Deuteronomy 27–28

evening. Would y'all stand? You don't have to. Okay. I want to welcome you this evening here at Calvary Chapel, our evening service. We welcome those of you who are online joining us. We welcome you. And would you join me in prayer? Father, we thank you for this opportunity to come and worship you in song and to study your word. We thank you that you're in control, Lord. We can trust you in

every area of our life. And we give you praise, Lord. As we come to sing unto you, Lord, we just want to thank you for your love, your grace, your mercy, your sovereignty, Lord.

As I wait, I'll rise up like the evening. And I will soar with our minds tonight. Fill us afresh with your Holy Spirit, Lord, as we worship and study your word. Give us clean to another our salvation at sea. Search our hearts this evening, Lord, as we come to you. You're so faithful, Lord. You love us. You as a father, you as a friend, Holy Spirit, that he has

need, Lord, to give listening ears, eyes to see and hearts to perceive that which you have tonight. And we give you thanks. And bless the other ministries going on down the hall, the children's church, the youth group, the nursery. We thank you in Jesus' name. Amen. Good evening. Glad you could be here tonight. Welcome to Calvary Chapel. You would open up in your Bibles to the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 27. Deuteronomy 27.

As we continue on our journey through the book of Deuteronomy, we have come to the end of the second section of the book of Deuteronomy last week. The first section of Deuteronomy, the first handful of chapters was what God had done for the nation of Israel. The next set of chapters that we looked at that ended last week is what God expected of the nation of Israel as he recounted the law for them. And now as we come to chapter 27 through the end of the book, we see what God expects of the nation of Israel as far as the ratification of the covenant, really Israel's future in the land. And so there's two things that we'll look at tonight. In chapter, at the beginning

of chapter 27, we'll look at the terms of the covenant. And from the middle of chapter 27 through chapter 28, we will look at the blessings and the cursings. And so we pick up in chapter 27, and it says this, Then Moses and the elders of Israel charged the people saying, Keep all the commandments which I command you today. So it shall be on the day when you shall cross the Jordan to the land which the Lord your God gives you, that you shall set up for yourself large stones and coat them with lime, and write on them all the words of this law.

When you cross over in order that you may enter the land which the Lord your God gives you, a land flowing with milk and honey, as the Lord the God of your fathers promised you. So it shall be when you cross the Jordan, you shall set up on Mount Ebal these stones as I am commanding you today, and you shall coat them with lime. Moreover, you shall build there an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stone. You shall not wield an iron tool on them. You shall build

the altar of the Lord your God of uncut stones, and you shall offer on it burnt offering, to the Lord your God. And you shall sacrifice peace offerings, and eat there, and rejoice before the Lord your God. You shall write on the stones all the words of this law very distinctly. Then Moses and the Levitical priests spoke to all Israel saying, Be silent and listen, O Israel.

This day you have become a people for the Lord your God. You shall therefore obey the Lord your God, and do his commandments and his statutes which I command you today. So it shall be on the Mount Ebal these stones as I am commanding you today. And so as he begins the process of the ratification of the covenant, telling Israel what's expected of them as far as the keeping of the covenant, it starts off with that exhortation towards obedience. It's kind of

interesting when you think about it, because they have up to this point in time been hearing what God's word is. They have been hearers of the law and hearers of God's expectations of them. But if you will, Moses now takes them to a place of saying, It's not just enough to be a hearer of what God's word is. It's not just enough to be a hearer of what God's word is. It's not just enough

to be a hearer of what God's word has to say, to hear what God's law has to say. You must now become a doer of God's word. You must now become a doer of the law. And I do think sometimes we as believers are really good at hearing what God's word has to say, but it's a whole other thing when we have to put it into practice. I know for myself in my own life, I'm really good at knowing what

the right answer is according to what scripture has to say. My favorite line though, is I struggle with follow through, right? Like I can, I can know all the right things to do, it's just actually doing them. That's the hard thing. And so he tells them now it's time for you to begin to put into practice these things that you've learned. So he tells them, this is what

you're going to do when you cross over the Jordan to go into the land. There's a process that I want you to follow. You may have noticed that there was the first thing that they were supposed to do was set up a couple of stones. These stones that they set up were to be large stones and they were to whitewash the stones with lime. If you will, they were to create the perfect backdrop,

a perfectly clear backdrop for them to write something on it. He said, then I want you to write all of the words of this law on there. Now, for me, that brought up a question, dude, if you wrote out the whole book of Deuteronomy, that would take a really big rock. I don't think he probably meant the entire book of Deuteronomy. I think when he said the words of this law,

