Readings for today: Deuteronomy 28-30
God has made an eternal covenant with His people. He initiated this covenant when He first called Abraham out of Ur and delivered His people from slavery in Egypt. They are His people. He is their God. And His great desire is to dwell with them just like He did with Adam and Eve in the Garden. However, human sin presents a threat to the covenant. Not in the sense that it could break the covenant. That’s not possible. The covenant God makes is unbreakable and unconditional and eternal. But sin does impact the human experience of God’s covenantal faithfulness. When we walk in accordance with God’s will and God’s commands, we will experience covenantal blessings. When we walk away from God and disobey His commands, we will experience covenantal curses. Both are a reflection of God’s faithfulness to us.
I know that’s hard to understand. It’s hard to read through the curses listed in these chapters and imagine how they are a reflection of God’s love. It’s why when the rabbi’s read through this section in the synagogue, they do so quickly and quietly, in a subdued tone to emphasize their gravity. They understand God disciplines those He loves. He refuses to let us persist in sin. His curses and divine punishments are designed to always draw us back to Himself in repentance. This is God’s heart. It’s why careful readers will note the escalation in the punishments themselves. Economic collapse. Social breakdown. War and exile. Each stage is meant to provoke reflection with the hope of return. God makes it clear that His desire is blessing not curse. His desire is favor not rejection. His desire is life not death. “Look! I have set before you today life and prosperity on the one hand, and death and disaster on the other. What I am commanding you today is to love the Lord your God, to walk in his ways, and to obey his commandments, his statutes, and his ordinances. Then you will live and become numerous and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you are about to possess.” (Deuteronomy 30:15-16 NET)
Why do God’s punishments seem so harsh? That’s always a question that comes up when we read. And it only serves to illustrate how little we understand the depth of our sin. We don’t understand the impact it makes on us as individual human beings, on those in our community around us, or on creation and all God has made. God has a plan for our lives and for this world. When we enter into a relationship with Him there is no going back and no backing out. He will not rest until we have fulfilled His will for our lives and become the people He has created and called us to be. This is what it means to be in a covenantal relationship with Him.
Readings for tomorrow: Deuteronomy 31-34