BLESSING AND CURSES: The Book of Deuteronomy is another example of a bilateral agreement between God and Humanity. God promises blessings to the Israelites when they keep their end of the agreement. However, for those who refused to keep their end of the contractual agreement curses would fall on them and their family. Is the message of Deuteronomy applicable to us today?

We are living in very challenging and stressful times in which possession, money, and wealth matter to all. However, if not careful, the pursuit of wealth will pull us away from what really matters, which is our relationship with God and one another. 

Satan uses the things of this world to tempt and lure us to him. However, the Word of God provides us with the guidance needed to avoid his trap. In the Bible, God has provided us with practical guidance on how to live above the stresses of life, and we are given instructions on how to manage the resources He has given us. 

In this series, from a biblical perspective, we will look at how to manage effectively the resources God has given us while prioritizing what really matters.

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Asking For God’s Guidance

Holy Father, we want to do your divine will. By the power of your Holy Spirit, help us to attend diligently to your word. In Jesus the Name Amen (Split)

In the previous lessons, we have learned that a covenantal agreement is a contract or promise. Contracts or promises can be unilateral or bilateral. 

A unilateral agreement is one in which one party fulfills their side of the agreement regardless of what the other party in the agreement does.

For example, Jesus’ statement that God sends rains on the Just and the unjust is unilateral. There is no required action on behalf of the other party. The blessing of rain will come regardless of what the other part does.

The Book of Deuteronomy is Moses’ farewell speech to the succeeding generation of Israelites, who for 40 years, traveled in the wilderness with him.

This message was given on the Plain of Moab, just east of Jericho. Deuteronomy is often called the “Book of Remembrance.” 

When read you can see why because Moses in his speech reminds the people of how faithful God has been to them. Moses reminds them of their traveling experiences starting from Mount Sinai to Kadesh Barnea on the edge of the Land God promised to them. He also recounts their rebellion and the 40 years of wandering in the wilderness that resulted from their rebelling.

In his message to them, he restates the Ten Commandments, the requirements of the tithes, and offerings to support God’s central storehouse. Among all these, Deuteronomy’s primary focus is the counsel on obeying God and receiving His blessings.

In Deuteronomy, Moses portrays God as the God who is able and wants to care for His people.

For God’s people to understand the wonderful blessings he has for them, God promises to do some miraculous things for them.

So, Moses starts his speech in Deuteronomy 28:1 saying:

“Now it shall be, if you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. (Deuteronomy 28:1).

These words show that God’s people must be diligent in doing what God has instructed them to do because their eternal destiny depends on it.

But notice, God does not force them to comply, he gives them the freedom to choose. This freedom of choice is not limited to the people of Israel, it is also extended to us.

We have the freedom to obey God or disobey Him.  The choice is up to us. As God’s chosen nations, His special group of people, the Israelites were to receive great blessings and great promises.

If they obeyed God, He promised to bless them and give them many things. But these promises were bilateral, they were conditional. They needed to be accepted, received, and acted upon.

Read Deuteronomy 28:1-14 to find out about the great blessings they were to receive and what they were required to do to receive them.

First, Israel must accept God’s blessings and promises and live by them.

Is the Israelite’s part in agreement too hard?  No, God does not ask us to do anything that is too hard.

Notice God’s response in Deuteronomy 30:11-14. He says,

11 “For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off.

12 It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’

13 Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’

14 But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it. (Deuteronomy 30:11–14).

In God’s promises, there are blessings and warnings of curses. These warnings are designed to show God’s people what will happen to them if they don’t obey God. (Split)

Read them in Deuteronomy 28:15–68.

There are consequences for disobedience and rebellion some of which can be far-reaching and extend to succeeding generations.  

When we, as God’s people, sin and rebel against Him, our evil behavior will cause bad things to happen to us and even to our children and children’s children.

Thus, although we are saved by faith and our hope is in Jesus’ blood and righteousness, God calls for obedience.

We obey God because we love him and our choice to obey is for our good.

The law of God, which is perfect holiness, is the only true standard of character. Love is expressed in obedience…—Sons and Daughters of God, p. 51.

Therefore, it should be our purpose today to carefully obey everything that God in his word commands us to do.

In short, 1 John 5:3 repeats, what is said to the Israelites in Deuteronomy,  

3 For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome, (1 John 5:3)

Obedience to God shows that we love and honor him. The Bible tells of other ways in which we show our love and honor to God. What are they?

Find out on Day 4: Honor the Lord

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