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0:58Tonight, I want to look at the lawgiver in the way he blesses. Because we look at the law, yes, we're not Israel. Yes, we're not about to go into the land and conquer the land of Israel. That's not us. And the law is not given as a means to save us outside of the fact that it points to the Savior. And so it shows us the content of faith in Word. In shadow and in type, enough information to have a content of faith that you should look forward and see Christ and come to God in faith. And those who did, the law was a means of salvation, pointing to the Savior. Same is true today. We can use the law to inform us. We really don't understand what happened at the cross without the good background that the Old Testament lays for us. What is substitutionary atonement? What is the priesthood? What all has to be done? What happens at the cross we understand by what was written in the Old Testament. Tonight, I want to look at the blessings and seeing the beauty and wisdom of the lawgiver in the way he blesses. One of the first things is you open up the pages of Scripture, you come to Genesis chapter 1 and you realize that the way God creates, he loves for things to team. He loves for there to be lots of birds, lots of fish, things to group and to flourish and to be fruitful and multiply. And so let me just read to you the first couple of verses of Deuteronomy 28. We'll be looking at verses 1 through 15 tonight. I'll just read the first couple verses. Now it shall be if you diligently obey the Lord. Your God, being careful to do all his commandments, which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth, and these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God. Blessings. What does it mean to be blessed? Well, blessing means to be filled with power or to be highly esteemed. That's a very straightforward understanding of blessing.

3:34To be endowed, to be filled with power, or to be praised, to be thought high of, to esteem highly, the opposite is curse, to think little of, to despise. So blessing is the opposite of that. But in the Old Testament, as you think about this idea to be filled with power under the word blessed, it's the idea of being to be endued with power for success or for prosperity or for longevity. It's the very opposite of being cursed. Cursed causes you to whittle, whittles you down, to go to nothing.

4:23So to be blessed by God means being thought well of by God. To be Filled with praise from God, to be adored by God, as opposed to being despised by Him. It involves being filled with strength. Power, that idea of blessing, being filled with strength, power, endowed for success, endowed to be productive, endowed for prosperity, richness, fruitfulness, permanence, all these ideas of what it means to be blessed. Because God likes to see things fruitful, multiply. As we looked at last time, Israel, under the law, there was a natural cause and effect. We looked at the civil law. And as we were looking at this, looking at the law as our tutor, as Paul said, to lead us to Christ that we may be justified by faith, we've been asking questions of the law. What does this say about God? What does this text say about the society God envisions? What does this say about how we are to relate to Him, creation, and each other? And so, as we come into the law, or we come into Deuteronomy, as we looked at last time, there is a natural cause and effect. As we're just looking at the civil laws, there's a natural cause and effect. The laws promote good management. We looked at several different laws that would promote good management, long-term productivity in the land. You remember the little birdie and the eggs? The idea of think long-term about good management of land and resources. And then there is social cohesion. Think about your neighbor returning something that belonged to you, and everybody looking out for one another, and how they would treat foreigners amongst them. And all this would promote respect and admiration for Israel from the surrounding nations.

6:43So that was a cause and effect. If you do these things, if we would all do this, if any nation would do these things, you can expect blessing. But it will not be just that it's a cause and effect, human wisdom. There is a divine blessing to it. It comes down to the fact that God wanted to see Israel thrive in the land. That's why he called them out of Egypt in the first place. That's why he delivered them from Pharaoh. That's why he made a way for them to come into his presence through sacrifice. And that's also the reason why he gave them his law, so that they could learn to walk in his ways, because God really does celebrate his ways.

7:30It's the way of blessing. You've got to come out of the bondage through the means that God has provided to himself so that you can learn his ways and walk in them. That pattern hasn't changed. Even though we're not Israel about to go into the land, there is a Savior. We understand his sacrifice. We understand His priesthood. We understand that God has a desire for us to come to Him and to walk with Him. That's still very much the way of blessing.

8:09As I just read to you, I want to call it something's chasing something in these verses in chapter 28. Something's chasing something, and I want to show it to you. Notice Deuteronomy 28:1, Now it shall be, there's a promise. It shall be. There's a promise here. This is going to come about. It shall come about. Promise. If you diligently obey the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments, which I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. That will happen if you diligently obey.

