May 25, 2019: Day 28 – Deuteronomy 28

So, this was the chapter that we were supposed to get the blessing.  We do for a short period of time.  If you look at this very, very long chapter you will find the blessings from vs.1-14.  But then it quickly transfers to more, and more, and even more cursing.  As you read through the cursing you find it parallel the blessings from the beginning verses.  It mirrors that which we were given as a result of our obeying the commandments of the Lord.  But if we do not obey, oh boy, then things really go south.  After  mirroring the blessings then it goes off in a very different direction and takes on a reality of its own.

I had a sense of complete dread as I was reading through the curses and the results of what would happen if I did not obey the Lord the more I read through these verses.  Really, really bad things are depicted like parents eating their children as a result of our unfaithfulness.  This disobedience will cause a siege to take place where the people of God will hold out but as a result will find themselves in a situation where the only way they can survive is by doing things which are simply not humane.  The list of what will happen is not only long but dramatic and horrific. 

I’m not a huge fan of scaring people to faith.  I’m not a huge fan of incentivizing fear.  But you cannot escape this approach in this chapter.  The author is creating a scenario which he beseeches obedience otherwise the worst imaginable fate will befall us.  Chapter 29 couldn’t come soon enough.