Are We Paying the Price of Disobedience Today that Moses Warned Israel About? -- Deuteronomy 28:15-68

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Bottom Line: "Righteousness exhalts a nation but sin is a reproach to any people¨ (Prov. 14:34)

WARNING: What you are about to read is not at all fun. It is not intended to scare anyone. It is hoped that by reading it, you will be fully aware of the choices that each nation, each family, each individual has in life. There is a God. He loves us. But He doesn't kid around and will not be taken for a fool. Read on with care.

Yes, this was a warning to Israel. I understand that. But the people of Israel are His chosen people. If God who loves them so much would do that to them because of wilful disobedience, I am not ready to think that He would deal with me differently because of my wilful disobedience.  That is what we are talking about here.  We are not talking about being good enough to earn God's favor and certainly we are not talking about being good enough to earn salvation. That is a free gift. But rejection of that free gift and wilful disobedience of God has its consequences.

If we get nothing else out of all of Deuteronomy 28, let's get the basic law or message that God wanted the Israelites and now us to understand. We are to pursue righteousness, but our sin can destroy us. As long as a nation pursues God, it will be blessed. Stop pursuing, leave God out of the nation's decision-making, and it will be cursed. Many of us, if not all of us, reading this today, are living in such a nation. Perhaps it is time to look a little closer at the kinds of things that may lie ahead for us.

Moses took just 14 verses at the front end of this chapter to go into detail about the blessings a nation can expect if they obey and do God's commandments diligently. But it seems he needed 54 verses to describe the curses that could befall a nation that does not. [If you're in a hurry, at least read the parts below in red.]

As you would expect, many of these verses in this passage are the opposite of the first 14 verses. But there are number of new ideas and thoughts provided and those are the ones we want to look at more closely. If a nation, a family, or a person disobeys God, here are more details of what we can expect:

Note: In the material that follows I have used the personal pronouns "we, us, etc." The text was not written to us. It was written to the Israelites. I know that. But I wanted us to put ourselves in their shoes listening to what Moses is telling them. And in so doing, if we think there's a word of caution or a parallel for us today, let's apply it to us, today.

Verse 20 -- lives will be ones of confusion and rebuke in all we try to do, until we are destroyed, until we perish quickly, on account of our evil by forsaking God.

Verse 21 -- pestilence will cling to us until we can't live on the land God has given us. I don't know about you but I'm starting to feel that now. Pestilence is defined as a fatal epidemic disease, especially bubonic plague. I think considering this passage was written thousands of years ago, I would say "Covid-19" is close enough to that and qualifies.

Verse 22 -- the Lord will smite us with consumption (a wasting disorder not unlike tuberculosis), fever, inflammation, fiery heat, the sword, blight and mildew (two atmospheric influences fatal to grain), all of which will pursue us until we perish.

Verse 23 -- our skies will be bronze (dark with no sunshine which we need) and the earth iron (hard and impossible to work).

Verse 24 -- our rains will be like dust and powder (tornadoes and sandstorms).

Verse 26 -- our carcasses will be food for the vultures and no one will scare them away.

Verse 27 -- we will be smitten with the boils the Egyptians suffered in Egypt, with tumors, scabs, itching, with no healing in site. Is that a reference to cancer?

Verse 28 -- we will be smitten with madness, blindness, and bewilderment of heart. Our mental institutions are full, mental illness cases are out of control, and more and more people are committing suicide.

Verse 29 -- we will grope at noon, fail to prosper, be oppressed, robbed continuously, with no one to save us.

Verse 30 -- our wives will be violated by strangers, we will build houses but not be able to live in them, we will plant but see no fruit. How many people have had their wives and daughters violated by guerrilla soldiers throughout history, something that still goes on today? And if not soldiers, just evil gangs. How many homes have been taken by illegal immigrants and refugees and migrants in Europe? And how many harvests have not been realized because of the way we treat our world, or the politics that does not allow farmers to produce and freely sell their goods?  We are living in the days of curses.

Verse 31 -- our farmers won't do too well. Their ox will be slaughtered in plain view, they won't be getting any of the meat, their work animals will be taken, and their sheep given to their enemies, and they'll have no one to save them. If this isn't a picture of total anarchy and lawlessness, I don't know what is.

