5/11/12. Deut 28:15-35. God Was Molding His People Into A Holy Nation

Key Verse: 28:20                                                                              Kevin jesmer NIU UBF

“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.^”

 Dear Lord Jesus, thank you for just simply being there for us. Thank you for all the wisdom that you bestow upon us in the Bible. I am really enjoying meditating on your truth, especially the truth in the Old Testament. Please illuminate my heart. I pray in the awesome name of Jesus. Amen!

Part 1: Curses Will Overtake You (15-20).

Verses 15-20 read, “¹⁵ 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: ¹⁶ You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. ¹⁷ Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. ¹⁸ 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. ¹⁹ You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. ²⁰ 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.”

God warned his people that if, over time, they stop obeying him and stop observing his ways, all his curses will come upon them and overtake them. God’s love is something that must never be spurned or reject. His love is extravagant. When the ancient Israelites forsook the love of God, they suffered grave consequences. He trains them and exposed the  to curses in hopes that they would repent of their sin. He promised to curse his unfaithful people wherever they went. They couldn’t get away from it.  He will curse whatever they try to do. They will be cursed, confused, and rebuked until they are ruined and destroyed if they forsake God. This is God’s divine discipline and love to turn his people’s hearts back to him.

That was in the times of the ancient Israelites, (1400 BC). That was in the Old Testament age. What about now? Nowadays, if a person suffers I would not say that God is causing that person pain or suffering. That person is suffering because of the repercussions of their own sin. God may have lifted his hedge of protection from around them because they have rejected him. Indeed there are consequences to our actions. If we play with fire we will get burned. If we don’t study we will fail. If we eat bad food then our bodies will suffer. The list goes on and on. It is not God doing it. He doesn’t have to. We do a good enough job doing it to ourselves. But there are also very sincere Christians who are suffering in this life. They may be allowed to suffer in order to bring glory to Jesus or to grow in Christ-likeness. Our attitude towards suffering should be the same, to repent of all known and unknown sins and draw near to God and entrust our lives and our future to Jesus. We must never, ever get bitter or angry at God because of what we suffer. We must never doubt the love of God. But trust his love and find meaning in Jesus an the gospel.  Then salvation will come our way and we will the light of God will shine in our hearts.

Part 2: The Lord Will Smite You (21-35).

Verses 21-35, “ The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. ²² The Lordwill 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. ²³ The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. ²⁴ The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed. ²⁵ 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. ²⁶ Your carcasses will be food for all the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. ²⁷ The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. ²⁸ The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. ²⁹ 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. ³⁰ 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.³¹ 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. ³² 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. ³³ 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. ³⁴ The sights you see will drive you mad. ³⁵ 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.”

If the ancient Israelites rebelled against him, God would smite them with pestilence, disease, the sword, drought, flood, mildew, boils, tumors, madness, blindness, and despair. God’s hand will be so heavy against them. Their enemies will defeat them and scatter them. All the nations will know that their destruction happened because they forsook God. Everything and everyone of value to them will be torn from them. They will be crushed continually because of their willful disobedience and hardened hearts.

This is very hard to accept. But God was establishing a people for himself. God was molding a former slave nation into aKingdomofPriestsand a Holy Nation. He was molding a nation of people who could reveal faith and God’s truth to a vicious world, full if idolatry and cruelty and injustice. It was imperative that they fall into line and allow God to work in them and through them. The next 4 millennia of humanity depended on God working through the ancient Israelites to bring the salvation of God to the world. There was no time to fool around. If they didn’t overcome and hold onto God, they would perish as a people of God. Their enemies would overcome them.

Today, as was already discussed, we bring a lot of this suffering on ourselves. Or they are allowed to happen so that we may bring glory to God through our suffering. But it is not God punishing. The “take away” point I get from all of this is…I need to take God seriously. He wants me and my household to be a source of light and blessing to the world. If I don’t take him seriously and remain in him as a branch remains in a vine, I will perish. My kids will suffer greatly. Those, whom God brought into my life will not be blessed through my house church. Lord, I want to take your invitation very seriously. I want to take your word seriously. Place your hedge of protection around me and my family as we serve you in this world.

One Word: When suffering comes, draw near to Jesus in repentance and faith and dwell in his love as a branch dwells in a vine.