Reading

• Deut. 26:16-19; 28:1-68; 29:2-29; 30:1-20; 29:1; 27:1-26

Devotional

Now that the Law had been restated for all the Israelites to remember, it was time for them to reaffirm their covenant with GOD. GOD reminded them of the numerous blessings they would receive if they obeyed, and the terrible curses that would come upon them if they rejected Him. In the midst of this GOD reveals a special set of promises which the nation of Judah—and the Christians after them—would come to depend upon hundreds of years later.

“Now it shall come to pass, when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God drives you, and you return to the LORD your God and obey His voice, according to all that I command you today, you and your children, with all your heart and with all your soul, that the LORD your God will bring you back from captivity, and have compassion on you, and gather you again from all the nations where the LORD your God has scattered you. If any of you are driven out to the farthest parts under heaven, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you.

Then the LORD your God will bring you to the land which your fathers possessed, and you shall possess it. He will prosper you and multiply you more than your fathers. And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. Also the LORD your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. And you will again obey the voice of the LORD and do all His commandments which I command you today. The LORD your God will make you abound in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your land for good. For the LORD will again rejoice over you for good as He rejoiced over your fathers, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which are written in this Book of the Law, and if you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul.
(Deut. 30:1-10 NKJV)

What words of comfort GOD was giving them! Even if they rejected Him and, after punishment they returned, then GOD said He was willing to forgive them and would welcome them back again. What a forgiving heart our GOD has! He does not want us to die, or be punished or be destroyed. He wants us to want Him and He wants us to be with Him. The apostle Peter wrote:

But, beloved, do not forget this one thing, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some count slackness, but is longsuffering toward us, not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance.
(2 Pet. 3:8-9 NKJV)

GOD longed to bless the Israelites, and He longs to bless you and me, but we must turn to Him with our entire heart and soul in order for Him to bless us.