There are 14 verses that describe the blessings that God is going to pour out on the people if they obey. 14 verses of extravagant blessing. Take a guess at how many verses describe the punishments for disobedience…
Read Deuteronomy 28-29
That number would be 54. almost 4x the number of verses are used to describe the horrific consequences of disobedience. I don’t know that you can read this without feeling appalled…and it wasn’t even directed toward us. What makes it even worse is knowing that Israel did wander away from God, and they did experience all of the curses covered here. The boils, the slavery, the scorched earth, consuming their young….all of it happened.
And every single bit of it could have been avoided.
Have you ever seen before and after pictures of people who ingest crack cocaine? The comparison is frightening. The before picture shows a professional person, well dressed and in good health…and the after picture is a toothless, premature aging, hollow eyed character dressed in clothes that came out of the dumpster. Knowing exactly what that drug does to EVERYONE who uses it, who in their right mind would take it? What kind of monster would sell it? How could anyone who sells it ever be released back into society? And yet, people buy it every day, and the hospitals, jails and morgues are filled. It’s almost as if we are blind, and cannot see what is causing our demise.
Every single bit of it could be avoided.
As Moses stood giving his final address he spoke to a generation that “has not yet been born”. That could well be you and I. The blessings that God wants to pour out upon people who obey are almost unlimited. Read through the list of wonderful things that will happen to the nation that honors the Lord. This isn’t some fabrication of a false religion…everything described here has come true, both the blessing and the curses have all come true. The ruthless nations that attacked Israel were exactly as they were described. God isn’t fooling around here.
If the blessings are true, then so are the curses. I mean, they are true for you and I and our nation, just as they were for the Israelites. In the very same way that Crack will destroy a life, intentional sin and disobedience will leave us cursed and hollowed out before God. There is absolutely no doubt that this will happen. God promises it will happen.
It’s so horrific, that Moses spends 4x as much time describing it as he does the blessings, so that no one would EVER think to take up a lifestyle of disobedience. I’m sure the people left this area saying “it couldn’t be any clearer than this…and we will never disobey”.
And yet, THEY DID.
If I worry about anything, I worry that my own human failings will lead me down a road of disobedience. It has happened to far better people than I. And yet, I don’t worry that I might become a crack-head. Why the difference? Oddly, I’m not sure. Perhaps it’s because I know there isn’t any desire in me at all to experiment with Crack. I don’t want it.
And yet, there is a part of me (a part that I want to wither and die) that wants to be disobedient.
I echo the words of Paul “who will free me from this body of death”?
Faithfully,
PR