Curses
Deuteronomy 28:15-68 Read it here
If there were ever a more depressing picture of a completely failed nation and people than Chapter 28, I haven’t found it. Except for the early verses of the chapter that we included in yesterday’s reading, this chapter presents people so destroyed by poverty that a man will not only eat the flesh of his children who die, but will refuse to share it with his wife and surviving children.
It also predicts painful exile and dispersion of the nation does not follow God…a prediction that describes much of Israel’s later existence.
Rather than looking at all of this as punishment from a vindictive God, though, it is better to look at it as a blunt warning from a loving God. The law was given to establish a framework for living that would minimize conflict and maximize mutual support and cooperation—by turning their backs on that law, people will open themselves up to the natural consequences of their own decision for disobedience.
By happy chance, today’s meditation verse from Proverbs perfectly summarizes what we read yesterday and today: “The path of life leads upward for the prudent to keep them from going down to the realm of the dead.”
We understand that no life, no matter how prudent or righteous, will be completely free from pain and sorrow.
But we’re also reminded in Chapter 28 that failure to follow God’s law will lead to much more suffering.