Disobedience Is Not Worth it One Bit
But if you refuse to listen to the LORD your God and do not obey all the commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come and overwhelm you:
Your towns and your fields will be cursed. Your fruit baskets and your breadboards (food baskets) will be cursed. Your children and your crops will be cursed. . . . Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be cursed. The LORD Himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me.
. . . The skies above will be as unyielding as bronze, and the earth beneath will be as hard as iron. . . . The LORD will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You will attack your enemies from one direction, but you will scatter from them in seven! . . . "You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will sleep with her. . . . The LORD will exile you and your king to a nation unknown to you and your ancestors. There, in exile you will worship gods of wood and stone! Deuteronomy 28:15-36 (NLT).
Your towns and your fields will be cursed. Your fruit baskets and your breadboards (food baskets) will be cursed. Your children and your crops will be cursed. . . . Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be cursed. The LORD Himself will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in everything you do, until at last you are completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me.
. . . The skies above will be as unyielding as bronze, and the earth beneath will be as hard as iron. . . . The LORD will cause you to be defeated by your enemies. You will attack your enemies from one direction, but you will scatter from them in seven! . . . "You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will sleep with her. . . . The LORD will exile you and your king to a nation unknown to you and your ancestors. There, in exile you will worship gods of wood and stone! Deuteronomy 28:15-36 (NLT).
I love Deuteronomy 28:1-14. All Christians love it. Two weeks ago, I prayed it passionately over a family whose house I dedicated. Only yesterday, I prayed it over a baby I dedicated in church. I frequently pronounce those blessings over our Church! Who doesn't love to hear of blessings and prosperity, being the head and not the tail, being a lender and not a borrower, the scattering of our enemies in utter defeat, and the blessing of all the work of our hands?
But do we realize that Deuteronomy 28 has more than fourteen verses? Deuteronomy 28 has sixty-eight verses! There are more verses devoted to the consequences of disobedience than the blessings attached to obedience! This doesn't mean God is more interested in cursing than in blessing us.
It simply tells us that God so loves us that He spends a whole lot more time to explain the ghastly consequences of disobeying Him. He is more concerned about educating us in great detail so as to be "scared away" from the horrible effects of disobedience upon our lives. In short, disobedience is not worth it one bit. I chuckle at the expression "one bit" because several years ago, I had a very good high school English teacher whose favorite phrase was "one whittle." So, disobedience is not worth it "one whittle."
As much as we love to be blessed (and rightly so), we also need to be candidly and forcefully reminded of the real consequences of disobedience. In fact, but for the grace of God, we will be more prone to disobey than obey! May that not be our portion. May we continually gravitate toward righteousness so that the skies over our head will drip heavenly dew and not be turned into bronze to make our land as hard as iron.
But do we realize that Deuteronomy 28 has more than fourteen verses? Deuteronomy 28 has sixty-eight verses! There are more verses devoted to the consequences of disobedience than the blessings attached to obedience! This doesn't mean God is more interested in cursing than in blessing us.
It simply tells us that God so loves us that He spends a whole lot more time to explain the ghastly consequences of disobeying Him. He is more concerned about educating us in great detail so as to be "scared away" from the horrible effects of disobedience upon our lives. In short, disobedience is not worth it one bit. I chuckle at the expression "one bit" because several years ago, I had a very good high school English teacher whose favorite phrase was "one whittle." So, disobedience is not worth it "one whittle."
As much as we love to be blessed (and rightly so), we also need to be candidly and forcefully reminded of the real consequences of disobedience. In fact, but for the grace of God, we will be more prone to disobey than obey! May that not be our portion. May we continually gravitate toward righteousness so that the skies over our head will drip heavenly dew and not be turned into bronze to make our land as hard as iron.
Prayer: Father, I truly desire to walk with you in obedience. But I also realize that I do not always follow your word. Please help me to be fully faithful to you. Amen.