Day 3 – The Blessing and the Curse

Deuteronomy 30:16-20

[If you obey the commandments of the Lord your God which] I command you today, to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and His statutes and His ordinances, then you shall live and multiply, and the Lord your God will bless you in the land into which you go to possess.

But if your [mind and] heart turn away and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them,

I declare to you today that you shall surely perish, and you shall not live long in the land which you pass over the Jordan to enter and possess.

I call heaven and earth to witness this day against you that I have set before you life and death, the blessings and the curses; therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live and may love the Lord your God, obey His voice, and cling to Him. For He is your life and the length of your days that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to give to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. AMP

The language in these verses relating to the Sinai covenant of Moses can seem confusing without an understanding of covenants.

Many people look at the scriptures above and they see a kind of schizophrenic God who is demanding and prone to fits of rage while claiming He is the God of love. Without understanding the nature and gravity of entering into blood covenant relationship, this could be the case, but it is not.

A covenant is an exchange of persons, not just a contract with conditions and rules.

God told Israel: I am your life and length of days. In the covenant agreement, God himself is the life of Israel. God became all of the provision for Israel, He delivered them from every power in Egypt, He was their guard before and their guard from behind, He was their food (manna), their drink (springs in the desert), he was their future (Promised Land), their peace (fruitful land for possession), and He was the reputation for them before their enemies. He was their future and their future generations. In exchange, Israel gave up everything they had previously known and experienced in Egypt. They were warned not to imitate neighboring peoples, but to become a nation set apart from every other nation that displayed the character and nature of YHWH. The instructions in Torah were extensive and detailed. Torah (Law) means “instruction” (it is the first 5 books of the Old Testament), Israel received explicit instructions on all of the things YHWH wanted from them. Remember that a covenant is an exchange of persons. In covenant relationships both parties to become exclusively and completely devoted to one another. In a covenant relationship, this is both “normal” and required.

Exodus 19:7-8

So Moses came and called the elders of the people and set before them all these words that the Lord had commanded him. 8 All the people answered together and said, "All that the Lord has spoken we will do." And Moses reported the words of the people to the Lord. ESV

Israel agreed to the terms of the covenant.

Every blood covenant carries with it significant curses for betraying the union or taking the terms of the covenant lightly. Even Jesus who ratified a better covenant than the one at Sinai warns us

Luke 14:25-33

The Cost of Discipleship

Now great crowds accompanied him, and he turned and said to them, 26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. 27 Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. 28 For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? 29 Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, 30 saying, 'This man began to build and was not able to finish.' 31 Or what king, going out to encounter another king in war, will not sit down first and deliberate whether he is able with ten thousand to meet him who comes against him with twenty thousand? 32 And if not, while the other is yet a great way off, he sends a delegation and asks for terms of peace. 33 So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be my disciple. ESV

Salvation is free in the sense that we do not earn our way into God’s favor. We carry no merit that we can present to Him (God) to persuade Him on our behalf. The Covenant of Jesus Christ has been birthed and fulfilled completely out of the Love of God which He has always had for us and it is who He is. Jesus, who had no sin, laid down His life for us (2 Corinthians 5:16-21) But again this covenant is an intimate exchange of persons. We give over everything of our old lives and nature and He gives us everything He has for our new identities in Christ.

1 Peter 2:9

But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light; (KJV)

Salvation also costs us everything. We cannot be half committed to God, and He will not commit Himself to us in parts or partiality. This is the nature of covenants and this is how we can understand the language of the blessing and the curse in Deuteronomy 27-30 through covenant knowledge.

God tell us - I AM the One who makes unbreakable covenants with mankind

Ezekiel 16:62 I will establish my covenant with you and you shall know that I am the Lord, ESV

A covenant is an all or nothing kind of commitment. There is no other option no scale upon which we can be weighed or balanced. This is why Jesus warned us to count the cost. This is why Israel was presented with the blessing or the curse. God wants to bless us (Deuteronomy 30:19), He has given us everything we need in Jesus Christ, but we get to choose.

Deuteronomy 30:19-20

I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, 20 loving the Lord your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them."ESV

Discussion Questions:

Day 3 – The Blessing and the Curse