April 11, 2024 | Be God's Light
The Covenant with Moses
Scripture: Deuteronomy 28:1-29 (NIV)
1If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. 2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:
3 You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country.
4 The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
5 Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed.
6 You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.
7 The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.
8 The Lord will send a blessing on your barns and on everything you put your hand to. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you.
9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he promised you on oath, if you keep the commands of the Lord your God and walk in obedience to him. 10 Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you. 11 The Lord will grant you abundant prosperity—in the fruit of your womb, the young of your livestock and the crops of your ground—in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you.
12 The Lord will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. 13 The Lord will make you the head, not the tail. If you pay attention to the commands of the Lord your God that I give you this day and carefully follow them, you will always be at the top, never at the bottom. 14 Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.
15 However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:
16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.
17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.
20 The Lord will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him. 21 The Lord will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. 22 The Lord will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. 23 The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. 24 The Lord will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.
25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. 26 Your carcasses will be food for all the birds and the wild animals, and there will be no one to frighten them away. 27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. 28 The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. 29 At midday you will grope about like a blind person in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.
Devotional
In this study of the Old Testament, we have seen that covenant is an important word in the Bible. A covenant is a legal contract between two parties. In Bible times, it served as a binding agreement that could not be broken. The primary covenants in the Old Testament are those that God makes with Noah (Noahic Covenant), Abraham (Abrahamic Covenant), Moses (Mosaic Covenant), and David (Davidic Covenant). All these point to the ultimate covenant God makes through Jesus (The New Covenant). We have been looking at each of these throughout this study.
The Mosaic Covenant is spelled out in great detail in Exodus through Deuteronomy. God was beginning to fulfill his covenant with Abraham by freeing the Israelites from Egyptian slavery and bringing them into the Promised Land. There they would be free from enslavement, but also free to live as they choose. So God gave them the Ten Commandments and many other decrees and laws to help them make the right choices.
Here in Deuteronomy 28, we see the difference between “if” and “if not.” The first fourteen verses are based on fulfilling the conditional clause, “if you fully obey.” People will be blessed, crops will be abundant, enemies will be defeated, and the heavens will be opened. Living for God is a good thing. And good things result.
The remainder of the chapter is based on fulfilling the conditional clause, “if you do not obey.” Blessings will become curses, abundance will turn into scarcity, victory will flee into the arms of defeat, and God will seem like a distant idea. Living for self seems like a good thing. But not-so-good things result.
When John wrote his gospel, he made sure to include what Jesus said about obeying. In John 8:31 Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.” And in John 14:15 He declared, “If you love me, keep my commands.” Being a follower of God means obeying God.
On a scale of one to ten, where are you on the spectrum between “I don’t obey God” to “I completely obey God?” What needs to happen to nudge that number a little higher?
Poem
The Test
The test lies before each
Each moment a choice
To what will you answer?
Both speaking their voice
The voice of your own will--
Rebellion your way?
The voice of God's Spirit?
Which will you obey?
Each whispering sound wave
One curses, one bless
Each brings forth a lesson
A consequence test
