Chapter
10 – Blessed or Cursed – the Choice is Yours
"But
if serving the LORD seems undesirable to you, then choose for yourselves
this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your forefathers served
beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are
living. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD”
(Jos 24:15)
This
day I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set
before you life and death, blessings and curses. Now choose life,
so that you and your children may live and that you may love the LORD
your God, listen to his voice, and hold fast to him. For the LORD
is your life, and he will give you many years in the land he swore
to give to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
(Deut 30:19,20)
Contents
of Chapter 10
10.1
The Law of Choice
10.2
Introducing Blessings and Curses
10.3
Blessings and Curses for Israel
10.4
‘Obedience' to what?
10.5
Failure – Rebuke – Repentance – Restoration
10.6
Living in the Blessing of God
10.7
Conclusions
10.1
The Law
of Choice
You
may not like the title of this chapter for it involves words that
we either don't understand or which sound spooky – but they are Scriptural
as we'll see as we move on in this chapter.
However
before we get to blessings and curses we need, first of all,
to examine what I call ‘the law of choice' and which is so obvious
we have missed it so far in this book - yet it is vitally important.
|
Take
note of 'the law of choice' |
‘Determinism'
says we don't have real choices for everything is predetermined. Well
that is not what the Bible says. As with so many things it doesn't
spell it out but leaves us to deduce it from what is said and done.
That which I refer to as ‘the law of choice' may be very simply stated:
| God
gives us clear choices, we have the freedom to make them, and
they bring consequences. |
We
see in the Bible that God gives instructions and sometimes people
disobey them. They clearly have the choice and the ability to reject
God. That is fundamental. If God says, “Do this…” because we have
free will, we have the choice of whether to do it – or not!
Probably
the thing that concerns us most, I suspect, is what happens when we
obey or don't obey, i.e. the consequences of our obedience or disobedience.
The apostle Paul was quite clear about this:
Gal
6:7,8 “Do
not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows. The
one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap
destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit
will reap eternal life.”
The
Message version of the Bible puts it like this:
Gal
6:7,8 “Don't
be misled: No one makes a fool of God. What a person plants, he will
harvest. The person who plants selfishness, ignoring the needs of
others—ignoring God!—harvests a crop of weeds. All he'll have to show
for his life is weeds! But the one who plants in response to God,
letting God's Spirit do the growth work in him, harvests a crop of
real life, eternal life.”
So
there it is, we have the ability to make choices and the choice
we make has consequences. Now please bear that in mind in all
that follows in the rest of this book. |
Choices
bring consequences! |
We
are going to examine, in the following chapters, God's actions that
often bring complaints from those who haven't bothered to read the
Bible and have not taken in the truth of what is declared there.
In
every case, we will see, God's actions are in respect of a person
or people and in every case God will have made very clear what the
consequences will be, that follow from different courses of action.
The
results are because of the choice made by a human being!
We must hold this before us as we look at these case studies that
will follow in later chapters. WE
make choices and WE bring on ourselves the consequences.
The
ultimate choice is that put forward by Joshua in the verses at the
head of this chapter – whether to serve the gods we make in this world,
or the Lord, THE One God revealed in the Bible.
Already
we have seen the Lord's declaration through Ezekiel (Ezek 18)
that God takes no pleasure in the death of anyone and would
much rather people came to their senses, turned away from the
destructive course they are following and receive life and God's
blessing instead. The implication of the Deuteronomy verses
at the head of this chapter, clearly indicate God's desire of
Israel to choose blessings |
God
wants to bring blessing, not curse |
This
also is something we must keep before us as we examine the various
case studies in the chapters to come.
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10.2
Introducing Blessings and Curses
Having
referred to these briefly already we need to examine what the Bible
means by them. Let's consider ‘blessing' first of all by first defining
it and then seeing it in action in the Bible.
We
have ‘blessing' in our lives, often without thinking about it. Someone
sneezes and we say, “Bless you!” Mostly it is a habit thing with little
or no meaning but it has a spiritual background. It means that where
there are the signs of an illness we, the believing community, will
declare, “May the Lord bless you,” or “May the Lord declare healing
from heaven for you,” and we do it with the faith-knowledge that God
wants to bring healing to us. When we are moving in faith we are
able to say, “May the Lord bless you” meaning, “May the Lord decree
goodness over your life.”
A
‘blessing' is simply a
decree of God's goodness that has its origins in heaven.
|
A
‘ curse' by comparison, is simply a
decree from God for bad that has its origins in heaven.
|
Now
I had added at the end of both definitions “that has its origins in
heaven” because although it is that which is spoken out on earth,
it is only a true blessing or a true curse when it comes from the
heart and will of God in heaven, otherwise it is mere words.