I think he meant the 10 commandments, which the reason why I believe that is because it says two stones, much like the two tablets. I believe that that's since that's the basis for God's righteous law. I think that's what he wanted them to write on there. And did you take note of how they were to write it on there? It said down in verse eight, you shall write on the stones all

the words of this law. And then he uses a little adverb there to say how they should write those words very distinctly. In other words, write them in a very clear way. You know why he tells them to write them in a very clear way? Because he didn't want there to be any question as to what had to say. He knew that we as human beings have a tendency to be really good at something. You know

what we're all really good at? Reading between the lines. Well, I think what he meant by that was, I think what he meant by it is exactly what he said. That's what I think he meant by it. And so he knew that that was the potential. So he said, write them very distinctly so that you can remember all the words of this law, because that will be the testimony of you in the land. But there was

one other thing that they were supposed to do. The other thing that they were supposed to do, is they were supposed to build an altar. And did you take note of how they were supposed to build that altar? They were supposed to build that altar with uncut stones. As a matter of fact, he goes on to describe how they're to build it. They are not to use any tools of man in this

altar. There was to be no sculpting of the altar. There was to be no artistry in the altar. It was to be a plain, simple altar of stone. This made me think about something as far as the worship of God is concerned, because I think if we were to take the idea of what God intended for the original altars of worship, it might change our view of worship just a little bit. Because as God told them how they were to worship him,

as far as the building of the altar, the first thing I take note of is that the worship was to be very simple. Did you take note of that? Because it was supposed to just simply be some uncut stones. There was to be nothing fancy about them. There was to be nothing fancy about them. There was to be nothing amazing about them. As a matter of fact, everything about the altar was not to be

the emphasis, because the altar was not the focus. The God that the altar honored was always to be the focus. And I think sometimes in our worship in the 21st century in the Western culture church, sometimes we miss out on the simplicity of worship, do we not? Sometimes we care a whole lot more about all of the things that go into worship. Sometimes we care a whole lot more about

whether or not the singer's all that great that day, or whether the style is the way that we want for it to be that day, or whether the song is the one that's the most current one on the radio of that day. And I just think sometimes when God hears complaints like that, he has to feel somewhat sick at his stomach, at the complaints that sometimes we have about worship as the Western culture church. Because after all, it's not about the singer, and it's not about the musician, and it's not about the style, and it's not about whether or not it's the most popular song of the day. No, it's about whether or not you are truly worshiping the one that it was created to worship,

and that's the very creator of the heavens and the earth. So our worship is to be simple. The second thing that I took note of is that their worship was not to be a work of man's hands. In other words, it's not supposed to be something that I try to work up within myself. It's a work of God. Because if I make it a work of my own hands, then what do I have a tendency to look at? The work of my own

hands. And not the God that it's meant to honor. And then the third thing that I take note of about the worship that God intended here is that God was always to be the focus. God was always to be the focus of the way that they worshiped, whether they were worshiping in song, worshiping in sacrifice, worshiping in service. God was always to be the focus of everything that they did.

And brothers and sisters, may I say, God's greatest desire is that he himself be the focus of everything that we do. Well, he commands them to build an altar. And then he tells them that on this altar that they're to build when they cross over onto the other side, this altar that's to be on Mount Ebal, and I'll explain why that's important in just a moment. There was two types of sacrifices that they were supposed to offer on this altar. The first type of sacrifice was called the

sacrifice of burnt offering. And for those of you that are my Levitical students, you remember that the sacrifice of burnt offering was a whole burnt offering because it was the offering of consecration. A complete consecration unto God, because as they moved into this land, listen, the land that they have been working towards for the past 40 years, they realized that the only way they could come into the land and the only way that they could live in the land is if they were completely and totally consecrated unto the Lord. And so they were to offer a burnt offering of consecration unto the Lord. But then there was a second offering that they were supposed to offer.

The second offering that they were supposed to offer was a burnt offering of consecration unto God. And the second offering that they were supposed to offer was what's called the peace offering. And if you remember, the peace offering was one of the few offerings where everybody took part in the sacrifice. In other words, everybody benefited for the sacrifice. There was a portion

that was burned unto the Lord. There was a portion that was given to the priesthood, and there was a portion that was kept by the sacrificer. The reason why is because that peace offering represented fellowship with God. And so they were to offer a burnt offering of consecration unto the Lord. Because if you remember way back in our study at the end of the book of Exodus, as God brought the

children of Israel out of Egypt, do you remember why it said he brought them out of Egypt? He brought them out of Egypt unto himself. He didn't just set them free for the sake of being free. That was just a happy, that was just a happy benefit that went along with it. He set them free so that they could be a people consecrated unto him so that they could have fellowship with him.