Verse 32 -- now this next one really hurts. The verse says our sons and daughters will be taken from us and given to another people. Hello, is this not going on today as more and more of our children lose their love for God and are given over to other gods worshipped by other people? Think about it. And there's nothing we can do.

Verse 36 -- God says ultimately our leaders (with us) will fall prey to other nations that neither of us knew, to serve other gods. Who will that be -- is it China, Russia, Iran, or is simply Islam?

Verse 43 -- the 'alien' among us will rise higher and higher above us, and we shall go down lower and lower. Isn't that exactly what is happening. Look at the demographics in our business boardrooms, and worse still in our governments. I have no problem with people of all nations who have fully adopted our culture having access to all institutions. But sadly, the majority of those who rise are not fully committed to their new land and they have dreams and visions of bringing their cultures to their new lands. One only need to look at the so called "squad" of Congresswomen in the U.S. Need I say anything more?

Verse 48 -- we will serve our enemies, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and lacking all things, until we perish.

Verse 49 -- the Lord will bring a foreign nation against you from afar with a language we do not understand. Again, who will that be?  China, Russia, Iran?

Verse 50 -- they will have no respect for the old, nor show favor to the young. The evil powers, the elite, the globalists, the godless, the liberals, and so-called progressives are doing that right now. Look at all the commotion and progress in euthanasia laws to facilitate the elimination of elders. Look at all calls for increased abortion right up and even after the point of birth.  We need to wake up. We have disobeyed. And we're paying the price as a nation.

Verse 53 -- things will get so bad that you will have to end up eating your own offspring.

Verses 54-55 -- those who are richer among us will turn against their own families, giving them nothing to eat to live.

Verses 56-57 -- richer women will behave likewise and end up starving and eating their own children.

Verse 62 -- certainly Israel's numbers would return to a very small number. I think the number of true Christians will be much fewer than all who claim to be Christians today.

Verses 66-68 -- we will not be assured of our lives from morning to night, and we will offer ourselves to be sold as slaves to our enemies in order to survive, but no one will want us.

We cannot become perfect. Nor will we reach that state in this life. But we can diligently seek a continuously improved relationship with God. We can diligently want to love Him more, please Him more, obey Him more, and serve Him more. That we can and must do. I don't know what God will do if we don't with precise accuracy. But through this chapter I know what He promised to do to His own chosen people with whom He had a covenant.

Clearly there is much to be argued here. Does this all apply to us or was it just for the Jews? Am I stretching the point when I draw the inferences to what is going on in the world as I did above? You'll have to decide that for yourself. But let me call on Matthew Henry to come and help us out as we ponder these questions. I can certainly live with his words on the matter of this passage as a whole:

• (1.) The accomplishment of these predictions upon the Jewish nation shows that Moses spoke by the Spirit of God, who certainly foresees the ruin of sinners, and gives them warning of it, that they may prevent it by a true and timely repentance, or else be left inexcusable.
• (2.) Let us all hence learn to stand in awe and not to sin. I have heard of a wicked man, who, upon reading the threatenings of this chapter, was so enraged that he tore the leaf out of the Bible, as Jehoiakim cut Jeremiah's roll; but to what purpose is it to deface a copy, while the original remains upon record in the divine counsels, by which it is unalterably determined that the wages of sin is death, whether men will hear or whether they will forbear?

Note to reader: If you like the way we are studying scripture, why not subscribe to our posts by providing us just with your email? You can do that to the right of this column in the "Subscribe to" section.  You can also search our earlier studies in the "Blog Archive" section below that.  Finally, please encourage others to study along with us by sharing this link with your family and friends. Thank you and God bless.  Ken G.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

In this decision, not deciding results in the bad choice default.