W
should also note that when God ‘decrees' something, it happens.
The
Earliest Examples
Gen
12:2 “I
will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I
will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.”
- This is God's promise to Abram
- He promises to ‘bless' him and make
him a ‘blessing
If
we apply our definition above to this verse we would see it become,
“I will make you into a great nation and I will decree good
for you, I will make your name great and you will bring much
good to others.”
Gen
17:18 Abraham
said to God, "If only Ishmael might live under your blessing!"
- This is Abraham wanting God to decree
good for Ishmael.
- The Lord's response is very positive:
Gen
17:20 And
as for Ishmael, I have heard you: I will surely bless him
[decree good for him, so…] I will
make him fruitful and will greatly increase his numbers. He will be
the father of twelve rulers, and I will make him into a great nation.”
- So He does promise to do him good.
- Yet the bigger blessing will be
the advent of Isaac who is born in old age to Sarah and Abraham.
- It is when Isaac has gown up children
of his own that we see the most significant examples of blessings:
The
Example of Isaac
Gen
27:1-4 When
Isaac was old and his eyes were so weak that he could no longer see,
he called for Esau his older son and said to him, …. "I am now
an old man and don't know the day of my death… Prepare me the kind
of tasty food I like and bring it to me to eat, so that I may give
you my blessing before I die."
- Culturally it was that the father
‘blessed' the eldest son with God's decree of goodness so that they
might carry on the family with that authority.
- Isaac wants to make it a bit of
an event so wants Esau to set up a meal for him, over which he will
then ‘bless' him.
- In the event Jacob, Esau's younger
brother hears of it, sets up the meal first and deceives the old,
virtually blind man into thinking he is Esau.
- Isaac then ‘blesses' him:
Gen
27:28,29 “May
God give you of heaven's dew and of earth's richness-- an abundance
of grain and new wine. May nations serve you and peoples bow down
to you. Be lord over your brothers, and may the sons of your mother
bow down to you. May those who curse you be cursed and those who bless
you be blessed."
- Now the wider context of Scripture
indicates that this indeed was God's will for Jacob and not Esau.
- Thus this has come as a genuine
prophetic declaration with its origins in heaven.
- Indeed, a short while later when
Esau turns up and Isaac realises what has happened, he realises
that this is so and the prophetic word cannot be withdrawn:
Gen
27:34-40 Esau
heard his father's words, he burst out with a loud and bitter cry
and said to his father, "Bless me--me too, my father!" But
he said, "Your brother came deceitfully and took your blessing."
…. Then he asked, "Haven't you reserved any blessing for me?"
Isaac answered Esau, "I have made him lord over you and have
made all his relatives his servants, and I have sustained him with
grain and new wine. So what can I possibly do for you, my son?"
Esau said to his father, "Do you have only one blessing, my father?
Bless me too, my father!" Then Esau wept aloud. His father Isaac
answered him, "Your dwelling will be away from the earth's richness,
away from the dew of heaven above. You will live by the sword and
you will serve your brother. But when you grow restless, you will
throw his yoke from off your neck."
- Now that is quite remarkable because
Isaac recognises that the decree of goodness to lead the family
has gone to Jacob and there is nothing he can do about that. (The
seer Balaam knew the same thing - see Num 22:38, 24:13)
- Furthermore, when he does prophesy
over Esau it is to put him firmly in a second place for he speaks
out what will happen because of the nature of the man that Esau
is.
- It isn't because God made
it happen like that but simply God knew it would happen
like that because of the sort of man Esau is. (His character has
already been revealed earlier – see Gen 25:33,34 – and will shortly
be revealed by his responses to this – see Gen 28:6-9)
The
Example of Jacob in Old Age
When
in old age Jacob realises he hasn't got much longer to live, he calls
his sons in and prophesies over them all. It is tantamount to a blessing
although that word is not used in it except in the case of Joseph.
See Gen 49. It is only at the end that we find:
Gen
49:29
All these are the twelve tribes of Israel,
and this is what their father said to them when he blessed
them, giving each the blessing appropriate to him.
- Note the words, ‘appropriate to
him'
- These were not just sentimental
wishes, but the heart of God expressed prophetically.