And it reminds me that our own promised land that we walk in, walking in this life of faith, if we are to truly walk in the victory and in the joy that God intends for us, number one, we will walk fully consecrated, fully devoted unto the Lord. But number two, we will remember in our walk that we walk in fellowship with the creator of the heavens and the earth. As a matter of fact, that's the whole reason we were created, was for fellowship. And the cross of Jesus Christ restored the purpose for our creation. And so walk in that fellowship

with him. And so he tells them to build this altar on the other side of the Jordan, along with the two stones to remind them of the law. And then of course, in verse 10, he reinforces, actually, I really like verse nine because I work with kids a lot. Be silent and listen. You shall therefore obey the Lord, your God, and do his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today. As a

matter of fact, obediently. Obedience will be the theme for the next two or three chapters. We move on in verse 11 as he begins to talk about the blessings and the cursings, the mountain of blessing and cursing. Notice what it says. Moses also charged the people on that day saying, when you cross the Jordan, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin.

For the curse, these shall stand on Mount Gerizim. Mount Ebal, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali. And then the Levites shall then answer and say to all the men of Israel with a loud voice. Before we get to this cursing that's announced, let's set the scene for what this is supposed to look like. There will be two mountains when they come into the land. One is Mount Ebal. The other is Mount Gerizim. On Mount Gerizim will stand all

of these six tribes that will represent the mountain of blessing. In the middle there's a valley and on the other side is Mount Ebal. Mount Ebal is the place where they will pronounce the cursings. Although do you remember what else is on Mount Ebal? Mount Ebal is also where the altar has been built. Why? Because the curse, sin brings the curse and the only way to be set free from the curse is with the shedding of blood.

And so there's these two mountains. On one side they're going to pronounce a blessing. On the other side they're going to pronounce a cursing. And in the middle will be some members of the tribe of Levi. They're going to pronounce a blessing. And in the middle will be some members tribe of Levi. It's just an amazing scene in your mind, is it not? In the middle will be this tribe

of Levi who's going to be shouting out the cursing. This is what they're supposed to shout out. Cursed is the man who makes an idol or a molten image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of craftsmen and sets it up in secret. And all the people shall answer and say, amen. Amen. Cursed is he who dishonors his father and mother and all the people shall say, amen.

Cursed is he who moves his neighbor's boundary mark and all the people shall say, amen. Cursed is he who misleads a blind person on the road and all the people shall say, amen. Cursed is he who distorts the justice due to an alien, an orphan, and the widow and all the people shall say, amen. Cursed is he who lies with his father's wife because he has ungrateful children. Cursed is he who lies with his father's wife because he has

ungrateful children. Cursed is he who lies with his father's wife because he has ungrateful children. uncovered his father's skirt and all the people shall say, amen. Cursed is he who lies with any animal and all the people shall say, amen. Cursed is he who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or his mother and all the people shall say, amen. Cursed is he who lies with mother-in-law

and all the people shall say, amen. Cursed is he who strikes his neighbor in secret and all the people shall say, amen. Cursed is he who accepts a bribe to strike down an innocent person and all the people shall say, amen. Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them, and all the people shall say, amen. Interestingly, these curses seem to fit into some categories.

You have categories of caring for your neighbor, in other words, not striking them in secret, not stealing from them. You have categories of morality that they're supposed to pay attention to, categories of taking care of mother and father, different ones that sort of line up with the Ten Commandments. And so, there's going to be a curse if you don't keep those. And did you notice how all of the people responded? All of the people responded with one phrase, amen. Why?

Because what does amen mean? It means, so be it. And so, they were supposed to proclaim this, and all the people say, so be it. It's an agreement. You're saying, I agree with you that if we do those things, there's a curse that comes along with it. And you shout out, so be it. In other words, you're saying, so be it. And so, you're saying, so be it. And so, you're saying,

we accept the covenant. Well, as we move into chapter 28, we see the blessings. But before we get into those blessings, I want to talk for just a minute about the curse. Because as I think about the curse of the law, I think about what the people were under. You see, the entire nation of Israel was under the law. And if they did not keep the entire law, then they were, according to

this, cursed. And they all declared, so be it. That means that the nation of Israel lived under the curse of the law. Because you know as well as I do that there's no problem with the law. Where is there a problem? The problem is with me. You see, this is why, as much as I want there to be good laws in our nation, as much as I want there to be righteous laws in our nation, I'm well aware of a truth. We can never change