Walk Thru Deuteronomy 11

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Deuteronomy Chapter 11: Victory Depends on Studying and Obeying the Commands

Deuteronomy 11:1-32 – Highlights of The Passage and Some Thoughts

I like verse 2 where Moses says, “And know this day that I am not speaking with your sons...” and then verses 7 and 8, “...but your own eyes have seen…You shall, therefore, keep every commandment…”. This spoke to me. Moses was speaking to those sons of Israel that had witnessed firsthand what God had done for them. And he was saying, “Look, regardless of what your sons and daughters believe in now, you are to keep the commandments.”

We need to hear that today as parents and grandparents. It doesn’t matter what our children and grandchildren proclaim or know or believe, we who know what God has done for us, are to keep the commandments. This morning a friend reminded me of another verse in Scripture, 2 Thessalonians 2:15, which says, “Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle.” That’s our job no matter how others react. Obey the commandments; follow the traditions.

In verse 10, Moses is describing how the Israelites’ new land is different than the land of Egypt. It drinks water from heaven. God cares for it. His eyes are on it. And He’s always watching it all through the year, not just in the autumn and spring when rains normally fall.

In verse 18, he reminds them to teach these commands to their children, for all the reasons he had repeated earlier.

Then comes verse 26. “See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse.” Listen to God’s commands and be blessed. Don’t listen and be cursed. Chuck Smith reminds us that “That’s always the way it is. God sets before you the blessing and the curse; it’s your choice.” And he adds, “Now if you go to destruction it isn’t that God sent you there. It’s that you deliberately went there against all of God’s endeavors to keep you from there.”

In verse 29, he tells them that once they enter the land, they are to “place the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal.” Now, what’s that all about? This is what Smith says about it:

And when they came into the land some of the men were to go up to the top of Mount Gerizim and they were to shout to the people who were in this valley between these two mountains, shout down to them the blessings of the land and the conditions of blessings.

And as these men would shout down, "Blessed be ye in the fields" the people say, "Amen". "And in your cities" "Amen" and they would shout down these blessings. But on Mount Ebal there's another bunch of guys that were shouting the curses that would come to them if they disobeyed. So on Gerizim the blessing was placed and they would shout down to the people in the valley, the people would consent "Amen, Amen". And from Ebal the curses were pronounced and again the consenting "Yes, that's right. That's right, amen, amen. So be it". So that must have been quite an experience.

David Guzik says that this is Moses telling the people (and us) that God wants this “choice” that we have to be shared with all the people. We need to tell then that it’s a choice they have to make. That’s part of sharing the gospel today. That’s what a missionary is all about. The name Gerizim is supposed to be associated with fruitful harvests, and the name Ebal is supposed to be associated with barrenness.

This might well be the earliest reference to sharing the good news.

Wrap-up

Study the commands of God. Obey the commands of God. Share the commands of God and the choice that people have. And be victorious.

If our study in Deuteronomy does nothing else, it has certainly helped me understand how simple and easy God really made it for us all. It is us who have complicated things as we try to replace Him in all matters. My hope is that you too can see the solidness of God’s plan for us.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Before You Pray for Something, Do Your Homework to See if God Has Already Ruled on the Matter

Numbers Chapter 23: The Oracles of Balaam

Numbers 23:1-30

Day 76. Violent rioting continuing in the U.S. and the President calls for more force to be used. Lockdowns continue in many parts of the world. Curfews are in place in many parts of the U.S. America is more divided than ever before and regrettably, it seems that some kind of civil war may be the outcome. God forbid. We keep studied our Bible, looking for gems as to how we should live. Thank you for the encouraging notes people are leaving me.  Read on. 

The Passage

23 Then Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here, and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.” ² Balak did just as Balaam had spoken, and Balak and Balaam offered up a bull and a ram on each altar. ³ Then Balaam said to Balak, “Stand beside your burnt offering, and I will go; perhaps the Lord will come to meet me, and whatever He shows me I will tell you.” So he went to a bare hill.

