Burunche’s Blog

Deuteronomy 31:1 – 8 “When Moses had finished speaking these words to all Israel, he said to them, “I am now a hundred and twenty years old; I am no longer able to come and go, and the LORD has said to me, ‘You shall not cross the Jordan.’

The LORD your God Himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will dispossess them. Joshua will cross ahead of you, as the LORD has said. And the LORD will do to them as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, when He destroyed them along with their land.

The LORD will deliver them over to you, and you must do to them exactly as I have commanded you. Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.” Then Moses called for Joshua and said to him in the presence of all Israel, “Be strong and courageous, for you will go with this people into the land that the LORD swore to their fathers to give them, and you shall give it to them as an inheritance. The LORD Himself goes before you; He will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”

Look at Joshua! All this time, Joshua has been shadowing Moses and spending time in the tabernacle with the Lord. Joshua and Caleb were the only two spies who brought back a good report of the Promised Land; their faith saved them while the other spies and all the faithless Israelites died in the Wilderness. Now Joshua has been appointed to succeed Moses and lead the Israelites into the Promised Land. But how do you succeed a living legend?

Moses fully understands the arduous task Joshua is facing; after all, Moses has spent forty years herding more than two million Israelites through the wilderness. There must have been times when Moses wished that he was still herding sheep because the sheep would behave better! But no assignment lasts forever, and now it is time for Moses to hand over to Joshua.

Notice how Moses is encouraging Joshua:

1. “The LORD your God Himself will cross over ahead of you. He will destroy these nations before you, and you will dispossess them. Joshua will cross ahead of you, as the LORD has said. And the LORD will do to them as He did to Sihon and Og, the kings of the Amorites, when He destroyed them along with their land.” God will take the lead, weakening the nations so that Joshua and the Israelites can conquer them.
2. “The LORD will deliver them over to you, and you must do to them exactly as I have commanded you.” Joshua must follow God’s orders implicitly if he is to succeed.
3. Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid or terrified of them, for it is the LORD your God who goes with you; He will never leave you nor forsake you.” “The LORD Himself goes before you; He will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.” Moses keeps repeating these assurances because he knows that Joshua is probably shaking in his sandals. Joshua must remember that God is the One who will conquer and give victories. God has promised to be with Joshua, so Joshua’s role is to remain faithful and refuse to become discouraged.

APPLICATION: Anybody who has ever been a leader can sympathize with Joshua! There is nothing more daunting than taking over from a living legend like Moses. Joshua knows that as soon as he begins taking tough decisions, somebody is going to start drawing unfavorable comparisons. “But when Moses was leading us, we didn’t do it this way!” And yet…. God has firmly told Moses that he is to step down and that Joshua is to take over.

Moses is doing his very best to reinforce to the Israelites the fact that Joshua is God’s choice as Moses’ successor. To that end, Moses repeats the fact that God has selected Joshua and that God will be with Joshua, going before him, leading him, and protecting him.

Moses’ final statement is perhaps the most important one. “He (the Lord) will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.” In King Henry IV part 2, Shakespeare wrote, “uneasy is the head that wears a crown.” Moses knows the agonies of leadership, the sleepless nights, the self – examinations, the anxieties, the despair when one’s followers misbehave. Discouragement is one of the most insidious tools of the Devil because we so easily fall into discouragement. But discouragement doesn’t accomplish anything positive; it only digs an increasingly deep hole into which our spirits can fall if we let them.  

Today you may find yourself in the same situation as Joshua. You are taking over from someone who has been highly successful and you feel totally inadequate! Rest assured that if God has allowed you to come to this point, then God will also be with you just as He was with Joshua. The encouragement from Moses is for you also. “The LORD Himself goes before you; He will be with you. He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid or discouraged.”

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Help us to take heart, realizing that when You call us to something difficult, You are already there before us and that You will strengthen and guide us. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 30:11 – 20 “For this commandment I give you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. It is not in heaven, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will ascend into heaven to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’ And it is not beyond the sea, that you should need to ask, ‘Who will cross the sea to get it for us and proclaim it, that we may obey it?’ But the word is very near you; it is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you may obey it.

See, I have set before you today life and goodness, as well as death and disaster. For I am commanding you today to love the LORD your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, statutes, and ordinances, so that you may live and increase, and the LORD your God may bless you in the land that you are entering to possess.

