What would overtake you? I remember the feeling of speeding along in my car loving life as the wind blew through my hair when suddenly I felt despair and regret as I saw red and blue lights flashing behind me. I was quickly overtaken and pulled overtaken because I was breaking the law. Being pulled over for speeding is one poignant example of being overtaken but there are many things that we can be overtaken by some of which we would welcome and others we would dread. In Deuteronomy chapters 27 and 28 God makes a promise to the Israelites that they will be overtaken by either blessings or curses and this outcome will be directly related to their obedience or disobedience. The choice was theirs. What was their reaction to this promise from God? What would be your reaction to hearing that?
The blessing:
The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord you 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.
Deuteronomy 28:9,10 NASB
The curse:
The Lord will bring you and your king, whom you set over you, to a nation neither you nor you fathers have known , and there you shall serve other gods, wood and stone. You shall become a horror, a proverb, and a taunt among all the people where the Lord drives you.
Deuteronomy 28:36,37
The blessings and curses detailed in Deuteronomy 27 and 28 are polar opposites. If the Israelites followed God’s laws and statutes they would be blessed and prosper. If the Israelites turned aside from God’s laws and statutes they would be cursed and all their efforts would be in vain. Looking at the choices I would want to have the blessings but how do you instill the fear of the Lord into your children and grandchildren so that they would seek after the Lord because men quickly forget the promises of God but He will never forget and He will fulfill all that He says. The answer to this question is found in Deuteronomy 28:13b,14, “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 the left, to go after other gods to serve them.” The people needed to seek after God and follow His laws.
How does this apply to me today? I am under grace today because of Jesus Christ’s death on the cross but I think that this still applies to me today because Jesus came to fulfill the law not abolish it. I believe that God is sovereign and that there is nothing I can do to gain favor from God through my own works because that would nullify the work accomplished on the cross. I do however believe that God still chooses to bless His people and I think that He would be more likely to bless someone who was following His commands. The command I speak of is every one that is in the old testament because Jesus Christ summed them up simply and eloquently when Pharisee questioned Him.
“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”
And He said to him, ” ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your Heart, and with all your soul, and with all you mind.’ This is the great and foremost commandment. The second is like it, ‘You shall love your neighbor as yourself.’ On these two commandments depend the whole Law and the Prophets.”
Matthew 22:36-40 NASB
Jesus is quoting directly from Deuteronomy and Leviticus in Matthew 22. He is giving us a key to follow Him and honor God. I need to love God and love people. This simple and beautiful truth is the catalyst that will transform lives. Are you willing to embrace this truth? If this truth is instilled into our children and grandchildren that is how the future is secured. I personally need to take my eye off of today and think about the future. Will I live out the truth of Matthew?
Lord, I lift up the fellow believers around me and those that are reading this post. Work in their lives so that they my know what it is to fear the Lord. May they seek only to love You more than anything else in the world. May this love for You overflow within them and in turn enable them to love those around them. Please help me also Lord to live this truth out in my life so that You may be glorified until the day You return. Amen
