their enemies will not only invade and conquer but will also take their citizens captive. "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." (Deuteronomy 28:32) Later in the Old Testament, when idolatry becomes rampant among the Lord's people, Assyria will conquer the ten northern tribes of Israel and Babylon will will conquer the two southern tribes. These foreign invaders will take captive many citizens of Israel. The warning of verse 32 will come true; their sons and daughters will be given to other nations.

If the nation turns from the Lord, other people will reap the crops that the people of Israel have sown. Other people will live in the dwellings the people of Israel have built. Kings from foreign lands will rule over them and oppress them. Hard labor, hunger, and disease will follow as a result of becoming the subjects of cruel and ungodly overlords. "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 to your ancestors. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone. You will become a thing of horror, a byword and an object of ridicule among all the peoples where the Lord will drive you." (Deuteronomy 28:33-37) These things will actually take place later on in the Bible. Nations that didn't even exist when Moses relayed these warnings from the Lord ("a nation unknown to you or to your ancestors") will come and do the very things predicted in the text we're studying today. 

The Lord issued the frightful warnings of Chapter 28 because He did not want any of these things to happen. He went into a great deal of detail about the horrors that would ensue if Israel forsakes Him and turns to false gods. He wanted to paint very vivid pictures in their minds of what would happen if they became like the nations around them---nations who served worthless idols and engaged in all sorts of unclean and atrocious behaviors. The Lord spent far more time talking about the consequences of idolatry than He did talking about the blessings for faithfulness, and He did this to impress upon their minds the life-and-death seriousness of the subject at hand. 

Unfortunately, human beings often have a tendency to have to learn lessons the hard way. I confess that many of the lessons I've learned were learned the hard way. Warnings haven't always been enough to dissuade me from going off course. Warnings weren't enough to dissuade Israel from going off course either, but I want to take a moment to put forth the opinion that no other nation on earth would have done any better. If the Lord had chosen some other group of people in ancient times and made a covenant with them, they'd have done the same things Israel did. In fact, any other group of people would likely have fallen away from the Lord even sooner than Israel did, for at least Israel had forefathers who faithfully served the Lord. At least the Israelites had the heritage of those who feared the Lord's name, as King David phrased it in Psalm 61:5. If the Lord had called some nation other than Israel, He would have been calling a nation that had already forsaken Him somewhere back in the mists of time, and that nation would have had a harder time resisting the lure of sin than Israel did. So in my opinion, Israel resisted longer than anyone else would have, and we dare not shake our heads over the Israelite's mistakes and think we'd have done a better job if we'd been in their shoes. I think we'd have fared far worse. My Gentile ancestors bowed on their knees at pagan altars and babbled to useless blocks of wood and made offerings to gods that never existed. If the Lord had called to my ancestors the way He called to the people of Israel, my forefathers would have sinned against Him far sooner and far more abominably than Israel ever did. 

We must study the deeds of the Bible characters with compassion in our hearts, not with judgmental attitudes. We can't read about them and shake our heads and cluck our tongues and imagine we'd have done a better job of things if we'd been in their place. We are human beings just like they were and we would have made the same mistakes. I think my heathen Gentile ancestors would have sinned against the Lord even sooner and perhaps in more shocking ways. So let's read of the mistakes made by Bible characters with broken, compassionate hearts. That's how I'd want people to read about my own mistakes. 

Deuteronomy. Day 100, Curses For Disobedience, Part One

In our last study we took a look at the blessings the Lord promised the Israelites if they will be obedient to Him in the promised land. Today and tomorrow we study the remainder of Chapter 28 which has to do with the consequences of disobeying the Lord.

"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 on you and overtake you: You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country." (Deuteronomy 28:15-16) In the first half of our chapter the Lord promised blessings for obedience in the city and in the country; in other words, they would be blessed wherever they lived and wherever they went. If any of them choose to live in disobedience to Him, they will face troubles and dissatisfaction wherever they are. 

In the first half of our chapter, in return for their obedience the people were promised all the blessings of home and hearth along with blessings in their agricultural and business pursuits. Things will go wrong in all these areas of their lives if they live in opposition to the word of God. "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." (Deuteronomy 28:17-19) 

Nothing is going to go well in any area of their lives if they turn away from the Lord their God. In some ways the very specific list of blessings and curses in Deuteronomy 28 are spoken to Israel alone. Israel alone was given the promised land. The Israelites knew the Lord in a way no other nation on earth knew Him at that time. It was only to Israel that the Lord made the first covenant, although people of other cultures could convert to Judaism and in doing so they were bound to obey the covenant. But the Lord had a special relationship with Israel and this is why it was such a severe offense if any of them chose to disobey His laws and commandments. This is why it was such an abomination to dabble in idolatry or forsake the Lord in favor of the gods of the other nations. 

