If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all His commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth.  All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God:  Deuteronomy 28:1-2  NIV

However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all His commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you:  Deuteronomy 28:15 NIV

Albert Einstein defined insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.  The Bible gives us a prime example of this with the Israelites.  These poor people were God’s chosen people and God wanted to bless them in every way. But every time they turned around they were grumbling, complaining and worshiping idols.  Before you know it, God was punishing them again.

Our scripture passage today comes from Deuteronomy 28.  In Deuteronomy 5, they were given the Ten Commandments.  Between Deuteronomy 5 and 28, God clearly outlined how they were to handle every situation.  God covered every topic you could imagine from the golden calf and worshiping idols to tithing.  Like any good parent, God wanted them to understand the rules.  He wanted them to know what was acceptable and what would not be tolerated.  In Deuteronomy 28 He tells them the they will receive blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.  He goes into great detail about what the blessings will be in verses 3-14 and in verses 16-68 God tells them of all the curses they will face for disobedience.  Now notice that the blessings can be described in 11 verses but the curses go on for 52 verses, just sayin’.

So let’s look at the Israelites.  We know that they had been in captivity as Egyptian slaves for hundreds of years when God sent Moses to convince Pharaoh to release them.  We know that they witnessed many miracles when Moses went before Pharaoh.  They saw the plagues that God sent on the Egyptian people when Moses became hard hearted and refused to let them go.  They saw God part the Red Sea.  They saw God send a cloud to guide them by day and fire to guide them at night.  They saw God rain manna down on them to feed them daily.  But what did they do?  Well, they grumbled, found fault in everything and complained.  They nearly pushed poor Moses over the edge and as if that was not enough, they built a golden calf to worship as their God.  Are you kidding me?  They saw all these miracles and knew that God loved them and would take care of them, but they worshiped a golden calf?  Now we know that this trip they were taking to the Promised Land should have taken two weeks or less but it took the Israelites 40 years.  Yes, 40 years.

I used to read about the Israelites and think, “poor old Israelites, they just don’t get it.  They just keep going around that same old mountain”.  They wandered around in the desert for 40 years.  But during these 40 years, their shoes did not wear out.  Their clothes did not wear out and God provided all that they needed.

My six year old niece used to say, “what were you thinking?” when someone did something to make her angry or something that she thought just didn’t make sense.  She now says, “What? Are you insane?”.   These are questions that I had to ask myself about 8 1/2 years ago.  I had pitied the Israelites and had to face the fact that I was just like them.  I too had been wandering around in the desert.  I had been holding on to my sin like a security blanket and expected God to just overlook it.  I thought that God  would just give me some sort of pass and I could have this sin in my life.  I thought that I could love God and love my sin at the same time.  I found out the hard way that it just doesn’t work like that.  You see God is holy and pure.  When we sin it causes Him to have to turn his face from us.  It causes Him to not hear our prayers.  Our sin breaks God’s heart because it separates us from Him.  Isaiah 59:2, But your iniquities have built barriers between you and your God, and your sins have made Him hide His face from you so that he does not listen.  

I was raised in church and saved at the age of 12 but I just didn’t get it.  It would be many years later before I understood that my sin had become my golden calf.  My sin had become my idol.  Now I could not understand that when I refused to choose between my sin and God that I was clearly choosing my sin.  I finally began to realize that I had no peace in my life because of my sin.  Deuteronomy 28 goes on to say in verse 66, you will live in constant suspense, filled with dread both night and day, never sure of your life.  Sound familiar?  I was filled with dread and worry.  I worried about everything.  On top of all this, I was in a really stressful job.  I just couldn’t go on like that.  I was in church and had gotten involved in church working on work days and helping out whenever I could, but there was still something that was not right.

Finally, I decided that I couldn’t take it anymore so I just had me a heart to heart with God.  I whined and complained about everything that was wrong in my life.  I told him how I needed this person and that person to change.  He told me how He needed me to change.  He told me that if I would just trust in Him that I wouldn’t have to worry anymore.  He promised to remove these curses that I had been living under and replace them with blessings.  At this point, I had nothing but heartache to lose so I took Him up on it.  I can tell you this,  He is a God of His Word.  I made a decision right then and there to dwell in His shelter so that I could rest in His shadow (Psalm 91:1).

If you are tired of doing the same old thing over and over again and expecting different results, then stop!  Turn to God and trust in Him.  Know that there will be bumps in the road along the way.  Know that the devil will try to turn you away from God.  Know that the devil will try to distract you from doing what God has called you to do.  The devil has a number of people that are close to you that he will work through without them even knowing that this is what he is doing.  He is a scary, evil  creature.  But know that if you make the choice to live in God’s shelter that you can rest and be protected in His shadow.  Know that God’s got your back.  He wants to lead you into the Promised Land.  Won’t you choose to follow Him today?

I hope that if you are reading this that you are already a Jesus follower.  I hope that you are resting in the peace and joy that only God can provide, but if not, you have a choice to make.  I encourage you to choose wisely.

Have a great day!