From Deuteronomy 28: Blessings and Curses
1 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.
2 All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God: Deut 28:1-2
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.
62 You who were as numerous as the stars in the sky will be left but few in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God.
64 Then the Lord will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. There you will worship other gods—gods of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.
65 Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart.
66 You will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life.
“We have seen the enemy…and he is us. – Pogo
Today is Tisha B’Av, the saddest day on the Jewish calendar. On this very day many terrible things happened …both the first and second Temples were destroyed,
England expelled all the Jews living there (1290) and in 1492 Spain banished all the Jewish people living there; other calamities as well on this date.
It is customary for observant Jewish people to reflect-to fast, afflict themselves, and read from the book of Lamentations, and think about what happened on this day-
but in my opinion not much attention is directed towards the actions that caused the disasters.
In reading God’s “contract” as written in Deuteronomy 28, the Almighty clearly spells out His Plan.
Blessings would come without ceasing IF His commands were followed and obeyed, and likewise curses would also befall them, really terrible calamities IF the people did not follow His explicit instructions. He warned them repeatedly but they strayed, becoming idol worshippers, marrying into pagan cultures, and worse…curses followed.
Nonetheless, God keeps all His promises, and He redeemed Israel and His People as prophesied in Isaiah and Jeremiah.
But the point is that they could avoided the curses if they only would’ve listened to Abba.
There are lessons to be learned here.
In my own life I have also seen what happens as the result of obeying God- or not.
Can you relate?
I- we- can be our own worst enemy.
Not listening to what some call our conscience (I call it the Holy Spirit) instructing which way to go and which ways to avoid.
Obedience. God requires it.
It doesn’t mean that trials won’t/don’t come.
Bad things do happen sometimes to good people, and as to the why’s I have no answers.
I will have to wait until I get to Heaven to know the whole story.
I have only my trust and faith in the Creator of the Universe…and for me it is more than enough.