⁴ Now God met Balaam, and he said to Him, “I have set up the seven altars, and I have offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.” ⁵ Then the Lord put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and you shall speak thus.” ⁶ So he returned to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, he and all the leaders of Moab. ⁷ He took up his ^[a]discourse and said,

“From Aram Balak has brought me,
Moab’s king from the mountains of the East,
‘Come curse Jacob for me,
And come, denounce Israel!’
⁸ “How shall I curse whom God has not cursed?
And how can I denounce whom the Lord has not denounced?
⁹ “As I see him from the top of the rocks,
And I look at him from the hills;
Behold, a people who dwells apart,
And will not be reckoned among the nations.
¹⁰ “Who can count the dust of Jacob,
Or number the fourth part of Israel?
Let ^[b]me die the death of the upright,
And let my end be like his!”

¹¹ Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have actually blessed them!” ¹² He replied, “Must I not be careful to speak what the Lord puts in my mouth?”

¹³ Then Balak said to him, “Please come with me to another place from where you may see them, although you will only see the extreme end of them and will not see all of them; and curse them for me from there.” ¹⁴ So he took him to the field of Zophim, to the top of Pisgah, and built seven altars and offered a bull and a ram on each altar. ¹⁵ And he said to Balak, “Stand here beside your burnt offering while I myself meet the Lord over there.” ¹⁶ Then the Lord met Balaam and put a word in his mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and thus you shall speak.” ¹⁷ He came to him, and behold, he was standing beside his burnt offering, and the leaders of Moab with him. And Balak said to him, “What has the Lord spoken?” ¹⁸ Then he took up his ^[c]discourse and said,

“Arise, O Balak, and hear;
Give ear to me, O son of Zippor!
¹⁹ “God is not a man, that He should lie,
Nor a son of man, that He should repent;
Has He said, and will He not do it?
Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?
²⁰ “Behold, I have received a command to bless;
When He has blessed, then I cannot revoke it.
²¹ “He has not observed ^[d]misfortune in Jacob;
Nor has He seen trouble in Israel;
The Lord his God is with him,
And the shout of a king is among them.
²² “God brings them out of Egypt,
He is for them like the horns of the wild ox.
²³ “For there is no omen against Jacob,
Nor is there any divination against Israel;
At the proper time it shall be said to Jacob
And to Israel, what God has done!
²⁴ “Behold, a people rises like a lioness,
And as a lion it lifts itself;
It will not lie down until it devours the prey,
And drinks the blood of the slain.”

²⁵ Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all nor bless them at all!” ²⁶ But Balaam replied to Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘^[e]Whatever the Lord speaks, that I must do’?”

²⁷ Then Balak said to Balaam, “Please come, I will take you to another place; perhaps it will be ^[f]agreeable with God that you curse them for me from there.” ²⁸ So Balak took Balaam to the top of Peor which overlooks the ^[g]wasteland. ²⁹ Balaam said to Balak, “Build seven altars for me here and prepare seven bulls and seven rams for me here.”³⁰ Balak did just as Balaam had said, and offered up a bull and a ram on each altar.

Footnotes

a.     Numbers 23:7 Lit parable

b.     Numbers 23:10 Lit my soul

c.     Numbers 23:18 Lit parable

d.     Numbers 23:21 Or iniquity

e.     Numbers 23:26 Lit saying, Whatever

f.      Numbers 23:27 Lit right in the sight of God

g.     Numbers 23:28 Or Jeshimon

Thoughts on the Passage

We observe that Balaam had Balak build altars and arrange for sacrifices to be made. And after that, Balaam went to a “bare hill” and God met him there to tell him what to say to Balak.

In verse 10, we hear Balaam saying to Balak, “I want to die the death of the righteous; and I want my end to be like that of the righteous.”  One commentator says, “anyone who wants to die the death of the righteous must first live the life of the righteous”.  Good point. We all want to die well and be treated well in death. We just aren’t so ready to live righteously. Robert Jamieson says, in so wishing but not living, Balaam is representative of a large class in the world – they “express a wish for the blessedness which Christ has promised to His people but are averse to imitate the mind that was in Him.”

We need to remember that in these attempts of Balak to get Balaam to curse Israel, he is going directly against something that God has already settled – God has blessed Israel to be a blessing, and woe to him who curses Israel.

Matthew Henry has us remember that Balak “pretended to honor the Lord with his sacrifices, and to wait for the answer God would send him; and yet, when it did not prove according to his mind, he forgot God, and flew into a great passion against Balaam.”