The Lord has not promised believers in the church age that if we remain faithful to Him we will prosper in every area of our lives. Being in a covenant relationship with Jesus Christ doesn't guarantee us easy living; on the contrary, Jesus warned anyone who wants to follow Him that the world (the use of "the world" here is a reference to those who don't love or serve the Lord) will hate us because it hated Him. (John 15:18-15) If anyone despises Jesus they will naturally despise His disciples as well. They will discriminate against us in various ways and make life hard for us. In addition to troubles our fellow man may cause us, we have to live in a fallen world that has been polluted by sin---a world where bad things happen to both the godly and the wicked. Life isn't going to be a bed of roses all the time, not even for those who love the Lord. And we must keep in mind that even to Israel the Lord wasn't promising the complete absence of sorrow in life. Things like accidents, illnesses, and death were still going to happen because those are the things that happen in a world polluted by sin. As the Bible says, it is appointed unto every man to die because every person on the face of the earth has sinned. (Hebrews 9:27) So the Lord wasn't promising the Israelites they'd never have any troubles or trials in this life or that they would live forever in their mortal human bodies. He was promising them prosperity and protection such as no other nation on earth had, and one of the purposes of this was to draw the eyes of the world to Israel so people of other cultures would know that the Lord is real and that He is the only God and that He protects and provides for those who serve Him. The enormous blessings promised to Israel in the land of Canaan were not only rewards for godly living but were also intended to draw people from other nations to faith in the Lord. 

As the wise King Solomon observed, the way of transgressors is hard. (Proverbs 13:15) Living in disobedience to the Lord brings nothing of lasting value into our lives. It brings a lot of extra hardship into our lives too. The Lord created human beings to have a relationship with Him. He created us with a space inside of us that can be filled only by Him. Seeking satisfaction and peace in life apart from Him is always going to leave us unfulfilled. Depending on where we seek a sense of peace and satisfaction, we'll bring not only spiritual harm to ourselves but physical harm as well. We'll see next that if the Israelites turn away from the Lord they will experience downturns in both their material prosperity and in their physical prosperity. "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." (Deuteronomy 28:20-24) 

These things sound very harsh but something we must take a moment to consider is that troubling circumstances often lead to repentance. Many a person has come to the realization that his life has become miserable due to his rebellion against the Lord. Many a person has acknowledged that he's brought all his troubles upon himself by living in sin. Many a person has tossed and turned through the dark watches of the night, seeking peace in his mind but finding none, wrestling with the knowledge that the destination of his eternal soul is in question. The curses of disobedience are harsh but sometimes hitting rock bottom is the only thing that compels a person to look up to the Lord and bow on their knees before Him and make Him the Lord of their lives. 

King Solomon said that when a man's ways please the Lord, the Lord will make even his enemies be at peace with him. (Proverbs 16:7) The opposite is also true. When a man's ways don't please the Lord, the Lord may allow his enemies to get the upper hand over him. "The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but will 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 and the wild animals, 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 the mind. At midday you will grope about like a blind person 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." (Deuteronomy 28:25-29)

The verses above remind me of our study of Revelation in which we find similar plagues falling upon the unbelievers of the earth in the last days. In Revelation the plagues fall as a result of people's sins but another purpose of the plagues is to bring people to repentance. Even in wrath the Lord is merciful! Even when handing down judgment His ears are open to prayers of repentance. Hardships can become blessings when we allow them to turn us away from sin and turn us toward the Lord. Before I came to faith in the Lord I had painted myself into a corner with my sins and bad decisions. My life was a mess of my own making. It wasn't until I was completely hemmed in with nowhere to turn that I looked up to the Lord and called out to Him. That's true of a lot of people. Not all of us respond appropriately to the Lord calling to us in love. Not all of us respond appropriately to being blessed. For some of us, it takes facing the consequences of our poor choices to compel us to repent and get in a right relationship with the Lord. So we see that, even if the Israelites bring some of the curses of Chapter 28 upon themselves, there is still hope. Their hard times may cause them to recognize the error of their ways, repent, and turn back to the Lord. 

Deuteronomy. Day 99, Blessings For Israel's Obedience

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.

Deuteronomy. Day 98, Curses Pronounced From Mount Ebal

In Deuteronomy 11:19 the Israelites were told that after they cross into the promised land they are to pronounce blessings from Mount Gerizim and curses from Mount Ebal. Today we look at the curses.

