Burunche’s Blog

Deuteronomy 31:14 – 22 “Then the LORD said to Moses, “Behold, the time of your death is near. Call Joshua and present yourselves at the Tent of Meeting, so that I may commission him.”

So, Moses and Joshua went and presented themselves at the Tent of Meeting. Then the LORD appeared at the tent in a pillar of cloud, and the cloud stood over the entrance to the tent.

And the LORD said to Moses, “You will soon rest with your fathers, and these people will rise up and prostitute themselves with the foreign gods of the land they are entering. They will forsake Me and break the covenant I have made with them.

On that day My anger will burn against them, and I will abandon them and hide My face from them, so that they will be consumed, and many troubles and afflictions will befall them.

On that day they will say, ‘Have not these disasters come upon us because our God is no longer with us?’ And on that day I will surely hide My face because of all the evil they have done by turning to other gods.

Now therefore, write down for yourselves this song and teach it to the Israelites; have them recite it, so that it may be a witness for Me against them. When I have brought them into the land that I swore to give their fathers, a land flowing with milk and honey, they will eat their fill and prosper. Then they will turn to other gods and worship them, and they will reject Me and break My covenant. And when many troubles and afflictions have come upon them, this song will testify against them, because it will not be forgotten from the lips of their descendants. For I know their inclination, even before I bring them into the land that I swore to give them.”

So that very day Moses wrote down this song and taught it to the Israelites.”

At first this passage seems confusing. God begins by summoning Moses and Joshua so that He can commission Joshua to take over leadership from Moses. But then God turns His attention to Moses, explaining that He is about to teach Moses a song that Moses is to teach the Israelites. This song will stand as a witness against the Israelites when they prove faithless. Presumably, part of the reason God is informing Moses about the song is so that Joshua will also carefully study this song and learn it as well. As the next leader, Joshua needs all the information that he can get.

Just how faithless were the Israelites? God gave Ezekiel a vivid description of the actual behavior of the Israelites in Egypt and afterwards in the wilderness.

“ And I said to them, ‘Cast away the detestable things your eyes feast on, every one of you, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.’  But they rebelled against me and were not willing to listen to me. None of them cast away the detestable things their eyes feasted on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt.

“Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the midst of the land of Egypt.  But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations among whom they lived, in whose sight I made myself known to them in bringing them out of the land of Egypt.  So I led them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness.  I gave them my statutes and made known to them my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live.  Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not walk in my statutes but rejected my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; and my Sabbaths they greatly profaned.” (Ezekiel 20:7-13)

Evidently, the Israelites hung on to their worthless Egyptian gods long after the One True Living God had delivered them from slavery, from attack by Pharaoh’s army, and from starvation and thirst in the wilderness. Why would God put up with this behavior? God acted for the sake of His Name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations.

APPLICATION: When you look at the story of the Exodus and then realize just how bad the Israelites still were even after they had seen all those miracles, you realize that God was incredibly patient and merciful! God did not choose the Israelites because they were any more virtuous than the Egyptians with whom they had been living for 400 years. God delivered the Israelites because He had made promises to Abraham when He cut covenant with Abraham. God gave Moses the unenviable task of leading this bunch of idol worshipers out into the wilderness so that they would have no other options than to trust God. Even at that point, there were still those who rebelled. God allowed an entire generation of Israelites to die off in the wilderness because of their rebellion and faithlessness. But how many of the children of the first generation were still cherishing Egyptian idols in their tents?

While we would love to smirk at the behavior of the Israelites, we must ask ourselves if we indulge in the same kind of behavior. Do we really try to learn God’s will for our lives and then do it, or are we trying to do our will in God’s name? The major difference is results. Seeking God’s will for our lives and then asking Him to help us follow His guidance brings life and light and peace. Following our own inclinations brings frustration and despair.

What do you do if you come to the end of your own resources and you truly do want God’s help? Simply ask.

PRAYER: Father God, we are frustrated and confused. We have tried to do things our way and we have failed miserably. We don’t know which way to go. Lord, please give us Your guidance and Your peace. Help us to make right decisions instead of wrong ones. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.

Deuteronomy 31:9 – 13 “So Moses wrote down this law and gave it to the priests, the sons of Levi, who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, and to all the elders of Israel.

Then Moses commanded them, “At the end of every seven years, at the appointed time in the year of remission of debt, during the Feast of Tabernacles, when all Israel comes before the LORD your God at the place He will choose, you are to read this law in the hearing of all Israel.

Assemble the people—men, women, children, and the foreigners within your gates—so that they may listen and learn to fear the LORD your God and to follow carefully all the words of this law. Then their children who do not know the law will listen and learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as you live in the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess.”

When Moses was giving these instructions, the Israelites must have thought, “Duh! How can we possibly forget any of these things?” Unfortunately, it didn’t take very long for them to forget completely.

Moses commanded the priests to read the entire law to all Israel, including people of all ages and any foreigners living among them. Everybody in Israel was to study the Law, learn the Law, and abide by the Law so that they would learn to fear the Lord. These readings were to be done every seven years at the appointed time during the Feast of Tabernacles, the most joyous celebration in the Jewish year. Why every seven years? This cycle would give time for children who were too young during the first reading to be able to understand most of it.

So, what happened to this commandment? Sadly, once the Israelites made it into the Promised Land, they conveniently forgot about this commandment entirely. It was not until the time of Nehemiah when the Israelites had been in exile and then had returned from Persia that a public reading of the Law actually took place. (Nehemiah 8) When the exiles who had returned actually heard the words of the Law, they wept in remorse for their sins and the sins of their fathers. (Nehemiah 8:9) During that celebration, the Israelites also celebrated the Feast of Booths for the first time since the days of Joshua. How sad those Israelites who had been in exile must have been when they realized that their suffering might have been avoided completely, had their ancestors followed God’s commands regarding His Law.

APPLICATION: Psalm 119:10 -12 says, “With my whole heart have I sought Thee; O let me not wander from Thy commandments. Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee. Blessed art Thou, O Lord, teach me Thy statutes.” And Psalm 119:18 says, “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of Thy law.”

Long before advanced technology existed, there were those individuals whose job it was to detect counterfeit money. How did these people learn to discern the real from the fakes? They studied real money so intensively that they could not be deceived, no matter how cleverly a counterfeiter had been. In the same way, if we want to know what is spiritually true, we too must study the Word of God, hiding it in our hearts until our hearts overflow.

“But,” you say, “how can I possibly study God’s Word that intensively? I have very little time and I have never been to Bible school.” That’s where Psalm 119:12 comes in. If we ask God to teach us His statutes, He will do so readily. And God knows our minds and hearts better than we know ourselves. God knows exactly how much we can absorb at a given time.

James 1:5 promises that “If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to you.” When you ask God to help you understand His Word, the entire universe will be on your side. God wants you to understand His word so that you will be able to obey it. All that you need is a heart that is hungry for God’s truth and a willingness to learn. Let’s pray.

PRAYER: Father God, thank You for loving us and for caring for us. Give us a hunger to learn Your Will for our lives. Help us to study Your Word and open our minds to understand more each day. In the mighty and precious Name of King Jesus. Amen.   

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.