Meditate

28. Blessings for Obedience

Blessings for Obedience

28

If you will only obey the Lord your God, by diligently observing all his commandments that I am commanding you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth;²all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the Lord your God:

³ Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field.

⁴ Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb, the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your livestock, both the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock.

⁵ Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

⁶ Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

⁷ The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you; they shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways.⁸The Lord will command the blessing upon you in your barns, and in all that you undertake; he will bless you in the land that the Lord your God is giving you.⁹The Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in his ways.¹⁰All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you.¹¹The Lord will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give you.¹²The Lord will open for you his rich storehouse, the heavens, to give the rain of your land in its season and to bless all your undertakings. You will lend to many nations, but you will not borrow.¹³The Lord will make you the head, and not the tail; you shall be only at the top, and not at the bottom—if you obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I am commanding you today, by diligently observing them,¹⁴and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I am commanding you today, either to the right or to the left, following other gods to serve them.

Warnings against Disobedience

¹⁵ But if you will not obey the Lord your God by diligently observing all his commandments and decrees, which I am commanding 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, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your cattle and the issue 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 upon you disaster, panic, and frustration in everything you attempt to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly, on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me.²¹The Lord will make the pestilence cling to you until it has consumed you off the land that you are entering to possess.²²The Lord will afflict you with consumption, fever, inflammation, with fiery heat and drought, and with blight and mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish.²³The sky over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you iron.²⁴The Lord will change the rain of your land into powder, and only dust shall come down upon you from the sky until you are destroyed.

²⁵ The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out against them one way and flee before them seven ways. You shall become an object of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.²⁶Your corpses shall be food for every bird of the air and animal of the earth, and there shall be no one to frighten them away.²⁷The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt, with ulcers, scurvy, and itch, of which you cannot be healed.²⁸The Lord will afflict you with madness, blindness, and confusion of mind;²⁹you shall grope about at noon as blind people grope in darkness, but you shall be unable to find your way; and you shall be continually abused and robbed, without anyone to help.³⁰You shall become engaged to a woman, but another man shall lie with her. You shall build a house, but not live in it. You shall plant a vineyard, but not enjoy its fruit.³¹Your ox shall be butchered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it. Your donkey shall be stolen in front of you, and shall not be restored to you. Your sheep shall be given to your enemies, without anyone to help you.³²Your sons and daughters shall be given to another people, while you look on; you will strain your eyes looking for them all day but be powerless to do anything.³³A people whom you do not know shall eat up the fruit of your ground and of all your labors; you shall be continually abused and crushed,³⁴and driven mad by the sight that your eyes shall see.³⁵The 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.³⁶The Lord will bring you, and the king whom you set over you, to a nation that neither you nor your ancestors have known, where you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone.³⁷You shall become an object of horror, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where the Lord will lead you.

³⁸ You shall carry much seed into the field but shall gather little in, for the locust shall consume it.³⁹You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them.⁴⁰You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off.⁴¹You shall have sons and daughters, but they shall not remain yours, for they shall go into captivity.⁴²All your trees and the fruit of your ground the cicada shall take over.⁴³Aliens residing among you shall ascend above you higher and higher, while you shall descend lower and lower.⁴⁴They shall lend to you but you shall not lend to them; they shall be the head and you shall be the tail.

⁴⁵ All these curses shall come upon you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God, by observing the commandments and the decrees that he commanded you.⁴⁶They shall be among you and your descendants as a sign and a portent forever.

⁴⁷ Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything,⁴⁸therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and lack of everything. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.⁴⁹The Lord will bring a nation from far away, from the end of the earth, to swoop down on you like an eagle, a nation whose language you do not understand,⁵⁰a grim-faced nation showing no respect to the old or favor to the young.⁵¹It shall consume the fruit of your livestock and the fruit of your ground until you are destroyed, leaving you neither grain, wine, and oil, nor the increase of your cattle and the issue of your flock, until it has made you perish.⁵²It shall besiege you in all your towns until your high and fortified walls, in which you trusted, come down throughout your land; it shall besiege you in all your towns throughout the land that the Lord your God has given you.⁵³In the desperate straits to which the enemy siege reduces you, you will eat the fruit of your womb, the flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the Lord your God has given you.⁵⁴Even the most refined and gentle of men among you will begrudge food to his own brother, to the wife whom he embraces, and to the last of his remaining children,⁵⁵giving to none of them any of the flesh of his children whom he is eating, because nothing else remains to him, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in all your towns.⁵⁶She who is the most refined and gentle among you, so gentle and refined that she does not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground, will begrudge food to the husband whom she embraces, to her own son, and to her own daughter,⁵⁷begrudging even the afterbirth that comes out from between her thighs, and the children that she bears, because she is eating them in secret for lack of anything else, in the desperate straits to which the enemy siege will reduce you in your towns.

