GOD PROMISES BLESSINGS AND CURSES
Christians should be especially careful that they do not dismiss God’s promises about exile and deliverance thinking that these stories apply only to Israel and the Jews or think that they already have all the deliverance from sin that they need. Stories of deliverance and the principles they represent also apply to Gentile believers because God is talking to spiritual Israel which includes all Gentiles — including Christians. Since Muslims claim to follow the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, it can be said that these promises also apply to Islam.

The fundamental lesson here is that everyone can rely on God’s promises, whether for blessing or cursing. These promises are made most clearly and succinctly in Deuteronomy 28 where God specifies the blessings he will bring for obedience to his commandments along with curses he will bring for disobedience. We learn something important about God when we notice that there are fourteen verses of blessings, and fifty-three verses of curses. This tells us, as if we needed to be told, that God is very serious about obedience.

Whether God promises to bless us or curse us, we cannot overlook that they are “conditional” promises. Conditional means that when the terms following the “if” statement are fulfilled by us, the terms following the “then” statement will also be fulfilled by God. In the King James version of the Bible, these “if/then” conditions appear three hundred and seven times. In the New International Version, they appear one hundred and ninety-five times. Needless to say, these conditional promises cannot be ignored. They are critical to recognize when reading because they inform us about consequences for failure to obey God’s voice.

We must keep in mind that these “if/then” propositions are framed in both positive and negative statements. That means that God also promises negative consequences imposed by Him if we do not do what He says we should do or if we do the things he says we should not do. If we believe that God is faithful to His word, we must also believe that His faithfulness extends to imposing negative consequences for disobedience as well as positive consequences for obedience

In effect, what God is saying in these propositions is this:  “If you do such and such, then I (God) will do such and such.” This promise should motivate us to acquire a very keen ear for hearing God’s voice. Thus, if while reading, we do not correctly understand what God is trying to tell us, we will find that the blessings we expect do not come and that curses we do not expect do come. Because religionists are much more practiced in hearing the voice of religious leaders than of the voice of God, they predictably receive more curses than blessing.

We understand fully that the idea of negative consequences conflicts with Christian theology that says we are saved by grace and not by works. We don’t argue with that theology, but we do argue with the common understanding of what grace really is and that it is a free, unconditional gift that requires nothing from us to qualify us to receive it.

When we look at all the if/then statements we find that there is a condition for receiving grace: Do not do the works of religion. The way the Bible puts this condition is that grace and faith come when we rest (i.e. cease) from our religious works.

STUDY TIP: See Fourth Commandment and Sabbath, Fasting and Rest for more about resting from religious works.

This is not good news for Jews who pursue righteousness through rigid adherence to religious works — not by faith. Only after we come to complete rest from our religious activity do we receive grace.

The substance of grace is admittedly difficult to grasp. Understanding of it is much easier, however, when we recognize that grace is one of several concepts (i.e. faith, mercy, peace, love, heart, glory, blessing, spirit and truth) that God uses as code words to symbolically represent the New Covenant. With this understanding we can appreciate why it is impossible to receive grace until we are done practicing Old/First Covenant religion for which the many promised curses apply.

Grace and religion can  not mix because grace depends of hearing God’s voice and religion is based on human teachings. We will want to be very sure, therefore, that our interpretations of the Bible are in alignment with God’s spiritual voice and not with fleshly, literal, human interpretations.