Deuteronomy 28:47 Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things.
Oh my Friends, as I said yesterday, I simply can’t fathom why we would ever want to turn away from the merciful, ever LOVING, forgiving God we’re called to worship and obey. And it’s not like His demands are that onerous or prevent us from having a highly entertaining and interesting life. But unfortunately it’s happened throughout the ages, and is still happening in these supposed enlightened times. Today’s Bit comes from a chapter where Moses lays out the blessings of obedience and the consequences of disobedience to the Israelites, as they journeyed towards the Promised Land. As regards Obedience: ‘the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessing shall come on thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God: The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. And all the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of thee. And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee. The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day to observe and to do them.’ (Deut.28:1-13) Oh my people, there it is in black and white, as clear as possible, the many blessings our God promised if we only obey His statutes. I tried to paraphrase it, but the good life promises were so plentiful that I still wrote more than expected. Now turning to the consequences of disobedience…oh my brethren, they are simply awful; the exact opposite of the blessings of obedience, and then some. Just reading the curses the Lord promises to unleash on us for disobedience strikes a cold fear in my heart. I certainly would not like to experience them. They are so numerous that I don’t know where to begin or what to include. Ah mih people, if we disobey, then ‘all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee: The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me: pestilence, consumption, fever, the sword, a heaven of brass, an earth of iron, rain like powder and dust; smitten before thine enemies, go out one way, flee seven ways, be troublesome in all the earth, thy carcase shall be meat unto all the fowls of the air, and beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray (frighten) them away; the botch (boils) of Egypt, the emerods, (tumours) madness, blindness, astonishment of heart, thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled, (plundered) evermore, and no man shall save thee.’ (Deut.28:15-29) Oh mih people, doesn’t that sound familiar? Aren’t many of those things happening right now? And doesn’t it leave you cold and fearful? And that’s just the half of it. You can read the rest for yourself. It runs from verse 15 to 68, while the blessings go from 1 to 14. That means the curses take up 53 verses, while the blessing only use 14. So the curses are almost four times more deadly and dangerous than the blessings. And why is all that coming against us? ‘Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things.’ Again I ask, why is that? Because we’re foolish fools, taken up, besotted with the false wisdom of our accomplishments, driven by our uncontrolled greed and egotism. Way back in Chapter 12, Moses warned the Israelites: ‘Ye shall not do after all these things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes.’ (Deut.12:8) And did they listen? For a while. ‘But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God, which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.’ (Deut.32:15) Oh my people, the Israelites obeyed until they became prosperous, then they promptly forsook the Lord, their Creator, held him of little account, the same one who blessed them with prosperity. It’s the same mistake we’ve made thousands of years later mih Friends: forsaking the Lord in our prosperity, instead of unleashing untold thanks and praise, serving Him with joyfulness and gladness of hearts, and being everlastingly grateful for the abundance He’s bestowed on us. But being the stupid, egotistic, illogical animals we are, we chose that time to turn away, to belittle and remove Him from our lives, possibly thinking that that prosperity was all our doing. But Friends, I’m here to sadly inform us that it’s not. Not one iota of prosperity comes directly from us, but indirectly through the Most High God Jehovah. Until we learn that, also to obey His Word and give thanks with joyfulness in prosperous times, we’ll always be cursed with unnecessary ‘sufferation,’ like we are right now. And just look at the spate of natural disasters, this weekend alone in Asia; torrential rain, monsoons, floods, earthquakes and landslides. Even up here, midway through August and we haven’t yet had a real hot summer’s day, while other places not accustomed to hot days are roasting in the sweltering, rainless heat. That’s the promised ‘heaven of brass and earth of iron.’ Oh my people let’s wake up and realize what’s happening nuh. We’re killing our planet and ourselves with our unhealthy manufacturing activities and lifestyles, and sadly compounding it through the rabid sinfulness and wickedness that currently holds sway in our society. The Lord doesn’t even have to do much to us in the way of punishment, for we are our worse enemy. We contrive such wickedness against each other, that it must surely make Him shake His head in sad wonder. Oh Friends, let’s wake up and smell the roses before it’s too late nuh! Roses, though beautiful, are surrounded by thorns for a God-given purpose…and so are we. Let’s try to fulfill it nuh. Much LOVE!…Rejoice in the Lord always…and again I say…Rejoice… (Phil.4:4)
