Seventh Day Baptist
Christian Education Council
PO BOX 1678
Janesville, WI 53547
The LORD will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. And the LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. The LORD will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
(ESV)
—Deuteronomy 28:9-14
by: Ashea West.
From the beginning of time, God has been making covenants with His people. A covenant is a conditional promise—in this case between God and the Israelites (v. 9-10). If they keep His commandments, then He laid out all the benefits they would receive from just being obedient. So, too, with us—there are promises that God has made to us, if we will just remain faithful to Him. Some of these rewards are consequences of doing the right thing. But the majority of these blessings are because of direct obedience. What do you have to lose by being obedient? I only see benefits predicted if we are obedient.
'