Bible lessons on Blessings and Curses of God
Bible lessons on Blessings and Curses of God
Posted on September 22, 2012 Updated on September 14, 2012
(Deuteronomy 28:1-2, 15, NIV).
“If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all his commands that I give you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God….
However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come upon you and overtake you…”
The first fourteen verses of Deuteronomy 28 are ones of the passages the Bible that many people like very much. They quote the verses most often and are ready to apply them to themselves. Some ministers of God also are fond of using the verses to pray for their congregations.
However, few people would like to read the remaining part of the chapter. I was nearly guilty of this recently. I ought to read the chapter in my “Read the Bible through in a Year” schedule that day. I gladly read the first fourteen verses and even applied them to myself, but the moment I got to verse 15, I was reluctant to go ahead.
I went back to verse 1 to see the conditions attached to the blessings in those “good” fourteen verses, then, I re-read verse 15 and discovered the conditions attached to the seeming “bad” fifty-four verses that follow: diligent obedience of God’s commandments is the condition for the blessings of the first fourteen verses (see verses 1, 2, 9 and 13), while disobedience of God’s commandments is the condition for the curses in the subsequent fifty-four verses (see verses 15 and 58).
Another thing I discovered from this chapter is that Moses took extra time to explain the curses as a warning to the people. He followed the example of God in Leviticus 26 where God gave similar warning with similar pattern.
Moses had earlier summarized these warnings in Deuteronomy 11:26-28, “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse — the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; the curse if you disobey the commands of the LORD your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known” (NIV).
A careful study of the history of the people of Israel when they eventually occupied the Promised Land reveals how all these blessings and curses came to pass in their lives. They had blessings and prosperity when they diligently obeyed the commandments of God, and curses and punishments when they disobeyed the commandments.
What do you want from God – His blessings or His curses? Claiming the blessings is not enough. You have to diligently obey His commandments as spelt out in the Scriptures to have His blessings. Obey Him and His blessings will be yours.
In His service,
Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor).
____________ _______
Bayo Afolaranmi (Pastor).
+234 805 515 9591
http://www.afolabay o.org/
http://groups. yahoo.com/ group/spirituald igest2003/
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