But if your heart turns away and you do not listen, but are drawn away to bow down to other gods and worship them, I declare to you today that you will surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.

I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you today that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing. So choose life, so that you and your descendants may live, and that you may love the LORD your God, obey Him, and hold fast to Him. For He is your life, and He will prolong your life in the land that the LORD swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.”

Moses is completing the warnings to the Israelites and wants to make things perfectly clear.

1. The Israelites are facing choices with eternal consequences. Choose to obey God and live. Choose to ignore God and die. This choice would seem to be a “no – brainer.”
2. All the Israelites have to do for God to bless them is to be obedient.

Put this way, it all sounds simple and straight forward. The Israelites who are listening to Moses probably are shrugging their shoulders. “Of course, we are going to choose life! Why would we do anything else?”

There’s a story about a spider who was weaving a magnificent web. As the spider was finishing the web, he saw one thread that appeared to be out of place, slightly marring the perfection of his creation. But when the spider snipped that one web, everything fell because that was the thread holding the web to its support.

God knows that the Israelites are going to enter the Promised Land and very shortly will become enamored of the pagan religions they encounter. Those cult prostitutes are gorgeous and alluring. Despite all God’s warnings to destroy the people pursuing these pagan religions, the Israelites are going to compromise more and more. The question that will lead the Israelites astray is this: “Did God REALLY mean what He said?” If that question sounds familiar, it should. That’s the same question Satan put before Eve in the Garden of Eden. The short answer is “Yes! God means every word He says!” But the Israelites aren’t going to remember that part.

APPLICATION: Compromise! So easy and so deadly! For years I have worked in hospitals where the majority of the workers claimed to be Christians. And times without number I have watched and grieved as workers who were church elders have begun collecting from patients for items supplied by the hospital or doing procedures on their own using hospital resources, cheating the hospital of revenues needed to run the facility. Anyone who is concerned and who reports such abuses is threatened by those engaging in such activities, leading to a conspiracy of silence.

The mind – boggling part of such situations is the idea that God has turned His back and is not watching, that the God of heaven and earth somehow does not know what is going on and will overlook such offenses. Someone might ask, “Well, if God sees me doing these things, why doesn’t he punish me at once?” God is watching constantly; however, God also gives people time to come to repentance. But make no mistake! At some point, God will bring a day of reckoning. In that day, the argument that “Everyone is doing it” will not change God’s mind.

Choose God’s ways and live. Refuse to obey God and you are choosing physical and spiritual death. No matter where you find yourself in the world, these choices will always be there. In 2001 the Texas energy giant Enron collapsed. At the time, it was the seventh largest company in America. Sherron Watkins, a former Enron executive and whistle blower, attempted to warn the top management; however, management was sure that they could hide their losses with creative book keeping. Those efforts failed, and Enron crashed, taking a number of other companies with it. Blessedly, in this case, the whistle blower survived. “Watkins now teaches Business Ethics at Texas State University and Corporate Governance and Leadership at North Carolina University. “Enron comes up quite often,” she said. Over the past two decades, Watkins has also traveled the world speaking out on corporate malfeasance.” (https://www.click2houston.com/news/local/2021/12/03/enron-whistleblower-sherron-watkins-now-teaches-business-ethics-20-years-after-companys-fall/#:~:text=Watkins%20now%20teaches%20Business%20Ethics,speaking%20out%20on%20corporate%20malfeasance.)

What should you do if you find yourself in a whistle blower position? Pray, report and trust God. God can take care of you if you do the right thing, even if your fellow workers ostracize you. Silence implies consent. To tell the truth is to choose life. To remain silent means you are siding with wrong doers and may suffer their fate.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, You know those who are reading this who are facing the tough decisions of whether or not to be whistle blowers. Protect the righteous and bring the guilty to repentance. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 30:1 – 10 “When all these things come upon you—the blessings and curses I have set before you—and you call them to mind in all the nations to which the LORD your God has banished you, and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey His voice with all your heart and all your soul according to everything I am giving you today, then He will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you and gather you from all the nations to which the LORD your God has scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the farthest horizon, He will gather you and return you from there.