In the second message from God to Balak through Balaam (verses 18-24), God rebukes Balak and teaches him about the Divine nature of God – that unlike man, He does not lie or change His mind, that He always performs His word, and that He has all the strength. Furthermore, that He has not observed iniquity or wickedness in His people to warrant a curse. And in verse 22, God says He is like a wild ox on behalf of His people. David Guzik say, “wild ox is translated ‘unicorn’ in the KJV. The Hebrew word here (reem) occurs nine times in the O.T. The idea behind the Hebrew word is either of one horn or a mighty horn. Some think it refers to a rhinoceros, others to a wild ox, or a strong goat. It is not out of the question that a unicorn may be in mind.”

Not being happy with what Balaam tells him, Balak accuses him of actually blessing the Israelites rather than cursing them as he had asked for, and takes him to a second place, hoping things would turn out differently, but they didn’t. Balak now would even settle for Balaam to be neutral rather than bless or curse Israel.  And Balaam replies, “I will tell you whatever the Lord tells me to tell you as I had said.” And Balak takes him to yet a third place and the altars are built, and the offerings made.

Bottom line for me is this: If I am going to ask something of God, I better have done my homework [including studying my Bible] and made sure that I am not asking for something that God has already made a decision about. That’s why perhaps it is always better to attach to each of our petitions to God, the phrase, “nevertheless, not my will, but your will be done”. And then to real be able to accept happily (knowing it was the best option) whatever God’s will was for that matter. As a young lad, I lost many a potential spouse that way. As a young man, I lost many an opportunity to study something different that way. And then, I lost many a promotion or new job opportunities that way. As disappointed as I was, I knew that God’s choice for me – in my work, in my fields of study, and most importantly in my life’s partner – God’s choice for me was always superior.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Suspicious Minds -- How and why God dealt with it then and now.

Numbers 5:11-31 Sanctification through Separation from Suspected Infidelity

Day 41 of self-isolation. Our premier just announced a re-opening plan but with all due respect, it is not worth the 13 pages it was written on, and basically says we will reopen when we reopen, but it will be very slow and very, very cautiously. I guess that after he called orderly protesters who wanted the province re-opened “yahoos”, we didn’t really expect much more. So, we all, like the famous weather groundhog, return to our cubby holes, because we haven’t seen our shadow yet. At least I have more time to get deeper into Numbers and that’s a blessing. Thank you to all those that checked us out recently – it must have been the title that did grabbed. Hopefully this one will do likewise. Read on. I am now, as I study this next passage, being reminded why you don’t hear any sermons on it and others like it.

The Passage

The last section of chapter 5 (verses 11-31) is about being separated (in order to be sanctified) from suspected infidelity. It is broken down into four sub-parts:

Verses 11-15 – describes the situation where a wife may or may not have committed adultery, and where if she had, there is no witness to it, and she is not found out. However, in either case, if the husband is overcome by a “spirit of jealousy” he is to take his wife to the priest along with an offering of jealousy, a grain offering, as a reminder of the iniquity.

Verses 16-22 – describes how the priest deals with the wife brought to her. He basically puts some dust into a portion of holy water which makes it “water of bitterness that [could bring] a curse”. The idea is that if she is innocent of adultery, she’ll be immune to the curse. If not, the Lord was to make her “thigh waste away and [her] abdomen swell”. And the woman is supposed to respond, “Amen. Amen.”

Verses 23-28 – describes how the priest writes curses on a scroll and then washes them off with the water of bitterness, which the woman then drinks. After that he takes the grain offering from her hands and waves it before the Lord and brings it to the altar. He offers a part of it up in smoke. The woman then drinks the water. If she’s guilty it will cause bitterness, a swollen abdomen, and thighs that waste away. But more importantly, she’ll become a “curse among her people”. If she’s not guilty, she will clean, free, and conceive children,

Verses 29-31—summarizes the law of jealousy which is brought into play when a wife commits adultery or when a husband suspects she does, whether she does or not. In either case, he is free from guilt, and she bears her guilt.