8:54I love how that expression is. If you will carefully, if you will. Listen, if you will hear diligently with the intent to obey. It's the idea. Will you listen? Listen intently with the idea of carrying it out. That's what he's talking about. The translators say, if you diligently obey. That's the idea. It shall be that the result will be that your God will set you high above the nations of the earth. And then he says, This, all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God. And what he's going to do in verses 3 through 15 is he's going to talk about these blessings. These blessings shall overtake you.

9:47They shall come upon you. Look at that language. They shall come upon you and overtake you if you obey the Lord your God. You get this pursuit. It's aggressive. These blessings will come upon you, like they will pounce upon you. They will catch up to you. More than that, they will overtake you. It's like these blessings are in pursuit. You can't run from them. They will catch up to you. That's the promise. These blessings, if you will do, if you will pursue, if you will diligently obey, diligently listen to the Lord. Sit under his counsel with the intention of obeying him, these blessings. If you will pursue that, these blessings pursue you. That's what he's saying.

10:49What does this say about God? Just right off before we move anybody, what does this say about God and the society he envisions? Talk to me. He wants to bless. He loves to see things teem. He loves to pour out his blessing on people. What else does it tell you? Somebody's mumbling? Oh. Well, I don't know what you said. I asked Barily if the hound of heaven was a term that was used for the Lord. Oh. I wasn't sure, so that's how it says. Yeah, I got you. Gotcha. I thought you were saying something over there. Oh, I would say this.

11:47No, no, I got it. After class. After class, you and I, we'll talk about it after class. But what does this say? It's like, he loves his wife. Ways, doesn't he? He's not some egotistical person. He loves his ways. He celebrates his ways, and he wants you to walk in his ways because that's what he blesses. That's what he's excited to bless, to see you thrive. They are the ways and the laws of the universe whereby which the creator of the universe brings about abundance and goodness. I recognize, you know, I'm just going to teach the text here and go with implications. I realize there's a thing called out there, the prosperity gospel, that likes to zero in all these things. And let me tell you what the problem with the prosperity gospel is: it pursues blessings instead of pursuing obeying. And there's a difference. And we can do that too. We can get to where we're all about pursuing God's blessing, but that's not what the text is saying. It's saying you pursue diligently obeying him, you pursue listening to him, hearing him, and don't worry what's going to, God will take up the pursuit will catch up with you. You pursue what's right to pursue, and you be aggressive in that pursuit, and God will catch up with you with what he intends to do. But yeah, he wants a society where the People experience his blessings, not just as an individual, maybe like Abraham, but as a society. So, the major divisions of this text, and I'm just going to put it in two simple divisions.

13:50Verses 3 through 8, he talks about how he will set them above the nations, and in verses 9 through 15, how the nations will see that they, Israel, are called by the Lord. So, you can see this. Look at verse 2 or verse 1. The result, if you diligently obey the Lord, is that the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. So, how is God going to do that? Well, he answers that in verses 3 through 8. How is God going to set them above? Well, first of all, look at verse 3: Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. Now, where are they going to be blessed?

14:43Somebody said it. Everywhere. In the whole, right, in their city and in their country. It didn't matter where they lived, in the land, but they are to be in the land. Notice a couple, another thing. What will be Blessed. Look at verses 4 through 6. Blessed shall be the offspring of your body, and the produce of your ground, and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd, and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. Quite a few blessings there, but let's just take them one at a time. Look at the offspring of your body. What is this speaking about?

15:35Children, yes, people, people in the land. You're not going to have to be a great nation if your people aren't healthy and in good number and mentally there and physically there. They have some kind of competency in thinking. There's a longevity. You see how they're not going to be able to fill and occupy the land unless there is a blessing upon the body, people, in number, health, and everything else. Notice also the produce of your ground. This speaks of agricultural productivity, supply that comes from the ground. So it's the difference. It's a cooperative earth. God's going to make the earth cooperate. Whereas when he sent The first couple out of the garden, he had to till the soil. It was a hard, it was a frustrated ground. But here, there seems to be some cooperation, at least in some degree. Notice also there was the offspring of your beasts, your herd, and your flock. What is that speaking about?