"Then Moses and the Levitical priests said to all Israel, 'Be silent, Israel, and listen! You have now become the people of the Lord your God. Obey the Lord your God and follow His commands and decrees that I give you today.' On the same day Moses commanded the people: When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin. And these tribes shall stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce curses: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali." (Deuteronomy 27:9-13) This landscape of this location creates a natural amphitheater. With the congregation standing in the space between the two mountains, everyone will be able to hear everything that is said. The instructions from today's passage will be obeyed in Joshua 8. 

"The Levites shall recite to all the people of Israel in a loud voice: 'Cursed is anyone who makes an idol---a thing detestable to the Lord, the work of skilled hands---and sets it up in secret.' Then all the people shall say, 'Amen!'" (Deuteronomy 27:14-15) The people are to have no gods other than the one true God. This is one of the ten commandments---the first commandment upon which all the others hinge. God is to be the God of the nation of Israel, both publicly and privately. Committing a sin in secret may hide a person's wickedness from their fellow man but it doesn't hide it from God. Committing an act of idolatry in secret is as much of a sin as committing it out in the open. 

The Levites continue on down the list of curses. "'Cursed is anyone who dishonors their father or mother.' Then all the people shall say, 'Amen!'" (Deuteronomy 27:16) Honoring one's father and mother is another of the ten commandments.

"'Cursed is anyone who moves their neighbor's boundary stone.' Then all the people shall say, 'Amen!'" (Deuteronomy 27:17) An action like this amounts to theft. A prohibition against stealing is one of the ten commandments.

These next two curses don't involve the breaking of specific laws outlined in the ten commandments but they do involve the breaking of the laws to love your neighbor as yourself and to treat others as you want to be treated. "'Cursed is anyone who leads the blind astray on the road.' Then all the people shall say, 'Amen!' 'Cursed is anyone who withholds justice from the foreigner, the fatherless or the widow.' Then all the people shall say, 'Amen!'" (Deuteronomy 27:19-20) The Lord has already made it clear, by the laws He's set forth in our study of the Old Testament, that He defends the cause of the helpless and needy. He will hear them when they cry out against their oppressors.

The next set of curses involve sexual sins. "'Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his father's wife, for he dishonors his father's bed.' Then all the people shall say, 'Amen!' 'Cursed is anyone who has sexual relations with any animal.' Then all the people shall say, 'Amen!' 'Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.' Then all the people shall say, 'Amen!' 'Cursed is anyone who sleeps with his mother-in-law.' Then all the people shall say, 'Amen!'" (Deuteronomy 27:20-23) We studied a list of sexual prohibitions earlier in the Bible. These things are prohibited due to being unnatural (humans mating with animals) or due to being incestuous in nature and therefore detrimental to the health of the family/the community (a man having an affair with his step-mother, for example, causing a family rift) and detrimental to the health of any resulting offspring (a sexual relationship between a brother and a sister, for example, causing birth defects in a child born to them). 

Next we see that a person is cursed even when he appears to have gotten away with murder. "'Cursed is anyone who kills their neighbor secretly.' Then all the people shall say, 'Amen!'" (Deuteronomy 27:24) The community may not know the identity of the perpetrator of this crime. The murderer may never be brought into a human court and judged guilty, but the Lord knows his identity and will judge his crime. The guilty man will pay sooner or later.

The person who perverts justice is under a curse, as we've already learned earlier in the Bible, but the one who performs a "contract killing" is under an even greater curse. Let's say, for example, a court case is coming up in which an innocent person will give testimony that proves the guilt of a wicked person. The wicked person may decide, prior to the trial, to pay someone to kill the one who is going to testify against him. Both the wicked person and the one he paid to perform this dirty deed have brought a curse upon themselves. "'Cursed is anyone who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.' Then all the people shall say, 'Amen!'" (Deuteronomy 27:25)

The congregation is to say, 'Amen!' to each individual statement in this list of curses. Then, at the conclusion of the list, they are to say, 'Amen!' to the list as a whole. "'Cursed is anyone who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out.' Then all the people shall say, 'Amen!'" (Deuteronomy 27:26) They agree to keep these laws individually and as a whole.

Deuteronomy. Day 97, The Altar On Mount Ebal

In Deuteronomy 11 the congregation was told: "When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses." Moses will go into more detail about Mount Ebal and the curses to be pronounced there in our current chapter. The actual ceremony for this will not take place until we study the book of Joshua.

"Moses and the elders of Israel commanded the people: 'Keep all these commands that I give you today. When you have crossed the Jordan into the land the Lord your God is giving you, set up some large stones and coat them with plaster.'" (Deuteronomy 27:1-2) We will find these instructions fulfilled in Joshua 8:30-31a. After the Israelites enter the promised land, we will read that, "Joshua built on Mount Ebal an altar to the Lord, the God of Israel, as Moses the servant of the Lord had commanded the Israelites."

