Confessional Lutheran Ministerium

Deuteronomy 30:1-20 (NKJV)

“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, ² 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, ³ 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. ⁴ 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. ⁵ 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. ⁶ 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.

⁷ “Also the Lord your God will put all these curses on your enemies and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. ⁸ And you will again obey the voice of the Lord and do all His commandments which I command you today. ⁹ 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, ¹⁰ 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.

¹¹ “For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off. ¹² It is not in heaven, that you should say, ‘Who will ascend into heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ ¹³ Nor is it beyond the sea, that you should say, ‘Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?’ ¹⁴ But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart, that you may do it.

¹⁵ “See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil, ¹⁶ in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you go to possess. ¹⁷ But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, ¹⁸ I announce to you today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. ¹⁹ I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live; ²⁰ that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life and the length of your days; and that you may dwell in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give them.”

“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.” (vs. 6)

Although it may seem, at first, like a stretch, verse 6 allows the opportunity to dive into the topic of circumcision and original sin. Johann Spangenberg (a Lutheran theologian at the time of Reformation) wrote the following in question-and-answer form:

“What does physical circumcision signify? That we spiritually circumcise all our members and senses from evil thoughts, words, and works, so that our eyes see nothing impure, our ears hear nothing offensive, our mouth speaks no evil, our hands, feet, and all members are innocent and clean from all sins and iniquities. Moses says of circumcision, “O Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you but that you fear the Lord your God, and walk in all His ways… God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your seed, so that you may love the lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. But when the Jews only regarded the physical circumcision and disregarded the spiritual one, St. Stephen reproved them, calling them “stiff-necked and uncircumcised in hearts and ears” (Acts 7:51).

“Why did God not command eyes, ears, tongues, or hands to be circumcised? To show that it is by the heart that our whole nature (conception, birth, flesh, blood, works, ways, and life) is perverse and corrupt. And this is referred to as original vice or sin.”

“What is original sin? Nothing other than a lack of original righteousness. But it is called original sin because we did not commit it but inherited it from our parents. Nevertheless, it is accepted to us just as if we had done it ourselves. The Jews were released from it by circumcision, we Christians through Baptism.” (Christian Year of Grace, trans. Carver, pg. 48, CPH) Let us pray: O Lord, thank You for the release that You have given us through Holy Baptism into Christ merits. Amen.

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Deuteronomy 29:1-29 (NKJV)

These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb.

² Now Moses called all Israel and said to them: “You have seen all that the Lord did before your eyes in the land of Egypt, to Pharaoh and to all his servants and to all his land— ³ the great trials which your eyes have seen, the signs, and those great wonders. ⁴ Yet the Lord has not given you a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear, to this very day. ⁵ And I have led you forty years in the wilderness. Your clothes have not worn out on you, and your sandals have not worn out on your feet. ⁶ You have not eaten bread, nor have you drunk wine or similar drink, that you may know that I am the Lord your God. ⁷ And when you came to this place, Sihon king of Heshbon and Og king of Bashan came out against us to battle, and we conquered them. ⁸ We took their land and gave it as an inheritance to the Reubenites, to the Gadites, and to half the tribe of Manasseh. ⁹ Therefore keep the words of this covenant, and do them, that you may prosper in all that you do.

¹⁰ “All of you stand today before the Lord your God: your leaders and your tribes and your elders and your officers, all the men of Israel, ¹¹ your little ones and your wives—also the stranger who is in your camp, from the one who cuts your wood to the one who draws your water— ¹² that you may enter into covenant with the Lord your God, and into His oath, which the Lord your God makes with you today, ¹³ that He may establish you today as a people for Himself, and that He may be God to you, just as He has spoken to you, and just as He has sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

¹⁴ “I make this covenant and this oath, not with you alone, ¹⁵ but with him who stands here with us today before the Lord our God, as well as with him who is not here with us today ¹⁶ (for you know that we dwelt in the land of Egypt and that we came through the nations which you passed by, ¹⁷ and you saw their abominations and their idols which were among them—wood and stone and silver and gold); ¹⁸ so that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood; ¹⁹ and so it may not happen, when he hears the words of this curse, that he blesses himself in his heart, saying, ‘I shall have peace, even though I follow the dictates of my heart’—as though the drunkard could be included with the sober.

