“Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command 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 obey the Lord your God: Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. 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 shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you. The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will be afraid of you. The Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully, and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.” (Deuteronomy 28:1 – 14 NASV95)
Moses had just brought God’s laws including the Ten Commandments to the Israelites. He said that if they followed every single one of them God would prosper them. God would give prosperity to individuals, families and the nation. Other nations would know that something was different, that God was with them. That would scare them when they got close enough to know it and they would run. There are a number of accounts in the Bible where this has happened. The Israelites didn’t have to fight at all, just obey the Lord.
After this Scripture Moses tells them that if they don’t obey the laws, they will be cursed and their land will be cursed. Nothing will grow on that land as long as they are not obedient. We know through the Bible and other history how the Hebrew people were driven out of their promised land and the whole place ruined. Jerusalem was destroyed several times. This was all because of the disobedience of the people.
How does this fit us today? Do we Christians still have to obey all of the laws? Aren’t we under grace? We are not under the curse so we are under grace. God still provides our needs. If He went by how well or poorly we obeyed his laws, we would have nothing. God is holy and commands that His people are holy. We are made holy by the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ took our curses on the tree at Calvary.
Several times in the above passage it mentions God blessing what you do with your hands. God does not usually just give you what you want, He prospers what you do when you belong to Him. Today we see on television a lot of preachers talking about “name it and claim it”. Just tell God what you want and He will give it to you. That is not how it worked back in Moses’ time and that is not how it works today. God expects us to do our part.
If we use the wisdom God gives us and what He blesses us with, we will have enough for ourselves and enough to help others.
We who belong to Jesus Christ live in the age of grace and should be able to
say with Paul:
“Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever
circumstances I am.” (Philippians 4:11 NASB95)
By Dean W. Masters
Owner of the Masters List:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/masterslist/
Unedited redistribution approved