the heart of the nation by changing the heart of the nation. We can never change the heart of the nation by changing the laws of the nation. Because has there been any nation on earth whose laws are more divinely inspired than the nation of Israel? The short answer is no. No, because all of the laws of the nation of Israel came directly from God. And yet, did it do anything to change the

heart of the people? No, it did not. This is why, as much as I believe in what we did yesterday with voting, I think it's incredibly important. I'm also well aware of the fact that that will never change the heart of the nation. I think it's incredibly important. I think it's incredibly important. I think it's incredibly important. I think it's incredibly important. As a matter of

fact, I would go so far as to say voting does not change the heart of the nation. Voting reveals the heart of the nation. And quite frankly, that was what I said first thing this morning when I woke up. I said, yep, we just saw revealed the heart of the nation. And the heart of our nation, brothers and sisters, is divided. And the heart of our nation, brothers and sisters, is to look out for

what's best for me today. We saw that revealed in the vote yesterday. The article that I found the most telling was states that have legalized marijuana. I actually think that the title of the article was more states that have legalized marijuana. You see, we can outlaw everything that we want to, but it'll never change the heart of the nation. Why? Because we all live under the

curse, because all of us are sold under sin, because all of us are sinners. But in the midst of that curse, brothers and sisters, I want to tell you that there's some really good news. Matter of fact, I want you to go with me to a place in Scripture. I want you to go over to Galatians, all the way in the New Testament, about halfway through the New Testament, right after 2 Corinthians. I want you to go to Galatians chapter 3. You see, understanding some

of these Old Testament things brings a lot of light to some of the New Testament things. In Galatians chapter 3, in Paul's great dissertation on liberty, I want you to notice what he says in chapter 3, verse 10. For as many as are under the works of the law are under a curse. For it is written, cursed is everyone who does not abide by all the things written in the book of the law. Believe it or not, that's a quote directly out of Deuteronomy chapter 27, verse 26.

Now, that no one is cursed is not a curse. That's a quote directly out of Deuteronomy chapter 27, that no one is justified by the law before God is evident, for the righteous man shall live by faith. However, the law is not of faith. On the contrary, who practices them shall live by them. Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us. For it is written,

cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree, in order that in Christ Jesus, the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles. So that we would receive the power of the Spirit through faith. Brothers and sisters, that's what we call the gospel right there, is you and I were under the curse, because none of us could keep the law. Cursed is everyone who cannot keep the entire law. And you know what I show on a daily basis?

I cannot keep the entire law. No matter how perfect the laws are, I still can't keep them, because the problem is not with the law. The problem is with me. Because I'm a sinner, sold under sin, cursed by that law. And so what do I do now? I run to Jesus. I run to Jesus because he's the only one that can set me free from the curse of the law. He's the only one that can set me free from that curse, because apart from him, I know that I'm

destined for hell. Apart from him, I know that I have to stand before God and say, I'm guilty. I'm guilty. And as I stand before him and say, I'm guilty, he says, but your debt has been paid. The curse has been lifted because of the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, because he became a curse for you. Isn't that beautiful? The gospel of Jesus Christ written right there in the book of

Deuteronomy. Well, let's go back, back to Deuteronomy chapter 28. Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the Lord, your God, being careful to do all of his commandments, which I command you today, the Lord, your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. All these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you. If you obey the Lord, your God blessed, shall you be in the city and blessed? Shall you be in the country?

Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your, the ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in. Blessed shall you be when you go out. The Lord will cause enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and shall flee before you

seven ways. The Lord will command his blessing upon you in all your barns, and in all that you put your hand to do, and he will bless you in the land, which the Lord, your God gives you. The Lord will establish you as a holy people to himself as he swore to you. If you will keep the commandments of the Lord, your God and walk in his ways. So 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. The Lord will make you abound in prosperity, uh, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beasts and the produce of your land. The land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. The Lord will open for you his good storehouse, the heavens to give rain to your land and its season and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. The Lord shall make you the

head and not the tail, and you only shall be above and you shall not be underneath. If you will listen to the commandments of the Lord, your God, which I charge you today, you will be able to observe them carefully and do not turn aside from any of the words, which I command you today to the right or to the left to go after other gods to serve them. Now he talks about the blessings. Enjoy this while it lasts. Okay. Cause it's going to get a little funky in the next section.