And the LORD your God will bring you into the land your fathers possessed, and you will take possession of it. He will cause you to prosper and multiply more than your fathers. The LORD your God will circumcise your hearts and the hearts of your descendants, and you will love Him with all your heart and with all your soul, so that you may live.

Then the LORD your God will put all these curses upon your enemies who hate you and persecute you. And you will again obey the voice of the LORD and follow all His commandments I am giving you today. So the LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hands and in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your land. Indeed, the LORD will again delight in your goodness, as He delighted in that of your fathers, if you obey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to Him with all your heart and with all your soul.”

God knows His Israelites! God knows that once the Israelites reach the Promised Land, they will soon slide into – and out of – idolatry repeatedly. God knows that eventually the Israelites will be carried off to Babylon and back to Egypt. Notice verse 1 does NOT say “If all these things come upon you” but WHEN. But at the same time God is warning the Israelites against idolatry, He is also promising restoration if/when they will repent.

Human beings have an incredible ability to lie to themselves, convincing themselves that black is really white, or at least a dark grey. God knows that nothing short of personal experience with full – bore paganism is going to convince the Israelites to really worship Him.

APPLICATION: The amazing thing about Scripture is that it is true. Although the Jews returned from exile under Ezra and Nehemiah, they remained a subjugated people. At the time of Jesus, the Romans controlled all of Israel, dividing it up into provinces. Although the Zionist Movement started in 1897, it was the horrors of the Holocaust that drove many Jews to emigrate to Israel. Visiting Israel today is a revelation. Innovative farming techniques in a dry land have caused the desert to blossom. Israel has become a center of banking and advanced technology. Truly all the blessings that Moses mentioned in this chapter of Deuteronomy have come to modern Israel.

Israel has become a symbol of hope to many Christians around the world as well. One elderly friend told me that she never really believed the Bible until she saw the rise of Israel as a nation at the end of World War II.

The biggest miracle of Israel is this: that God has remembered His promises and that He has fulfilled them. What does the example of Israel mean for us?

Many times we may become convinced that we have failed so badly that God will no longer have anything to do with us. We may feel that God has washed His hands of us, leaving us to our own devices. Nothing could be further from the truth! In fact, God is in the restoration business big – time! Ezekiel 18:21 – 23 says,” But if the wicked man turns from all the sins he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is just and right, he will surely live; he will not die. None of the transgressions he has committed will be held against him. Because of the righteousness he has practiced, he will live. Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked? declares the Lord GOD. Wouldn’t I prefer that he turn from his ways and live?”

If we will give God the slightest amount of repentance, God will help us to change completely. But repentance must begin with realizing that as sinners, we all stand in need of God’s help. Nobody can approach God claiming to be wholly righteous; God knows better.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, show us our sins and help us to confess them and to repudiate them. Please give us clean hearts so that we can truly follow You all the days of our lives. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 29:16 – 29 “For you yourselves know how we lived in the land of Egypt and passed through the nations as you traveled. You saw the abominations and idols among them made of wood and stone, of silver and gold.”

Make sure there is no man or woman, clan or tribe among you today whose heart turns away from the LORD our God to go and worship the gods of those nations. Make sure there is no root among you that bears such poisonous and bitter fruit, because when such a person hears the words of this oath, he invokes a blessing on himself, saying, ‘I will have peace, even though I walk in the stubbornness of my own heart.’

This will bring disaster on the watered land as well as the dry. The LORD will never be willing to forgive him. Instead, His anger and jealousy will burn against that man, and every curse written in this book will fall upon him. The LORD will blot out his name from under heaven and single him out from all the tribes of Israel for disaster, according to all the curses of the covenant written in this Book of the Law.

Then the generation to come—your sons who follow you and the foreigner who comes from a distant land—will see the plagues of the land and the sicknesses the LORD has inflicted on it. All its soil will be a burning waste of brimstone and salt, unsown and unproductive, with no plant growing on it, just like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the LORD overthrew in His fierce anger.

All the nations will ask, ‘Why has the LORD done such a thing to this land? Why this great outburst of anger?’ And the people will answer, ‘It is because they abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went and served other gods, and they worshiped gods they had not known—gods that the LORD had not given to them. Therefore, the LORD’s anger burned against this land, and He brought upon it every curse written in this book. The LORD uprooted them from their land in His anger, rage, and great wrath, and He cast them into another land, where they are today.’