Prior
to that though, we find a very significant incident when Joseph brings
his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, to Jacob to be blessed:
Gen
49:13,14 And
Joseph took both of them, Ephraim on his right toward Israel
's
left hand and Manasseh on his left toward Israel
's
right hand, and brought them close to him. But Israel
reached out his right hand and put it on Ephraim's head, though he
was the younger, and crossing his arms, he put his left hand on Manasseh's
head, even though Manasseh was the firstborn.
- Then he blesses them but Joseph
objects saying that the right hand (the hand of authority) should
be on the older, Manasseh.
- Jacob is not put off for he senses
God's will for the younger one and says:
Gen
49:19 “I
know, my son, I know. He too will become a people, and he too will
become great. Nevertheless, his younger brother will be greater than
he, and his descendants will become a group of nations."
- Blessing is not a matter of human
desire but of God's will being expressed.
And
So…
Why
have we taken time with this? Because we have needed to note:
- blessings as God's decree
of good over those He sees as having a heart that he can use,
- curses being a pronouncement
of the bad that will ensue from bad attitude and bad behaviour.
That
God works to bring about these two conclusions is quite clear from
Scripture, but the key issue is the heart of the individual who makes
a choice and then lives with consequences,
good or bad according to what he says and does.
In
what follows we will see that for Israel,
in the whole matter of blessings and curses, the consequences are
very clearly spelled out by God; there is nothing left to doubt. They
could never say they weren't warned!
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10.3
Blessings and Curses for Israel
The
magnitude of this spelling out the consequences through blessings
and curses takes up such space in Scripture that we will only cite
one or two by way of illustration.
Deut
28:1,2 If
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. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany
you if you obey the LORD your God:
- This is the start of a chapter full
of blessings and curses. So important were they that when Israel
entered the Promised Land they were to stand on two mountain tops
and declare these out loud by way of proclamation to the land and
to their future.
- The overall promise in verse 1 is
that IF they are obedient THEN God will decree good for them that
will make them greater than any other nation on earth. Obedience
is crucial.
- Let's consider some of the promises
of good that follow:
Deut
28:3-11 “You
will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. 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. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. You
will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. 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. 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. 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 his ways. Then all the peoples on earth will see that
you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will fear you. 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 forefathers to give you.”
- The blessing, this decree of goodness
that follows obedience, includes their ability to have children,
fruitfulness for their crops and their flocks, triumph over their
enemies, in fact everything they do, with the result that the world
will see and know.
- But there is another side to this
coin:
Deut
28:15 “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 upon you and overtake you:”
- Thus starts the things that will
go wrong if they are not obedient.
- Without doubt in the verses that
follow the crucial words are, “The Lord will….” which are repeated
again and again filling the entire rest of the chapter.
- It is a frightful warning that is
given so clearly here.
- As we said previously, it is a warning
of dire consequences.
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10.4
‘Obedience' to what?
Throughout
Deuteronomy, which is Moses' final reminders and instructions to Israel
before entering the Promised
Land before he dies, there are these constant references to Israel's
obedience. Over
twenty times in Deuteronomy, Moses warns them to obey the Lord.
It
is like it is the most important thing that he can leave with
them before he dies and before they enter the Land. He knows
that it is THE thing around which everything else pivots. |
Obedience
is THE key to blessing |
Obedience
to what, the unknowing reader might ask. Obedience to the
Law of Moses that we have referred to! A quick examination
of that Law shows that there is nothing strange or freaky about those
laws, in fact many of them have been seen as incorporated in different
forms in our own legal system. (See chapter 20)
The
Ten Commandments are general laws which can be applied to any society,
but the other laws of the covenant (See Ex 21-) applied to Israel
– and at that point of time
in history. We say that because, for instance, it was still a time
when slaves existed. Circumstances would change and therefore certain
laws would simply no longer be applicable to them.
The
purpose of the Ten Commandments and the other laws fthat we
call the Law of Moses were to bring peace,
order and stability
to their society. |
The
Law has a clear purpose |
God
designed and planned this world before He created it, so that it would
work in certain ways. We might call these the laws of nature.