"Write on them all the words of this law when you have crossed over to enter the land the Lord your God is giving you, a land flowing with milk and honey, just as the Lord, the God of your ancestors, promised you." (Deuteronomy 27:3) After building the altar and coating it with plaster, "Joshua wrote on stones a copy of the law of Moses." (Joshua 8:32) The laws we've been studying in the Old Testament are often referred to as "the law of Moses" because Moses relayed the Lord's instructions to the people, but the people must never forget that these laws are the Lord's laws. Moses didn't make these statutes up. Moses received the word of the Lord and passed it along to the people with whom the Lord intended to make a covenant. The Bible may refer to this whole body of regulations as "the law of Moses" but the Israelites understood them to be "the law of the Lord". This is why they will make sacrifices and offerings on the altar at Ebal. They aren't making sacrifices in memory of Moses or in worship of him; they are sacrificing to the Lord. They are confirming their covenant with the Lord, renewing their promise to submit to His authority, and acknowledging Him as Lawgiver and Judge and God.

"And when you have crossed the Jordan, set up these stones on Mount Ebal, as I commanded you today, and coat them with plaster. Build there an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones. Do not use any iron tool on them." (Deuteronomy 27:4-5) Joshua will obey these instructions to the letter. "He built it according to what is written in the Book of the Law of Moses---an altar of uncut stones, on which no iron tool had been used." (Joshua 8:31b) Earlier in our study of the Old Testament we discussed why uncut stones were used for altars. The uncut stones symbolize the fact that man cannot improve upon anything God has done. It is God who provides a means of salvation; man cannot save himself. Therefore, stones for altars were to be used in their natural state---as God made them through the forces of nature which were created by Him. Man comes to God on God's terms, not on his own terms. Salvation is obtained by coming to God through the method God has chosen, not by performing manmade rituals. We cannot find our own path to God; we come to God only by the path He has marked out for us. 

Altars for sacrifice were used under the old covenant. But we can compare what we're discussing in Deuteronomy 27 with the new covenant which was established by the sacrifice Christ made. Is anything lacking in what He did for us? Can we add anything to it? Can we become "more saved" than we already are? No, Christ did all that needed to be done. We can't improve on it; it's perfect just as it is. In this same way, the people of the Old Testament did not need to make alterations to the stones they were setting up for altars to the Lord. The Lord was doing the work that made them holy. The blood that was shed to atone for sins was being accepted by Him on these altars instead of requiring the death of those who transgressed His covenant. He accepted substitutionary sacrifices on the altars of Israel. Performing extra work on the altars or performing extra rituals during the sacrifices would not have made the people "more saved/more forgiven". They were to do in faith exactly what God said. In this same way, God accepts our faith regarding the substitutionary sacrifice of Christ. We cannot add anything to what Christ has done. In fact, when man meddles in anything the Lord has done, he actually detracts from it. We are imperfect creatures with dirty hands and dirty hearts. We must come to the Lord by the means He provides for us, not adding anything to it and not taking anything away from it.

After the people have built the altar at Ebal, they are to make sacrifices on it. "Build the altar of the Lord your God with fieldstones and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. Sacrifice fellowship offerings there, eating them and rejoicing in the presence of the Lord your God. And you shall write very clearly all the words of this law on these stones you have set up." (Deuteronomy 27:6-8) After the altar is set up in the book of Joshua, the Bible says, "On it they offered to the Lord burnt offerings and sacrificed fellowship offerings." (Joshua 8:31c) 

The people will follow the Lord's instructions exactly as Moses relayed them to them, not adding to the instructions or taking away from them. The word of the Lord will be written "very clearly" on the stones they have set up. The Lord never wants us to guess at what He considers holy living. He doesn't want us to walk through life unsure if we are doing right or doing wrong. He doesn't want us to wonder whether or not He loves us. He doesn't want us to doubt our salvation. He has very clearly shown us what He considers holy living. In doing so, He has revealed to us that we fall short of perfection and that we need a means of obtaining forgiveness. He has shown us we need a Savior and, after clearly demonstrating to us that we need a Savior, He tells us who our Savior is and how to be saved by Him. The Lord could not have made His plan of salvation any plainer than it is. He told us in the simplest words possible that no one comes to Him except by the way He has chosen---and that way is His Son. (John 14:6) He tells us that, "Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved." (Acts 4:12) He provides the gospel message to us in words that couldn't be easier to understand: "Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31a), and, "If you declare with your mouth, 'Jesus is Lord,' and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved." (Romans 10:9)