The secret things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.”

Moses is completing his warnings to the Israelites by reminding them of all the horrors of pagan worship they have witnessed during their forty years’ journey. What is Moses describing? Cult prostitution, child sacrifices, possibly ritual sex with animals, and other practices too evil for description – these are the things to which Moses is referring. These practices will lead to moral disintegration and the complete destruction of Israel as a nation; therefore, the Israelites are not to tolerate anyone who engages in these things. Moses is also warning the Israelites against the line of thinking that runs, “Well, REALLY I am all right and I will enjoy God’s blessings, even if I DO dabble in_____.” Any attempts at compromise will only lead to disaster, both for the individual as well as for the nation.

APPLICATION: Ever work with someone who has a “bitter root?” Such people are not only impossible to please, but their rotten outlooks can quickly infect an entire company. Unhappiness, rebellion, and greed are more catching than any virus. Repeatedly, we have witnessed the destructive effects of a single worker with a bad attitude and the ability to convince others. In one case, a strike led by one such worker cost a facility its relationship with a medical school that had been sending students for attachment. The facility lost not only the relationship but the thousands of dollars of medical supplies the students had been bringing each year.  

While we can’t do anything about someone else’s attitude, we certainly can do something about our own. “Bitter roots” can have small beginnings. We become offended and feel justified in cherishing our hurt feelings. We convince ourselves that we have been mistreated, misunderstood, and ill – used. Soon our total focus is on our hurt feelings rather on the work God has called us to do.

In one family in my home area, the eldest son was hard working and faithful. When that man married, his father gave him a farm with new buildings. All seemed rosy. Then the unthinkable happened. A younger brother lost his job due to the Depression, and the father capriciously took the farm away from the eldest son to give it to the younger one instead. The eldest son was angry and depressed for the rest of his life.

There is no doubt that the faithful eldest son had suffered a cruel injustice, something over which he had no control. But the one thing the eldest son could control was his response, and that response shaped the rest of his life. Neighbors described that man as the most depressed individual they had ever known.

Are there any “bitter roots” trying to take hold in your life? Has your boss mistreated you? Has a colleague told lies about you? Have you been misrepresented at a meeting or in a church? Ask God to help you see if there are any little touches of evil trying to find a place in your life and then ask Him to help you confess these things as sin so that He may clean up your heart.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Please shine the light of Your Holy Spirit into our hearts and illumine every dark corner. Help us to confess any tiny “bitter roots” as sin so that you can remove them. Please apply the cleansing Blood of Jesus to our hearts, minds, souls, and bodies. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 29:1-15 “These are the words of the covenant that the LORD commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant He had made with them at Horeb.

Moses summoned all Israel and proclaimed to them, “You have seen with your own eyes everything the LORD did in Egypt to Pharaoh, to all his officials, and to all his land. You saw with your own eyes the great trials, and those miraculous signs and wonders. Yet to this day the LORD has not given you a mind to understand, eyes to see, or ears to hear.

During the forty years I led you in the wilderness, neither your clothes nor the sandals on your feet wore out. You ate no bread and drank no wine or strong drink, so that you might know that I am the LORD your God. When you reached this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us in battle, but we defeated them. We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. So keep and follow the words of this covenant, that you may prosper in all you do.

All of you are standing today before the LORD your God—you leaders of tribes, elders, officials, and all the men of Israel, you children, wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your wood and draw your water— so that you may enter into the covenant of the LORD your God, which He is making with you today, and into His oath, and so that He may establish you today as His people, and He may be your God as He promised you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. 4I am making this covenant and this oath not only with you, but also with those who are standing here with us today in the presence of the LORD our God, as well as with those who are not here today.”

Even though the Israelites made a covenant with God at Mount Sinai, that was forty years ago. The only people left from that generation are Joshua, Caleb, and Moses himself. Now that covenant needs to be renewed and expanded. Here Moses makes the following points:

1. Moses reminds the Israelites of all the signs and wonders that God has done for them, miracles that they still fail to fully appreciate.
2. Moses reminds the Israelites of how God has cared for them in the wilderness, even feeding them and allowing their shoes and clothing to survive.
3. Moses is calling everyone present as witnesses and participants in this new covenant, even the foreign servants. At the same time, Moses is also reinforcing the fact that this covenant will extend for all the generations of those currently present.

