Tag: Deuteronomy 28

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Reversible Blessings and Curses

Links for today’s readings:

Read: Deuteronomy 28.20-68 Listen: (10:11) Read: Romans 8 Listen: (6:22)

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 28.15-19

15 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:
16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country.
17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks.
19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.

“You wish to have the curse reversed? I’ll need a certain potion first…” — The Witch, Into the Woods, Steven Sondheim

Reflection: Reversible Blessings and Curses

By John Tillman

Curses in fairy tales are written to be reversed. The musical, Into the Woods, uses this storytelling trope as its primary plot device. Reversing the curse involves multiple characters from familiar storylines interacting and confronting each other with lies, betrayals, and, at times, the truth.

The opening sections of Deuteronomy 28 promise a blessing to God’s people that will be a pervasive good, touching their lives in every way. They will be “blessed in the city and blessed in the country…blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.”

However, God’s blessing can be reversed into an all-encompassing curse. They will be “cursed in the city and cursed in the country…cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.” God says this curse will “come on you and overtake you.” At times Israel would run an impressive race as God’s people, eventually this curse would overtake them.

Anyone steeped in the magic stew of fairy tales tends to see salvation through the lens of a heroic quest. Heroes in fairy tales, often through a combination of cooperation, wit, and luck, typically reverse their own curses. Divine assistance, from fairy godmothers or otherwise, is elusive and typically not determinative of the outcome. Humans, not the gods, exert heroic effort to break fairy tale curses.

Yet, we are not plucky heroes who can, with just a bit of luck, turn the tables on our enemy and reverse our own curse. We can’t make the potion. We can’t kill the dragon. We can’t climb the tower. And our kiss is the kiss of death, not a kiss of life.

Like many other curses of God, the curse of Mount Ebal is a reflection and reenactment of the curse of Eden. It overtook Israel, and it overtakes us. Peter describes our adversary as a roaring lion seeking to devour us. Paul describes an inner curse of sinfulness that even he, the great “Hebrew of Hebrews,” cannot escape.

Yet, the curse of Eden is written to be reversed. Within its words, a hero is promised who will break it. Jesus is that hero. The gospel message we carry is that, in Christ, our curse is broken and all people can join him to be blessed in the city, in the country, when we come in, and when we go out.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting

Show me your ways, O Lord, and teach me your paths.
Lead me in your truth and teach me, for you are the God of my salvation; in you have I trusted all the day long. — Psalm 25.3-4

– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summer
by Phyllis Tickle

Read more: Praying Priestly Blessings

As followers of God today, a part of our identity is as carriers of the blessings of God that are intended for the world.

Praying Priestly Blessings — Readers’ Choice
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Don’t Forget!

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 28.58-59
If you do not carefully follow all the words of this law, which are written in this book, and do not revere this glorious and awesome name—the LORD your God— the LORD will send fearful plagues on you and your descendants, harsh and prolonged disasters, and severe and lingering illnesses.

Reflection: Don’t Forget!
By Jessica Wolske

Throughout Deuteronomy, God calls the people to remember their story as the people of God and to remember his character. He is the “faithful God who keeps his covenant of love…” (Deut 7.9) As the new generation steps into their calling to keep God’s covenant as his people, their identity is formed through remembrance that leads to worship. (Deut 8.6, 10.12, 13.4, 17.19)

Deuteronomy is the retelling, the passing on, of the covenant to the new generation. This was to prevent forgetting their identity and to encourage fellowship with God through worship and reverence.

What helps us hold on to our identity in Christ so that we too may be led to worship in Spirit and in Truth? (John 4.24)

God warned the Israelites that if they didn’t follow his commands and revere him they would experience plagues, disasters, and illnesses. (Deut. 28.58-59) Christ has paid the punishment of all our sins. So while we, as Christ’s followers, may endure hardship, it is not because of God’s punishment.

Sickness, natural disasters, or plagues are not always the result of not remembering or obeying God. However, when we don’t remember our identity and follow his ways, God’s peace, joy, and other fruits of the Spirit will elude us.

One way Israel remembered God and his ways was through festivals and feasts outlined in the Law. These ordained pauses obliged them to reflect and remember their relationship with God.

Creating rhythms and rituals to remember God can include taking on something new, like a spiritual discipline that you’ve not tried before. Similarly, we can take the existing rhythms of our everyday lives and special occasions and include moments of silence, a prayer of thanks, or lighting candles to center on God.