²⁰ “The Lord would not spare him; for then the anger of the Lord and His jealousy would burn against that man, and every curse that is written in this book would settle on him, and the Lord would blot out his name from under heaven. ²¹ And the Lord would separate him from all the tribes of Israel for adversity, according to all the curses of the covenant that are written in this Book of the Law, ²² so that the coming generation of your children who rise up after you, and the foreigner who comes from a far land, would say, when they see the plagues of that land and the sicknesses which the Lord has laid on it:

²³ ‘The whole land is brimstone, salt, and burning; it is not sown, nor does it bear, nor does any grass grow there, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, which the Lord overthrew in His anger and His wrath.’ ²⁴ All nations would say, ‘Why has the Lord done so to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?’  ²⁵ Then people would say: ‘Because they have forsaken the covenant of the Lord God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt; ²⁶ for they went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods that they did not know and that He had not given to them. ²⁷ Then the anger of the Lord was aroused against this land, to bring on it every curse that is written in this book. ²⁸ And the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger, in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.’

²⁹ “The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.

“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but those things which are revealed belong to us and to our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” (vs. 29)

In this final verse one cannot help but be reminded of what St. Paul was inspired to write to the Christians in Rome: “Oh, the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments and His ways past finding out! “For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has become His counselor?” (Romans 11:33-34)

To be sure, God has given a witness about Himself in the creation all around us (Psalm 19:1-4; Heb. 3:4) and in the hearts and minds of men (Rom. 1:32, 2:14-15). This being so brings all men to know that God has established a standard of right and wrong for mankind (known as Law of Nature / Natural Law).

The Law of Nature teaches us that it is good and right to be prudent, patient, honorable, truthful, unselfish, kind, just, temperate, generous, courageous, faithful, loving, and above all, reverent toward God (these are virtues). The Law of Nature also teaches us that it is evil and wrong to be imprudent, impatient, dishonorable, untruthful, selfish, unkind, unjust, intemperate, stingy, cowardly, unfaithful, unloving and irreverent toward God (these are vices). By nature, all people know that they do not always follow the Law of Nature –and– that they will have to face God’s judgment when they die.

But because the Law of Nature does not reveal to us who the true God is and how He wants to be worshiped; the extent of our natural corruption and how we got that way; and how we can have a God who is favorably disposed toward us, in spite of our sinfulness — God has given a special revelation about Himself in His inspired Holy Scriptures! For what purpose has God given us this special revelation? That we may believe in Jesus the Christ and so be eternally saved! Let us pray: O Lord, keep us steadfast in Your Word. Amen.

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Deuteronomy 28:47-68 (NKJV)

⁴⁷ “Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, ⁴⁸ therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you. ⁴⁹ The Lord will bring a nation against you from afar, from the end of the earth, as swift as the eagle flies, a nation whose language you will not understand, ⁵⁰ a nation of fierce countenance, which does not respect the elderly nor show favor to the young. ⁵¹ And they shall eat the increase of your livestock and the produce of your land, until you are destroyed; they shall not leave you grain or new wine or oil, or the increase of your cattle or the offspring of your flocks, until they have destroyed you.

⁵² “They shall besiege you at all your gates until your high and fortified walls, in which you trust, come down throughout all your land; and they shall besiege you at all your gates throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you. ⁵³ You shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and your daughters whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you. ⁵⁴ The sensitive and very refined man among you will be hostile toward his brother, toward the wife of his bosom, and toward the rest of his children whom he leaves behind, ⁵⁵ so that he will not give any of them the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates. ⁵⁶ The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and sensitivity, will refuse to the husband of her bosom, and to her son and her daughter, ⁵⁷ her placenta which comes out from between her feet and her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of everything in the siege and desperate straits in which your enemy shall distress you at all your gates.

⁵⁸ “If you do not carefully observe all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and awesome name, THE LORD YOUR GOD, ⁵⁹ then the Lord will bring upon you and your descendants extraordinary plagues—great and prolonged plagues—and serious and prolonged sicknesses. ⁶⁰ Moreover He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt, of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. ⁶¹ Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in this Book of the Law, will the Lord bring upon you until you are destroyed. ⁶² You shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God. ⁶³ And it shall be, that just as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice over you to destroy you and bring you to nothing; and you shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess.