APPLICATION: We today may think that we only enter into contracts for ourselves; however, those in the ancient world had a totally different perspective. Covenants were considered binding, not only on those who originally entered into them, but also on their descendants for all generations.

For a description of the ceremony of “cutting covenant,” check out Genesis 15. The practice was to cut a certain number of animals and birds in two and then the two partners of the covenant would walk around and between the parts of the animals, swearing that if they did not uphold the covenant, something similar should happen to them!

Moses wants the people to understand that God is serious about his part of the bargain. Today, many of us scarcely think about God, let alone about His faithfulness and His consistency.

The good news for us is that because God has not changed, His promises also have not changed. If we will only trust God, He will bless us spiritually and physically. The problem is that sometimes spiritual blessings require physical suffering and endurance. The prophet Jeremiah wrote in Lamentations 3:22 – 23 “The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases; his mercies never come to an end; they are new every morning; great is your faithfulness.”

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Help us to follow hard after You all the days of our lives. In the matchless Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 28:58 – 68 “If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God— He will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary disasters, severe and lasting plagues, and terrible and chronic sicknesses. He will afflict you again with all the diseases you dreaded in Egypt, and they will cling to you.

The LORD will also bring upon you every sickness and plague 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 few in number, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God.

Just as it pleased the LORD to make you prosper and to multiply you, so also it will please Him to exterminate you and destroy you. And you will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess.

Then the LORD will scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the earth to the other, and 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, not even a resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a despairing soul.

So your life will hang in doubt before you, and you will be afraid night and day, never certain of survival. In the morning you will say, ‘If only it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘If only it were morning!’—because of the dread in your hearts of the terrifying sights you will see.

The LORD will return you to Egypt in ships by a route that I said you should never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

These verses complete the summary of the curses God will bring on the Israelites if they fail to serve Him. All the plagues of Egypt plus more, being carried into exile, and returning to Egypt where they will not even find employment as slaves – all these things will happen if the Israelites go back on their word to serve God.

God is trying to make His warnings as strong as possible so that the Israelites will remain faithful to Him. Eventually, all these curses really do come to pass, including the return to Egypt.

The story is a very sad one because it is so unnecessary. God doesn’t want the Israelites to break their covenant with Him. God wants the Israelites to be spiritually and physically healthy and prosperous and to demonstrate to other nations the goodness of God. But Israel begins to take God for granted and very soon some of the curses begin to work.

APPLICATION: Look around you! What blessings has God placed in your life? Even if you are suffering from COVID, you are still alive and you can praise God for your life. So many times we behave like the Israelites; we take God’s blessings for granted when we should be eternally grateful.

Sometimes it IS difficult to find something for which to be thankful, but we should try. If you are reading this, then you are able to breathe and you are able to see. Thank God! Thank God for your computer or your cell phone. Thank God that He has a plan for you for today and that He will make that plan clear.

The big mistake the Israelites made was that they were ungrateful and refused to thank God for all His blessings. Ingratitude led to heresy and heresy led to disaster.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Help us to find the little things throughout our day for which we can praise You. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 28:43 – 57 “The foreigner living among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink down lower and lower. He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.

All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, since you did not obey the LORD your God and keep the commandments and statutes He gave you. These curses will be a sign and a wonder upon you and your descendants forever.

Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart in all your abundance, you will serve your enemies the LORD will send against you in famine, thirst, nakedness, and destitution. He will place an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you.

The LORD will bring a nation from afar, from the ends of the earth, to swoop down upon you like an eagle—a nation whose language you will not understand, a ruthless nation with no respect for the old and no pity for the young. They will eat the offspring of your livestock and the produce of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain or new wine or oil, no calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks, until they have caused you to perish. They will besiege all the cities throughout your land, until the high and fortified walls in which you trust have fallen. They will besiege all your cities throughout the land that the LORD your God has given you.  

During the siege and hardship that your enemy will impose on you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters whom the LORD your God has given you. The most gentle and refined man among you will begrudge his brother, the wife he embraces, and the rest of his children who have survived, refusing to share with any of them the flesh of his children that he will eat because he has nothing left in the siege and hardship your enemy will impose on all your cities.

