4/16/11
Deuteronomy 28-29
Blessings for Obedience (Lev 26.1—13; Deut 7.12—24)
Deuteronomy 28:1 If you will only obey the Lord your God, by diligently observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth; 2 all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the Lord your God:
3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.
4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your livestock, both the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock.
5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.
7 The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you; they shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways. 8 The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns, and in all that you undertake; he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you. 9 The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways. 10 All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. 11 The Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give you. 12 The Lord will open for you his rich storehouse, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all your undertakings. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow. 13 The Lord will make you the head, and not the tail; you shall be only at the top, and not at the bottom—if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today, by diligently observing them, 14 and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I am commanding you today, either to the right or to the left, following other gods to serve them.
(Ex 9.8—12; Lev 26.14—46)
15 But if you will not obey the Lord your God by diligently observing all his commandments and decrees, which I am commanding you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you:
16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field.
17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock.
19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
20 The Lord will send upon you disaster, panic, and frustration in everything you attempt to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me. 21 The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until it has consumed you off the land that you are entering to possess. 22 The Lord will afflict you with consumption, fever, inflammation, with fiery heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. 23 The sky over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you iron. 24 The Lord will change the rain of your land into powder, and only dust shall come down upon you from the sky until you are destroyed.
25 The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out against them one way and flee before them seven ways. You shall become an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 Your corpses shall be food for every bird of the air and animal of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away. 27 The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with ulcers, scurvy, and itch, of which you cannot be healed. 28 The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind; 29 you shall grope about at noon as blind people grope in darkness, but you shall be unable to find your way; and you shall be continually abused and robbed, without anyone to help. 30 You shall become engaged to a woman, but another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house, but not live in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but not enjoy its fruit. 31 Your ox shall be butchered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it. Your donkey shall be stolen in front of you, and shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, without anyone to help you. 32 Your sons and daughters shall be given to another people, while you look on; you will strain your eyes looking for them all day but be powerless to do anything. 33 A people whom you do not know shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors; you shall be continually abused and crushed, 34 and driven mad by the sight that your eyes shall see. 35 The Lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. 36 The Lord will bring you, and the king whom you set over you, to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, where you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone. 37 You shall become an object of horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you.
38 You shall carry much seed into the field but shall gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. 39 You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them. 40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off. 41 You shall have sons and daughters, but they shall not remain yours, for they shall go into captivity. 42 All your trees and the fruit of your ground the cicada shall take over. 43 Aliens residing among you shall ascend above you higher and higher, while you shall descend lower and lower. 44 They shall lend to you but you shall not lend to them; they shall be the head and you shall be the tail.
45 All these curses shall come upon you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God, by observing the commandments and the decrees that he commanded you. 46 They shall be among you and your descendants as a sign and a portent forever.
47 Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything, 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and lack of everything. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. 49 The Lord will bring a nation from far away, from the end of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand, 50 a grim-faced nation showing no respect to the old or favor to the young. 51 It shall consume the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed, leaving you neither grain, wine, and oil, nor the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock, until it has made you perish. 52 It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout your land; it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout the land that the Lord your God has given you. 53 In the desperate straits to which the enemy siege reduces you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you. 54 Even the most refined and gentle of men among you will begrudge food to his own brother, to the wife whom he embraces, and to the last of his remaining children, 55 giving to none of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because nothing else remains to him, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in all your towns. 56 She who is the most refined and gentle among you, so gentle and refined that she does not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge food to the husband whom she embraces, to her own son, and to her own daughter, 57 begrudging even the afterbirth that comes out from between her thighs, and the children that she bears, because she is eating them in secret for lack of anything else, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in your towns.
58 If you do not diligently observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, fearing this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, 59 then the Lord will overwhelm both you and your offspring with severe and lasting afflictions and grievous and lasting maladies. 60 He will bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were in dread, and they shall cling to you. 61 Every other malady and affliction, even though not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will inflict on you until you are destroyed. 62 Although once you were as numerous as the stars in heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God. 63 And just as the Lord took delight in making you prosperous and numerous, so the Lord will take delight in bringing you to ruin and destruction; you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to possess. 64 The Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other; and there you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known. 65 Among those nations you shall find no ease, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a languishing spirit. 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you; night and day you shall be in dread, with no assurance of your life. 67 In the morning you shall say, “If only it were evening!” and at evening you shall say, “If only it were morning!”—because of the dread that your heart shall feel and the sights that your eyes shall see. 68 The Lord will bring you back in ships to Egypt, by a route that I promised you would never see again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.