16:54Dinner. Dinner! Is that what someone said? Yeah, dinner, but for sure, but also like your animals and all that that produces from the field, the animals, and all the products that come. Your basket and your kneading bowl. What is that speaking about? Your basket and your kneading bowl. Farm to table. I don't know. You think about that. Your whole supply chain from your basket, the ability to harvest, the ability to process, the ability to distribute, to consume, all of that. You've got the whole farm to table kind of blessed on both ends.

17:48Notice how he says you'll be blessed and you come in and when you go out. What is he talking about there? Blessed. When you come in, what is that speaking about? Home life, yeah, you're blessed in the home life. When you go out, what does that speak about? Work, ventures, yes, whatever. Whatever it is. When you go out, whether it's business enterprise or recreation enterprise, whatever, there's a blessing. So you think about what all this is pointing to. You think about this is an agrarian society. You've got lots of people, you've got good produce, you've got lots of flocks, lots of herds, lots of animals. You've got a good supply chain. You've got an ability to process and distribute. You're blessed in the home. You're blessed outside. All that speaks of a very strong economy, doesn't it? And you think about it, it's very straightforward. That one of the, if you're going to be a superpower in the world, one of the things you have to have a strong economy.

19:12Strong economy. Let's keep going. Notice also how God is going to set them above the nations is this supernatural protection. Look at verse 7. The Lord shall cause your enemies. Who rise up against you to be defeated before you, they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. What is that speaking about? Protection, right? Protection from the enemies. No one's going to be able to thrust them out of the land.

19:53It's not just a strong military, though I think God will... That'll be the means, but God will fight for them. So you think about, again, what you have here as a superpower in the world. Most people would see that, yeah, a superpower needs to have a strong economy. They also have to have a strong military, an ability to protect themselves and protect their land. Well, God's going to be going to give them that. He wants them in the land.

20:30But notice in verse 8, some spheres of blessings. I just look at verse 8. The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to do, and he will bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you. So your barns, what do the barns speak about? He's going to bless you in your barns. I'm sorry? Carnivus? Harvest, yes. What's that? Wealth. Yeah, ability to store abundance. Ability to amass wealth. Ability to give. Amass.

21:15What does he say? And all that you put your hand to do. What is he talking about there? The blessing. Your work. Your labor. Industry. Enterprise. Creativity in it. The effort that goes into it. The whole research and development, insight, all that. You can kind of see just how he's going to bless. Notice there's one more sphere in the land. In the land. What is he talking about there? What is the land? It's God's portion. What's that? It's God's portion. It's his rich.

22:00And in the context, it is, yeah, it's what God gave them, right? But in the context, it is the land. Very descriptive of the land that he expects them to be in the land, and his blessing upon them is going to be in the land. That's why when you come to the book of Ruth, and right away you see people leaving the land because there is a famine. That's what the book of Ruth is about. They weren't blessed outside the land. They were to be blessed in the land. That's what God is wanting to bring about.

22:44But the land speaks of a specific location, a land of their inheritance, the place where God led them and intended to bless them. I mean, God has led us to places. He puts us in a sphere, in a place, and he wants to bless us in those, in the places where he leads us, and in the equippings and giftings. He loves to bless laborers. So we can see ways that this has application, even though we're not Israel, not going into the land.

23:25Any thoughts? Well, let's just keep going, and we'll open this up for discussion here in just a second. Second major division is how the nations will see that they are called by the Lord. How the nations will see that they are called by the Lord. So the second verses, second seven verses, describe how the nations will come to know that they are called of the Lord. Look at verse, let me just read to verse 9. I don't have it written up there. But look at verse 9.

24:03The Lord will establish you as a holy people to himself, as he swore to you. If you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways, so all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will be afraid of you. So he wants to set them above all the nations, and he wants them to know that they are called of the Lord. So God has a very specific purpose for having Israel go into the land. He wants to set them high above all the other nations.

24:50And he wants the other nations to see that Israel is called by the Lord. Now, how is he going to do that? Through the blessings. He's going to bless them, fill them with power. That kind of idea. There's three areas. Just as we go through, three areas that the nations will see Israel's calling. Number one is going to be in their abundant prosperity. Look at verse 11. The Lord will make you abound in prosperity. In the offspring of your body, and in the offspring of your beast, and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. Again, so there's going to be this abundant prosperity. We've already talked about those blessings. But the nations are going to see this abundant prosperity. It's going to be in the people, it's going to be in the animals, and it's going to be in their productivity. Abundant, abound in prosperity, abound in overflowing. So the nations are going to see, wow, this is unusual. Remember, this is most of the whole gods of the Mediterranean are about fertility. How do you get produce out of the ground? And they came up with some really crazy ideas on how to get the land to produce food.

