Deuteronomy 28:15 – 27 “If, however, you do not obey the LORD your God by carefully following all His commandments and statutes 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 kneading bowl will be cursed.
The fruit of your womb will be cursed, as well as the produce of your land, 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 curses upon you, confusion and reproof in all to which you put your hand, until you are destroyed and quickly perish because of the wickedness you have committed in forsaking Him.
The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has exterminated you from the land that you are entering to possess. The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; these will pursue you until you perish. The sky over your head will be bronze, and the earth beneath you iron.
The LORD will turn the rain of your land into dust and powder; it will descend on you from the sky until you are destroyed.
The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will march out against them in one direction but flee from them in seven. You will be an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. Your corpses will be food for all the birds of the air and beasts of the earth, with no one to scare them away.
The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors and scabs and itch from which you cannot be cured.”
YIPES!!!! Reading this list of curses, the result of disobeying God, you wonder why anybody would voluntarily do this to themselves. Plagues, drought, famine, destruction, death – this is the Lord of the Universe giving a comprehensive list of what can happen if His people don’t obey Him. And the worst part of it is that all these things eventually did happen to the Israelites. As things continued to get worse, God continued to send prophets who tried to warn the Israelites. Did anybody repent? Possibly. If none of the Israelites had repented, Israel would not exist as a nation today. But it was only the mercy of God that spared the Israelites.
APPLICATION: The prophet Jeremiah had one of the toughest assignments God ever gave anybody. Jeremiah was tasked with warning the Kingdom of Judah that they were about to fall unless they repented quickly. The Judeans refused to listen and made Jeremiah’s life miserable. Finally, Jeremiah was carried off into captivity along with a few of the inhabitants of Judah. Sounds really gloomy? Right? And yet in Lamentations 3:21 – 26 Jeremiah is able to say this:“Yet I call this to mind, and therefore, I have hope:
Because of the loving devotion of the LORD we are not consumed, for His mercies never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness!
“The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, “therefore I will hope in Him.”
The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, to the soul who seeks Him.
It is good to wait quietly for the salvation of the LORD.”
Does following God really pay? There is a story about St. Teresa of Avila, a Spanish saint, who was traveling in an ox cart when it got stuck in the mud. Teresa is said to have looked heavenward and scolded the Lord saying, “No wonder You have so few friends if this is the way You treat them!” (On the other hand, Teresa was also noted for her wonderful prayer life and for her compassion.) There is not a single saint on earth who has not suffered, but at the same time, God has also brought them incredible peace and joy.
Today things may be very tough for you. You may have friends or loved ones in the hospital. You may be overworked at your job. You may be trying to cope with having kids at home while you are at work. Remember this: the loving devotion of the Lord is for you, just as it was for Teresa of Avila or for the prophet Jeremiah. God’s mercies NEVER fail, nor will they fail in your situation. God’s mercies ARE new every morning, and His faithfulness truly is great. The key for us is to wait quietly for the salvation of the Lord and not to become agitated and anxious.
PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Help us to wait for Your salvation and to remember that Your timing is perfect. Give those reading this Your peace in their hearts. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.
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