Deuteronomy 28

As wonderful and powerful the blessings are here, the curses are as horrible and terrible, or even worse. How necessary it is for God to add teeth to what He is saying. That there be implications that come from both obedience and disobedience so He can show in practical terms what He thinks about both and what He would do to steer people into the right direction. It is certainly His prerogative as God and was/is also to our benefit. It would also be a way for people to assess their lives and cause them to consider where they stood with God particularly when the curses were unfolding. But it is important to see that this also is not absolute. Just because we have blessings and not cursings isn’t justification for thinking God is validating wrong things in our lives. And just because we have bad things, doesn’t mean we are doing something wrong. The standards of God are objective in terms of what is right and wrong and where we land in reference to it. Sometimes other things are happening that go beyond behavior and consequence, like God’s grace or undeserved suffering. It is also significant to note that God waited patiently before He brought this level of cursing on the Jews and to some extent because of His grace and mercy, it didn’t get as bad as He describes. And what warnings He gave through the prophets to warn them!!! But all along the path of disobedience, the Jews could not claim ignorance of what was going on and why God was doing what He was doing, because these consequences are laid out clearly. The same is true for us…..