26:32And so, but they're going to see this is unusual. This isn't explainable, except, wow, God has a call on this nation. So the abundant prosperity is going to be a way for the nations to see. But also their supernatural supply. Look at verse 12, at least part of it. The Lord will open for you his good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand. What does rain signify?

27:15What's that? Life, growth, necessary, especially out there, right? In that arid reason. But what does rain coming in the right amounts at the right time signify? Favor. God's dialed in, isn't he? His attention is there. God's attention, God's cooperation, God's intention to bless, God's favor. So everything going on in Israel, this blessed Israel, let's call it that. The nations are going to see they're called by God because even the rains are cooperating with them. And not just cooperating, but showing up at the right time in the right amounts so that they can have this abundant supply or abundant prosperity. It shows that the nations are going to realize, you know what, this isn't all about Israel. This isn't about human engine. You might be. Inclined to think, well, yeah, they're really good at agriculture. Let's go learn from them. You may just think, well, we will attribute it all to human wisdom. But the rain and the cooperation of heaven sends a different message. They're going to see, the nations are going to see that Israel is called by the Lord because of the rain and when it shows up. It also shows, and it's going to be a reminder of Israel's dependency upon God. They didn't, when they go into the land, and God's going to warn them. You're going to go in the land, you're going to start seeing some of these blessings come upon you, and you're going to think, wow, man, I did this all. I'm a swell guy.

29:17And that's going to be your downfall. But a third way is their elevated positions. How the nations are going to see that Israel is called of the Lord is that God's going to elevate their position. Look at what he says. And you shall, sorry, and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. The Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above and you will not be underneath. Their elevated position. You know, another thing about a superpower, you've got to have a strong economy, a strong military, and then strong influence, strong diplomacy. Well, guess what? When the nations, when you have something in abundance that the nations don't have, guess where they're going to come? That's going to put you in a position of leadership, influence.

30:25And so the nations are going to put it all together. Notice the Lord is going to give them the ability to lend. All this barns full is going to empower them to lend. They will have something that others need. Why? Why do you think God wants Israel to have an abundance so that the nations will come and have to borrow from them? What's going on there? That's right. He wants an influence. He wants them to come. And what is God about? He's about his ways, isn't he? He's about if you will learn, if you will diligently seek my ways, if you'll apply yourself and pursue these things, pursue God's ways, then these blessings are going to. Pursue you, and others are going to see that God is with you, so that others will come to you, so that others will also learn the ways of the Lord.

31:44This way, Israel would be a light, a kingdom of priests to the nations. Notice their position of preeminence, head, and not the tail. Again, I'll ask this question: why? Is it simply to elevate one people group over the other? Is that what God's about, or what? Or is He wanting to demonstrate the excellency of His ways? God is excited about His ways. He wants to demonstrate the excellencies of His ways, and this hasn't changed. We have a completely different sacrifice, which, by the way, we'll get to spend some more time in Leviticus because the next place I intend to go is the book of Hebrews. And it's going to be about the superiority of Christ, superiority of the sacrifice, superiority. Of his priesthood. And so, let's look for a minute at the consequences of disobedience. Verse 13. The Lord will make you the head and not the tail. If you only will be, you only will be above, and you will not be underneath. If, and here, if you listen to the commandments of the Lord your God, which I charge you today, to observe them carefully, and do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today, to the right or to the left, to go after other gods and to serve them. 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. Something else is going to pursue them. There's blessings pursuing them. But at the end of this section, he says, Look, if you disobey, something else is going to pursue you, and that is the curses. The expressions of my disfavor are going to come upon you.

34:20They are going to catch up to you. They will come upon you. And if you're looking at this, In Deuteronomy 27, we looked at 27. They're at Mount Ebal. That's the mountain of curses. Gerizim, that's the mountain of blessings. And he starts out in chapter 27, and he, a whole chapter about curses, and gives a great deal of length about curses. And then he talks about blessings, gives 15 verses of blessings. And then he takes off in a large swath of curses and the results of disobedience. What is that indicating? They're going to go into the land and they're going to experience the curses. And the ultimate expression of curse, it's going to start with the rain shutting up. It's going to start with Loka and all this other things coming in, but it's going to ultimately end with them being expelled from the land.