⁶⁴ “Then the Lord will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known—wood and stone. ⁶⁵ And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of your foot have a resting place; but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul. ⁶⁶ Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life. ⁶⁷ In the morning you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were evening!’ And at evening you shall say, ‘Oh, that it were morning!’ because of the fear which terrifies your heart, and because of the sight which your eyes see.

⁶⁸ “And the Lord will take you back to Egypt in ships, by the way of which I said to you, ‘You shall never see it again.’ And there you shall be offered for sale to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”

“Your life shall hang in doubt before you; you shall fear day and night, and have no assurance of life.” (vs. 66)

God works through paradoxes. Luther writes: “There can be no faith unless all that I believe is hidden and invisible, for what I see I do not need to believe. But nothing can be more deeply hidden than when it seems absurd, and I see and perceive and understand it as the opposite to what faith shows to me to be. Thus God acts in all His works. When He wills to make us saintly, He smites our conscience and makes us first sinners; when He wills to raise us up to heave, He casts us first into hell. God hides His eternal and unspeakable goodness and mercy under eternal wrath, His justice under injustice.” (The Bondage of the Will)

Man, according to his sinful flesh, presumes himself to be wise enough to handle all intelligible things. Since the fall of mankind, however, he no longer possesses the ability to comprehend spiritual things. God’s Word speaks to this: “But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.” (1 Corinthians 2:14)

The early church fathers were familiar with God’s paradoxes and the need for God’s revealing that which is hidden. Leo the Great (from the 5th century) writes: “In the crucified Lord they could think of nothing but their wicked deed, having not the fear, by which true faith is justified, but that by which an evil conscience is racked. But let our understanding, illuminated by the Spirit of Truth, foster with pure and free heart the glory of the cross which irradiates heaven and earth, and see with the inner sight what the Lord meant when He spoke of His coming Passion.” (NPNF² 12:172) Man, in his self-absorbed mind, thinks of his own life hanging before his eyes, so much so that he cannot see true life being offered through Christ the crucified. Rejoice that you do! Let us pray: O Lord, give us eyes of faith to see Your glorious hidden truths and open our lips to confess them. Amen.

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Deuteronomy 28:25-46 (NKJV)

²⁵ “The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. ²⁶ Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. ²⁷ The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. ²⁸ The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. ²⁹ And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.

³⁰ “You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; you shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes. ³¹ Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them. ³² Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be no strength in your hand. ³³ A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually. ³⁴ So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. ³⁵ The Lord will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

³⁶ “The Lord will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. ³⁷ And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you.

³⁸ “You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. ³⁹ You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. ⁴⁰ You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off. ⁴¹ You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity. ⁴² Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land.

⁴³ “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. ⁴⁴ He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

⁴⁵ “Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. ⁴⁶ And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever.

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Psalm 140:1-13 (NKJV)

Deliver me, O Lord, from evil men;
Preserve me from violent men,
² Who plan evil things in their hearts;
They continually gather together for war.
³ They sharpen their tongues like a serpent;
The poison of asps is under their lips. Selah

⁴ Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked;
Preserve me from violent men,
Who have purposed to make my steps stumble.
⁵ The proud have hidden a snare for me, and cords;
They have spread a net by the wayside;
They have set traps for me. Selah

⁶ I said to the Lord: “You are my God;
Hear the voice of my supplications, O Lord.
⁷ O God the Lord, the strength of my salvation,
You have covered my head in the day of battle.
⁸ Do not grant, O Lord, the desires of the wicked;
Do not further his wicked scheme,
Lest they be exalted. Selah

⁹ “As for the head of those who surround me,
Let the evil of their lips cover them;
¹⁰ Let burning coals fall upon them;
Let them be cast into the fire,
Into deep pits, that they rise not up again.
¹¹ Let not a slanderer be established in the earth;
Let evil hunt the violent man to overthrow him.”

¹² I know that the Lord will maintain
The cause of the afflicted,
And justice for the poor.
¹³ Surely the righteous shall give thanks to Your name;
The upright shall dwell in Your presence.

