High above all nations

Deuteronomy 28:1-68

Key Verse 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: 

Today we would like to think about the way of a blessed life and the way of a cursed life. Why is it that a man’s life is either blessed or cursed? Most importantly how can one live a life that is blessed? In the passage Moses answers the questions.  

Part I. Blessings for Obedience

Look at verses 1-2a. “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.” Throughout the passage the word “you” is repeated. Here “you” refers to the Israelites, who were saved from Egypt, received training in the desert for forty long years, and now are ready to enter the Promised Land. Before sending them to the Promised Land, the Lord God reminded them of all his commands given through Moses. The commands included all the principles, rules, regulations that are necessary for them to go by in order to live a blessed life. Examples included the Ten Commandments, the command to cancel debts every seven years, the command to present themselves before the Lord three times a year, the laws regarding the cities of refugee, the laws on making one tenth offerings, and all other miscellaneous laws such as the law not to move one’s neighbor’s boundary stones. These commands reflect the blessed Lord’s blessed character that is love, mercy, kindness, faithfulness, holiness, etc. Referring to these blessed commands from the blessed Lord Moses says, “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.” 

These teachings are truly great so that any individual, a society or a nation which practices them should be blessed, rising above others, high above all peoples of all nations. It has been said that the U.S. is run by a handful of people numbering less then 12. Suppose the second gens in Downey UBF make their way to Washington D.C. and run this nation, like William Larsen Jr. becoming the President, Moses Jr. working as the Chief Justice, Samuel Noah operating as the Joint Chief of Staff, Eli Hopeman serving the nation as the Speaker of the House, etc. Suppose that they work together, making the Constitution and laws of this nation consistent with Moses’ teachings in Deuteronomy. Suppose further that through their leadership all people of this great nation fear the Lord, and obey his commands like Moses’ Ten Commandments or the command that says, “At the end of every seven years you must cancel debts” (Deu 15:1). What will happen to this nation? If everyone loves the Lord wholeheartedly, and loves one’s neighbor as he loves himself, what will happen to the people of this nation? Certainly the LORD our God will set us high above all the nations on earth. But right now, this nation is not set high above all the nations on earth. 

Look at verse 2a. “All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God:” Notice the way this passage is phrased, “All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God.” You do not have to “chase” after these blessings. They chase after you. They not only chase after you, but “fall” upon you, showers and showers of blessings. Notice the expression “accompany you”. The word “accompany” means “to go with as an associate or companion.” Imagine not one or two but “all” of these blessings going with you as an associate or companion, no matter where you go. What a wonderful life is it going to be?! 

“All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God:” This passage shows us then that we need to set the order of our pursuit right. Do not run after these blessings. Rather focus on obeying the Lord. Blessings should not be a purpose. They are the results of one obeying the Lord. Seeking blessings first is like putting the cart before the horse. Since 9.11 many Americans feel cursed, so they say, “God bless America.” But God is not going to bless her unless she first chooses to obey the Lord. The question for us then is, “Are we truly willing to obey the Lord, as much as we desire him to bless this nation?” If so, “Where do we stand in obeying the Lord’s commands?” “What are my attitude and your attitude towards Moses’ Ten Commandments?” What about Jesus’ requirements that say, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me”? What about his command “Forgive him even seventy times seven times”? What about the question “Do you truly love me more than these?” and the command, “Feed my lambs”? 

If we fully obey the Lord, what exactly will happen to us? Look at verses 3-12.

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 LORD will open the heavens, the storehouse of his bounty, to send rain on your land in season and to bless all the work of your hands. 

You will lend to many nations but will borrow from none. 

Part II. Curses for Disobedience 

Look at verse 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:” This passage begins with the word, “However”. One of the meanings of this adverb is “in spite of that” or “on the other hand”. 

The Bible categorizes people into two classes: the Jews and the Gentiles. Jews denote those who believe in the Lord. Gentiles refer to those who do not believe in the Lord. They worship idols. The Israelites (or Jews) are also known as “the Chosen People.” But we must be careful about the titles like the chosen people or the expression, “The Saved Ones”, for these designations so easily mislead people to entertain false optimism about their future. Are you chosen? Wonderful! Have you been saved? Congratulations! But the fact that you have been saved or you are chosen by God does not mean that you are going to walk straight into a perfect paradise. It does not mean that you have a one way ticket to a third heaven. 

In the passage, the Israelites had already received huge titles: A kingdom of priests, and a holy nation. Now they are ready to go into the Promised Land. As soon as Moses finishes his messages, they are going to jump right into the dream land. Now as they are listening to Moses, I suppose a lot of them already started developing rosy dreams on their life in the Promised Land. I would imagine that they thought that once they crossed the Jordan River, and stepped into the new land, everything was going to be alright, not expecting anything bad  to happen.  

But before dreaming rosy dreams, they needed to check this out. Look at verse 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:” Say, “all these curses.” What are they? Verses 16-68 fill out the list. [I regrouped them a little bit.]