The
Law reflects God's design for His world |
When
it comes to how human beings ‘work' best, He conveyed this to
Israel
by means of the Law that we've just referred to. The key step
of faith in all of these deliberations is to come to accept
that God, the Designer-Creator, knows best. |
But
God is also a realist and so he knew that the Fall would occur and
therefore Fallen man would get it wrong. God knows that we are sinners
and knows that things will go wrong in society.
| The
Law recognises a Fallen world |
Thus
He gives laws that both restrain the wrong and lay down guidelines
how to deal with things when they do go wrong. Moses
also passed on a lot of ceremonial laws to be enacted at the
Tabernacle and later, the Temple,
that enabled sinful man to get back into a right relationship
with the Lord after failure. |
Thus
there was the recognition that individuals would fail from time
to time and the ‘social-contract-laws' laid down what was to
happen within society when that happened, and the ceremonial laws
what to do about the broken relationship with the Lord. Yet breaking
the laws was to be an exception and not the rule.
|
Curses
are consequences of disobeying God's design |
The
curses, that we have referred to, apply when there is a general
moving away from the Law by the whole of society and by the
leadership of society, not simply when there were individual
occasional failures. |
The call to obedience thus becomes a call to keep the heart of the
nation right before God. We
see this very thing happening again and again in the life of Israel.
It is patently obvious in their history. To make the point even clearer,
let's briefly observe this phenomenon in the book of Judges.
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10.5
Failure – Rebuke – Repentance – Restoration
Jud
2:10-12 After
that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another
generation grew up, who knew neither the LORD nor what he had done
for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes
of the LORD and served the Baals. They forsook the LORD,
the God of their fathers, who had brought them out of Egypt . They
followed and worshiped various gods of the peoples
around them. They provoked the LORD to anger because they forsook
him and served Baal and the Ashtoreths.
- This is typical of what happened
again and again.
- Up until this point everything had
been going well but gradually they drifted away from their obedience
to the Lord and their worship of Him and instead turned to idols.
Jud
2:13-16 In
his anger against Israel the LORD handed them over
to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around,
whom they were no longer able to resist. Whenever Israel went out
to fight, the hand of the LORD was against them to defeat them, just
as he had sworn to them. They were in great distress.
Then the LORD raised up judges, who saved
them out of the hands of these raiders.”
- You're going to have to wait until
the next chapter to wait to see what the ‘anger of the Lord' is
all about and, if you have doubts, why it is legitimate. Similarly
how His judgment works.
- Yet here we can note that His anger
moves into action which permits raiders to enter their land and
oppress them. He lifts off His hand of protection and the enemy
comes.
- Note here that it simply says “They
were in great distress”. Elsewhere it will clarify that
to show that it was repentance. As soon as that comes the Lord raises
up someone to deliver them from these invaders – that is really
what Judges is all about – the judges who were also deliverers.
- Note also that God doesn't give
them up to destruction – simply oppression which produces repentance.
Jud
2:18,19 Whenever
the LORD raised up a judge for them, he was with the judge and saved
them out of the hands of their enemies as long as the judge lived;
for the LORD had compassion on them as they groaned under those who
oppressed and afflicted them. But when the judge died, the people
returned to ways even more corrupt than those of their fathers, following
other gods and serving and worshiping them. They refused to give up
their evil practices and stubborn ways.
- These summary verses tell it very
well: God sends judges to save them, they become complacent and
turn away from God and the cycle starts all over again.
Jud
3:7-11 The
Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD; they
forgot the LORD their God and served the Baals and the Asherahs. The
anger of the LORD burned against Israel so that he sold them
into the hands of Cushan-Rishathaim king of Aram Naharaim,
to whom the Israelites were subject for eight years. But when they
cried out to the LORD, he raised up for them
a deliverer, Othniel son of Kenaz, Caleb's younger brother,
who saved them. The Spirit of the LORD came upon him, so that he became
Israel 's judge and went to war. The LORD gave Cushan-Rishathaim king
of Aram into the hands of Othniel, who overpowered him. So the land
had peace for forty years, until Othniel son of Kenaz died
- Here it is again: they do evil,
God lets a neighbouring enemy invade, they cry out to God, He sends
a deliverer and peace reigns.
- All
it needed was for Israel
to come to their senses and call to the Lord. As we've seen in an
earlier chapter, they have been brought into being to be blessed
and to bless the world - but sin still prevails and so they keep
drifting from God and into idolatry and loose their sense of being
special
- Let's see it just one more time:
Jud
3:12-15 Once
again the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the LORD, and because
they did this evil the LORD gave Eglon king of Moab
power over Israel
.
Getting the Ammonites and Amalekites to join him, Eglon came and attacked
Israel
,
and they took possession of the City of Palms
.
The Israelites were subject to Eglon king of Moab
for eighteen years. Again the Israelites cried out to the LORD, and
he gave them a deliverer--Ehud
- There
it is exactly the same: they turn from God, He removes His protection
from them, the enemy comes and oppresses them, they cry out to God
and He raises up a deliverer.