After chapter one, nearly every scene in Mark’s inspired writing of God’s Holy Gospel conveys some shaded reference to the Lord’s coming Passion and death. Already in Mark 2:7 Jesus is accused of blasphemy, which becomes the point on which He will eventually be condemned to death in 14:64. The first reference to the Lord’s betrayal by Judas occurs in Mark 3:19, followed immediately by the malicious accusation of the scribes that Jesus was in league with the devil (3:22). Scene by scene, the story moves forward to Christ’s cross. The parable of the sower and the seed speaks of those who are “outside” (Mark 4:11-12) and even of persecution (4:17). Jesus is ridiculed (5:40) and held without honor (6:3-4) and tells of those who refuse to listen (6:11). To foreshadow the Lord’s coming death, His forerunner is beheaded (6:14-29). Almost the whole of Mark’s chapter 7 is a sustained argument with Jesus’ enemies.

After another warning about His plotting enemies (8:15), there follow the Lord’s three predictions of His coming sufferings (8:31; 9:31; 10:33-34), interspersed with a discourse on taking up the cross (8:34-38), a reference to His being reviled (9:12), and a prophecy of the coming persecutions (10:30). He speaks to Zebedee’s sons of the impending cup that He must drink (10:38-39), while His adversaries seek to implement their murderous resolve against Him (11:18).  Five series of controversy follow between 11:27-12:34, and the conspiracy of Jesus’ enemies with His betrayer (14:10-11) eventually leads to His fake trial and unjustified death.

Psalm 140 may be prayed by us believers as the deep supplication of Christ our Lord, who lives, ministers, and prays through these various scenes inspired to be written by Mark.

Let us pray: “Keep me, O Lord, from the hands of the wicked; Preserve me from violent men, who have purposed to make my steps stumble. The proud have hidden a snare for me, and cords; They have spread a net by the wayside; They have set traps for me.”  Amen.

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Psalm 139:13-24 (NKJV)

¹³ For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother’s womb.
¹⁴ I will praise You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.
¹⁵ My frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
¹⁶ Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.
And in Your book they all were written,
The days fashioned for me,
When as yet there were none of them.

¹⁷ How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God!
How great is the sum of them!
¹⁸ If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand;
When I awake, I am still with You.

¹⁹ Oh, that You would slay the wicked, O God!
Depart from me, therefore, you bloodthirsty men.
²⁰ For they speak against You wickedly;
Your enemies take Your name in vain.
²¹ Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?
And do I not loathe those who rise up against You?
²² I hate them with perfect hatred;
I count them my enemies.

²³ Search me, O God, and know my heart;
Try me, and know my anxieties;
²⁴ And see if there is any wicked way in me,
And lead me in the way everlasting.

There is no part of us hidden from the Lord. From the secret places of the womb to the restless corners of the soul, He sees, He knows, He forms, He guides. David doesn’t shrink from this truth—he rests in it. The God who created him is not distant. He was there before a single day of David’s life began.

“You formed my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb.” This is not poetry alone—it is confession. Our bodies are not accidents. Our lives are not random. Each human life is the careful work of the Lord’s hands. He does not merely permit our existence; He authors it. “Your eyes saw my substance, being yet unformed.” Long before anyone knew our name, God knew our frame. He numbered our days. He wrote them down.

And because He knows, we can pray what David prays: “Search me… try me… see if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.” This is not a casual request. It is dangerous to ask God to examine the heart, because He will find what we often try to ignore—sin that runs deep, pride that hides well, and fears we can’t even name. But David does not fear exposure. He fears being self-deceived. He wants to be led. He wants to be clean.

This comes after a fierce cry against the wicked: “Do I not hate them, O Lord, who hate You?” These are hard words, but they are not reckless. David is not calling for personal vengeance. He is stating his loyalty. He does not want to be numbered among those who speak against God and shed innocent blood. He wants to be counted among those who love what the Lord loves and reject what He rejects.

Yet even that loyalty must be tested. Even that zeal must be searched. Because it is possible to fight evil and still harbor sin. It is possible to speak truth and still wander. So David turns not inward, but upward: “Lead me in the way everlasting.” There is only One who knows that way. And He walked it first—for us.

Let us pray: Search me, O God, and know my heart. Cleanse what is unclean, quiet what is anxious, and lead me in the way of life. Amen.