You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. 

Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. 

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. 

You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. 

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. [Notice the expression: “because of the evil you have done in forsaking him. The expression “because of the evil you have done in forsaking him” reads in RSV, “on account of the evil of your doings, because you have forsaken me.” This expression suggests that when one forsakes the Lord, he or she is bound to do what is evil, which in turn leads that person to live a cursed life.]

The LORD will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess. The LORD will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head. The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation. [These are a bit surprising because we are told that God is Jehovah Rapha – the God who heals. But the LORD can do the opposite. Isaiah 45:7]

The LORD will strike you with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish. The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron. The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed. The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of mind. [I hope the drought resulting in a series of brush fires in California has nothing to do with the drought Moses is talking about here; but you know drought is drought.]

The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. 

At midday you will grope about like a blind man in the dark. You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you. 

You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and ravish her. 

You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit. [This reminds me of one rock star who built a huge ranch in one of the nicest places near Santa Barbara, but due to his legal problems, he is no longer in a position to enjoy the ranch.] 

You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it. You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them. You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off. Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land. [Recently the U.S. agricultural industry was hit by the sad mystery called “Colony Collapse Disorder” phenomenon. The mystery surrounds the humble honeybee - which is a vital component in $14bn-worth of US agriculture. Honey bees are tasked with pollination of one third of all U.S. crops. Yet billions of them disappeared from farm land and died off of a disease caused by a virus, which come with a completely new set of symptoms. Some farmers are getting desperate, to the point of not bothering to plant their crops. The problem is so serious yet no one knows the solution to the problem, that Denis van Engelsdrop a Pennsylvania-based beekeeper and a leading researcher said,” “If we don’t figure this out real quick, it’s going to wipe out our food supply.” Is this phenomenon just a coincidence?]

Foreigners will lend to you, but you will not lend to them. He will be the head, but you will be the tail. [As of September 11, 2007, the U.S. national debt is over 9 trillion U.S. dollars. This debt has continued to increase an average of $1.47 billion a day since September 29, 2006. About 40% of this debt is owed o FRB (whose stock is owned by a number of foreign entities), about 23% by foreign nations like Japan, China, and U.K., This debt figure tells us a lot about virtually everything about your life in this so called great nation America in the next ten, twenty, or thirty years, such as the direction of dollar value (will it appreciate or depreciate?), whether or not you are going to be entitled to social security benefits by the time you are ready to claim the benefits, gas prices, whether or not the quality of federal and/or local government services would go better or (most likely) worse, how much the government is going to take out of your paycheck as tax money, whether or not the value of your investments (in real estate, stocks, bonds, mutual funds, money saving accounts, pension fund, the U.S. Treasury Securities, etc. ) would appreciate or depreciate or even get wiped out in the flash of a moment, etc.]

It has been said, “Money talks.” It is quite interesting to note that at the end of the list of the blessings and curses, the Lord God talks about money. If indeed money says anything, at least it says that the U.S. is not doing great. Particularly the national debt figure is formidable. The Bush administration is talking about spending a million here a billion there adding up to trillions for the war. But where is all the money coming from? It is borrowed, but from whom? The money is borrowed from Treasury Securities which is auctioned off every three months. Investors invest in TS thinking it is one of the safest places to safe-keep their money, but is it really going to stay secure? Treasury Securities are government bonds issued by the U.S. Department of Treasury. I hope all investors would continue to invest in TS, so the government would continue to be able to borrow money and get the government running. But who is going to continue to lend money to a debtor whose debt is certain to rise continually? Just think about the 2007 Sub-prime mortgage financial crisis, which resulted in the credit crunch. Suppose no one lends money to Uncle Sam. What will happen to our government? What will happen to all the governmental services? 

These are good questions. But there is a sure way to tell what is going to happen down the road for in verses 45-49 it is written “All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the LORD your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you. They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you.…” 

Take a note of the word “sign” and “wonder”. If a police man gives you a moving violation ticket, be sure that it is a sign that you need to keep the law on speed limits. Do not wonder saying, “Why did this happen to me?” 

The curses described in verses 50-57 are so horrible that I will not cover this in my message today. In verses 58-68, Moses reiterated the warnings telling them why curses are going to happen and when they are going to happen. There he also issued the ultimate disaster which is to kick them out of the Promised Land, and put them back into a slave ground. Their condition as a slave nation will be far worse than the first time they were in while Egypt, for there in a slave market, although they put themselves out for sale to their enemies as male and female slaves, no one will buy them. This is the picture of eternal hell where there is no getting out. 

In conclusion, in the passage the word “LORD” is repeated 38 times. The phrase, “if you” is repeated 7 times. This indicates that the key is placed in the hands of men, in your hands and in my hands. The LORD is there only to back up the choice his children are going to make. What then should be our choice? 

One word: obey the Lord fully 

 

    

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