Deuteronomy 28, Pros and Cons

So deuteronomy chapter 28 hear the word of the lord And if you faithfully obey the voice of the lord your god being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today

The lord your god will set you high above all the nations of the earth And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you if you obey the voice of the lord your god

Blessed shall you be in the city and blessed shall you be in the field blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle and The increase of your herds and the young of your flock blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl

Blessed shall you be when you come in and blessed shall you be when you go out

The lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways

The lord will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake

And he will bless you in the land that the lord your god is giving you The lord will establish you as a people holy to himself

As he has sworn to you If you keep the commandments of the lord your god and walk in his ways

And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the lord and they shall be

Afraid of you and the lord will make you abound in prosperity In the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground

Within the land that the lord swore to your fathers to give you The lord will open to you his good treasury

The heavens to give the rain to your land and its season and to bless All the work of your hands and you shall lend to many nations and you shall not borrow

Then the lord will make you the head and not the tail and you shall only go up and not down If you obey the commandments of the lord your god, which

I command you today being careful to do them And if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today

To the right hand or to the left to go after other gods to serve them but if You will not obey the voice of the lord your god or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command

You today then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you cursed Shall you be in the city and cursed shall you be in the field cursed shall be your baskets and your kneading bowl

Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground the increase of your herds and the young of your flock

Cursed shall you be when you come in and cursed shall you be when you go out the lord will send on you curses confusion and frustration and all that you undertake to do

Until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds because you have forsaken me

The lord will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land That you are entering to take possession of it

The lord will strike you with wasting disease and with fever inflammation and fiery heat And with drought and with blight and with mildew they shall pursue you until you perish

And the heavens over your head shall be bronze and the earth Under you shall be iron.

The lord will make the rain of your land powder from heaven Dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

The lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them

And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth And your dead body shall be food for all the birds of the air and for the beasts of the field

And there shall be no one to frighten them away The lord will strike you with the boils of egypt and with the tumors and the scabs and the itch

Of which you cannot be healed The lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind

And you shall grope at noonday as the blind grope in darkness and you shall not prosper in your ways and you shall

Be only oppressed and robbed continually and there shall be no one to help you

You shall betroth the wife, but another man shall ravish her You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it

You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it

Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people while your eyes look on and Fail with longing for them all day long

But you shall be helpless a nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground

And of all your labors and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually So that you are driven mad by the sights that your eyes see

The lord will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils Of which you cannot be healed from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head the lord will bring you and your king before whom

You sat over you to a nation that neither you nor your fathers have known And there you shall serve other gods of wood and stone and you shall become a horror a proverb and a byword

Among all the peoples where the lord will send you away You shall carry much seed into the field and you shall gather in little for the locusts shall consume it

You shall plant vineyards and dress them But you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes for the worms shall eat them

You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil for your olives shall drop off You shall father sons and daughters

But they shall not be yours for they shall go into captivity The cricket will possess all your trees and the fruit of your ground the sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher than you

And you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you And you shall not lend to him.

He shall be the head and you shall be the tail All these curses shall come upon you and pursue you and overtake you till you are destroyed

Because you did not obey the voice of the lord your god to keep his commandments and his statutes that he commanded you

They shall be a sign and a wonder against you and your offspring forever Because you did not serve the lord your god with joyfulness and gladness of heart because of the abundance of all things

Therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the lord will send against you In hunger and thirst and nakedness and lacking everything and he will put a yoke of iron on your neck

Until he has destroyed you the lord will bring a nation against you from far away from the end of the earth

Swooping down like the eagle a nation whose language you do not understand a hard -faced nation

Who shall not respect the old or show mercy to the young? It shall eat the offspring of your cattle and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed

It shall also not leave you Grain or wine or oil the increase of your herds or the young of your flock until they have caused you to perish

They shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted

Come down throughout all your land and they shall besiege you in all your towns throughout all your land

Which the lord your god has given you and you shall eat the fruit of your womb The flesh of your sons and daughters whom the lord your god has given you in this siege and in the distress

With which your enemies shall distress you the man who is the most tender and refined among you

Will begrudge food to his brother to the wife He embraces and to the last of the children whom he has left

So that he will not give to any of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating

Because he has nothing else left in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in all your towns

The most tender and refined woman among you who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground

Because she is so delicate and tender will begrudge to the husband She embraces to her son and to her daughter her afterbirth that comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears

Because lacking everything she will eat them secretly in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy shall distress you in your towns

If you are not careful to do all the words of this law that are written in this book That you may fear this glorious and awesome name the lord your god then the lord will bring on you and your offspring extraordinary afflictions afflictions severe and lasting and sicknesses

Grievous and lasting and he will bring upon you again all the diseases of egypt of which you were afraid

And they shall cling to you every sickness also and every affliction

That is not recorded in the book of this law the lord will bring upon you until you are destroyed

Whereas you were as numerous as the stars of heaven You shall be left few in number because you did not obey the voice of the lord your god

And as the lord took delight in doing you good and multiplying you So the lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you

And you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to take possession of it And the lord will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other and there you will serve other gods

Of wood and stone which neither you nor your fathers have known and among these nations

You shall find no respite and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot But the lord will give you there a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul

Your life shall hang in doubt before you night and day you shall be in dread and have no assurance of your life

And the morning you shall say if only it were evening and at evening you shall say if only it were morning

Because of the dread that your heart shall feel and the sights that your eyes shall see

And the lord will bring you back in ships to egypt a journey that I promise that you should never make again

And there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves

But there shall be no buyer May the lord has add his blessings

To the reading of his holy word And quite a word it is, isn't it? Well, one of the developments of our modern world is the professionalization of roles that previously were done by volunteers usually out of charity or compassion because They had a relationship with the people that they were serving nursing for example

Nursing was first an informal amateur task done by mostly women to care for the practical needs of the sick or the injured

She was usually doing it because she had some relationship with the sick Maybe they were her family or they were the troops from her hometown from her nation or she just wanted to do good she's an amateur the word amateur literally from the french for lover of If you love the patient you are in a relationship with him or her and so you would nurse

Him or her to the best of your ability. Of course, there's pros and cons to that. The pro was that she really cared

The con of course was that she's an amateur also in the worst sense of the word someone without training or expertise

Then along came florence nightingale who pursued excellence in nursing Especially as she nursed british soldiers in the crimean war

And used her family's wealth to found a school of nursing and she raised the standards of nursing so that it began to be a true profession with its own pledge the

Nightingale pledge in which nurses agree to quote do all in my power to maintain and elevate the standard of my profession so over time similar developments have overtaken other

Used to be just roles people would play things like counseling social work care of the elderly The mentally retarded or now we call them challenged or with special needs the insane police work

Firefighters and so on all kinds of roles that used to be done by people Because they just wanted to serve other people that they loved the people who were afflicted with those conditions

By amateurs are now done by professionals. The pros of course are that the standards of performance now are much higher

The nurses know what they are doing They don't accidentally kill patients because they just do sloppy dumb things like forget to wash their hands or foam

Their hands the con of course is that many people are doing these jobs for the money And so there is at least sometimes a lack of that quality that originally drove people to care for the poor

Or the sick or the old that one quality that no college can impart or state license can regulate

Love But that means Does it does that mean we're stuck?

Is it our choice between professionals who are experts who know what they are doing on the one hand?

or between amateurs Who don't know what they're doing but who love us professionals who who are experts who won't accidentally kill us but who just really don't care about us are amateurs who

Who really love us, but who might accidentally kill us because they don't know what they're doing the nurse who could expertly give injections

But really doesn't care if we're suffering or just die on the one hand or the amateur who really does care

But doesn't know what he's doing who is incompetent who would accidentally kill us if trying to be our surgeon

Is that our choice would you would you rather have an amateur or a professional? If you had to have brain surgery, would you rather have an amateur who really loved you?

Just this surgeon just really loved you who was passionate to do his best for you But he had fingers like hot dogs and really didn't know what he was doing

Now sure if you died on the operating table, he would just give us all with a passion to revive you He would weep at your funeral now

Would you rather have that or would you rather have an expert who is just he's he's skilled He's scholarly who he is not and he's never gonna

Cause your death You might die for other things, but he's not going to cause it. But if you happen to die on the operating table he'll

Okay, dad. He'll check his watch and think oh that clears up some time this afternoon. I might be able to get in a round of golf

We'd probably choose the professional but still Don't we sense?

the cons The the coldness of our professionalized society

Some people think we can professionalize every relationship Need a friend who will listen to you

A psychologist will do that Billing you of course any part of an hour counting as a whole hour

Need someone who will come to your bedside if you're sick in the hospital A nurse will do that If your insurance covers it

Need someone to help you if your car is broken down by the side of the road Triple a will be there for you

If you pay your bill Need someone to look after decrepit grandpa That's what nursing homes are for so you don't have to be burdened if if grandma can't handle it need sex

Well, we have people who will do that for money too Need someone to preach the bible Is that any more moral?