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Deuteronomy 28:1-24 (NKJV)

“Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. ² And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the Lord your God:

³ “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. ⁴ “Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. ⁵ “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. ⁶ “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. ⁷ “The Lord will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways.

⁸ “The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. ⁹ “The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways. ¹⁰ Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you. ¹¹ And the Lord will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you. ¹² The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. ¹³ And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. ¹⁴ So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them.

¹⁵ “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

¹⁶ “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. ¹⁷ “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. ¹⁸ “Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. ¹⁹ “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. ²⁰ “The Lord will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. ²¹ The Lord will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. ²² The Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. ²³ And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. ²⁴ The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

The promises of God are not small. When He speaks of blessing, He speaks with abundance. If Israel would hear His voice and keep His commandments, blessings would pour into every corner of life—city and field, kneading bowl and livestock, daily work and daily walk. God’s favor would not merely meet them; it would overtake them. The Lord who brought His people out of Egypt did not deliver them into a wilderness just to leave them there. He was bringing them into a land that would be fruitful under His hand. But the key was not the land. The key was obedience.

And here the trouble begins. Because the list of blessings in this chapter quickly turns to warnings. “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey…” Then follow curses—just as full, just as thorough. Drought instead of rain. Emptiness instead of blessing. Defeat instead of victory. Confusion and rebuke instead of security. The same detail that marked the blessings now marks the judgments. Nothing is hidden from God’s gaze. He is not indifferent to disobedience.

These words are not meant to be read with cold distance. They are a mirror. They show what life looks like under the Law—and what happens when hearts turn away from the Giver of life. The Lord is not a harsh taskmaster. But He is holy. And when His Word is cast aside, the world itself groans under the weight of that sin. Drought, famine, confusion—these are not arbitrary punishments. They are signs that something is deeply wrong.

If this chapter ended here, we would have no hope. For who has obeyed perfectly? Who can say that the voice of the Lord has always been heard with joy and followed without fail?

Only One. Jesus Christ came and obeyed every word. The blessings that should have overtaken Him were instead withheld, so that He could bear the curse for us. He took the drought, the defeat, the curse of the Law. And now, in Him, we receive mercy we did not earn—and life that does not run dry. Let us pray: Lord, we have not earned Your blessing. But in Christ, You have shown mercy. Keep us in Your Word and lead us in Your ways. Amen.

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Deuteronomy 27:1-26 (NKJV)

Now Moses, with the elders of Israel, commanded the people, saying: “Keep all the commandments which I command you today. ² And it shall be, on the day when you cross over the Jordan to the land which the Lord your God is giving you, that you shall set up for yourselves large stones, and whitewash them with lime. ³ You shall write on them all the words of this law, when you have crossed over, that you may enter the land which the Lord your God is giving you, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey,’ just as the Lord God of your fathers promised you. ⁴ Therefore it shall be, when you have crossed over the Jordan, that on Mount Ebal you shall set up these stones, which I command you today, and you shall whitewash them with lime. ⁵ And there you shall build an altar to the Lord your God, an altar of stones; you shall not use an iron tool on them. ⁶ You shall build with whole stones the altar of the Lord your God, and offer burnt offerings on it to the Lord your God. ⁷ You shall offer peace offerings, and shall eat there, and rejoice before the Lord your God. ⁸ And you shall write very plainly on the stones all the words of this law.”

⁹ Then Moses and the priests, the Levites, spoke to all Israel, saying, “Take heed and listen, O Israel: This day you have become the people of the Lord your God. ¹⁰ Therefore you shall obey the voice of the Lord your God, and observe His commandments and His statutes which I command you today.”

¹¹ And Moses commanded the people on the same day, saying, ¹² “These shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people, when you have crossed over the Jordan: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph, and Benjamin; ¹³ and these shall stand on Mount Ebal to curse: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan, and Naphtali.

¹⁴ “And the Levites shall speak with a loud voice and say to all the men of Israel: ¹⁵ ‘Cursed is the one who makes a carved or molded image, an abomination to the Lord, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and sets it up in secret.’