Deuteronomy 29:1 These are the words of the covenant that the Lord commanded Moses to make with the Israelites in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant that he had made with them at Horeb.
The Covenant Renewed in Moab
2 Moses summoned all Israel and said to them: You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land, 3 the great trials that your eyes saw, the signs, and those great wonders. 4 But to this day the Lord has not given you a mind to understand, or eyes to see, or ears to hear. 5 I have led you forty years in the wilderness. The clothes on your back have not worn out, and the sandals on your feet have not worn out; 6 you have not eaten bread, and you have not drunk wine or strong drink—so that you may know that I am the Lord your God. 7 When you came to this place, King Sihon of Heshbon and King Og of Bashan came out against us for battle, but we defeated them. 8 We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh. 9 Therefore diligently observe the words of this covenant, in order that you may succeed in everything that you do.
10 You stand assembled today, all of you, before the Lord your God—the leaders of your tribes, your elders, and your officials, all the men of Israel, 11 your children, your women, and the aliens who are in your camp, both those who cut your wood and those who draw your water— 12 to enter into the covenant of the Lord your God, sworn by an oath, which the Lord your God is making with you today; 13 in order that he may establish you today as his people, and that he may be your God, as he promised you and as he swore to your ancestors, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob. 14 I am making this covenant, sworn by an oath, not only with you who stand here with us today before the Lord our God, 15 but also with those who are not here with us today. 16 You know how we lived in the land of Egypt, and how we came through the midst of the nations through which you passed. 17 You have seen their detestable things, the filthy idols of wood and stone, of silver and gold, that were among them. 18 It may be that there is among you a man or woman, or a family or tribe, whose heart is already turning away from the Lord our God to serve the gods of those nations. It may be that there is among you a root sprouting poisonous and bitter growth. 19 All who hear the words of this oath and bless themselves, thinking in their hearts, “We are safe even though we go our own stubborn ways” (thus bringing disaster on moist and dry alike)— 20 the Lord will be unwilling to pardon them, for the Lord’s anger and passion will smoke against them. All the curses written in this book will descend on them, and the Lord will blot out their names from under heaven. 21 The Lord will single them out from all the tribes of Israel for calamity, in accordance with all the curses of the covenant written in this book of the law. 22 The next generation, your children who rise up after you, as well as the foreigner who comes from a distant country, will see the devastation of that land and the afflictions with which the Lord has afflicted it— 23 all its soil burned out by sulfur and salt, nothing planted, nothing sprouting, unable to support any vegetation, like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord destroyed in his fierce anger— 24 they and indeed all the nations will wonder, “Why has the Lord done thus to this land? What caused this great display of anger?” 25 They will conclude, “It is because they abandoned the covenant of the Lord, the God of their ancestors, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. 26 They turned and served other gods, worshiping them, gods whom they had not known and whom he had not allotted to them; 27 so the anger of the Lord was kindled against that land, bringing on it every curse written in this book. 28 The Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, fury, and great wrath, and cast them into another land, as is now the case.” 29 The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the revealed things belong to us and to our children forever, to observe all the words of this law.
Devotionals, Videos and more ...
by Bill Federer
In 1859, on this day, April 16, French historian Alexis de Tocqueville died. For nine months he had traveled the U.S. to observe its institutions, writing the work Democracy in America, which has been described as “the most comprehensive… analysis of… character and society in America… ever… written.” In it, de Tocqueville wrote: “Upon my arrival in the United States the religious aspect of the country was the first thing that struck my attention…. In France I had almost always seen the spirit of religion and the spirit of freedom marching in opposite directions. But in America I found they were intimately united.”
Federer, B. (2003). American minute. St. Louis, MO.: Amerisearch, Inc.
by D.H. Stern
Don’t speak in the ears of a fool,
for he will only despise
the common sense in your words.
