Deuteronomy 28 - Heaven or Hell on Earth

Deuteronomy 28 is one of the favorite "go to" passages for stewardship studies. It has some wonderful conditional promises for God's people. IF we are obedient.  Abundance, peace, power and honor will come our way at the hand of God. No doubt we should obey God's commands and be a holy people, but let's be honest...you and I don't full obey all the commands of God. We all fall short of God's standard. Prosperity gospel hawkers would lead us to believe that the misery we experience in life is our own fault and if we could just do better, look what waits in store for us. I think that is why so many prosperity gospel believers are so depressed. If perfection is what it takes for God's blessing we are surely doomed. But that is exactly our condition apart from a Savior. We strive and strive for better but we can never quite make it. We might strive until we nearly collapse before we realize that Heaven does not depend on us, we depend on it. 

An interesting point to see in this chapter is just the vast number of verses dedicTed to the curses that are stored up for disobedience. 15 verses of blessing andore than 59 of curses. But if we continue to strive in our own efforts and depending on our strength we will land on the side of curses more often than blessing since we are born sinners and we tend to revert to our natural state. 

We encounter almost daily, strife, disease, disaster, betrayal and oppression. Our footing is not sure and our balance is off. When we encounter hard times our propensity is to cry up to God and say "why me?", as if God was punishing us inappropriately. We view our ways as best by default and we fail to see that we are on a path that leads to destruction.  We experience a bit of hell here on earth that should lead us to repentance and to plead for forgiveness, but we stand up to God and act confused. 

Hell is what we all deserve if perfect obedience to the law is our only hope. No one gets into heaven by obeying the law. All our good works are insufficient to meet God's holy standard. There is only one man who was able to meet the standard and that was God in the flesh, Jesus  Christ. Jesus not only met the standard, but his holiness was able to cover us all if we will look to him for our security. 

Because of Jesus' sacrifice for us we do get to enjoy some of those blessings on earth that we don't deserve. We have provision for our needs, we have peace with God and enjoy His protection. We get it all, but not based on the conditions of the law. We fell short of that. But because of the finished work of our Savior, Jesus Christ we enjoy Heaven in Earth and look forward to the day when we no longer have to live among the curses. Our security is in Christ alone. 

The law holds up a perfect standard that we cannot achieve. It is designed to help us see our need for a Savior and how sinful we are. We get a glimpse of what is desireable, then we are left to consider out true state and what we really deserve. Praise God He made provision for not only our bodies but also our souls!

Heaven can be ours if we will give up our striving and accept the only perfect provision. We have life and abundance because Jesus gave His. Enjoy that provision of God and peace with God today. 

May God richly bless you as you seek Him and as you serve Him.