Christian Living

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Blessin’s & Cursin’s (Part 2 of 4)

“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God:
“Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.
“Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
“Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
“Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
“The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.
“The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you.
“The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. And the LORD will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
Deuteronomy 28:1-14 NKJV

In "Blessin's & Cursin's, Part 1, I mentioned that I've heard a lot of sermons and teachings on the blessings and curses that Moses announced to the Israelites in Deuteronomy 28, and by far, the focus of those sermons and teachings is more often on the curses listed in Deuteronomy 28:15-68 than on the blessings listed in Deuteronomy 28:1-14. I've always wondered why that was, and I've learned that it simply comes down to this:

LAW vs. FAITH

The Law
The Israelites were the descendants of Abraham, whom God had blessed and promised to make the Father of Many Nations, whereby all the nations of the world would be blessed - because Jesus, the Messiah, the Savior of the World, would come through Abraham's son, Isaac. (See Genesis 12:1-3, Genesis 17) Isaac was the father of Jacob, whom God re-named Israel, and the Israelites descended from him. As it happened, the Iraelites became a nation of approximately 3 million people, but they spent over 400 years as slaves in Egypt. The Law, through which the blessings and curses of Deuteronomy 28 would come, was given to the Israelites through Moses after he led them out of Egyptian slavery into the land that God had promised them. God had to hand down an extremely stringent set of laws to the Israelites in order to keep sin in check until the time appointed for Jesus to become "the Lamb of God, who [would take] away the sins of the world." (John 1:29) God knew that unless He demanded strict obedience to that set of laws, and unless people knew that there would be severe consequences to disobedience, sin would take over and corrupt the very people He had chosen to be the anscestors of Jesus. (See Galatians 3) The law was meant to keep the people of Israel aware that they could never be good enough in their own strength. It was meant to put people literally in fear of losing their lives and their immortal souls - obedience meant health, long life and prosperity, disobedience was likely to mean losing life, limb and property, quickly.

But, once Jesus died on the cross and rose again, the power of sin was diminished, and there was no need for a super-strict set of laws. People now had a way to live in relationship with God as His children, not as strangers. Through the blood of Jesus that cleanses from all sin, obedience becomes a matter of our acceptance of what Jesus did (Faith), rather than our constantly straining to perfectly keep a set of laws. (See Galatians 3)

In Part 3, we'll a look at how Faith in Jesus brings us the Blessin's and cancels the Cursin's.

In Part 4, we'll ponder the answer to the question: If God would rather bless than curse, and if We would rather be blessed than cursed, then why is the focus more on the curses than the blessings?!?!?!

**Adapted from the author's website at http://www.seedwords.com/pages.asp?pageid=78846

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