Than the previous example If done just for money It's all very professional and efficient and cold and empty and soulless and horrible

If that's all there is If there's there if there are no relationships no literal amateurs behind all that professionalization that's why people today are yearning for even more for yearning for real relationships now increasingly it seems that our society driven over the edge of sanity with bizarre fights breaking out in airports and airplanes and amusement parks because I think they're starved for relationships and frustrated by cold professionalism people yearn for relationships so this should be a golden opportunity for the church if we don't respond with our own brand of professionalization but we're also dealing with people who are yearning for something that they don't know what it is they're yearning for they're used to professionals they're used to going into a restaurant ordering the food giving it professionally paying their bill and then wished a nice day from someone who really doesn't care whether or not you have a nice day and leaving them unattached such people might think they that a relationship is when

I get the food for free because that person is a relationship with me right and the server really wishes that I have a nice day and they can still leave unattached no cons no responsibilities they love the idea of the benefits of a relationship you know the kind nurse who really cares the friend who will give them free food but they don't like the cons the responsibilities maybe that nurse that kind nurse who really cares well maybe she needs help moving and being in a relationship with her means you being there and carrying stuff for the church

I found that many people actually prefer the professionalized ministry the efficient mall like church with a professional greeters at the door and the professional band and everything is so polished and the preacher who may be a good communicator but who is as replaceable as my doctor the assurance plan assigns me a doctor and so the church assigns me a preacher they assign the next one the next day

I don't care they want the pros of relationship the chirpy have a nice day without the cons without the responsibilities without the nursing home visits without helping people move without funeral attendance without sharing time and money without real relationships they want a relationship but they don't want a covenant one of the things we learn here in Deuteronomy 28 about relationships is that relationships have a have a form they have rules they have expectations one of the popular slogans in the church business

I dislike today is not religion or rules but a relationship that's supposed to draw in those eager people looking for a relationship hopefully with God but who aren't hung up on you know wearing suits and ties and dresses and carrying the

King James Bible relationship you know not rules now try that with a spouse honey

I just want a relationship not rules that's why I'm not going to help with the dishes or help pay the bills or be faithful that won't work real relationships have rules sometimes they're unspoken sometimes like in wedding vows they're spelled out here in this chapter the relationship is in a covenant this chapter is part of a relationship that people in Moses's day would have been familiar with they would have seen this this relationship is a covenant this is like the covenants in their day that emperors of powerful empires would make with the kings of little kingdoms there are these are the rules of our relationship says the emperor the big king these are our rules of our relationship you keep this law you be faithful don't go conspiring with other kingdoms to undermine us you pay us so much money you let our armies pass through you do what we say if you do you get these rewards these pros we will protect you from foreign attack we'll let you trade within our empire we'll bless you if you don't we'll destroy you quite an option that's the choice here the

Lord in Deuteronomy 28 the Lord is the great king he's the emperor and Israel is the little kingdom that he's making a covenant with now if you're learning from English Sunday school you're about to learn over the next two weeks why we are the covenant people now

I take this chapter Deuteronomy 28 sure is first applied to Israel under Moses at that time but it is now it is not just there for our kind of historical curiosity that's wow that's what happened in those days no relevance to us it is still relevant to us you can debate whether we are in the same covenant is here that's debatable

I agree but you can't really argue that that we are not in a covenant with the same

God you understand you can debate whether or not we're in the same covenant is here but we are indeed in a covenant with the same

God Israel here is not to be equated to a nation today not even the nation that goes by the name

Israel and certainly not to the USA as if we Americans were the covenant people it is ultimately for us for the church we are

Israel we are his covenant people you are now in a covenant with the Lord like and like all covenants there's pros and there's cons there's blessings advantages and there's responsibilities here in verse 1 faithfully obey the voice of the

Lord your God be careful to do all his commandments that's the responsibility the rule of this relationship and he says it's a relationship but he says if you do this you are my people you're called by my name you're affiliated you're associated with me you're part of my family here in Deuteronomy 28 we see that covenant it's pros and it's cons after that very unusually long introduction that I just finished and after a very unusually long passage and before what