“And all the people shall answer and say, ‘Amen!’ ¹⁶ ‘Cursed is the one who treats his father or his mother with contempt.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ ¹⁷ ‘Cursed is the one who moves his neighbor’s landmark.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ ¹⁸ ‘Cursed is the one who makes the blind to wander off the road.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ ¹⁹ ‘Cursed is the one who perverts the justice due the stranger, the fatherless, and widow.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ ²⁰ ‘Cursed is the one who lies with his father’s wife, because he has uncovered his father’s bed.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ ²¹ ‘Cursed is the one who lies with any kind of animal.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ ²² ‘Cursed is the one who lies with his sister, the daughter of his father or the daughter of his mother.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ ²³ ‘Cursed is the one who lies with his mother-in-law.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ ²⁴ ‘Cursed is the one who attacks his neighbor secretly.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ ²⁵ ‘Cursed is the one who takes a bribe to slay an innocent person.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ ²⁶ ‘Cursed is the one who does not confirm all the words of this law by observing them.’ “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’ ”

Before Israel crossed into the promised land, God gave them a visible, public command: build an altar. Set up large stones. Cover them with plaster. And write all the words of the Law “very plainly.” This was not a private ritual. It was meant to be seen. The Law was not to be whispered in secret or buried in memory. It was to be displayed where all could read it—clearly, plainly, publicly.

The people were not left to guess what mattered to God. He told them. And as they stood in the land, half the tribes on Mount Gerizim and half on Mount Ebal, they were to say “Amen” to a series of curses—twelve statements of judgment, each one touching ordinary life: false worship, dishonoring parents, injustice, immorality, violence, bribery, and hidden sin. There are no blessings listed in this chapter—only curses. The weight of the Law presses down. It shows that sin is not far off or abstract. It happens in homes, in courts, in fields, and in hearts.

The repetition of “Cursed is the one…” followed by “And all the people shall say, ‘Amen!’” forces each listener to hear and agree. There is no hiding in the crowd. No pretending that sin is someone else’s problem. Each person must acknowledge that God is just and His Word is true—even when it condemns.

This chapter does not end with hope. It ends with silence. The curses hang in the air. The mountain of blessing is not yet heard from. But the silence prepares the way for grace. Because Christ came under that curse. As Paul writes, “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us.” He bore what we confessed. He fulfilled what we failed. And now, on another mountain—Calvary—God speaks again, not with curses, but with mercy.

Still today, the Law must be read plainly. Not softened. Not skipped. Not rewritten. Because only in seeing our sin clearly can we also see our Savior rightly. And in Him, the curse gives way to blessing. Let us pray: Holy God, help us to hear Your Law clearly, confess our sin honestly, and trust in the One who bore our curse to bring us life. Amen.

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Deuteronomy 26:1-19 (NKJV)

“And it shall be, when you come into the land which the Lord your God is giving you as an inheritance, and you possess it and dwell in it, ² that you shall take some of the first of all the produce of the ground, which you shall bring from your land that the Lord your God is giving you, and put it in a basket and go to the place where the Lord your God chooses to make His name abide. ³ And you shall go to the one who is priest in those days, and say to him, ‘I declare today to the Lord your God that I have come to the country which the Lord swore to our fathers to give us.’

⁴ “Then the priest shall take the basket out of your hand and set it down before the altar of the Lord your God. ⁵ And you shall answer and say before the Lord your God: ‘My father was a Syrian, about to perish, and he went down to Egypt and dwelt there, few in number; and there he became a nation, great, mighty, and populous. ⁶ But the Egyptians mistreated us, afflicted us, and laid hard bondage on us. ⁷ Then we cried out to the Lord God of our fathers, and the Lord heard our voice and looked on our affliction and our labor and our oppression. ⁸ So the Lord brought us out of Egypt with a mighty hand and with an outstretched arm, with great terror and with signs and wonders. ⁹ He has brought us to this place and has given us this land, “a land flowing with milk and honey”; ¹⁰ and now, behold, I have brought the firstfruits of the land which you, O Lord, have given me.’

“Then you shall set it before the Lord your God, and worship before the Lord your God. ¹¹ So you shall rejoice in every good thing which the Lord your God has given to you and your house, you and the Levite and the stranger who is among you.