Don’t move the ancient boundary stone
or encroach on the land of the fatherless;
for their Redeemer is strong;
he will take up their fight against you.
Stern, D. H. (1998). Complete Jewish Bible-OE
: An English version of the Tanakh (OT) and
B'rit Hadashah (NT) (1st ed.). Clarksville, Md.: Jewish
New Testament Publications.
by Oswald Chambers
Can you come down?
While ye have light, believe in the light. --- John 12:36. Chambers, O. (1993). My Utmost for His Highest
We all have moments when we feel better than our best, and we say—‘I feel fit for anything; if only I could be like this always!’ We are not meant to be. Those moments are moments of insight which we have to live up to when we do not feel like it. Many of us are no good for this workaday world when there is no high hour. We must bring our commonplace life up to the standard revealed in the high hour.
Never allow a feeling which was stirred in you in the high hour to evaporate. Don’t put your mental feet on the mantelpiece and say—‘What a marvellous state of mind to be in!’ Act immediately, do something, if only because you would rather not do it. If in a prayer meeting God has shown you something to do, don’t say—‘I’ll do it’; do it! Take yourself by the scruff of the neck and shake off your incarnate laziness. Laziness is always seen in cravings for the high hour; we talk about working up to a time on the mount. We have to learn to live in the grey day according to what we saw on the mount.
Don’t cave in because you have been baffled once, get at it again. Burn your bridges behind you, and stand committed to God by your own act. Never revise your decisions, but see that you make your decisions in the light of the high hour.
the Poetry of R.S. Thomas
Chapel Deacon
Who put that crease in your soul,
Davies, ready this fine morning
For the staid chapel, where the Book's frown
Sobers the sunlight? Who taught you to pray
And scheme at once, your eyes turning
Skyward, while your swift mind weighs
Your heifer's chances in the next town's
Fair on Thursday? Are your heart's coals
Kindled for God, or is the burning
Of your lean cheeks because you sit
Too near that girl's smouldering gaze?
Tell me, Davies, for the faint breeze
From heaven freshens and I roll in it,
Who taught you your deft poise?
R.S. Thomas Selected poems, 1946-1968
Moed Katan 28a
We have all been to a wedding, concert, or play that we just did not want to end. We have all said to ourselves, at one time or another: “That celebration was so joyous, I wish it could have gone on forever.” (Or, as they sang in My Fair Lady, “I could have danced all night!”) We have been to a concert where the music was so inspiring and lively that it reverberated in our heads for hours. We may have seen a play in which the acting was so moving and the plot so thought-provoking that we kept it in mind for days afterwards. These feelings are common and expected, and these occasions are times to stretch, to add, and to increase, as we attempt to prolong these happy occasions, to extend them as much as possible, as well we should.
However, we know that life gives us sad times as well. As Longfellow wrote:
Into each life some rain must fall,
Some days must be dark and dreary.
At one time or another, each of us will have reason to grieve and mourn. The Jewish tradition, in the principle “part of a day is like a whole day,” is trying to remind us not to extend mourning or overdo sadness.
When a president of the United States dies (especially when one dies in office), there are many ceremonies to mark the passing of a great leader. Offices are closed; flags remain at half staff for an extended period. Then the country must move on. Many Americans will think of the President and will privately mourn as they conduct their everyday affairs. Even if we inwardly feel sad and grieve, outwardly we must return to our daily routine, ever aware of the precarious nature of life and the memories of those who are no longer among the living.
Similarly, Jewish tradition requires us to mourn the death of certain relatives. We must set aside time, a week known as shivah, for this most intense period of grieving. Even then, the law is that seven full days may be too much. Thus, no shivah is really seven complete days. The first day (the day of the burial) and the last day are always partial days, perhaps a reminder that we must face bereavement with the right attitude. Just as there is a time for mourning, there is a time to end our mourning. Shivah traditionally concludes with a walk around the block, symbolic of a return to society and to everyday living, despite our personal loss.
The Talmud is teaching us that if we can curtail our mourning a bit by observing only part of a day as a whole day for sad times, then well and good. Happiness should be prolonged; sadness can be cut short.
