This Way to Blessing: Deuteronomy 28 (4)

Opening Prayer: Psalm 128.1, 2
Blessed is every one who fears the LORD,
Who walks in His ways.
When you eat the labor of your hands,
You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you.

Psalm 128.1, 2
(Fountain: There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood)
How blessed are they who fear You, Lord, who walk within Your ways!
Rejoicing in Your bounteous Word, they prosper all their days!
They prosper all their days, they prosper all their days!
Rejoicing in Your bounteous Word, they prosper all their days!

Today’s Text: Deuteronomy 28.25-29

Preparation
1. How does this threat differ from what God promised in verses 9-14?

2. How did God remind His people of His absolute sovereignty in these verses?

Meditation
This curse is so sweeping and terrifying, that I can think of only two reasons a people might allow it to come upon them.

The first is that they failed to hear this curse. How could that happen? Well, let’s suppose that a generation of preachers arose who did not regard the Old Testament as authoritative, at least, not as authoritative as the New Testament. Such preachers might be inclined to omit preaching or teaching from the Old Testament, or at least from passages in it that seemed to them contrary to the grace of Jesus. People in such a congregation might feel similarly free to neglect the Old Testament in their reading of God’s Word.

Sound far-fetched? I know a preacher who served a single congregation for nearly 40 years, and never once preached a sermon from the Old Testament. I had a deacon in another church tell me that his daily Bible reading covered Matthew to Revelation, and then he did the same over and over again.

The second reason a people might fall under this curse is because they just don’t believe God would do this to His beloved people. That’s nothing more than unbelief, and failing to believe God leads to failing to obey Him, which turns us from the path of blessing into the quagmire of His discipline.

Don’t let either of these scenarios come upon or overtake you.

Treasure Old and New: Matthew 13.52; Psalm 119.162
These verses convey a sense of total chaos – that state of complete disorder and confusion of body, mind, and place. Some synonyms for chaos are anarchy, disarray, discord, disorder, lawlessness, pandemonium, tumult, and turmoil. God does not desire this for His special people. These curses. This chaos. What He does desire is to bless us. Why would anyone choose chaos over order? Instead of oppressed and plundered, we can be free and protected. The psalmist tells us, “Great peace have those who love Your law, and nothing causes them to stumble” (Ps. 119.165). The prophet wrote of God: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” (Is. 26.3). Jesus says to us, “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid” (Jn. 14.27). Paul confirms this truth: “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ…” (Rom. 5.1). From the very beginning of time, God has been changing things through His power and love from chaos to calm: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. Then God said, ‘Let there be light’; and there was light” (Gen. 1.1-3). Let’s choose this true and unchaotic life, which is found in Him Who is the Light (Jn. 1.4).

Reflection
1. How can you keep focused on the promised blessings of God?
 
2. What might be some signs that you are drifting off the pathway of blessing that God has marked out for you in His Word?

3. What should you do whenever you find yourself slogging through the quagmire of separation from the Lord?

If we do not keep God’s commandments, we not only come short of the blessing promised, but we lay ourselves under the curse, which includes all misery, as the blessing all happiness. Observe the justice of this curse. It is not a curse causeless, or for some light cause. The extent and power of this curse. Wherever the sinner goes, the curse of God follows; wherever he is, it rests upon him. Whatever he has is under a curse. Matthew Henry (1662-1714), Commentary on Deuteronomy 28.15-44

Help me to love my neighbors, Lord, to keep Your commandments as I…

Closing Prayer: Psalm 128.3-6
Ask the Lord to guide and strengthen you today, that you might be a blessing to all the people you meet.

Psalm 128.3-6
(Fountain: There Is a Fountain Filled with Blood)
Their homes with happy children bloom who fear Your holy Name;
their tables and their every room declare Your glorious fame!
Declare Your glorious fame, declare Your glorious fame!
Their tables and their every room declare Your glorious fame!

O Lord, from Zion send Your peace, and prosp’rous make our ways;
thus may Your blessings e’er increase upon us all our days!
Upon us all our days, upon us all our days!
Thus may Your blessings e’er increase upon all us all our days!

T. M. and Susie Moore

Listen to our summary of last week’s study in Deuteronomy by clicking here. You can download all the studies in the series by clicking here. And check out our current ReVision series on encouragement.

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Except as indicated, Scripture taken from the New King James Version. © Copyright 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved. All quotations from Church Fathers from Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy: Ancient Christian Commentary Series III, Joseph T. Lienhard, S. J. ed. in collaboration with Ronnie J. Rombs, General Editor Thomas C. Oden (Downers Grove: InterVarsity Press, 2001). All quotations from John Calvin from John Calvin, Commentaries on The Four Last Books of Moses Arranged in the Order of A Harmony, Rev. Charles William Bingham M. A., tr. and ed. (Edinburgh: The Calvin Translation Society, 1863. All psalms for singing are from The Ailbe Psalter (available by clicking here).