He talks about these blessings. He says, if you will diligently obey, if you will have it in your heart to always do the things that God has called for you to do, then the blessings, I love if, let me make sure I quote this correctly. Yes. He, uh, in the new American standard, it translates it. The blessing shall overtake you. I love that idea. It's like, you're just standing there and you just kind of get hit by a wave. You ever stood at the edge of

the ocean and as the waves really start coming in and as you're standing there at the edge on the beach, a big wave just comes up and absolutely takes you down and just overwhelms you. That's what I picture in my mind. When he says, if you obey diligently all the words of this law, then the blessings shall overtake you. And I love that idea. It's like, you're just standing there and you

blessings of God will just overtake you. They'll just overwhelm you to the point that you can't even imagine. Then he goes through some of the areas where that blessing will be. He says, everywhere you go, you're going to be blessed. Whether you're in the city or in the country, there's going to be blessing in your family life. There's going to be victory over your enemies, victory in your, or, uh,

blessings in your crops and in your income. And then I think what I prefer the most out of all of these blessings is in your family life. And I think that's what I prefer the most out of all of these blessings is in your family life. And I think that's what I prefer the most out of all of your It says, the Lord will establish you as a people to himself as he swore to you, if you will keep the commandments of the Lord, your God, and walk in his ways. In other words, you will always be God's

special people. Your relationship with God will always be better than you can imagine. If you will just keep yourself in that place of obedience. I'm reminded of a couple of scriptures. You don't The first is Psalm 33, verse 12. And in Psalm 33, you might just write that over in a margin of your Bible. In Psalm 33, verse 12, it says this, Blessed is the nation whose God is the Lord.

You kind of just can't help it. When a nation is following God, that nation is going to be blessed. And then in Proverbs 14, verse 34, it says this, Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a disgrace. I believe that the reason why we have seen the way it has been is not because we're any better than anyone else. I don't necessarily go along with some of those ideas.

But I believe that the reason why God has blessed our nation in the way that he has is because our nation has been a place where the Word of God has been able to grow and spread in freedom. And because the Word of God has been able to grow and spread in freedom here, we have been taking the Word of God to all of the other lands, that we possibly can. At least that was the way we started off doing things. Something's begun to happen in our nation.

And what's begun to happen in our nation is that we've stopped being those people. As a matter of fact, I think there's some other nations that feel like they need to send some missionaries to us. Because we're the people that have now become the secular society. We're the ones who have become the society that accepts all of the sin and no longer handles the sin.

We're the ones who have become the secular society. And so we have to ask God to bless the Word of God properly. And when that begins to happen, the nation begins to fall apart. Listen, you just can't help it. If you look down through the history of the nations of the world, when nations of the world would honor God, God would bless them. When nations began to leave God behind, he would begin to judge them.

And I believe that one of the things that we're beginning to see happen in our nation and have been seeing, we're beginning to see, and I think over the last 20 or 30 years is we've begun to see the hand of God moving against our country. I want you all to know this isn't anything new. Man, I meant to print that out and I forgot to. Had a sick kid at home today, so I'm off my game just a little bit.

I was reading Chuck Smith on this section of scripture and the time in which the 5,000 series came out, I believe was right around 1980, if I remember correctly. Actually, 79, 80, somewhere in that general range. And you know what he was talking about? It may as well have been headlines from today. He was talking about gas shortages. He was talking about food shortages.

He was talking about the secularization of our country. He was talking about a letter that somebody in his church had received from the school board where he was there in Costa Mesa, California, that no longer should they start using terms like criminalization, criminalization, criminalization, criminalization, and the birth of Jesus when they were talking about the holiday season in school. They needed to be much more tolerant and understanding of different faiths. This is 40 years ago, right?

And so what we're experiencing right now is really just the continuation of what's been taking place for quite some time. But we keep seeing more and more of the heart of the nation being revealed. And the reason why it's being revealed is because we've stopped being a nation whose God is the Lord. It's because we've stopped having righteousness that exalts a nation.

Instead, we have begun to allow sin to be the disgrace in the nation. And I gotta be honest with us, brothers and sisters. I think we as the church need to take a little bit of blame for this. Not because we didn't take enough of a role in politics. I think we've done a pretty good job of taking our role in politics. But because we've stopped taking our role

in giving out the truth of the gospel. We've become a little too timid about sharing the truth of the gospel of Jesus. And when we become timid with the gospel of Jesus Christ, well, that's when we start to see things like this happen. Because you see, some of the greatest revivals that have taken place in the history of the church were in some of the most limited times politically for the church.