Life, children, and food are matters that depend not on merit, but on luck.
Text / Rava said: “Life, children, and food are matters that depend not on merit, but on luck, for Rabbah and Rav Ḥisda were both righteous rabbis. One would pray and rain would fall, and the other would pray and rain would fall. Rav Ḥisda lived ninety-two years; Rabbah lived forty. In the house of Rav Ḥisda there were sixty weddings; in the house of Rabbah, sixty funerals. In the house of Rav Ḥisda, there was bread of the finest flour for the dogs, and it was not wanted; in the house of Rabbah, there was only barley bread for the people, and it was in short supply.”
Context / Rav Ḥisda was sitting in the school of Rav, and the Angel of Death could not come close to him, for his mouth did not cease repeating Torah. He sat upon a cedar bench in Rav’s school. The cedar cracked, Rav Ḥisda stopped talking, and the angel overpowered him. (Makkot 10a)
Rabbah bar Naḥmani died because of the religious persecutions. Someone informed on him to the king. They said: “There is a man among the Jews who removes 12,000 Jewish men from the royal tax rolls one month every summer and one month every winter. [Rashi explains these months to be Nisan, when they would come in to hear his lectures about Pesaḥ, and Tishrei, when they assembled for his teachings about the festivals. When the tax collectors came, they did not find these people at home and could not collect the monies due the king.] The king’s troops were sent after him … The Angel of Death could not come close to him for his mouth did not cease repeating the Torah. In the meantime, a wind blew and rustled the reeds. He thought it was a band of horsemen. He said: “Let me die at the hands of the Angel of Death and not be given over to the King.” (Bava Metzia 86a)
In the section immediately preceding ours, a discussion is found that attempts to understand the meaning of premature death. Some Rabbis believed that if a person died at an early age, it was a sign of God’s disfavor with them. One viewpoint held that if a person died before reaching fifty, it meant that the punishment of karet, “being cut off,” had been visited upon that person; if one died at sixty, it was another category of punishment, “death at the hands of Heaven.”
Rava comes to dispute this. His position is that the length of a person’s life is not determined by righteousness or piety. It is, in the end, a matter of luck. As proof, he brings the case of the two well-known Rabbis, Rav Ḥisda (Rava’s own teacher) and Rabbah. Both men were known for their righteousness. During a drought, either man was able to pray for rain, and God would immediately answer their prayers, ending the drought and sending the rain. Yet one lived a life of tragedy, the other of blessing. Rava can explain the differences only as a matter of luck.
Katz, M., & Schwartz, G. (1998). Swimming in the Sea of Talmud: Lessons for Everyday LIving
. Philadelphia, PA: The Jewish Publication Society.by Diana Wallis
And I saw what looked like a sea of glass mixed with fire and, standing beside the sea, those who had been victorious over the beast. --- Revelation 15:2
If you keep seeking the truth, then somewhere, here or in some better world, the truth will come to you, and when it comes, the peace and the serenity of it will be made vital with the energy of your long search. (Classic Sermons On Suffering
Simon Peter is forgiven, becomes the preacher of the first sermon, the converter of the first Gentiles, the champion of faith. But he is always the same Simon Peter who denied his Master and struggled with himself on the crucifixion night. Paul mounts to the third heaven, hears wonderful voices, sees unutterable things, but he never ceases to be the Paul who stood by at the stoning of Stephen. You and I come by Christ’s grace into communion with God, but does the power of our conversion ever leave us?
Aren’t we prodigals still, with the best robe and the ring and the fatted calf before us in our father’s house, conscious that our filial love is full of the repentance that first made us turn homeward from among the swine? The saved world never can forget that it was once the lost world.
[And] isn’t a “sea of glass mixed with fire” a graphic picture of rest pervaded with activity—of contemplation pervaded and kept alive by work and service? Heaven will not be idleness, not any mere dreaming over the spiritual repose that has been forever won, but active, tireless, earnest work—fresh, lively enthusiasm for the high labors that eternity will offer. These inspirations will play through our repose and make it more mighty in the service of God.