I hope might be an unusually short sermon I can't guarantee that last part and we see that covenant in two major ways two obvious parts first the blessings the pros and second the cons the responsibilities of the covenant and the curses they bring if we don't meet those responsibilities first in the first 14 verses are the blessings notice three things about them

I'm not going to go verse by verse through this passage like I normally if I did we would be here to like this evening you would take a lunch break and then come back but I won't do that this time because this passage is so long plus I also think most of it is pretty self explanatory right

I mean it pretty much says what it means means what it says there's not a lot of mystery to this chapter so I don't think there's much need for me to go there but three points to sum it up first the blessings are corporate second they are comprehensive and third they're

God's work first they're corporate they are for the whole people of God throughout this chapter the you notice that so many times you you you is singular it's not you all you all people shall faithfully obey the voice of the

Lord your God and as if some of you do you'll be the blessed ones and if some of you don't you'll be the cursed ones whether it's you all together corporately seen as a whole shall obey and if you together seen as a whole together you if you do then together you get these blessings now that may seem unfair to American individualists especially if you know you're the one trying to be faithful and the rest of Israel the church isn't trying to be faithful if it's corrupt and so we end up getting curses and we try why are we getting the curses well

I suppose it seemed unfair to Jeremiah that he had to suffer so much he was thrown down a well imprisoned in a city that was destroyed given only bread and water to eat when

Jerusalem was destroyed presumably his own house was destroyed Jeremiah could have complained why Lord why did I I was faithful why do

I suffer along with the rest of these people that's kind of the way life is because the rest of the people decided to break the covenant why should

I well God sometimes he deals with his people corporately as a whole we're in this together so you better do what you can then to support the reform and the revival of the church if you want these blessings so that means you can't go

I'm faithful I'm just going to go off by myself this church is corrupt I'm going to stay home and hide from it hide from the judgment it won't work that way

God will deal with his people corporately so you better do what you can to help promote reform revival in the church second the blessings are comprehensive first you're careful to do all what

God has commanded comprehensively you don't get to pick and choose that's why we're committed to preaching through the whole council of God here in covenant and so hopefully we'll follow it all that's why we just read

Deuteronomy chapter 28 you know instead of just sticking to our favorite few verses in the New Testament now if we do we follow it all the blessings will be comprehensive that is over all of life our covenant with God doesn't just deliver spiritual blessings but does nothing for us physically as if we can be serene and content even while we're forever poor and sick and weak because God blesses our hearts bless your heart like what a southerner might say just before he's about to insult you but does nothing for our bodies now you might immediately react to what

I just said depending on who you've taught by and say well that's exactly what it means to be spiritual to be content even if we're hungry and weak and afflicted we've been given a cancer diagnosis and yet I still can rejoice in the

Lord like Paul who said that do all things I can do all things through Christ who strengthened me which in that context means he could be content when he was hungry and homeless he was suffering and yet he still could go through that because Christ was strengthened in him or who had been,

Paul had been afflicted with something and he was content with the Lord's promise my grace is sufficient for you yes for now that is true we might have to be content for now hungry and weak our property confiscated our reputation slandered because you're a hater you're a bigot because we believe him we believe the

Lord but part of what makes us content now able to bear hardship now is that we believe the promises of God's comprehensive covenant we are not

Platonist I don't know if you know what that means, Platonist they believe that the material world is kind of like shadows on a cave wall it's if not illusion it's just not important Christians do not believe that we don't believe the material world is like shadows on a cave wall that all the physical things are meaningless we believe

God created all things spiritual and material including our bodies and that the blessings of his covenant will encompass all of it eventually our promise that we believe in isn't just for a spiritual heaven but our promise is for a resurrection with a new earth where we have everything good comprehensively so for now sure we understand for now in this age in this world we might have to go through some suffering some affliction where we're deprived particularly of some of those physical things some blessings are now and some are not yet we might have to wait on some blessings but if we trust in God's faithfulness and we're in a covenant with him we can be confident in his blessings so in verse 3 we'll be blessed in the city and blessed in castle county our wombs will be blessed in verse 4 so will our work our baking will be blessed in verse 5 we won't burn the biscuits we'll be blessed when we go out and blessed when we come in all the time and everything he emphasizes that there notice that everything that you do will be blessed we might not get now understand we might not get all of that now we might have to wait for some of it for later we might have to be content waiting for some of that now but our hope is in a comprehensive spiritual and physical blessing thirdly the blessings are the

