A Covenant with Blessings and Curses
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A lot of people love to follow preachers and teachers who will tell them that God’s favor is always on the believer. “He loves you no matter what. He loves you just the way you are! His love is unconditional!”
You have likely heard something like this at some point. These phrases are heard all the time on Radio and TV by perhaps well-meaning people. They are catch phrases that do not have a lot of biblical merit behind them. Yet there is a hint of truth in them, but this is obscured by what is usually meant by people who say these things.
It is true that God’s beneficent love is felt by all people. He holds the universe together, he gives breath and life. It is true that God’s love towards the believer is unmerited. We did nothing to earn it, we could not have impressed our Holy, Great, and Good God by our behavior to cause Him to love us. Yet, it is not quite true that He loves us no matter what (At least, not in the sense people usually think of it). He may love us in his mercy and grace, but He does not want us to stay the way we are, so we should be careful not to make it sound as if God has no expectations upon us in how we behave. We ourselves should not be satisfied to be just the way we are or were, in a sinful, selfish, oppositional defiance of the ways of God.
No, He wants us to be perfect, and so He perfects those He calls. And His love is not unconditional. His love has a primary condition: That he chose to love. But even beyond that, we are going to see in a passage this morning that God does condition his blessings (and curses) based on the response of man to His decrees. So in a sense, God’s love is unconditional as far as man’s efforts. He loved those He saved even while they were yet sinners. This love is not earned or merited. But that does not mean that His behavior towards us whom He loves is unconditional. In fact, scripture tells us in many places, including our passage today, that indeed His behavior or interaction with us is very much conditional on how we are living, whether in accordance with His decrees or commands, or in opposition to them.
“You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess,
and that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey.
For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables.
But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven,
a land that the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
“And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil.
And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.
Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them;
then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.
“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.
For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him,
then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you.
Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon, and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea.
No one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, as he promised you.
“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:
the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today,
and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.
And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh?
For you are to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it,
you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.
Right off, in the first verse I read, we see conditional blessings. Deut11.8
“You shall therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to possess,
and that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Condition: Keep the whole commandment that I command you today…
God’s behavior towards the people based on this condition: you may be strong, take possession, live long, have plentiful food (land flowing with milk and honey means things grow well enough for plenty of cattle, and bees would have plenty of flowers to make honey from)
Next, we see a contrast between the land of Egypt and the Promised Land:
For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables.
But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven,
a land that the Lord your God cares for. The eyes of the Lord your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
In Egypt, it rarely rains. To have crops, they had to rely on the annual flooding of the Nile. Water would be routed through irrigation and stored in cisterns. It involved a lot of work to get water to where it was needed. But it would not be that way in the Promised land. There would be rain there, and this would mean more reliable crop seasons and much less labor involved with growing. This rain, however, was conditional. Remember what I said about being careful not to get into the trap of believing that our obedience to God or lack of obedience has no consequences? God is telling His people that the blessing of reliable rain depends on their obedience.
“And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the Lord your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil.
And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full.
What is this? Another condition? Yes! And this is from the Lord. Life depends on rain. The life of the grass that the cows eat. The life of the grain so they could eat bread. The life of the grapes so they could have wine. All depends on rain, and rain is contingent on the obedience of the people. And this is especially in the area of obedience to God to worship him alone. His people are not to cry out to other Gods for any reason, whether for rain, or other provision, or anything.
Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them;
then the anger of the Lord will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the Lord is giving you.
Again, there are conditions. There are consequences when these conditions are not met. We have all been in a situation where we saw a person not being disciplined, whether a child by their parents, or a worker by their employer, or a criminal by the legal system. When we see someone not being disciplined, and we see how this causes the person to continue in rebellion to the detriment of not only those around them, but the undisciplined person themselves, we can be frustrated by that, and we may even become vocal. To the parents of the undisciplined child, we may say something to them about how they are setting up their child for future pain by not discipling them. To the employer, we may tell them they are hurting their own bottom line by not dealing with insubordination. To the legal system, we may cry out to our politicians to reform it so that criminals pay a price for their crimes.
But somehow, people are under the impression often that a Holy God who enforces his own rules and disciplines those whom he loves, they attribute evil intent to him! Yet, here we see in His Word, that those who turn aside and worship false Gods, they cannot expect God’s blessing to be an automatic function, even if He does love them! So then, people become confused, because at some point some preacher said to them, “God loves you just the way you are, His love is unconditional, His blessing will be on you no matter what!”. No wonder they are confused. They are told that God’s love (by which they take it to mean, his behavior towards them), must always be gentle and kind and generous. Yet no one wants a human relationship like that! Imagine expecting that your friends always treat you well while you are a jerk to them. Imagine a spouse being expected to unconditionally put up with their unfaithful husband or wife.
