Blessing and a Curse
Deuteronomy 11
It is tough when you dig a whole so big that you can not get out of. Now I know most of us have not literally done that because we probably would not be reading this right now, but the saying means that we get into so much trouble that we can not get out of it. Chapter 11 continues from chapter 10 with the flowing of the heart.
Love God not obligation
God tells Israel to love God. The reason to love God is because of who he is. He tells them to look at the different attributes such as his discipline, his greatness, his mighty hand, and outstretched arm. He tells Israel to look at this and remember these things. When one stops looking at God and his greatness then one starts to look at himself in greatness. Look at Satan and how he fell in Isaiah 14. He looked at himself in how he could be great. We can start looking at our accomplishment and then we start forsaking God. This was the warning to Israel to not lose focus on God. We need to focus on God but it needs to be out of love for him and not obligation. Obligation leads to feeling trapped and there is no freedom. Love is freedom and with freedom comes enjoyment. God wants us to enjoy our relationship with him.
Blessing and a Curse
God states to Israel that there is a blessing and a curse. The blessing is, if Israel obeys God and the commands then he will bless them as a people and also bless the land. The curse is if they do not obey God then they miss the blessing and instead there will be problems within the land and with each other and they other surrounding nations will be a thorn to them.
Today there is a blessing and a curse but it is not quite like what Israel is facing in this chapter. Our blessing is what Jesus did on the cross for us. Ephesians 2:5 tells us that we are saved by grace and it is not based by our obedience or work because Christ was the one that was obedient until death on the cross. I am so glad that God does not base our salvation by our doings because if so, then we would already be cursed from the beginning and then we would just be digging a hole that we could never get out of. The blessing we have is looking unto Jesus because Jesus became sin for us (2nd Corinthians 5:21). The curse is for those that reject Christ. We see that those who do not call on the name of the Lord will not be saved. The curse they have is eternal judgment in hell, the place of gnashing of teeth. As I write this, I am so thankful that I am saved based on what Christ did and not me. I would be so far in the hole and the mighty thing is that God is the one that has reached down and grabbed me out of my deep hole and has cleaned me up for a great relationship with him.