The most gentle and refined woman among you, so gentle and refined she would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge the husband she embraces and her son and daughter the afterbirth that comes from between her legs and the children she bears, because she will secretly eat them for lack of anything else in the siege and dire straits your enemy will impose on you in all your cities.”

Reading these verses requires a strong stomach! Once we realize the full import of these words, we wonder why anybody anywhere could possibly want to suffer such horrors. Here God is describing an invasion of the whole country by ruthless killers who will set sieges around all the cities. As those in the cities begin to starve, parents will butcher their children and mothers will secretly eat their newborn babies along with the afterbirth. Eventually, these things actually will come to pass, and the Israelites will go into exile. (2 Kings 6 for the description of one of the sieges.)  

No matter how many horror movies you watch, you can always tell yourself that you are safe. But here God is warning the Israelites that nobody will be safe, and He is giving as many appalling details as possible.

APPLICATION: Why should we bother reading this horrible gory stuff? We must read these things here so that when we study later parts of the Old Testament, we will realize that God isn’t kidding.

There’s a non – Biblical saying that “What goes around, comes around.” Actions have consequences, whether or not we like those consequences when they appear. God doesn’t want any of these terrible things to happen to the Israelites; it is the Israelites themselves who will keep making wrong choices until they suffer the consequences. It is the Israelites who will insist on going after other gods and who will rebel anytime God sends prophets.

God does not send anybody to hell; people choose to go there by turning away from God. There is a blood line drawn between the Old and New Testaments, and the blood is the blood of Jesus Christ. In Moses’ day, sins were paid for with animal sacrifices, but when Jesus died on the cross at Calvary, He paid the ultimate price in blood for the sins of the world. That payment is available for anyone who will confess that he or she is a sinner and who will believe in what Jesus has done. But if we tell ourselves that we are fine and that we have no problems, we are lying to ourselves and removing ourselves from the reach of God’s mercy.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Lord, open our eyes to see the depths of Your love and our need for Your forgiveness. Help us to follow hard after You all the days of our lives. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 28:28 –42 “The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind, so that at noon you will grope about like a blind man in the darkness. You will not prosper in your ways. Day after day you will be oppressed and plundered, with no one to save you.

You will be pledged in marriage to a woman, but another man will violate her. You will build a house but will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard but will not enjoy its fruit. Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away and not returned to you. Your flock will be given to your enemies, and no one will save you.

Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, while your eyes grow weary looking for them day after day, with no power in your hand. A people you do not know will eat the produce of your land and of all your toil. All your days you will be oppressed and crushed. You will be driven mad by the sights you see.

The LORD will afflict you with painful, incurable boils on your knees and thighs, from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.

The LORD will bring you and the king you appoint to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone. You will become an object of horror, scorn, and ridicule among all the nations to which the LORD will drive you.

You will sow much seed in the field but harvest little, because the locusts will consume it. You will plant and cultivate vineyards, but will neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. You will have olive trees throughout your territory but will never anoint yourself with oil, because the olives will drop off. You will father sons and daughters, but they will not remain yours, because they will go into captivity. Swarms of locusts will consume all your trees and the produce of your land.”

If you thought yesterday’s list of curses was bad, today’s is worse! Madness, blindness, and blighted hopes of all kinds await those who refuse to serve God whole – heartedly. God is sparing no details in describing precisely how horrible things will be for those who refuse to follow His commands.

The recurring theme throughout today’s verses is that of frustration. God is warning the Israelites that if they refuse to serve Him, they are withdrawing themselves from His protection. The results will be catastrophic.

Why is it necessary for God to go on at such great lengths? God is hoping that by giving these detailed warnings, the Israelites will realize that He is not joking. Every fear that has ever tormented someone in the middle of the night will come true. And yet… And yet, the Israelites will settle in the Promised Land and within a few generations will begin suffering due to disobedience.

APPLICATION: Many people love the first part of the 28^th chapter of Deuteronomy but skip over this part, feeling that these warnings can’t possibly apply to them. I have heard entire sermons preached on the “blessing” verses with pastors encouraging the congregation to claim each of the blessings as they read them aloud, shouting loud amens. But we ignore these verses at our own risk.