Lord's work this is all this passage Deuteronomy 28 is in the context of a covenant of a relationship these are not just laws of nature that if you follow them you know you do thus and so you follow these laws you'll be prosperous you'll be the lender and not the borrower secrets to success built into the universe that work whether or not you know or even care about the

Lord now this is what God himself promises to do to get to work giving you if you are faithful you are one of his covenant people you're in his relationship with him notice verse 7 the

Lord will cause the Lord's causing it the Lord is causing blessing here your enemies to be defeated it's not because of military strategy you know you can master the laws but you don't care about the source of the laws no you the

Lord will cause it if you know him in verse 8 the Lord will command he issues the edict himself of your blessing your prosperity in verse 11 that does not depend on the laws of economics working impersonally the

Lord commands it that's the pros the blessings he offers in this relationship so be faithful keep your responsibilities because you trust that he will keep his covenant and he will bless you comprehensively now if you don't there are cons there are curses that come because of the relationship because of the covenant real relationships come with responsibilities there's cons this chapter dwells on the curses four times longer than on the blessings you know so much for being positive and encouraging there are three parts to the cons the curses first but if second it gets worse and finally

God is terrible but if in verse 15 one of these great adversities in the

Bible that even these great turning points from one extreme to another we saw a couple of them in Ephesians recently you remember we were dead in our sins we're following the prince of the power of the air we're following the passage of the flesh by nature we are children of wrath but God in Ephesians chapter 2 verse 4 but God despite all that that we are is rich in mercy the great adversity of the turning point from dark to light here in Deuteronomy 28 it's in reverse we have these great blessings promises for God to make us the head and not the tail to go up and not down if we serve him but if if we still won't obey we won't be careful then we're cursed but if despite all that those first 14 verses you don't keep the covenant you say it's all about a relationship no rules no religion so I'm going to do what

I please forsaking assembling together seeking first more dollars counting other relationships more valuable than him living like the world but if then there's curses the curses are also corporate they're coming on all his people they are comprehensive they're in the city they're in the rural areas in our kitchen in our work in our children in our income when we're entering and when we're exiting and the

Lord will do it notice in verse 20 the Lord will send the curses he's not as though he just lets people off you know they'll suffer the consequences of their own actions as he stands back no here

God is saying I'm going to do this he won't just send a professional to do it for him you know like Satan who would do it coolly and professionally efficiently he'll do it himself in verse 21 the

Lord will make the pestilence come on us like the Lord will strike us in verse 22 with diseases with pandemics it's not just nature run amok be less interested whether it came or whether or not it came from a lab in Wuhan then why the

Lord is doing it it will be so comprehensive in verse 23 the sky over us and the ground under us will be cursed like bronze and iron the

Lord will make it in verse 24 until you are destroyed it's one of the refrains in this chapter as you've noticed that when we were reading it several times until you are destroyed he will keep doing it until you are destroyed the

Lord will cause us to be defeated scattered until we're horrible until we're an embarrassment until people look at us and don't want to be like us whatever you turn out to be don't be like them insane blind confused in verse 28 these things in verses 25 to 45 the

Lord literally brought on Israel and what he described here literally came on the nation of Israel and the rest of the

Old Testament confusion diminishment oppression deprived seeing children taken away robbed helpless leaders captured impoverished reduced to the lowest but wait like an inverted perverted dystopian commercial call now there's an offer call now to get this awful order but wait there's more but wait there's more curses because you broke the covenant and verses 45 to 57 it gets worse the curses aren't just out there for you they're pursuing you like an angry bear in the woods they will overtake you until you are destroyed again that refrain until you are destroyed in verse 45 these curses on you will make you an object lesson to others in verse 46 they are he calls them a sign and a wonder you know that term sign and wonder it's a term use of miracles in the

Bible displays of God's power to impress people that God is awesome like the plagues in Egypt they're so stunning that they impress even unbelievers a sign that points to God's holiness and makes them makes them wonder makes them go wow look what

God did and of course here it's wow look what he did to them

I don't want to be cursed like those people but wait it gets worse the

Lord will bring in verse 49 a nation that will swoop down on you show no mercy they're professionals they're professional killers they'll besiege you and starve you until you resort to cannibalism so desperately hungry that you'll eat your own children a sign and a wonder it gets worse things will get so bad that the refined among us the genteel ladies and pampered gentlemen who never went barefoot who were raised using chilled salad forks and cloth napkins politely folded in their laps will be so desperate that they'll eat placentas and their babies and all in secret because they don't want to share with their own families they won't care that their families starve every relationship for them is a professional one and so they don't care if they betray their own children that's what the