Thoughts on the Passage

As you can see, not a great passage to try to explain in today’s ‘gender- equality’ world. Also, not so sure who is supposed to be in the process of being sanctified here – is it the wife, or is it the husband?

Chuck Smith makes two observations worth repeating here. First, he says it really would be awful for a woman if her husband was a naturally jealous person and she had to prove her innocence weekly, having to go through all this. Secondly, he notes that woman have come a long way since those days. I would prefer to say that while God’s expressed view of how women were to be have made sense to the men of Israel in those days and the only way they would have accepted, it was in no way indicative of His own views with respect to females when He created Adam and Eve – Genesis 2:25 says both were naked and both were not ashamed. And then of course, Jesus in the New Testament has an entirely favourable view of women. For a great article on that check out Christ's View of Women. 

The whole circumstance is based on suspicion. Surely the wife would not (usually) admit to her husband that she committed adultery. It is more likely the husband senses that something is wrong and based on that hunch, wants things cleared – of course, at his wife’s expense.

On the other hand, David Guzik takes a different, more positive, approach to this whole thing when he writes:

This unique passage deals with the problem of a spirit of jealousy in a marriage. Obviously, unfounded jealousy has spoiled many a marriage, and justified jealousy has forced attention on confronting the sin of adultery - in this passage, God gives Israel a way to deal with it.

He goes on to quote Poole:

"This law was given partly to deter wives from adulterous practices, and partly to secure wives against the rage of their hard-hearted husbands, who otherwise might upon mere suspicions destroy them, or at least put them away." (Poole)

However, what the wife goes through and what the consequences are make the penalty that the adulterous woman in Nathaniel Hawthorne’s 1850 novel, The Scarlet Letter, seem like a piece of cake in comparison. While one can believe she would feel a great sense of relief if she is innocent, I would not want to guess what the relationship between she and her husband would be going forward. And as Matthew Henry reminds us that it was even worse if the husband could prove the wife’s adultery. In that case, the penalty was being put to death.

Guzik, quoting Wenham relates the unbinding or loosening of a woman’s hair in the process as being another “hint that she was viewed as unclean. ‘Lepers’ had to let their hair had to let their hair hang loose as a mark of their uncleanness.

“Your thigh waste” Guzik says is a euphemism for “your womb rot” so that you are not be able to have children. Also, we note, that the woman had to agree to the terms set out by the priest, by saying “Amen, so be it.” This was to be repeated twice implying she agreed to both the outcomes – the one if she is guilty and the other if she is not. She could not as Guzik points out:

"Well, I did it, but it was really all right in the sight of God. After all, we loved each other, or my husband neglected me, and …" At the very least, this ceremony demanded that sin be called sin - guilty or innocent!

The law of jealousy does in fact favor the husband. The question is why and what happened to this law, even for the Jews. Guzik, aided by Clarke, helps us out again:

"The rabbis say that the trial by the waters of jealousy was omitted after the Babylonish captivity, because adulteries were so frequent amongst them, that they were afraid of having the name of the Lord profaned by being so frequently appealed to!" (Clarke)

The rabbis also said that if the woman was guilty, the same disease would come upon the man she had committed adultery with; but they also said that even if the wife had been guilty, but her husband had been guilty of adultery also, the bitter water would have no effect on her.

Some more interesting facts about this passage. The “rabbin” (either an old dated form of the word ‘rabbi’ or to imply the rabbis collectively) also say that if the woman was guilty of adultery, the adulterous man would also die at the same time. Interesting.  Matthew Henry says that Jewish doctors had stated that if the husband himself had also committed adultery; the bitter water would not have the same negative impact on the woman. Fair is fair. Perhaps that was God’s way of delivery His word in Hosea 4:14 where it says, “I will not punish your spouses [or daughters; daughters-in-law] when they commit adultery, for you yourselves are separated (from Me) with whores.”

What else can we learn from this passage that we can apply to our lives today? Here are some thoughts:

1.     Guzik says clearly this is evidence that God does not want couples to live in a state of jealously. This was a ceremony intended to resolve the issue that arouse or was believed. We need to resolve our marital issues, especially those of jealousy.

