Deuteronomy 7:12 ¶ Wherefore it shall come to pass, if ye hearken to these judgments, and keep, and do them, that the LORD thy God shall keep unto thee the covenant and the mercy which he sware unto thy fathers: 13 And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee. 14 Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle. 15 And the LORD will take away from thee all sickness, and will put none of the evil diseases of Egypt, which thou knowest, upon thee; but will lay them upon all them that hate thee. 16 And thou shalt consume all the people which the LORD thy God shall deliver thee; thine eye shall have no pity upon them: neither shalt thou serve their gods; for that will be a snare unto thee. 17 If thou shalt say in thine heart, These nations are more than I; how can I dispossess them? 18 Thou shalt not be afraid of them: but shalt well remember what the LORD thy God did unto Pharaoh, and unto all Egypt; 19 The great temptations which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the LORD thy God brought thee out: so shall the LORD thy God do unto all the people of whom thou art afraid. 20 Moreover the LORD thy God will send the hornet among them, until they that are left, and hide themselves from thee, be destroyed. 21 Thou shalt not be affrighted at them: for the LORD thy God is among you, a mighty God and terrible. 22 And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee. 23 But the LORD thy God shall deliver them unto thee, and shall destroy them with a mighty destruction, until they be destroyed. 24 And he shall deliver their kings into thine hand, and thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven: there shall no man be able to stand before thee, until thou have destroyed them. 25 The graven images of their gods shall ye burn with fire: thou shalt not desire the silver or gold that is on them, nor take it unto thee, lest thou be snared therein: for it is an abomination to the LORD thy God. 26 Neither shalt thou bring an abomination into thine house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: but thou shalt utterly detest it, and thou shalt utterly abhor it; for it is a cursed thing.
The Christian and self-called
Christian countries in the past in Europe and the Americas erred greatly in
applying these physical blessings for the Israelites to themselves expecting
that if they obeyed God, usually in some oppressive, perverted manner, that
they were entitled to good things and great success. European countries, the
United States of America, and the Confederate States of America, for instance,
expected God’s blessings on their agendas and believed that the reason they
failed or suffered greatly such as the reason they did not win a battle, a war,
or successfully stop a disease was that they had sinned and needed to repent as
a people, like the Jews.
But, what typically
happened was they set false expectations misrepresenting and twisting what God
gave the Christian and when those false expectations failed them they
questioned God’s mercy or even His very existence.
God has not promised a
self-called Christian nation, an absurdity as only an individual can be a
Christian, prosperity, fertility, or a disease-free citizenry. Christians will
suffer, do without, and get sick and die as the lives of the prominent saints
of the New Testament attest. We will be persecuted but God has promised us
eternal life and that He will never leave us or forsake us.
2Corinthians
12:7 And lest I should be exalted above
measure through the abundance of the revelations, there was given to me a thorn
in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted
above measure. 8 For this thing I
besought the Lord thrice, that it might depart from me. 9 And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient
for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore
will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon
me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for
Christ’s sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong.
If you are successful
in life and have a happy, healthy family then be grateful for God’s blessings
upon you but don’t imagine that He owes you anything but what He has promised
in the New Testament; His enduring presence and support and eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Verses 20 through 22
are interesting in that God promises a pretty pain-free, for the Israelites
anyway, way of obtaining the land. With their obedience God promises to use
natural forces which He controls to drive the Canaanites out little by little
so that the land is not over-run with wild beasts. This opportunity is lost
because of the Israelites’ insistence upon having their own way.
God promises the
Israelites good success but they have to destroy the pagan gods they find and
even the gold and precious things associated with them. This makes it likely
that these gods were overlaid with silver and gold. These idolatrous things of
the heathen were called accursed or cursed things and not to be desired.
We will see in Joshua,
chapter 7, the result of disobeying this command.
Joshua
7:1 ¶ But the children of Israel
committed a trespass in the accursed thing: for Achan, the son of Carmi, the
son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took of the accursed
thing: and the anger of the LORD was kindled against the children of Israel.
2 And Joshua sent men from Jericho to
Ai, which is beside Bethaven, on the east side of Bethel, and spake unto them,
saying, Go up and view the country. And the men went up and viewed Ai. 3 And they returned to Joshua, and said unto
him, Let not all the people go up; but let about two or three thousand men go
up and smite Ai; and make not all the people to labour thither; for they are
but few. 4 So there went up thither of
the people about three thousand men: and they fled before the men of Ai. 5 And the men of Ai smote of them about thirty
and six men: for they chased them from before the gate even unto Shebarim, and
smote them in the going down: wherefore the hearts of the people melted, and
became as water.
6 ¶
And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before
the ark of the LORD until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put
dust upon their heads. 7 And Joshua
said, Alas, O Lord GOD, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over
Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to
God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan! 8 O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth
their backs before their enemies! 9 For
the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear of it, and shall
environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do
unto thy great name?
10 ¶
And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus
upon thy face? 11 Israel hath sinned,
and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they
have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled
also, and they have put it even among their own stuff. 12 Therefore the children of Israel could not
stand before their enemies, but turned their backs before their enemies,
because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye
destroy the accursed from among you. 13
Up, sanctify the people, and say, Sanctify yourselves against to morrow:
for thus saith the LORD God of Israel, There is an accursed thing in the midst
of thee, O Israel: thou canst not stand before thine enemies, until ye take
away the accursed thing from among you. 14
In the morning therefore ye shall be brought according to your tribes:
and it shall be, that the tribe which the LORD taketh shall come according to
the families thereof; and the family which the LORD shall take shall come by
households; and the household which the LORD shall take shall come man by man.
15 And it shall be, that he that is
taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he
hath: because he hath transgressed the covenant of the LORD, and because he
hath wrought folly in Israel.
16 ¶
So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel by their
tribes; and the tribe of Judah was taken: 17
And he brought the family of Judah; and he took the family of the
Zarhites: and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man; and Zabdi was
taken: 18 And he brought hishousehold
man by man; and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the son of Zerah, of
the tribe of Judah, was taken. 19 And
Joshua said unto Achan, My son, give, I pray thee, glory to the LORD God of
Israel, and make confession unto him; and tell me now what thou hast done; hide
it not from me. 20 And Achan answered
Joshua, and said, Indeed I have sinned against the LORD God of Israel, and thus
and thus have I done: 21 When I saw
among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of
silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and
took them; and, behold, they are hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and
the silver under it. 22 So Joshua sent
messengers, and they ran unto the tent; and, behold, it was hid in his tent,
and the silver under it. 23 And they
took them out of the midst of the tent, and brought them unto Joshua, and unto
all the children of Israel, and laid them out before the LORD. 24 And Joshua, and all Israel with him, took
Achan the son of Zerah, and the silver, and the garment, and the wedge of gold,
and his sons, and his daughters, and his oxen, and his asses, and his sheep,
and his tent, and all that he had: and they brought them unto the valley of
Achor. 25 And Joshua said, Why hast thou
troubled us? the LORD shall trouble thee this day. And all Israel stoned him
with stones, and burned them with fire, after they had stoned them with stones.
26 And they raised over him a great heap
of stones unto this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger.
Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this
day.
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