But they didn't care. All they knew was that they had the message of the truth. They had the message of freedom. They had the message of the word of God. And they weren't gonna let anyone stop them. We were talking, I'm gonna try to put this sermon together. I don't know how it's gonna work just yet. At the men's conference on Saturday, he was teaching about Caleb.

Man, I love listening to Caleb. Listening to sermons on Caleb because Caleb is just next level, right? We've talked about him in here because he was a man who followed God fully. But if we jump into Joshua, which we'll do eventually, when we jump into the book of Joshua, there's gonna come a point in time where the children of Israel take the land and they come down to divvying out the land.

And Joshua says, or Caleb says, Joshua, I'm 85 years old and I'm as strong today as I ever have been. And he tells them what part of the land that he wants. Now, if you don't know very much about the land, it won't mean that much to you. But when you realize that the part of the land that he wants is where all the giants live, you go, now that's a man right there, right?

And he says, and even if I don't make it, I still want that part of the land. And all I could think was, that's right. Obey or die trying, right? Like what a wonderful thought to have as men of God that when it comes to the truth, we will obey or die trying. That's what the early church did. They were like, this is the message of the gospel. We've been told to give out the message of the gospel

and we're gonna obey or die trying. Either way, we win. But if we wanna see righteousness exalt a nation again, sure it can happen sometimes in the ballot box, but where it will really begin is in the grassroots movement of believers in Jesus Christ who will get the word of God out to the people of God and start working on the hearts of people. Because if we don't change the hearts of people, we'll never change the heart of the nation.

And so he goes on from there. Now to begin to talk about the cursings. And there's a lot of time spent on the cursings. You may notice that the first 14 verses are the blessings.

In the last 54, I had to do a little quick math there. Did you see me ciphering? Or on the cursings. Isn't it interesting? Righteousness is very simple. Sin is always complicated. My life has always been the most simple ever when I do exactly what I'm supposed to do. When I do what God calls me to do. When I'm an idiot and don't do what God wants me to do, my life gets very complicated.

It's very, very complicated. Because I'm always having to cover my tracks, right? So he begins to lay out these cursings. But it shall come about, verse 15, if you will not obey the Lord your God to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I charge you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. Cursed shall you be in the city

and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the offspring of your body. The produce of your ground, the increase of your herd and of the young and of your flock. Cursed shall you be when you come in. Cursed shall you be when you go out. Now that first handful seems to just take us to the opposite direction

of everything that he just said with blessings, right? But he's not done there. As a matter of fact, I took note of the fact that nine times over the next however many verses because I'm not that good at math. Nine times. There's one little phrase that I want you to take note of. I want you to take note of it. It says, the Lord will. And basically what it is,

is he's saying what the Lord will do to you if you do not keep the law. So take note of that as we read through this. Nine times he's gonna talk about how God will take an active hand in cursing the people. Notice what it says in verse 20. The Lord will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke in all you undertake to do until you are destroyed and until you are saved.

Until you perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds because you have forsaken me. The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until he has consumed you from the land where you are entering to possess it. The Lord will smite you with consumption and with fever and with inflammation and with fiery heat and with sword and with blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish.

The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze. And the earth which is under you, iron. The Lord will make the rain of your land powder and dust from heaven. And it 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, but you shall flee seven ways before them. And you shall be an example of terror

to all the kingdoms of the earth. Your carcasses shall be food to all the birds, to all the birds of the sky, and to the beasts of the earth. And there shall be no one to frighten them away. The Lord will smite you with the boils of Egypt and with the tumors and with the scab and with the itch. I don't know what the itch is, but it sounds terrible. From which you cannot be healed.

Remember how I said enjoy those blessings because it's going to get a little funky? We're not done yet, okay? We haven't even hit the worst part yet. But isn't it kind of interesting what God will cause to happen to them? He says he will send on them curses and confusion. Listen, I don't need help with confusion that comes with disobedience, right? I'm confused enough as it is.

He says he will send curses and confusion on you. Not only that, he will send pestilence on you. If you don't know what pestilence is, pestilence is sickness. And then he describes more of the sicknesses that will come upon the people. It says he will smite you before your enemies. He will cause you to be defeated. He will smite you with madness, with blindness,

and with bewilderment. He goes on from there, which is what I just quoted in verse 28. He will smite you with those things and you shall, verse 29, grope at noon as the blind man gropes in darkness. You shall not prosper in your ways, but you shall only be oppressed and robbed continually with none to save you. You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall violate her.

