Blessings and cursings. Blessings for obedience. Curses for disobedience. Did you notice there were twice as much material to describe the curses as there were for the blessings? Why is human nature like that? Educators talk a lot about positive reinforcement and how it's more effective, and they have their points, but let's face it: people are more likely to avoid something painful or distasteful than they are to pursue something good. How many people learn to not touch a stove because it's hot? How many people admit that they are more scared of hell than they are excited about heaven when they first accept Christ? How many of us give up sin because we are run-down by the consequences rather than pursuing the blessings of being free from it? We all know we would love those positive things, and honestly believe we would pursue them, but we easily allow ourselves to be deterred by the work it takes to get them. Yet we are willing to work, and work hard, to avoid something we do not like or want!
If you look at the blessings: they knock your socks off. Really. That cliche isn't strong enough to describe how incredible the blessings are. Israel cannot fail. They will be blessed in the home, in the family, in their work in the field... They will have an abundance of food, of livestock, in the land. They will be blessed when they head out, they will be blessed when they get home! How can you go wrong? Yet if that's not enough incentive for you, just look at the curses. They're horrific. Not only is every blessing reversed, but there is worse to come: not only would Israel lose their inheritance in the land, but they would suffer every humiliation that came along with conquest. The gruesome detail that the Lord depicts to remind them what happens when a nation is dispossessed of its land by a hostile conqueror is enough to make you shudder. And to think perhaps it would be easy to remain faithful.
My Old Testament professor, Dr. John Holmes taught that all of the Old Testament (OT) hangs upon the promises in Deuteronomy 28 (and 29). I remember, he used to make us recite that in class! (Shout out to Dr. Holmes! Still one of the best teachers I have ever had the privilege to sit under, though now I think he is Dean of Academics at my alma mater; I don't know if he still teaches.) But on learning more about the OT, the history recorded, the prophecies made, they all do point back to this promise. Whenever Israel was unfaithful, God sent other nations to discipline them and bring them back into the fold. We'll see the cycle in Joshua and Judges. The prophets during the period of the kings cried out again and again to remind the people of the consequences if they were not faithful to God, consequences promised in this chapter. And they were fulfilled: Israel was overrun by Assyria in 722 BC. Up to that point, not a more gruesome nation had come along and Israel's punishment was severe: the Assyrians basically smeared the map with them. Judah was later dominated and then destroyed by Babylon, starting in 605 BC with the final deportation in 586 BC. Many of the horrible, horrible things named in Deuteronomy 28 came about: mothers in madness and starvation ate their children, their sons and daughters were led away to captivity, the land was left without protection and plundered, the dead unburied. But you will also see that when Israel was faithful, it was indeed blessed. In Judges, whenever the people turned back they would find freedom from oppressors and prosperity; during the reign of faithful kings, the land was prosperous, battles were won, they had a name among the nations.
I do not know much about the modern state of Israel, and that is to my own detriment. But I wonder how these translate to today? I know God is not done with Israel yet. Not by a long shot.
What does that mean for me? As believers, God has given us promises, too. He has promised to bless us, to keep us, to make us co-heirs with Christ. If God kept every one of His promises to Israel, then will He not also keep His promises to those who believe, those who are adopted as sons? I believe He will.
Tomorrow's Reading: Deuteronomy 29:1-30:10
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