- How
does God raise up a deliverer? He seems to find a man who is willing
to be used of God and He either speaks to him or stirs him by His
Spirit and the anger of the individual rises against the enemy so
that he takes action against them. Sounds simple!
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10.6
Living in the Blessing of God
Before
we conclude this chapter we perhaps need to think a little more about
this ‘blessing' of God. What did it mean? Perhaps we may think it
was some form of ‘magic' that made good happen? Wrong! It clearly
came in two forms:
Living according to the Law
Very
simply, if they were living according to the Law they were living
according to God's design for mankind. The laws simply showed them
how to live in peace and harmony. When they did that, life was good,
and they prospered. It was as simple as that.
One
day someone came to Jesus and asked a question. His answer summarised
the Law:
Matt
22:36-40 Teacher,
which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" Jesus replied:
"Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your
soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment.
And the second is like it: `Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the
Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."
- There
it was: first of all love God totally and then love everyone else.
- Love
sums up all the obligations of how to live in peace and harmony
- The
first command cited in those verses comes from Deut 6:5
“Love the LORD
your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all
your strength.”
- The
second command comes from Lev 19:18
“Do
not seek revenge or bear a grudge against one of your people, but
love your neighbor as yourself.”
- Both
are part of the Law books!
Blessed
by God's activity
If
keeping the Law was Israel 's
side of the agreement, looking after Israel
was God's side of it. In the
making Israel
into a nation at Mount Sinai,
the Lord makes it very clear:
Ex
19:5 Now
if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations
you will be my treasured possession.
- Their
part was to obey Him. His part was to treat them as a treasured
possession. What do you do with a treasured possession? You look
after it!
- As
we'll note elsewhere, if they moved away from Him, He couldn't bless
them.
So
how did God bless them when they obeyed Him? Scripture indicates the
following basic things (there may be others):
- He
gave their leaders wisdom – we see this again and again, the knowledge
of how to lead well.
- He
protected them from enemies. How did he do that? I suggest He spoke
into the minds of their leaders and made them fearful of Israel.
There are also indications that He spoke confusing things into the
minds of their enemies to stop them coming against Israel.
- He clearly brought rain and sunshine
to help crops grow.
- He also seemed to bless crops and
livestock simply by speaking life into them to increase fruitfulness
– and that with humans sometimes.
To
complete the picture of God's blessing Israel, even though we may
not like it, He disciplined them as we've seen above, always with
the intention of bringing them to their senses so that they would
come back to Him and be blessed. We'll see more of that in the next
chapter.
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10.7
Conclusions
In
this chapter we have seen the following:
| |
10.1
The Law of Choice
- we noted that we have
free will and the ability to make choices which have consequences
10.2
Introducing Blessings and Curses
- we saw these as God's
decrees of good or bad
10.3
Blessings and Curses for Israel
- we saw the promises given
to israel, depending on their obedience or disobedience
10.4
‘Obedience' to what?
- in the covenant it was
obedience to the Law of Moses
10.5
Failure – Rebuke – Repentance – Restoration
- the sequence seen in the
book of Judges
10.6
Living in the Blessing of God
- we saw how God brought
good to Israel
|
|
Perhaps
we should pick out the following crucial points:
- God gives us clear choices, we have
the freedom to make them, and they bring consequences.
- God lays choices of action before
us – each choice has consequences
- A ‘blessing' is
simply a decree of God's goodness that has its origins in heaven.
- A ‘curse' by comparison,
is simply a decree from God for bad that has its origins in heaven.
- Blessings follow our choices to
follow God
- Curses follow our choices to disobey
God
- Obedience in the Old Testament period
was in respect of the Law of Moses which were
laws that
- sought to establish and maintain
peace, order and stability
in their society,
- restrain the wrong and lay down
guidelines how to deal with things when they do go wrong,
- laid down a ceremonial to follow
failure to restore relationships with God.
- Observing the history of Israel
reveals a pattern where they drift away from God, are disciplined
by God allowing neighbours to overrun them, they cry out to God
and He sends a deliverer.
Particularly
in respect of the Lord we should emphasise that:
- His laws for Moses reflected the
way He had designed them to live in peace, order, harmony and blessing,
even after the Fall.
- He made the options very clear to
them,
- He even showed them socially how
to put things right when someone broke the Law,
- His discipline was never to destroy
the nation but to bring them back into relationship with Him whereby
they could then be put back on to the right track of blessing,
- His blessing came through them keeping
the law and living in peace and harmony, and in His actions of bringing
wisdom, protection and general provision.
Throughout
all these things it is the LOVE of God that is evident to those who
have eyes to see it!