Deuteronomy: At Journey's Endਨਮੂਨਾ

Inheriting blessing

Verse 8 lies at the centre of three concentric circles. In itself it is the Lord’s pledge of blessing for his people. 

The outer circle (vv. 1–2, 13–14) says that the Lord will exalt his people ‘if’ they obey his voice (v. 1) and ‘because’ they listen to his commands (v.13, literally). It is not a matter of obeying just this command or that, but of obeying all his commands. For this reason we are not involved in a ‘slot machine’ situation whereby we put in our sixpenny worth of obedience and demand sixpenny worth of blessing. Our obedience is always imperfect; if the Lord chooses to bless us, it is wholly of his grace. Nevertheless, by serious, devoted obedience and by listening to his word we can, so to say, put ourselves in the way of blessing. Obedience is a means of grace. 

The next circle (vv. 3–5, 11–12) reveals the Lord as being directly involved in every area of our lives, whether we think of the family, the farm or the pantry (vv. 3–5); whether it is a matter of having children and profiting agriculturally (v. 11), or needing rain or doing well at work (v. 12). That is to say, every area is within the scope of the call to obey and listen. The word of God is the constant accompaniment of life. 

The inner circle places us in relation to other people (vv. 6–7, 9–10). In verse 6 we are involved in the comings and goings of life; verse 7 directly concerns Moses’ hearers as a nation among nations and promises security against attack. The legitimate equivalent today is the ‘warfare’ of the Gospel, and the effectiveness of evangelism. But, according to the balancing verses (9–10), victory is not a matter in the past of weaponry and today of method, but of holiness (v. 9) and the distinctiveness of bearing the Lord’s name (v. 10). 

Throughout there is a total identification of the Lord with his word. Where it is, he is; where we turn aside from his word, we turn aside from him to other gods (v. 14). According to verse 2, which the nkjv renders as, ‘And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God’, we are involved in a race, with God’s blessing playing catch up. When we turn from his word, the distance opens up; when we tarry with his word, his blessing overtakes us!

Reflection

Consider this counsel: 

‘Take time to be holy; speak oft with thy Lord. Abide in him always and feed on his word.’

(William D. Longstaff, ‘Take time to be holy’)