“If you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and to obey the commands and decrees he has given you, all these curses will pursue and overtake you until you are destroyed. These horrors will serve as a sign and warning among you and your descendants forever. If you do not serve the Lord your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received, you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. You will be left hungry, thirsty, naked, and lacking in everything. The Lord will put an iron yoke on your neck, oppressing you harshly until he has destroyed you.” — Deuteronomy 28:45-48 NLT
Wait, wait… before you go! It’s easy to look at these verses and overlook the goodness of God. You might ask “will a good God do all the above if indeed He claims to be good?” And that’s a fair enough carnal minded ask for our limited understanding.
However, the revealer of all truth, Who’s understanding we’re implored to seek above ours will help us see that we really can’t serve two masters; that it’s one or the other, each having their respective consequences. Holy Spirit would help us see that the choices we make concerning who and what we serve take us through paths that lead to their respective expected ends.
He’d finally help us realise that beyond the physical connotations to the outcome of serving other gods:
• Going hungry speaks to a lack of the living Word of God — which is life in Itself;
• Being thirsty speaks to the absence of His living water as a result — His Spirit;
• Being left naked speaks to having no covering — for our sins — that God in His mercy, provides us with through Jesus’s finished works;
• Lacking in everything speaks to missing out on His abundant blessings — that surpass the quasi blessings this world offers — which only He is able to give;
• Being oppressed speaks to having to succumb to other masters who are neither alive, able, seeing, hearing, knowing, always present, nor powerful;
• Being eventually destroyed speaks to a complete reduction from being made in God’s image, called through Christ into sonship, thus being His joint heir.
Essentially, when we fail to joyfully and enthusiastically serve the Lord and love Him with all our heart, soul and strength — and regardless of our being “benefits based”… even when it seemingly doesn’t yield result — what we really are doing is becoming depleted versions of Who He created us to be.
If that ain’t self destruction — and not no character defamation of our good God —, I don’t know what else is.
Help us Lord by Your Spirt to choose to serve You always. It’s in Jesus’ name I pray, Amen.
🧎🏾♀️
Scripture for Further Reading
Matthew 5:3-11; 6:24; 22:37
Deuteronomy 6:5; 8:3; 28; 30:6
Isaiah 44:9-20
Luke 4:3-4
John 4:1-24
Romans 4:7; 6:12-18; 8:14-17; 12:1-2
Ezekiel 16:1-22 AMP
Psalm 23:1; 27:5, 13; 85:2; 91:4; 115:4-8
Colossians 1:13-15
Genesis 1:26-28
THE LORD'S VESSEL 