You shall build a house, but you shall not live in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not use its fruit. Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it. Your donkey shall be torn away from you and shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies and you shall have none to save you. Your sons and your daughters

shall be given to another people while your eyes look on them and yearn for them continually, but there shall be nothing you can do. A people whom you do not know shall eat up the produce of your ground and all your labors and you shall never be anything but oppressed, oppressed and crushed continually. You shall be driven mad by the sight of what you see. The Lord will strike you on the knees and the legs with sore boils from which you cannot be healed from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

Now, in a lot of ways, this is not only a declaration of what will take place, but it's a little bit of a forecast of Israel's history. It's prophetic in nature because as you move into the book of Judges, you see how much of this begins to take place. That as the people go through a cycle of sin where they fall into sin, God brings judgment. Usually this is what he does to bring judgment.

He brings enemies against them. He causes their crops to fail. He causes sickness in the land. And as he does so, the people then begin to cry out to the Lord and God in his graciousness and God in his mercy. When the people cry out to him, would send a deliverer or a judge who would deliver them. The problem was they would then go back to sin after they had sinned.

And so, they would then go back to sin. And so, they lived in this cycle. And in the midst of this cycle is all of these things that you see taking place within the book of Judges. And then it goes on from there in verse 36. It says, The Lord will bring you and your king whom you shall set over you to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known. And there you shall serve other gods,

wood and stone. You shall become a horror and a proverb and a taunt among all the people where the Lord your God will drive you. You shall bring out much sin and your seed to the field but you shall gather in little for the locusts shall consume it. You shall plant and cultivate vineyards but you shall neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes for the worm shall devour them.

You shall have olive trees throughout your territory but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil for your olive shall drop off. You shall have sons and daughters but they shall not be yours for they shall go into captivity. The cricket shall possess all your trees and the produce of your land. The alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher but you shall go down lower and lower.

He shall lend to you but you shall not lend to him. He shall be the head and you shall be the tail. Now he gives us a little bit of a break here in the middle but this break that he gives us reminds us why this is taking place. Notice what it says in verse 45. All these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtaken you until you're destroyed because you are not a man.

Because you would not obey the Lord your God by keeping his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you. They shall become a sign and a wonder on you and your descendants forever because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and a glad heart for the abundance of all the things. Therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord your God shall send against you in hunger and thirst and nakedness and in the lack of all things and he will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you. Verses 47 and 48 I feel like are very telling of this entire section because he says because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy, verse 48 therefore you shall serve your enemies.

And it's a good reminder for us because God will eventually give us over to what we want. And quite frankly that's the most dangerous spot any individual or any nation can find. Is God will finally say if that's what you want to do then fine go ahead and do it you just need to know I'm going to allow you to have as much of it as you want and suffer all of the consequences that go along with it. You see I think sometimes in our minds we think a little bit of sin is going to be okay forgetting that a little bit of sin has a lot of bit of consequences because eventually if we continue to rebel against the Lord God will turn us over to sin.

God will turn us over to sin. God will turn us over to that rebellion. As a matter of fact that's the very language that's used in the book of Romans when God says that he turned them over to a reprobate mind. And part of what they did is they worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator who is blessed forever. Amen. And that leads to all kinds of other things.

It happens in the lives of individuals and it happens in the lives of nations. But one usually leads to the other. And it's an important lesson for us to learn that when God starts to tell us no we need to say okay. Because if God's telling us no there's a really good reason for it. Because he knows the consequences that come with those types of sin. He says if that's what you want to serve

then you go serve them. You just need to know there's consequences. Verse 49.

It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls in which you trusted come down throughout your land. And it shall besiege you in your towns throughout your land which the Lord your God has given you. Then you shall and here's where it gets hard. Then you shall eat the offspring of your own body the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you during the siege and the distress by which your enemy shall oppress you.

The man of God who has given you your flesh the man who is refined and very delicate among you shall be hostile towards his brother towards the wife he cherishes and towards the rest of his children who remain so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children who shall eat since he has nothing else left during the siege and the distress by which your enemies shall oppress you in your towns. The refined and the delicate woman among you who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and refinement shall be hostile towards the husband whom she cherishes and toward her son and daughter and toward her afterbirth which she issues from between her legs and toward her children whom she bears

for she shall eat them secretly for lack of anything else during the siege and the distress by which your enemies shall oppress you in your towns. If you're not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book to fear this honored and awesome name the Lord your God the Lord will bring extra order ordinary plagues on you and your descendants severe and lasting plagues and miserable and chronic sickness. He will bring back on you the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid and shall cling to you also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of the law the Lord will bring on you until you are destroyed. Then you shall be left few in number whereas you are as numerous as the stars of the heavens