Lord himself is willing to unleash on his covenant people who thought that they could walk away from their covenant as if there was no relationship as if it was just business not personal but it was all very personal to this relational

God the Puritan Richard Sibbes said that outside of Christ God is terrible outside of Christ God is terrible we've seen that already the

Lord striking and cursing and then it gets worse then spoiled rich kids become barbarians savages willing to do anything to escape from this siege willing to scrape out any few morsels they can get while everyone else around them letting them just die because there is no covenant with them there's no real relationships and God doesn't just let this happen not merely allowing people to reap the consequences of their actions he is doing it remember

God's the active one here Sibbes was right outside of Christ outside of that relationship with him that we get because of what

Jesus did for us outside of Christ taking the curses that we deserved and earning the blessings that we don't outside of Christ God is terrible we take him too much for granted we've lost our fear of him he's like the electricity running through these wires around us outside of that insulation around those wires you know electricity is terrible it could kill us if electricians hadn't learned how to handle it properly we wouldn't want anything to do with it we would just stay as far away from electricity as we could get but now we just take it for granted that it's useful it's been made safe for us and it's the same with God we take him for granted that he blesses us that Christ has taken those curses for us so that we're safe from them

Richard Sibbes also said that in the covenant of grace God gives what he requires and accepts what he gives he gives us the righteousness that he requires and he accepts us because of that righteousness that he gave to us that's the righteousness you get if you are in Christ as we saw in Ephesians but outside of Christ outside of the relationship with God that Christ gives if you're not in Christ if you're outside of the covenant with God that he brings with his blood

God is terrible we see that most brilliantly in the last section verses 58 to 68 in verse 58 if you are not careful if you break the covenant you walk away from the relationship with him the cons, the consequences are terrible first they're corporate in verse 59 the

Lord will bring on you and your offspring together if you wouldn't walk together in Christian love he'll have you suffer together and notice that the

Lord does it he is the active one the Lord will bring and these terrible afflictions will be comprehensive afflictions severe and lasting and sicknesses grievous and lasting all of them all of the diseases of Egypt that they had seen with their eyes but they were promised they had come to fear the

Lord what they had seen the Lord do to Egypt they were afraid it would come on them and they were promised it would not come on them but here

God says if you break this covenant they will come on you I'll bring them on you in verse 60 and then it gets worse in verse 61 they'll get every sickness and affliction not recorded in this book all the ones on Egypt and every other kind of disease notice now they are comprehensive for time too they are lasting severe and lasting grievous and lasting it's not until the

Lord Jesus himself it's hinted at here and there in the Old Testament but not until Jesus do we learn exactly how lasting his punishment for being a covenant breaker is an eternal punishment with fire that is not quenched with weeping and gnashing of teeth a punishment so terrible you would be better off chopping off your hand or gouging out your eye if that would keep you from it but it can't that's not how you get out of it it is severe and lasting grievous and lasting some say a loving

God would never do that to people but they don't they don't know God notice verse 63 as verse 63 as in the same way the

Lord took delight in doing you good and multiplying you so also in the same way with the same zeal the same delight the

Lord will take delight in bringing ruin upon you and destroying you he is an amateur cursor an amateur afflictor punisher doing it for love doing it for the love of his own glory with all the skill of the best professional if you claim to be in a relationship with God that's the

God you are in covenant with he's the one who will in verses 64 to 67 scatter you chase you until you live in dread depressed waiting for life to end undoing his blessing reversing his deliverance until you're so low you're a slave no one wants to buy outside of Christ outside of that covenant

God is terrible so you want a relationship with God maybe you think you already are in one well good

I hope so but understand there's pros and cons to this relationship our culture loves the language of relationship because we're so starved for real relationships when it comes to God people hardly ever realize that their relationship comes with responsibilities that our sin is sin against that relationship against our covenant with him against his glory and he is zealous he's eager he's delighting and defending that glory it's a fearful thing a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living

God our sin should make us tremble but another great adversative a gospel turning point but God is not just delighting and punishing but as Richard Sibbes also said there is more mercy in Christ than sin in us sure outside of Christ God is terrible but for those of us he has made a covenant with that he is committed to be in relationship with he comes to us not as our professional but as our father in Christ and if you're a believer you are not outside of Christ so are you?