That life which we dream of in ourselves, we see in Jesus. Where was there ever gentleness so full of energy? What life so still [yet] so pervaded with untiring and restless power? Who ever knew the purposes for which he worked to be so sure, yet so labored for them as if they were uncertain?
As more and more we get the victory over the beast, we too, are lifted up to walk where he walked. For this, all trial, all suffering, and all struggle are sent. May God grant us all much of that grace through which we can be more than conquerors through him who loved us and so begin now to walk with him in white on the sea of glass mixed with fire. --- Phillips Brooks
(27). Grand Rapids, MI: Kregel Publications.by Rick Adams
Like many others we hope to once again… soon … have a place of our own. The days of Lily carrying one end of heavy furniture and me the other are over. We’re reached the point where we can no longer move on our own, so when the time comes to buy instead of rent, and I believe it will, we will have to get some help.
In the meantime Lily makes our apartment, home … because it is. Even when we house sit million dollar homes we are always happy to return to our apartment; clean, tidy, with a great view of pine trees, not other apartments and not busy streets. The trees are alive with the sounds of birds and breezes basking in the branches.
So we were not too upset when the time came for us to sign another one year lease to keep our rent from going up. I told the apartment manager my only concern is making too much noise walking since we live on the third floor. Thankfully we have wonderful neighbors below us who only smile and say hello.
The apartment manager shared a couple of tenant stories that made us even more grateful for the people who live around us. Surely most folks renting want a place of their own? It reminds me of Luke 16:12 “And if you have not been faithful with what belongs to another, who will give you what is your own?” Why are so many renters so destructive, so disrespectful, and so cranky?
When our four sons were youngsters I told them to take good care of that rubber ball and then I’d get them the Michael Jordan basketball they wanted, but first they had to take care of what they had.
Are things any different now? Aren’t yesterday’s values much the same? What is really most important? Family and friends to be sure, but they can’t always be around. Shouldn’t we widen our perspective? Shouldn’t we be intentional about seeing and thanking God for all the people who make us smile?
For instance, I am typing on my keyboard, looking out at the rain. I see Caesar down below. He works for the apartment complex in maintenance. His long gray hair is pulled back in a ponytail and he’s wearing a serape and a cowboy hat. He looks like a gun slinger, but actually he’s very nice; always waving hello and always whistling. Caesar and his Clint Eastwood attire make me smile. Justin with all his tattoos makes me smile. Our apartment manager Steph with his Australian accent makes me smile, our mechanic Barry makes me smile and the list goes on and on.
If we take care of our apartment I believe one day, somehow, we will once again have a place of our own. If we take care of all the people we too often fail to really see, won’t God, whatever, whoever you believe God to be … take care of you?
This world does not belong to you or me. Shouldn’t we be faithful with what and who belong to God?
Teacher's Commentary
Thirty years ago a traveler taking a train across dry and dusty Palestine remarked, “And the Bible calls this a land of milk and honey!”
A man overheard, tapped him on the shoulder, and showed him these words:
Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the Lord hath afflicted it.
The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur—nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger.
All the nations will ask: “Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this fierce burning anger?” --- Deuteronomy 29:22–24
God had spelled out the principle of love which underlay the Law, and had detailed the specific stipulations of the contract He made with each generation of Israelites. Now the new generation ratified that covenant (Deuteronomy 27), and God spelled out the blessings of obedience (Deuteronomy 28:1–14). But God also spelled out the tragedies which would surely come if Israel went back on her commitment (Deuteronomy 28:15–68). The treaty was then summarized (Deuteronomy 29–30), and this great Old Testament book concludes with the personal words, and the story of the death of Moses. The message? It is one of commitment. Commitment determines destiny.
Commitment / Earlier, when Israel stood poised at Paran and sent spies to examine Canaan, the people reached a time of decision. God spoke and told them, “Go.” And they refused.
On this decision the destiny of that entire generation hinged. Because of their lack of trust in God, their decision was to disobey.
We know how that single act of disobedience—though representative of a basic attitude and lifestyle—forced that generation away from the Promised Land out into the wilderness to die.
