Deut 28 — Blessings for Obedience and Curses for Disobedience
Deut 29 — The Covenant Renewed in Moab
Deut 30 — Repentance and Forgiveness, Life and Death
Thoughts about serving others
This link includes a list of posts about Serving the Least, the Lost, and the Lonely.
My prayer is for you to join me on this journey. Subscribe to this blog below to get an email when a new post is available.
Let the Word evoke words. May your life encourage lives.
The blessings and curses provide a clear picture: “If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord you God…” (Deut 28:13), we will be blessed. “However, if you do not obey…” (Deut 28:15) many curses will follow. Of the curses, the ones that stuck out to me are found in 28:64-69 where we are told, “the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other…the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart…you will offer yourselves to sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
Of all the curses, the curse of hopelessness is the worst. We can do without material possessions, but having no hope is far worse. We seem to be systematically removing hope from society. Prayer is removed from schools, the constant debate about church and state, the growth of atheism and the birth of religions that follow no one or everyone are all part of movements that attempt to place hope in individuals, but none of this can truly satisfy.
There is great hope in Deut 30:4, “Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the Lord your God will gather you and bring you back.” That is hope! When we “return to the Lord your God with all hour heart and with all your soul” (Deut 30:2), God will seek us out and bring us home. God help me to share this hope with those who are far from you, even today. Amen!