Deuteronomy 7:12-26

Hey, hey, good morning, good morning. Welcome to Coffee and Devotions. This morning we're at Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 12 through 26. We're going to be talking about the blessings that come and the curses also. So mainly the blessings, the blessings that come from the Israelites following in obedience. Let's have some coffee. We'll pray. We'll get into God's Word. Let's pray.
Father, we thank you so much for this day. Lord, your mercies are new every morning. Your grace is sufficient for today. And so, Father, we pray that as we read your word this morning, that you would please help us. Lord, we pray that we would follow after new obedience, desiring mostly you, our reward in Jesus' name. Amen. Alright, here we go.
Deuteronomy chapter 7, verses 12 through 26. Notice there seems to be a conditionality of this Mosaic covenant that's going on here. covenant with their fathers. I'm not sure this is specifically referring all the way back to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but I think it's talking about the covenant at Sinai.
But, and he will love you and bless you and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land. Your offspring are your grain, and your new wine, and your oil, and the increase of your cattle, and the offspring of your flock, and the land which he swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples. There shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock.
And Jehovah will take away from you all sickness and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you. And you shall destroy all the peoples whom the Lord your God delivers over to you. Your eyes shall have no pity on them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you. If you should say in your heart, These nations are greater than I, how can I dispossess them?
You shall not be afraid of them, but you shall remember well that the Lord your God did to Pharaoh and to all Egypt. This great trial which your eyes saw, the signs and the wonders, the mighty hand and the outstretched arms by which the Lord your God brought you out, so shall the Lord your God do to all the peoples of whom you are afraid. Moreover, the Lord your God will send the hornet among them until those who are left, who hide themselves from you, are destroyed. You shall not be terrified of them, for the Lord your God, the great and awesome God, is among you.
And the Lord your God will drive out those nations before you, little by little. You will be unable to destroy them at once, lest the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. But the Lord your God will deliver them over to you, and will inflict defeat upon them until they are destroyed. And He will deliver their kings into your hand, and you will destroy their name from under heaven.
No one shall be able to stand against you until you have destroyed them. You shall burn the carved images of their gods with fire. You shall not covet the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it for yourselves, lest you be snared by it. For it is an abomination to Jehovah your God." Nor shall you bring an abomination into your house, lest you be doomed to destruction like it. You shall utterly detest it, and utterly abhor it, for it is an accursed thing." Well, we need to ask ourselves our three questions. A, what is this about? B, what's the best verse to summarize this? And C, what are we called to do in response to these words? So A, what is this about? There are blessings to covenant obedience.
That's what this is for the Old Testament Israelites. There was going to be a blessing, tangible blessings, to covenant obedience. As they followed the Lord their God, as they didn't intermarry and they destroyed the idols, they would go in and they would conquer if they had an undivided heart to the Lord. He would bless them. He would bless their fields. He would bless their families. He would shower them with great blessings if they could just not love the idols in the silver and gold around them.
If they would just trust him enough to go into the battle and do absolutely everything he had commanded, he would bless them in amazing ways. This is almost the health, wealth, and prosperity gospel of the book of Deuteronomy. That really is what this is about. I'm going to move us, though, to see calling. Best verse? Well, I do have underlined verse 14 and 15. But let's move to calling, right? I brought up health, wealth, and prosperity.
The book of Joshua follows the book of Deuteronomy, and the book of Judges follows after the book of Joshua. And what we find is the people didn't. There's a new generation. They rose up and they did amazing things. They'll follow Joshua. They'll go into the promised land. They'll even defeat Jericho. They'll do an amazing work of God at Jericho. But we find even then that Achan takes some of the forbidden gold. They go and they try to fight Ai. They're defeated there. Why? Because they didn't have a solitary heart.
And as the book of Joshua continues to unfold, what we find out is that the people of the northern countries of Ephraim and the hill countries up north, they kind of stopped fighting. And by the time you get to the book of Judges, yeah, there's Israelite camps, there's Israelite families, there's Israelite lands and things like this, but they start intermarrying. They start engaging in idolatry. They start doing whatever's right in their own eyes.
The conditions of the covenant weren't kept. They start wanting a king to rule over them, just like the rest of the nations, and we get into 1 Samuel. We find out that the people, well, they don't actually want to follow the Lord. They want to go the way of their own hearts.
So what's that got to do anything with us? Why did I take you through a big history lesson of the scriptures? Because we're no better than the ancient Israelites. If we would really want the health, wealth, and prosperity type gospel that Moses gives them here in Deuteronomy chapter 7, the second part of it, well, it's a conditional. And every single one of us will fail it. we wouldn't be any better at I. We would have the same temptations if we were Dan or Naphtali or Ephraim, if we were one of the northern tribes.
We would do the same thing. How do I know it? Because covetousness still reigns today. Because Christians still commit sin today. And so, It's not actually what we think it is. We don't want to read ourselves into this saying, yeah, yeah, we would be those people, we would do this great, or we would be better than the Israelites. No, that's a great deal of what C.S. Lewis calls chronological snobbery. We think we would be so much better, or we are so much better than those people in the past, but the reality is we are just like them. Human nature hasn't changed. But here's the amazing thing.
God made an even better covenant than the one at Sinai. God would eventually make a covenant with David, and I promise him he would have a king who would sit on his throne forever. God made good on that covenant, not with Solomon, not with any of his sons, but finally with Jesus Christ.
And it's Jesus who tells us that He is the one who has authority over all in heaven and on earth. All authority has been given over to Him. And God tells us, if God has given us His own Son, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? We are those who have the royal land grant of heaven and earth.
But it's not right now. We're waiting for that last great day when Jesus will come again to judge the living and the dead and usher in the new era. And so we look forward to that day. We have faith that that day will come. We seek after new obedience now, but not because we want the blessings of the things in this world and in this life.
But our Christian lives, our inheritance, our joy, is that we get God Himself. It's not the pearly gates. It's not the streets of gold. It's not even the tree of life that's on both sides of the river bearing fruit in all seasons. No. We get far greater than all of that.
We get the Lamb who was slain. We get to worship at the throne. We get to join the myriads and myriads of angels in their song. So follow after Him. There is blessing. There is great blessing. And God is the one who sent his son and he secured these blessings for us.
Let's pray. Father, we pray that we would follow after you with joy. Knowing that we endeavor after new obedience, as we grieve over our sin, as there is a grief and hatred for it, Lord, we pray, Father, that we would rejoice in Your Son, in the work He has done for us. in securing for us all the blessings of the covenant. Lord, we pray that you would give us endurance and a faith that would last and a faith that would produce good works in keeping with our new life. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen. Well, may God bless you as you walk after Him. May you not fear those enemies of yours But may you know that God strengthens you. I'll see you next time. Bye.