⁵⁸ If you do not diligently observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, fearing this glorious and awesome name, the Lord your God,⁵⁹then the Lord will overwhelm both you and your offspring with severe and lasting afflictions and grievous and lasting maladies.⁶⁰He will bring back upon you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were in dread, and they shall cling to you.⁶¹Every other malady and affliction, even though not recorded in the book of this law, the Lord will inflict on you until you are destroyed.⁶²Although once you were as numerous as the stars in heaven, you shall be left few in number, because you did not obey the Lord your God.⁶³And just as the Lord took delight in making you prosperous and numerous, so the Lord will take delight in bringing you to ruin and destruction; you shall be plucked off the land that you are entering to possess.⁶⁴The Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other; and there you shall serve other gods, of wood and stone, which neither you nor your ancestors have known.⁶⁵Among those nations you shall find no ease, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and a languishing spirit.⁶⁶Your life shall hang in doubt before you; night and day you shall be in dread, with no assurance of your life.⁶⁷In the morning you shall say, “If only it were evening!” and at evening you shall say, “If only it were morning!”—because of the dread that your heart shall feel and the sights that your eyes shall see.⁶⁸The Lord will bring you back in ships to Egypt, by a route that I promised you would never see again; and there you shall offer yourselves for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but there will be no buyer.

8. Generosity Encouraged

Commendation of Titus

¹⁶ But thanks be to God who put in the heart of Titus the same eagerness for you that I myself have.¹⁷For he not only accepted our appeal, but since he is more eager than ever, he is going to you of his own accord.¹⁸With him we are sending the brother who is famous among all the churches for his proclaiming the good news;¹⁹and not only that, but he has also been appointed by the churches to travel with us while we are administering this generous undertaking for the glory of the Lord himself and to show our goodwill.²⁰We intend that no one should blame us about this generous gift that we are administering,²¹for we intend to do what is right not only in the Lord’s sight but also in the sight of others.²²And with them we are sending our brother whom we have often tested and found eager in many matters, but who is now more eager than ever because of his great confidence in you.²³As for Titus, he is my partner and co-worker in your service; as for our brothers, they are messengers of the churches, the glory of Christ.²⁴Therefore openly before the churches, show them the proof of your love and of our reason for boasting about you.

17. Psalm 17

Psalm 17

Prayer for Deliverance from Persecutors

A Prayer of David.

1

Hear a just cause, O Lord; attend to my cry;

give ear to my prayer from lips free of deceit.

2

From you let my vindication come;

let your eyes see the right.

3

If you try my heart, if you visit me by night,

if you test me, you will find no wickedness in me;

my mouth does not transgress.

4

As for what others do, by the word of your lips

I have avoided the ways of the violent.

5

My steps have held fast to your paths;

my feet have not slipped.

6

I call upon you, for you will answer me, O God;

incline your ear to me, hear my words.

7

Wondrously show your steadfast love,

O savior of those who seek refuge

from their adversaries at your right hand.

8

Guard me as the apple of the eye;

hide me in the shadow of your wings,

9

from the wicked who despoil me,

my deadly enemies who surround me.

10

They close their hearts to pity;

with their mouths they speak arrogantly.

11

They track me down; now they surround me;

they set their eyes to cast me to the ground.

12

They are like a lion eager to tear,

like a young lion lurking in ambush.

13

Rise up, O Lord, confront them, overthrow them!

By your sword deliver my life from the wicked,

14

from mortals—by your hand, O Lord—

from mortals whose portion in life is in this world.

May their bellies be filled with what you have stored up for them;

may their children have more than enough;

may they leave something over to their little ones.

15

As for me, I shall behold your face in righteousness;

when I awake I shall be satisfied, beholding your likeness.