Oh my Friends, as I said yesterday, I simply can’t fathom why we would ever want to turn away from the merciful, ever LOVING, forgiving God we’re called to worship and obey. And it’s not like His demands are that onerous or prevent us from having a highly entertaining and interesting life. But unfortunately it’s happened throughout the ages, and is still happening in these supposed enlightened times. Today’s Bit comes from a chapter where Moses lays out the blessings of obedience and the consequences of disobedience to the Israelites, as they journeyed towards the Promised Land. As regards Obedience: ‘the Lord thy God will set thee on high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessing shall come on thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God: The Lord shall cause thine enemies that rise up against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways. And all the people of the earth shall see that thou art called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of thee. And the Lord shall make thee plenteous in goods, in the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy cattle, and in the fruit of thy ground in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers to give thee. The Lord shall open unto thee his good treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many nations, and thou shalt not borrow. And the Lord shall make thee the head and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day to observe and to do them.’ (Deut.28:1-13) Oh my people, there it is in black and white, as clear as possible, the many blessings our God promised if we only obey His statutes. I tried to paraphrase it, but the good life promises were so plentiful that I still wrote more than expected. Now turning to the consequences of disobedience…oh my brethren, they are simply awful; the exact opposite of the blessings of obedience, and then some. Just reading the curses the Lord promises to unleash on us for disobedience strikes a cold fear in my heart. I certainly would not like to experience them. They are so numerous that I don’t know where to begin or what to include. Ah mih people, if we disobey, then ‘all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee: The Lord shall send upon thee cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me: pestilence, consumption, fever, the sword, a heaven of brass, an earth of iron, rain like powder and dust; smitten before thine enemies, go out one way, flee seven ways, be troublesome in all the earth, thy carcase shall be meat unto all the fowls of the air, and beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray (frighten) them away; the botch (boils) of Egypt, the emerods, (tumours) madness, blindness, astonishment of heart, thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled, (plundered) evermore, and no man shall save thee.’ (Deut.28:15-29) Oh mih people, doesn’t that sound familiar? Aren’t many of those things happening right now? And doesn’t it leave you cold and fearful? And that’s just the half of it. You can read the rest for yourself. It runs from verse 15 to 68, while the blessings go from 1 to 14. That means the curses take up 53 verses, while the blessing only use 14. So the curses are almost four times more deadly and dangerous than the blessings. And why is all that coming against us? ‘Because thou servedst not the Lord thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things.’ Again I ask, why is that? Because we’re foolish fools, taken up, besotted with the false wisdom of our accomplishments, driven by our uncontrolled greed and egotism. Way back in Chapter 12, Moses warned the Israelites: ‘Ye shall not do after all these things that we do here this day, every man whatsoever is right in his own eyes.’ (Deut.12:8) And did they listen? For a while. ‘But Jeshurun waxed fat, and kicked: thou art waxen fat, thou art grown thick, thou art covered with fatness; then he forsook God, which made him, and lightly esteemed the Rock of his salvation.’ (Deut.32:15) Oh my people, the Israelites obeyed until they became prosperous, then they promptly forsook the Lord, their Creator, held him of little account, the same one who blessed them with prosperity. It’s the same mistake we’ve made thousands of years later mih Friends: forsaking the Lord in our prosperity, instead of unleashing untold thanks and praise, serving Him with joyfulness and gladness of hearts, and being everlastingly grateful for the abundance He’s bestowed on us. But being the stupid, egotistic, illogical animals we are, we chose that time to turn away, to belittle and remove Him from our lives, possibly thinking that that prosperity was all our doing. But Friends, I’m here to sadly inform us that it’s not. Not one iota of prosperity comes directly from us, but indirectly through the Most High God Jehovah. Until we learn that, also to obey His Word and give thanks with joyfulness in prosperous times, we’ll always be cursed with unnecessary ‘sufferation,’ like we are right now. And just look at the spate of natural disasters, this weekend alone in Asia; torrential rain, monsoons, floods, earthquakes and landslides. Even up here, midway through August and we haven’t yet had a real hot summer’s day, while other places not accustomed to hot days are roasting in the sweltering, rainless heat. That’s the promised ‘heaven of brass and earth of iron.’ Oh my people let’s wake up and realize what’s happening nuh. We’re killing our planet and ourselves with our unhealthy manufacturing activities and lifestyles, and sadly compounding it through the rabid sinfulness and wickedness that currently holds sway in our society. The Lord doesn’t even have to do much to us in the way of punishment, for we are our worse enemy. We contrive such wickedness against each other, that it must surely make Him shake His head in sad wonder. Oh Friends, let’s wake up and smell the roses before it’s too late nuh! Roses, though beautiful, are surrounded by thorns for a God-given purpose…and so are we. Let’s try to fulfill it nuh. Much LOVE!…Rejoice in the Lord always…and again I say…Rejoice… (Phil.4:4)
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