2.     Clearly, God had to be involved as water with some dust in it does not cause those kinds of physical outcomes. Perhaps the mental stress of the guilt if one were indeed guilty would be more of a link to the physical conditions predicted.

3.     Knowing the whole community would learn about it was an incentive to faithfulness in marriage, and thus good for the whole nation.

4.     And the bottom line for Guzik in this resolve to be pure (as well as the former one in verses 5-10) was a desire “to make Israel a pure, Promised Land people in their personal relationships. You can't be a Promised Land person if your relationships with others stink! You must make restitution and get things resolved.”

5.     Secret sins are known to God, and Henry says, “sometimes are strangely brought to light in this life; however, there is a day coming when God will, by Jesus Christ, as here by the priest, judge the secrets of men according to the gospel, Romans 2:16.

6.     That God will find out some way or other says Henry, “to clear the innocence of the innocent, and to bring forth their righteousness as the light.”

May we be mindful of how God dealt with Israel and how He will deal with us.

It would be great if you would share your thoughts or questions on this blog in the comments section below or on social media.

Cursing Leadership -- Exodus 22:28

“You shall not curse God, nor curse a ruler of your people.”
 

 It is interesting that this verse with its two distinct thoughts consists of only one sentence spoken by God. A closer look is warranted.

I like the Free Dictionary’s definition of the word ‘curse’:

·       An appeal or prayer for evil or misfortune to befall someone or something

·       A source or cause of evil

·       A profane word or phrase; a swearword

·       Ecclesiastical – A censure, ban, or anathema; to excommunicate.

God is saying, “Do not pray or wish for evil to harm Me – that’s a non-starter. And do not use profanity or swear in conjunction with My name. And do not try to excommunicate me from your life as that is not in your power to do.”

Many today try to do some or all of these things. Satan worshippers live their lives trying to defeat God in the power of the Devil not unlike how those of us who believe in God want Him to defeat Satan or to help us defeat him, at least in our lives. Many get very angry at God thinking He is the root cause of their woes and swear at Him.  (You will remember that later on in the Old Testament, Job’s wife encouraged him to “curse God and die” – that is, “Blame Him for all your calamities and then just die.”) And of course, entire societies or cultures have tried to ban God from their presence today – we have taken Him out of our politics, our education system, our legal system, and our moral foundational basis – in short, we have tried to cut Him off.

But God is saying, to use the modern phraseology I hear from my grandchildren, “Not going to happen.”  He is in charge and He has the last word.  Take any of these actions at your own peril.

And then this sole sentence in this verse continues, “nor curse a ruler of your people.”  What may God be saying here by joining these two possible “curses” in the same sentence?  I believe He is making a statement about authority.  He is the ultimate authority. But He has also set up authorities for us down here on earth.

We can debate the grammatical purpose of the phrase “of your people”. Is it that we are not to curse “rulers” (if they are bad) or is it that we are not to curse “rulers of our people”? And does “our people” refer to “the children of God” – the Israelites in those days and those who are part of the Body of Christ today, i.e. the Church?  Or is it the political leaders that we have in place regardless of their own relationship with God?

We do know that in the New Testament, there is more written on this.  In I Timothy 2:2 it is clear we are to pray for kings and all those in authority over us.  There’s no avoiding that.  So while this may have referred to the magistrates and judges and perhaps priests that were in authority under Moses and Aaron during Exodus, today, through the New Testament, God has expanded this to mean all rulers that are in authority over us.

But what if that ruler is our worst nightmare? I honestly do not know. I must admit that we are called to love all men and women and to pray for their salvation. We must separate the individual from what he/she proposes or does. To me that means that I believe I can openly speak out against what a prime minister or a president does or proposes, but I cannot stop loving him/her as an individual sinner, just like me. The more important issue is whether or not I am allowed to say that individual is not suited for his/her position, as one would with an employee’s performance review.  I believe I am.

My wise son pointed out to me that God’s direction in this verse comes in the context of His magistrates and judges acting in good conscience and under His leadership, and thus to oppose them in their actions against evil people or things, would reflect upon God Himself who placed them there – a thought that Matthew Henry shared in his commentary on this verse. And God is warning us against that. 

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