IIT UBF - University Bible Fellowship at IIT

Daily Bread

Curses for Disobedience

Date: Feb. 11, 2023

Passage

Deuteronomy 28:15-35 (ESV)

15 “But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. 16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. 17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

20 “The LORD will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me. 21 The LORD will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 22 The LORD will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought and with blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. 23 And the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron. 24 The LORD will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

25 “The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall be a horror to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 And your dead body shall be food for all birds of the air and for the beasts of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away. 27 The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with tumors and scabs and itch, of which you cannot be healed. 28 The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind, 29 and you shall grope at noonday, as the blind grope in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. And you shall be only oppressed and robbed continually, and there shall be no one to help you. 30 You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall ravish her. You shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not enjoy its fruit. 31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat any of it. Your donkey shall be seized before your face, but shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, but there shall be no one to help you. 32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes look on and fail with longing for them all day long, but you shall be helpless. 33 A nation that you have not known shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually, 34 so that you are driven mad by the sights that your eyes see. 35 The LORD will strike you on the knees and on the legs with grievous boils of which you cannot be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

Daily Bread

Key Verse: 28:15

“But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you.

Just as obedience to God brings blessings, so disobedience brings curses. There is no middle ground. When God’s people disobey God and don’t follow his words, they cannot escape curses. The curses listed (16-19) are the exact reverse of God’s blessing (3-6). When they forsake God, they will experience not only curse, confusion, and rebuke in all the work of their hands, but also destruction, disease, drought, defeat in battle, disease of Egypt, mental illness, oppression, and robbery until they are destroyed and come to sudden ruin. All these predicted curses actually happened to them when they forsook God and rejected his ways.

We live in a time when most people take it lightly to ignore or disobey God’s word. But disobedience to God is not a light matter. It is like entering through wide door that leads to destruction. On the other hand, life of obedience to God’s word is like entering through the narrow gate, but obedience leads to a life full of joy and blessing. God wants us to take disobedience seriously. If God is against us, we become an eternal loser. More than that, there is no hiding place for us. God doesn’t threaten us with the list of curses, but he lets us know the consequences of disobedience so that we may live a blessed life through obedience to him.

Prayer: Prayer: Lord, you know what is in my heart. Have mercy on me not to forsake you but to obey your word carefully and follow it with a trembling heart.

One Word: One Word: Do I live a life of obedience?

Daily Bread

The Consequences of Deception

Genesis 27:30-46

Key Verse: 27:33

Then Isaac trembled very violently and said, “Who was it then that hunted game and brought it to me, and I ate it all before you came, and I have blessed him? Yes, and he shall be blessed.”

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