because you did not obey the Lord your God. It shall come about that as the Lord delighted over you to prosper you and multiply you so the Lord will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you and you shall be torn from the land where you are entering to possess. Moreover the Lord will scatter you among all the peoples from one end of the earth to the other end and there you shall serve other gods wood and stone which you and your fathers have not known. Among those nations you shall find no rest and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot but there the Lord your God will give you a trembling heart failing eyes and despair of soul so your life shall hang in doubt before you and you shall be in dread night and day

and shall have no assurance of your life in the morning you shall say would that it were evening and at evening you shall say would that it were morning because of the dread of your heart which you dread and for the sight of your eyes which you shall see the Lord will bring you back to Egypt in ships by the way about which I spoke to you you shall never offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slave but there will be no buyer and on that happy note right okay so hang with me here for just a minute okay I promise I'll bring this back around and pull a little personal application in here for us first of all again as a reminder this was a foreshadowing of things that would happen to the nation of Israel as a matter of fact

there's three nations that will cause the nation of Israel to do exactly the things that were brought up one of them was the nation of Assyria after the nation of Israel split into two the northern ten and the southern two the northern ten always found themselves living in idolatry living opposed to the things of God and the nation that took them over and did some of those exact same things that had no care for the young or the old and were absolutely brutal to the nation of Israel was the nation of Assyria as a matter of fact they put hooks in the jaws of their people and they led them into captivity but then the second nation that took the nation of Israel captive was the Babylonians and the Babylonians took the southern kingdom captive

as a matter of fact Babylon is referred to as the eagle which is why we know that that's what's being spoken of here and so the nation of Babylon would take the children of Israel captive again many of their sons and daughters taken captive the most notable of those sons taken captive by the nation of Babylon was none other than the prophet Daniel himself as he was probably a teacher and a teenage boy when he was taken captive and then of course the Romans are even written into there because the Romans who destroyed the nation of Israel or destroyed Jerusalem in AD 70 besieged the city in many of the things that are so horrific I'd really rather not read them twice took place in the city of Jerusalem when they were besieged by the nation of Rome

as a matter of fact the Romans put them on ships and carried them to Egypt to sell them as slaves but the nation of Rome had so glutted the slave market in Egypt that eventually the Egyptians were like we don't want to buy any more of your Jewish slaves fulfilling exactly what the book of Deuteronomy says why do I say this? because disobedience has consequences as a matter of fact let's just wrap this up with what I consider to be two points two points of personal application for us that I think we can pull out of these two chapters number one Christ took the curse for us and now our job is to live in obedience matter of fact go with me one more place in scripture we got to pull a little happiness out of this go over to the book of Philippians

just past where you were in Galatians the book of Philippians I want you to look at chapter 4 I don't think I meant Philippians 4 because that's not at all what I thought that was going to say I'm telling you I was off on my on my whole day today I think what I meant was Ephesians that is what I meant Ephesians chapter 4 verse 1 disregard what that says the book right before Philippians it says therefore Ephesians chapter 4 verse 1 I the prisoner of the Lord implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called brothers and sisters we've been set free Jesus Christ took the curse of the law for us but that doesn't mean we now live however we want to live now that we have been set free from the curse of the law

we are implored to walk in a manner that is worthy of the calling with which we have been called by Jesus Christ and so though we've been set free obedience is still now the life that we live but the second point that I want to make is this and I know I have this scripture correct look over in Galatians chapter 6 verse 7 Galatians chapter 6 verse 7 says this do not be deceived God is not mocked for whatever a man sows this he will also reap brothers and sisters we reap what we sow in life and while obedience is not what we have to do to be accepted by God it is what God calls us to do now that we have to live we have been accepted by him and if we live a life of obedience then I promise you will always reap the blessings of obedience

it may not be in monetary ways it may not be in anything that the world can see but I will guarantee your relationship with Jesus Christ will be stronger than you can imagine as you live a life of obedience if you live a life of disobedience to the things of God then I promise you your life will line up with that and you will reap all of the things of disobedience all of the consequences that go along with disobedience let us not use the liberty that we have as a cloak for unrighteousness amen let's pray Father we come to you now and Lord as we see these things laid out to us we know it's our desire to follow you with our hearts but Lord we struggle and fail and so Lord work in us as you see fit give us hearts that want to obey you

hearts that want to follow you hearts that want to follow you and Lord may it be in the big ways and in the small ways knowing that while we've been set free we've been set free to love you so Father we thank you and we praise you in Jesus name amen be blessed