"Curses of Disobedience" pt 3 Deuteronomy 28:58-68

Introduction

Today we return to and look into the final section of curses. A few weeks ago I used the illustration of the old don’t do drugs and don’t drink and drive commercials. In both of those types of commercials, they would show the destructive nature of going down the path of doing drugs or drinking and driving. Those commercials, especially the don’t drink and drive commercials would always leave me feeling a sense of serious dread to never drink and drive. We don’t have to look far into the news to find true instances of someone driving drunk and causing horrific pain and death to themselves and others. So here in scripture, God summarizes the horrific ends that will come upon the nation and the individuals who make up that nation, if they go their own way and disobey the commands of the Lord.

Text Read

58 “If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, 59 then the Lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting. 60 And he will bring upon you again all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. 61 Every sickness also and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will bring upon you, until you are destroyed. 62 Whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God. 63 And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, so the Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 64 “And 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 fathers have known. 65 And among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot, but the Lord will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul. 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have 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 And the Lord will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that you should never make again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.”

Text Explained

As we just read, the text begins with an if…then statement. Remember all the curses that we have read, all the destruction and death, it all hinges upon the one little word, if. 58 “If you (the Israelites, the people of God), are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God, Obedience to the Law was an outward demonstration of what was going on inside. If they obeyed, it was a outward demonstration that they indeed feared the Lord, and this fear is a respect, reverence, a sense of awe at His glory and majesty, it also contains a sense of shaky kneed dread at His Bigness. When people in the Scripture got a glimpse of God, the response was always to drop to their knees, to proclaim themselves as unworthy and to humble themselves simply by being in His presence. And so, obedience to the Lord was that outward demonstration of what was going on inside. Now I know someone will say, “But you can fake actions.” Absolutely. But actions often demonstrate what is going on inside. Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it (the heart) flow the springs of life.” and in John 14:15 Jesus said “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” Here in our text, the lack of obedience would be a demonstration that their hearts were in rebellion against their God. So, if they did not obey,… 59 then the Lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions, afflictions severe and lasting, and sicknesses grievous and lasting. 60 And He (the Lord) will bring upon you again all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they (the diseases) shall cling to you. These would not be sicknesses and plagues that you can overcome by any means, b/c they would be brought about by God for the explicit purposed of judgment. 61 Every sickness also and every affliction that is not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will bring upon you, until you are destroyed. We see here that the judgment of their sin, would be death/destruction. Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death...” Destruction and death would be the end of their disobedience and it would be something they could not escape no matter how hard they worked, how much medicine they took, the end of their sin was the grave. 62 Whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God. The size and number of people, the riches and vastness of your land, all of this would not matter, for God would bring it to ruin if they trusted in their own strength and disobediently went their own way. This reminds me of Psalm 20:7 “Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the Lord our God.” If the Israelites did not trust in the Lord by obeying His commands, then they would be brought low. This truth, the Israelites would have understood because the previous generation had just seen God bring Egypt, a world superpower, low. Yet, even in the midst of this cursing, we see a glimmer of God’s goodness. For amidst all the destruction, there would not be a complete annihilation. There would be a few who remained. Then we come to verse 63 which would have been both encouraging and terrifying. 63 And as the Lord took delight in doing you good and multiplying you, this is the encouraging part, for it brought the Lord delight to bless His people in their obedience, yet the terrifying part comes next, so the Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you. And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. In the same way it brought God delight to bless them in their obedience, it would bring God delight to bring them judgment in their disobedience. How could a good God be delighted when judgment happens? Think of it this way, when a murderer is found guilty and receives the appropriate sentence, there is a sense of righteous delight, for justice has been done. God here is the one who would be dispensing justice upon a people who know full well what is expected of them and He would pursue that justice because He is Just. Continuing on, 64 “And 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 fathers have known. God would scatter them and allow them to have the sinful and destructive desire of their heart. To serve idols. Yet 65 And among these nations you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot, but the Lord will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul. 66 Your life shall hang in doubt before you. Night and day you shall be in dread and have 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 And the Lord will bring you back in ships to Egypt, a journey that I promised that you should never make again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.” The Lord would not permit them to be content/satisfied in these other lands, for only in Him can the people of God find true contentment and rest. The contrast of the blessings and curses are brought to completion in verse 68 for the Israelites would willfully return to the Land of their enslavement and attempt to offer themselves as slaves. This would be a complete end. The path of sin/disobedience would end in an attempt to sell themselves back into slavery, the very place that God had so miraculously brought them out of. Proverbs 26:11 “Like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.” This brings us to the end of the Curses of Disobedience.

