*** BLESSINGS AND CURSES

 

 

 

Blessings and Curses

Today I want to talk about the instructions, the blessings and the curses announced by Moses, the prophet of the Creator in Deuteronomy 23 verse 15 to 28 verse 68. This is a VERY L-O-N-G discussion. So, bear with me, please. Each blessing and curse is self-explanatory and therefore I won't elaborate to make it easier...

BLESSINGS

Let's start with the instructions the Creator gave in Deuteronomy 23 from verse 15:

"If a slave has taken refuge with you, do not hand him over to his master. Let him live among you wherever he likes and in whatever town he chooses.

"No Israelite man or woman is to become a shrine prostitute. You must not bring the earnings of a female prostitute or of a male prostitute into the house of the LORD your God to pay any vow, because the LORD detests them both.

"Do not charge your brother interest, whether on money or food or anything else that may earn interest... that the LORD your God may bless you in the land you are entering to possess.

"If you make a vow to the LORD your God, do not be slow to pay it, for the LORD your God will certainly demand it of you and you will be guilty. Whatever your lips utter you must be sure to do, because you made your vow freely to the LORD your God with your own mouth.

"If you enter your neighbor's vineyard, you may eat all the grapes you want, but do not put any in your basket. If you enter your neighbor's cornfield, you may pick the ears with your hands, but you must not put a sickle to his standing corn.

"IF a man marries a woman who becomes displeasing to him because he finds something indecent about her, and he writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, and if after she leaves his house she becomes the wife of another man, and her second husband dislikes her and writes her a certificate of divorce, gives it to her and sends her from his house, or if he dies, then her first husband, who divorced her, is not to marry her again after she has been defiled. That would be detestable in the eyes of the LORD. Do not bring sin upon the land the LORD your God is giving you as an inheritance.

"If a man has recently married, he must not be sent to war or have any other duty laid on him. For one year he is to be free to stay at home and bring happiness to the wife he has married.

"Do not take a pair of millstones - not even the upper one - as security for a debt, because that would be taking a man's livelihood as security.

"If a man is caught kidnapping one of his brother Israelites and treats him as a slave or sells him, the kidnapper must die. You must purge the evil from among you.

"In case of leprous diseases be very careful to do exactly as the priests,who are Levites, instruct you. You must follow carefully what I have commanded them. Remember what the LORD your God did to Miriam along the way after you came out of Egypt.

"When you make a loan of any kind to your neighbor, do not go into his house to get what he is offering as a pledge. Stay outside and let the man to whom you are making the loan bring the pledge out to you. If the man is poor, do not go to sleep with his pledge in your possession. Return his cloak to him by sunset so that he may sleep in it. Then he will thank you, and it will be regarded as a righteous act in the sight of the LORD your God.

"Do not take advantage of a hired man who is poor and needy, whether he is a brother Israelite or an alien living in one of your towns. Pay him his wages each day before sunset, because he is poor and is counting on it. Otherwise he may cry to the LORD against you, and you will be guilty of sin.

"Fathers shall not be put to death for their children, nor children put to death for their fathers; each is to die for his own sin.

"Do not deprive the alien or the fatherless of justice, or take the cloak of the widow as a pledge. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt and the LORD your God redeemed you from there.

"When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow. Remember that you were slaves in Egypt.

"When men have a dispute, they are to take it to court, and the judges will decide the case, acquitting the innocent and condemning the guilty. If the guilty man deserves to be beaten, the judge shall make him lie down and have him flogged in his presence with the number of lashes his crime deserves, but he must not give him more than forty lashes. If he is flogged more than that, your brother will be degraded in your eyes.

"Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the corn.

"If brothers are living together and one of them dies without a son, his widow must not marry outside the family. Her husband's brother shall take her and marry her and fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to her. The first son she bears shall carry on the name of the dead brother so that his name will not be blotted out from Israel. However, if a man does not want to marry his brother's wife, she shall go to the elders at the town gate and say, 'My husband's brother refuses to carry on his brother's name in Israel. He will not fulfill the duty of a brother-in-law to me.' Then the elders of his town shall summon him and talk to him. If he persists in saying, 'I do not want to marry her,' his brother's widow shall go up to him in the presence of the elders, take off one of his sandals, spit in his face and say, 'This is what is done to the man who will not build up his brother's family line.' That man's line shall be known as The Family of the Unsandalled.

"If two men are fighting and the wife of one of them comes to rescue her husband from his assailant, and she reaches out and seizes him by his private parts, you shall cut off her hand. Show her no pity.

"Do not have two differing weights in your bag - one heavy, one light. Do not have two differing measures in your house - one large, one small. You must have accurate and honest weights and measures, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you. For the LORD your God detests anyone who does these things, anyone who deals dishonestly.