35:38And it goes long, this expression of what's going to happen to these people. And you get to chapter 29 and verse 24, and it makes this expression. Just listen to these words. After all the curses have come upon these people, and after they have been vomited. Out of the land. We've gone through horror after horror. This is what the nations will say. Verse 24 of 29. All the nations will say, Why has the Lord done this to this land? Why this great outburst of anger? Then men will say, Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went and served other gods and worshipped them, gods whom they have not known and whom he had not allotted to them. Therefore, the anger of the Lord burned against that land to bring upon it every curse which was written in this book. And the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and cast them into another land as it is this day.

37:13So let me ask a few questions. In light of the fact that God wanted to set Israel high above the nations, why do you think? God would respond so fiercely to them if they went after other gods. That's right. He's jealous for his name. What else can you think? Yes? He's going to receive a testimony one way or the other. People are going to recognize that's God. Yes, he's going to receive it either way. And what is he trying to get the nations to understand?

38:27His what? What is he excited about? His ways, right? He's excited about his ways. I mean, Cain killing his little brother is not a good way. So God celebrates his way. So in light of the fact that he wants to set Israel high above the nations, he responds so fiercely, he doesn't want the nations confused to confuse him as God with other gods. If Israel starts going after other gods, he's jealous for his own name, not because he has an ego problem, but because the nations need to know who the real God is. And so what you're saying, whether they obey him or whether they disobey him, the nations are going to learn something.

39:22And that's what God wants. What would happen if God blessed them anyway? They went in. Oh, yeah, it didn't really matter how they lived. They went after other gods. And God said, you know what? Forget it. I'm a God of grace, so I'm just going to bless you anyway. That's how many understand grace. What's the problem with this? Makes him a liar. Makes him a liar? Well, yes. Yeah, for sure. It makes him a liar if he all of a sudden looks over and says, I'm going to do this, and then I'm not going to do this, and then he doesn't.

40:07But again, would they know who God is? If all of a sudden, okay, yeah, people are worshiping other gods, but you know what? Their land is blessed anyway, even though they don't know it's me blessing him. It's fine. The nations would still be ignorant of God. So it's very important that why God is going to bring the curse. Upon them, if they worship other gods, is because the nations are then going to be left ignorant who the true God is.

40:41But in light of the fact that God wanted the nations to see that Israel was called by his name, why do you think God wanted the nations to know if Israel was obeyed, or if Israel obeyed his ways? Well, maybe it's the same question. But God wants the nations to know who the right God is to be inquired of, and he wants them to know his ways, who the right God is and the right ways of the right God.

41:19And so, how he handles Israel, through obedience or disobedience. He wants the nations to know who the right God is and what the right ways are. Love God with all your heart. Love your neighbor as yourself. Question. Do you think that God's desire to elevate Israel was more driven by his desire to make Israel known or his ways known? Yeah, he wants to make his ways known. And so he had to. To pick a nation, who's Israel, who's going to make his ways known?

42:06How might these realities, what does this say about God? And the society that he, what does it say about how we should live individually? Yes? That he's good, and that we should strive to place him. That he is good and what? Yes, we should pursue diligently his ways. We have better sacrifice. We have a better priesthood. He has articulated his ways. We are to follow Christ. We have it all laid out beautifully for us. Now, be diligent. Pursue him. He wants to be pursued for our good.

43:00He celebrates his ways and blesses those who walk in them. So let me just go back. What do you think about today? I know we're about out of time, so I'm just going to. But what are you pursuing? Then think about what you're pursuing is going to drive what's pursuing you. God wants us to pursue the voice of the Lord. That's literally what's being said here in Deuteronomy. If you will pursue the voice, if you will listen diligently to hear the voice of the Lord with the intention to obey, you will hear and you will be pursuing the right things. And the Lord will take care of the rest. Pursue obedience and don't worry about the blessing. Oftentimes we pursue blessing and don't worry about the obedience.

44:09But God has it the other way around.