Text Applied

Actions Often Demonstrate the Heart. Actions often demonstrate what is going on in the heart. In our text, the curses of disobedience came upon the Israelites because of the actions they took and the actions they failed to take. Their lack of obedience to the Law of the Lord was an indication of where their hearts where. Now, often I hear people use the phrase, “well God knows my heart” and they use it as an excuse for their bad behavior. Dear one, yes God knows your heart, and He knows Matthew 12:34 “...For out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks.” So we must, Proverbs 4:23 “Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it (the heart) flow the springs of life.” Matthew 12:33 “Either make the tree good and its fruit good, or make the tree bad and its fruit bad, for the tree is known by its fruit.” Good intentions do not excuse bad actions, rather bad actions may indicate there is a heart problem. When the troubles of life come, what is the normal way you respond? Do you respond in an unrighteous way or a righteous way? Do you respond with shortness and anger, or do you respond with grace and patience? Your actions often demonstrate what is going on in your heart. Pay attention. Your actions often demonstrate what is going on in your heart.

Sin Cannot Satisfy Our Hearts

In our text, we find that God would scatter the people and they would serve other gods and they would be in other lands, but they would never be satisfied, they would never find rest. The children of Israel would be condemned if they pursued the sinful things of this world, yet when they were given over to it, it could not satisfy them. We see this truth echoed in Romans 1:21—29 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; 27 and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 And since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, God gave them up to a debased mind to do what ought not to be done. 29 They were filled with all manner of unrighteousness, evil, covetousness, malice. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, maliciousness. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, haters of God, insolent, haughty, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, 31 foolish, faithless, heartless, ruthless. 32 Though they know God's righteous decree that those who practice such things deserve to die, they not only do them but give approval to those who practice them. One of the scariest things God can do is let you have your own way, and all the destruction and heartache that go with it. Dear one, do not believe the lie that Christianity keeps you from living a fun and free life. The things that God says are sinful cannot and will not satisfy you. Sin will demand more and more and more until there is nothing left. Sin is nothing but a pathway to death and along that road there will only be destruction. Sin Cannot Satisfy Our Hearts.

Good Things Cannot Satisfy Our Hearts

Dear one, there is a more insidious thing that threatens Christians in the west. That is the pursuit of good things. What I mean is this: God has given so many good things, things that are not inherently sinful, yet they can become a sinful trap to us. For instance, years ago I was at a car show and saw, in person, my dream car. It is a 67’ Shelby GT500 in Gun-Metal Grey. It was beautiful. Is there anything wrong with the desire to own that car? No. But if I say, in my heart, if I only had that car, then I would be satisfied, I have exchanged the glory of God for a created thing. Let’s say I do get that thing, how long until I need a shed to put it in, then I will be satisfied, then how long until I need this one more thing, until I am satisfied? What I am trying to get at is this: Nothing will permanently satisfy us except God. Good Things Cannot Satisfy Our Hearts. Only God can truly satisfy. If we look for contentment and lasting satisfaction anywhere else we will never stop thinking “If only…then...”

Folks, the world is full of shiny bits and baubles that give us a momentary thrill, but they cannot truly satisfy, and as CS Lewis “If I find in myself desires which nothing in this world can satisfy, the only logical explanation is that I was made for another world.”