We live in a distracted age in which our minds and hearts are assailed by a plethora of images. If we allow ourselves to be caught up in social media and videos, we can postpone thinking about eternal matters; however, our lives are still winding down in the meantime. Looking at nations around the world, we can see many of the disasters described in these verses. God hasn’t changed; neither has human nature. If we want God’s blessings, we must serve Him and obey His commands. Recent natural disasters in several different locations have underscored the fact that the God who controls the weather is far more powerful than any other force in the universe.

We live in a fallen sinful world, so we can fall prey to diseases and accidents. But even in the midst of frustration and tragedy, God will still send blessings to those who love Him and serve Him. The saddest part of the curses is this: those who bring curses on themselves have removed themselves from God’s mercy and God’s hope.

What if you and God parted company a long time ago? Can you come back? Yes! There’s a joke about an old couple who were driving down the road. The wife was complaining that they used to sit closer together when they rode together. Finally, the husband quietly remarked, “Well, I haven’t moved.” God hasn’t moved. God is still there. Today, turn around and come back to the Heavenly Father who loves you far better than any earthly father ever could. God hasn’t moved, and He’s waiting for you.

Jesus told the story of the prodigal son in Luke 15. Verse 20 describes the response of the father once he spied the son coming down the road. “But when he was still a great way off, his father saw him and had compassion, and ran and fell on his neck and kissed him.”  Your father is waiting. Leave the curses behind and come!

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Help everyone who reads these words to come to You, the perfect, loving Father for whom our hearts long. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

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.  

Deuteronomy 28: 1 – 14“Now if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God and are careful to follow all His commandments I am giving you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings will come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the voice of the LORD your God:

You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.

the fruit of your womb will be blessed, as well as the produce of your land and the offspring of your livestock— the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

Your basket and kneading bowl will be blessed.

You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.

The LORD will cause the enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They will march out against you in one direction but flee from you in seven.

The LORD will decree a blessing on your barns and on everything to which you put your hand; the LORD your God will bless you in the land He is giving you.

The LORD will establish you as His holy people, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. Then all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will stand in awe of you.

The LORD will make you prosper abundantly—in the fruit of your womb, the offspring of your livestock, and the produce of your land—in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you.

The LORD will open the heavens, His abundant storehouse, 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 and not the tail; you will only move upward and never downward, if you hear and carefully follow the commandments of the LORD your God, which I am giving you today. Do not turn aside to the right or to the left from any of the words I command you today, and do not go after other gods to serve them.”

Success! Abundance! Incredible wealth! Long life! Healthy families! When we read this list of blessings, they are almost incredible. This is the time of year when many churches are having services and promising great things for the coming year. But the list of blessings in Deuteronomy 28 makes most of the promises made by these churches pale by comparison.

These blessings are the ones to be pronounced over Israel by the six tribes standing on Mount Gerizim. The term “Gerizim” means “cut up” or “cutters,” and the altar on Gerizim was to be made of cut stones. Even though these verses do not command it, it is quite likely that the tribes would all shout “Amen!” as loudly as possible in agreement with these blessings.

APPLICATION: Reading this long list of wonderful things, we must wonder how could the Israelites have ever gone over these lists and then rebelled against God? Nothing makes sense! After all, if the Ruler of the Universe offered us this kind of a deal, we would certainly take it up and we would never go back on our promises…. Or would we?

The problem with human nature is that we are all human. Any fallacy that has tempted another person can equally tempt us. The days when the IsraelitThe Israeliteses heard these verses read, they undoubtedly intended to keep their covenant with God and to follow Him whole – heartedly. But then things became a little difficult and compromise began to look far more appealing.

The question Satan asked Eve in the garden of Eden was this, “Did God REALLY say….??” If we don’t pay strict attention to God’s Word, it’s easy to become confused and think we remember what He said when we don’t.

The Israelites listened, but the list of blessings never made it from their heads down into their hearts. Sometimes people feel that this list of blessings only existed for the Israelites; however, God still wants to bless those who will follow Him. Does this list of blessings mean that nothing bad will ever happen to us? No. But we can be assured that God does love us and that He wants to bless those who follow Him.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Thank You for Your blessings. Help us to honor You in every aspect of our lives. In the mighty Name of King Jesus. Amen.