"But it shall come about, if you do not obey the Lord your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you..." (Deuteronomy 28:15)God outlines to the nation of Israel the consequences of her apostasy. God enumerates with great specificity and detail the variety and severity of the punishments and curses that would be hers should she fail to keep her covenant with God. So great would be her punishment that she would be reduced to committing the vilest of sins. Consider the following curse on Israel's apostasy.
"Then you shall eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you. The man who is refined and very delicate among you shall be hostile toward his brother and toward the wife he cherishes and toward the rest of his children who remain, so that he will not give even one of them any of the flesh of his children which he will eat, since he has nothing else left, during the siege and the distress by which your enemy will oppress you in all your towns." (Deuteronomy 28:53-55)What is important to understand is that, each and everyone of these curses prophesied by God eventually came upon the nation of Israel. Even the most sever punishment leading to the most disgusting of actions on Israel's part came to pass. Israel forgot God, forsook her covenant with Him, turned away from the law, and brought upon herself all that was written in this scripture.
Reading this, it makes me thankful that we live under a different covenant and in a different dispensation; one of grace not of judgment. It is written of Jesus:
"For as many as are of the works of the Law are under a curse; for it is written, 'Cursed is everyone who does not abide by all things written in the book of the law, to perform them.' Now 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, 'He 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 promise of the Spirit through faith." (Galatians 3:10-14)Thanks be to God that Jesus freely became a curse for us that we might know the forgiveness, blessing, and love of God!
David Robison
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