Curses for Disobeying

 But if you do not obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands and laws I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and stay: 

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

Your basket and your kitchen will be cursed. 

Your children will be cursed, as well as your crops; the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks will be cursed. 

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

The Lord will send you curses, confusion, and punishment in everything you do. You will be destroyed and suddenly ruined because you did wrong when you left him.The Lord will give you terrible diseases and destroy you from the land you are going to take. The Lord will punish you with disease, fever, swelling, heat, lack of rain, plant diseases, and mildew until you die. The sky above will be like bronze, and the ground below will be like iron. The Lord will turn the rain into dust and sand, which will fall from the skies until you are destroyed. 

The Lord will help your enemies defeat you. You will attack them from one direction, but you will run from them in seven directions. And you will become a thing of horror among all the kingdoms on earth. Your dead bodies will be food for all the birds and wild animals, and there will be no one to scare them away. The Lord will punish you with boils like those the Egyptians had. You will have bad growths, sores, and itches that can’t be cured. The Lord will give you madness, blindness, and a confused mind. You will have to feel around in the daylight like a blind person. You will fail in everything you do. People will hurt you and steal from you every day, and no one will save you. 

You will be engaged to a woman, but another man will force her to have sexual relations with him. You will build a house, but you will not live in it. You will plant a vineyard, but you will not get its grapes. Your ox will be killed before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be taken away from you, and it will not be brought back. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will save you. Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will grow tired looking for them every day, but there will be nothing you can do. People you don’t know will eat the crops your land and hard work have produced. You will be mistreated and abused all your life.

The things you see will cause you to go mad. The Lord will give you sore boils on your knees and legs that cannot be cured, and they will go from the soles of your feet to the tops of your heads. 

The Lord will send you and your king away to a nation neither you nor your ancestors know, where you will serve other gods made of wood and stone. You will become a hated thing to the nations where the Lord sends you; they will laugh at you and make fun of you. 

You will plant much seed in your field, but your harvest will be small, because locusts will eat the crop. You will plant vineyards and work hard in them, but you will not pick the grapes or drink the wine, because the worms will eat them. You will have olive trees in all your land, but you will not get any olive oil, because the olives will drop off the trees. You will have sons and daughters, but you will not be able to keep them, because they will be taken captive. Locusts will destroy all your trees and crops.

The foreigners who live among you will get stronger and stronger, and you will get weaker and weaker. Foreigners will lend money to you, but you will not be able to lend to them. They will be like the head, and you will be like the tail. 

All these curses will come upon you. They will chase you and catch you and destroy you, because you did not obey the Lord your God and keep the commands and laws he gave you. The curses will be signs and miracles to you and your descendants forever. You had plenty of everything, but you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a pure heart, so you will serve the enemies the Lord sends against you. You will be hungry, thirsty, naked, and poor, and the Lord will put a load on you until he has destroyed you.' Deuteronomy 28:15-48 (NCV)

 Not as much is said. No, not as much attention is ever given to it. Fewer were the words regarding the blessings. Much more, the graphic detail and trouble put into the vivid description regarding the results for falling away and given as a warning to the apostate. And, one by one, all of these curses came upon Israel. God was so patient with His people, yet they still refused to believe. They rejected their Savior.

 Better more that we would think on the happy thoughts, rather than consider our fate in the hands of an angry God. There is to be no doubt, however, sin will be punished and righteousness will be blessed. When we talk about Love, we must never leave out the fear of God part that is also part of that love. To love is to also be willing to make the tough choices when necessary to pull someone back into the fold that has left. Laws have punishments attached. We live in the world. We live under the curse. Justice is part of the truth that curses come from our own disobedience. Holy Spirit help me with my self-control.

God is just. God's attitude towards evil is very clear. He is just and He is good so He cannot condone it. Evil must be punished. When God punishes evil He does what is good. He sets our boundaries. He establishes the blessings and the curses. He does everything possible to get us to live right. There are consequences to our failure to govern ourselves. Then there is Grace.

 Grace shows up in human form to save. Grace is found in the Savior Jesus Christ. He is the Good News. He died to redeem us from the curse of death we all face under the law by becoming a curse for us on the tree. He finished it all. We live in a fallen world. He lives so that we might choose a better way to live through Him. He commands us to remember His death. He promises us eternal life in heaven with Him if we remember and believe. Will you reject Him? I pray that you know Him as your personal Savior.

 Dear Father. I pray that none will reject You and that all will come to the Truth that Jesus saves. He saves us from the curse of death that is our punishment for sin. He saves us so completely from all of life's troubles and harm. He heals us from all our diseases. He keeps the blessings flowing and the curses at bay. He gives us a purpose and a hope in Him for the future. He is the better way. Thank You Lord for Your Grace when we deserve curses. Thank you for Loving us and for taking our punishment onto Yourself. Save us all Lord. Thank You for Love's curses which have lost their grip on me. Turn us back to You.  In Jesus name. Amen.

 Source: 'Drummingthemessagehome.blogspot.com'; August 26, 2019

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