"Remember what the Amalekites did to you along the way when you came out of Egypt. When you were weary and worn out, they met you on your journey and cut off all who were lagging behind; they had no fear of God. When the LORD your God gives you rest from all the enemies around you in the land He is giving you to possess as an inheritance, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under the heaven. Do not forget!"

First fruits and tithes - see Deuteronomy 26 verse 1 to 15.

"The LORD your God commands you this day to follow these decrees and laws; carefully observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. You have declared this day that the LORD is your God and that you will walk in His commands and laws, and that you will obey Him. And the LORD has declared this day that you are His people, His treasured possession as He promised, and that you are to keep all His commands. He has declared that He will set you in praise, fame and honor high above all the nations He has made and that you will be a people holy to the LORD your God, as He promised."

CURSES

A list of special curses are listed in Deuteronomy 27.

"Cursed is the man who carves an image or casts an idol - a thing detestable to the LORD, the work of a craftsman's hands - and sets it up in secret.

"Cursed is the man who dishonors his father or his mother.

"Cursed is the man who moves his neighbor's boundary stone.

"Cursed is the man who leads the blind astray on the road.

"Cursed is the man who withholds justice from the alien, the fatherless or the widow.

"Cursed is the man who sleeps with his father's wife, for he dishonors his father's bed.

"Cursed is the man who has sexual relations with any animal.

"Cursed is the man who sleeps with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.

"Cursed is the man who sleeps with his mother-in-law.

"Cursed is the man who kills his neighbor secretly.

"Cursed is the man who accepts a bribe to kill an innocent person.

"Cursed is the man who does not uphold the words of this law by carrying them out."

MORE BLESSINGS AND CURSES

The Creator then set these blessings and curses in front of the nation.

"If you fully obey the LORD your God and carefully follow all His commands ..., 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..." (A list of special blessings are listed in Deuteronomy 28 verse 3 to 14.)

"However, if you do not obey the LORD your God and do not carefully follow all His commands and decrees ..., all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

"You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.

"Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.

"The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.

"You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.

"The LORD will send on you curses, confusion and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to a sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking Him. 

"The LORD will plague you with diseases until he has destroyed you from the land you are entering to possess.

"The LORD will strike you with wasting disease, with fever and inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight and mildew, which will plague you until you perish.

"The sky over your head will be bronze, the ground beneath you iron.

"The LORD will turn the rain of your country into dust and powder; it will come down from the skies until you are destroyed.

"The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You will come at them from one direction but flee from them in seven, and you will become a thing of horror to all the kingdoms on earth. Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.

"The LORD will afflict you the boils of Egypt, and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured. The LORD will afflict you with madness, blindness and confusion of the mind. At midday you will grope about like a blind man in the dark.

"You will be unsuccessful in everything you do; day after day you will be oppressed and robbed, with no one to rescue you.

"You will be pledged to be married to a woman, but another will take her and ravish her.

"You will build a house, but you will not live in it.

"You will plant a vineyard, but you will not even begin to enjoy its fruit.

"Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will eat none of it.

"Your donkey will be forcibly taken from you and will not be returned.

"Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and no one will rescue them.

"Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, and you will wear out your eyes watching for them day after day, powerless to lift a hand.

"A people that you do not know will eat what your land and labor produce, and you will have nothing but cruel oppression all your days.

"The sights you see will drive you mad.

"The LORD will afflict your knees and legs with painful boils that cannot be cured, spreading from the soles of your feet to the top of your head.

"The LORD will drive you and the king you set over you to a nation unknown to you or your fathers. There you will worship other gods, gods of wood and stone. You will become a thing of horror and an object of scorn and ridicule to all the nations where the LORD will drive you.

"You will sow much seed in the field but you will harvest little, because locusts will devour it.

"You will plant vineyards and cultivate them but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because worms will eat them.

"You will have olive trees throughout your country but you will not use the oil, because the olives will drop off.

"You will have sons and daughters but you will not keep them, because they will go into captivity.

"Swarms of locusts will take over all your trees and the crops of your land.

"The alien who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower. He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail.

"All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the LORD your God and observe the commands and decrees He gave you. They will a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants for ever. Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity, therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until He has destroyed you."

Further curses: Deuteronomy 28 verse 49 to 68.

CONCLUSION

Now, the question remains, quite frankly, if mankind haven't put all these curses on himself lately because they are doing what has been forbidden and not what the Creator asked them to do in order to receive His blessings...

And then, the direct question to you, the reader, are you under the blessing or the curse? And where do you want to be?

Reproduced with permission by Pastor Magda Grobbelaar-Sampson.

 

 

Republished with permission on Medium.

Republished with permission on Watt Pad.