No, we are bothered by that. We would say that the spouse who cheats and expects perfect charity from their own spouse is a sick person, a narcissist. And in scripture, we see again and again that God sees worship of other gods to be like a cheating spouse who blatantly commits their adultery without shame. So can anyone really believe that God should ignore these offenses against Him?
He reminds the people again what we have on our signs in the church from Deuteronomy 6.4. Deut11.18-21
“You shall therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
You shall teach them to your children, talking of them when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise.
You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates,
that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land that the Lord swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens are above the earth.
This is a pattern, a way of life. How do you make sure you get your rain and the blessings of God? By devoutly caring about what He has said and living it out. And a key part of that is to continue to study and understand what His commandments are. They should permeate every part of our lives. Again, he promises blessing to those who are obedient:
For if you will be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to him,
then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you.
Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon, and from the River, the river Euphrates, to the western sea.
No one shall be able to stand against you. The Lord your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, as he promised you.
He is giving them a golden opportunity! They can enjoy a wonderful life, with God defending them, with God providing for them, with God blessing them! If only they will be careful to do all this commandment that He is commanding them to do: Loving the Lord your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to Him.
They could have it all. If only. If only they would do what He has called them to do. They either will have his blessing or his curse
“See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse:
the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today,
and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.
And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that you are entering to take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.
Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh?
For you are to cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that the Lord your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in it,
you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I am setting before you today.
And it wasn’t as if they were to obey simply to have God’s favor, or to expect riches or wealth. But if they served God well, they could expect all their needs to be met. They were to be content. And the believer today has marching orders along this same line. We are to learn and know the doctrines of Christ. We are to show our love to Him through our obedience. And we are to agree with His sound words. If not, if we desire something other than Christ, we end up disappointed. When we choose anything over Christ, we are choosing curses over blessings.
Teach and urge these things.
If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness,
he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions,
and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain.
But godliness with contentment is great gain,
for we brought nothing into the world, and we cannot take anything out of the world.
But if we have food and clothing, with these we will be content.
But those who desire to be rich fall into temptation, into a snare, into many senseless and harmful desires that plunge people into ruin and destruction.
For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evils. It is through this craving that some have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many pangs.
The love of money. People often mock the church and say if money is the root of all evil, why do they take an offering? Well, this proves what little the mocker knows of God’s word. It isn’t money by itself that is the root of evil, it is the love of it. But the believer needs to be content with the daily gifts of God. The world will constantly tempt us to want more than what God has provided.
In the end, the blessings of God are the eternal things. We are called to learn His ways, constantly remind ourselves of them, challenge others to live in this way, and to turn back quickly when we have gone astray. When life is going very difficult for us, we ought to take stock and ask ourselves how we are doing with the Lord. John Thompson writes:
Deuteronomy: An Introduction and Commentary f. A Call to Commitment: What Does the Lord Your God Require of You? (10:12–11:32)
If a faithful people could learn by means of this doctrine to give thanks to God for every bountiful harvest, and allow every natural misfortune to become an occasion for heart searching and repentance for any evil thing in their lives, then the doctrine, despite its difficulties, is not merely one that gives light on God as Judge, but is also of considerable practical importance. It enables God’s people to hold firmly to such views as that nature is not independent of God, that a rich productivity in flock and field is a cause for gratitude and praise to God, and that seasons of drought and low agricultural yield are powerful stimuli to forsake all known evil. In any case, there is always need for repentance in some area of life. If prosperity makes men forgetful, ungrateful and complacent, while the lack of natural and material blessings leads men to repentance, then these latter are a blessing in disguise.
Scripture agrees with Thompson. In Hebrews 12 we are told two important things: Not to grow weary when we are reproved by Him, and to recognize that the Lord disciplines those He loves, so we ought to learn the lessons that come from His discipline.
Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted.
In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
And have you forgotten the exhortation that addresses you as sons? “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him.
For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”
It is for discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons. For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
If you are left without discipline, in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children and not sons.
Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?
For they disciplined us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines us for our good, that we may share his holiness.
For the moment all discipline seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees,
and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed.
Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled;
that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal.
For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
So just as those who heard from Moses in Deuteronomy, we likewise are reminded today that our best course of action is to follow the Lord and His ways. When we experience His blessings, we should rejoice, and thank him with grateful hearts. When we are being disciplined, we ought to examine ourselves to find the faults within our own hearts and behaviors, repent and turn from them, and then thank him even for his discipline, because it is for our good and our sanctification.