Take time this week to meditate on Psalm 78 which retells Israel’s failed attempts at keeping God’s law and the sickness, disasters, and plagues that God sent to draw them back to him, just as our Deuteronomy passage addresses. How are you remembering what God has done in your life through Christ?

From the beginning of time, God has desired a relationship with his people. He welcomes our creativity in remembering him as an act of worship. In light of Deuteronomy 28.20-68 and Psalm 78, write your own psalm of what God has done in your life through Christ.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Greeting
Whom have I in heaven but you? And having you I desire nothing upon earth. — Psalm 73.25

– From The Divine Hours: Prayers for Summertime by Phyllis Tickle.

Today’s Readings
Deuteronomy 28.20-68 (Listen10:11)
Romans 8 (Listen 6:22)

This Weekend’s Readings
Deuteronomy 29 (Listen4:14), Romans 9 (Listen 5:15)
Deuteronomy 30 (Listen3:12), Romans 10 (Listen 3:21)

Read more about Reversible Blessings and Curses
The gospel message we carry is that, in Christ our curse is broken and all people can join him to be blessed.

Reversible Blessings and Curses

Read more about Remembering Relationships
The life of faith is one of great highs and great lows. At times we may feel the very river of life bursting out to bless those around us. At times we may feel weak and dry.

Remembering Relationships
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Reversible Blessings and Curses

Scripture Focus: Deuteronomy 28.15-19
15 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: 
16 You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. 
17 Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. 
18 The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. 
19 You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. 

“You wish to have the curse reversed? I’ll need a certain potion first…” — The Witch, Into the Woods, Steven Sondheim

Reflection: Reversible Blessings and Curses
By John Tillman

Curses in fairy tales are written to be reversed. The musical, Into the Woods, uses this storytelling trope as its primary plot device. Reversing the curse involves multiple characters from familiar storylines interacting and confronting each other with lies, betrayals, and, at times, the truth.

The opening sections of Deuteronomy 28 promise a blessing to God’s people that will be a pervasive good, touching their lives in every way. They will be “blessed in the city and blessed in the country…blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out.”

However, God’s blessing can be reversed into an all-encompassing curse. They will be “cursed in the city and cursed in the country…cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out.” God says this curse will “come on you and overtake you.” At times Israel would run an impressive race as God’s people, eventually this curse would overtake them.

Anyone steeped in the magic stew of fairy tales tends to see salvation through the lens of a heroic quest. Heroes in fairy tales, often through a combination of cooperation, wit, and luck, typically reverse their own curses. Divine assistance, from fairy godmothers or otherwise, is elusive and typically not determinative of the outcome. Humans, not the gods, exert heroic effort to break fairy tale curses.

Yet, we are not plucky heroes who can, with just a bit of luck, turn the tables on our enemy and reverse our own curse. We can’t make the potion. We can’t kill the dragon. We can’t climb the tower. And our kiss is the kiss of death, not a kiss of life.

Like many other curses of God, the curse of Mount Ebal is a reflection and reenactment of the curse of Eden. It overtook Israel, and it overtakes us. Peter describes our adversary as a roaring lion seeking to devour us. Paul describes an inner curse of sinfulness that even he, the great “Hebrew of Hebrews,” cannot escape.

Yet, the curse of Eden is written to be reversed. Within its words, a hero is promised who will break it. Jesus is that hero. The gospel message we carry is that, in Christ our curse is broken and all people can join him to be blessed in the city, in the country, when we come in, and when we go out.

Divine Hours Prayer: The Call to Prayer
Love the Lord, all you who worship him; the Lord protects the faithful, but repays to the full those who act haughtily. — Psalm 31.23


– Divine Hours prayers from The Divine Hours: Prayers for Springtime by Phyllis Tickle

Today’s Readings
Deuteronomy 28:-20-68 (Listen – 10:11)
Psalm 119:25-48 (Listen – 15:14)

Read more about Two Lamechs, One Jesus
There are those who work to reverse the curse, flooding the earth with hope, peace, and rebirth. 
Which line of Lamech will you follow?

Two Lamechs, One Jesus

Read more about Accepting Jesus
May we, poor family that we are, join the holy family in redemptively reversing the curse.

Accepting Jesus