But now we’re dealing with a new generation, a generation that did “hold fast” to the Lord. This generation was ready and eager to respond to the command to cross the Jordan and to battle for their heritage, Palestine. This new generation had a different heart attitude toward God, and was marked by a different lifestyle. They were a people who trusted God and who were willing to obey. But they too faced an important decision. This decision would express itself not in a single act of obedience or disobedience, but in a continuing pattern of life.
The decision now facing Israel had to do with commitment.
New Testament parallel. We can find a similar point of decision reflected in the Gospels. Jesus had spent a long time with His disciples, and a similar length of time in ministry to the crowds. Then one day He asked the Twelve, “Who do people say the Son of man is?”
He received many apparently flattering answers. John the Baptist. Elijah. Another of the ancient prophets.
Then our Lord asked the Twelve, “Who do you say I am?”
And He received the right, the only adequate, response. “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
The disciples knew who Jesus is, and trusted themselves to Him. They had made that initial, critical decision to respond to God’s Word about His Son, even as this new, believing Israel was ready to respond to God’s Word and to go up into Canaan. But that initial decision, vital as it is, had to be followed up. Jesus said to His disciples:
If anyone would come after Me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for Me will save it. What good is it for a man to gain the whole world, and yet lose or forfeit his very self? --- Luke 9:23–24
In these words, Jesus sets before believers the second choice: the choice of commitment.
Jesus was spelling out the ultimate impact of that choice on the human personality. If we choose to follow Jesus in daily commitment, we will “save” our lives. We will become the self we potentially are through the presence of God within us.
Or we can make the wrong choice. We can live for ourselves rather than in commitment to Christ. An inevitable result of that choice will be that we lose ourselves. The person we might have been because of intimate relationship with God—our “very self”—will be forfeited.
Commitment determines the destiny ahead in this world for each one of us.
For Israel too. As we trace the culminating events in Deuteronomy, we see over and over again how the commitment decision determines the experience of Israel. Ultimately the promised Messiah will come, and all of God’s promises to Abraham will be fulfilled. But until then, each generation’s choice will determine its own destiny.
Blessing or Curse: Deuteronomy 27–29 / Covenant entered (Deuteronomy 27). It seems strange to read words like these in this section of Deuteronomy: “You have now become the people of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 27:9).
Weren’t these descendants of Abraham automatically the people of the Lord?
Yes, in one sense.
But in another sense the Hebrews, as a people and as individuals, chose to enter into the relationship with God that was defined by Law. The promise made to Abraham held firm, no matter what a given generation did. But each generation’s own experience of God’s blessing, and its own relationship with the Lord, was defined by the Mosaic Law Covenant, and that covenant was entered into by personal choice and commitment. Thus the Deuteronomy passage we’re studying picks up this critical point, and explains for living Israel for all time the meaning of this commitment decision.
“All of you are standing today in the presence of the Lord your God.… In order to enter into a covenant with the Lord your God, a covenant the Lord is making with you this day and sealing with an oath” (Deuteronomy 29:10, 12).
The Lord is “the Lord your God.” But only by entering voluntarily into the covenant of Law would an individual or given generation experience the blessings of being “His people.”
To mark off this day as special, an appropriate ceremony was determined. Israel was told to act out her commitment in an unmistakable way. When she was over Jordan, the commandments were to be written plainly on large, whitewashed stones. Half the tribes were to stand on Mount Ebal, and shout out “Amen” to the curses pronounced by the Levites for disobedience (Deuteronomy 27:15–26). The other half of the tribes were to stand on Mount Gerizim to bless. And an altar was to be built—on the mount of cursing.
Thus commitment was to be marked formally. It was to be a distinct experience, this entering of the covenant, and was to be remembered by the Israelites.
Definition and outcome of commitment (Deuteronomy 28). The definition of commitment given here is extremely simple.
Daily obedience.
We see it over and over. “If you fully obey the Lord your God, and carefully follow all His commands I give you today” (Deuteronomy 28:1).
It is just as simple to define lack of commitment, or uncommitment.
Daily disobedience.
“If you do not carefully follow all the words of this Law, which are written in this Book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name” (Deuteronomy 28:58).
The decision the believer makes is to live out his commitment to God as daily obedience—or not to do so.
(323). Wheaton, Ill.: Victor Books.