¹² “When you have finished laying aside all the tithe of your increase in the third year—the year of tithing—and have given it to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your gates and be filled, ¹³ then you shall say before the Lord your God: ‘I have removed the holy tithe from my house, and also have given them to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all Your commandments which You have commanded me; I have not transgressed Your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. ¹⁴ I have not eaten any of it when in mourning, nor have I removed any of it for an unclean use, nor given any of it for the dead. I have obeyed the voice of the Lord my God, and have done according to all that You have commanded me. ¹⁵ Look down from Your holy habitation, from heaven, and bless Your people Israel and the land which You have given us, just as You swore to our fathers, “a land flowing with milk and honey.” ’

¹⁶ “This day the Lord your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments; therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. ¹⁷ Today you have proclaimed the Lord to be your God, and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments, and that you will obey His voice. ¹⁸ Also today the Lord has proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He promised you, that you should keep all His commandments, ¹⁹ and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to the Lord your God, just as He has spoken.”

When Israel brought the firstfruits of the land to the Lord, it wasn’t just a transaction—it was a confession. Each offering came with a spoken remembrance: not of personal effort, but of God’s grace. “My father was a Syrian, about to perish.” The story did not begin in strength, but in weakness. The land was not earned. It was promised. And every harvest was a sign that God keeps His word.

God commanded His people to remember—not only where they were, but where they came from. They had been strangers in Egypt, afflicted, oppressed, and in need. The Lord heard. He saw. He delivered. He brought them to a land flowing with milk and honey. And so, when they stood before Him with baskets of grain and clusters of grapes, they did so in humility. Gratitude always looks back to grace.

The rest of the chapter deepens that pattern. After the tithe was distributed to the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow, the people were to speak again. They declared not only that they had obeyed the Lord’s command but also that they had done it with a clean heart—no corruption, no manipulation, no pretending. Their words were not boasting; they were spoken with eyes lifted to heaven: “Look down from Your holy habitation…and bless Your people Israel.” They were not claiming to be a blessing—they were asking to receive it again, from the same God who had always given.

The chapter ends with a mutual declaration. God claims His people, and they, in turn, confess Him as their God. He sets them apart—not because they are great, but because He is gracious. He promises to make them “a holy people…a special treasure.” Not so they can glory in themselves, but so they can walk in His ways and reflect His righteousness to the world.

This, too, is our confession. We bring nothing to God that was not first given. We were once strangers and slaves, and Christ redeemed us. His cross is our exodus. His resurrection is our inheritance. And all we have is from Him.

Let us pray: Gracious Lord, teach us to give with thankful hearts and to remember that all we have is from You. Keep us faithful to walk in Your ways. Amen.

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Deuteronomy 25:5-19 (NKJV)

⁵ “If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family; her husband’s brother shall go in to her, take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband’s brother to her. ⁶ And it shall be that the firstborn son which she bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel. ⁷ But if the man does not want to take his brother’s wife, then let his brother’s wife go up to the gate to the elders, and say, ‘My husband’s brother refuses to raise up a name to his brother in Israel; he will not perform the duty of my husband’s brother.’ ⁸ Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him. But if he stands firm and says, ‘I do not want to take her,’ ⁹ then his brother’s wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, spit in his face, and answer and say, ‘So shall it be done to the man who will not build up his brother’s house.’ ¹⁰ And his name shall be called in Israel, ‘The house of him who had his sandal removed.’

¹¹ “If two men fight together, and the wife of one draws near to rescue her husband from the hand of the one attacking him, and puts out her hand and seizes him by the genitals, ¹² then you shall cut off her hand; your eye shall not pity her.

¹³ “You shall not have in your bag differing weights, a heavy and a light. ¹⁴ You shall not have in your house differing measures, a large and a small. ¹⁵ You shall have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure, that your days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord your God is giving you. ¹⁶ For all who do such things, all who behave unrighteously, are an abomination to the Lord your God.

¹⁷ “Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you were coming out of Egypt, ¹⁸ how he met you on the way and attacked your rear ranks, all the stragglers at your rear, when you were tired and weary; and he did not fear God. ¹⁹ Therefore it shall be, when the Lord your God has given you rest from your enemies all around, in the land which the Lord your God is giving you to possess as an inheritance, that you will blot out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven. You shall not forget.

This portion of Deuteronomy reminds us that the Lord governs even the things we are tempted to call small or strange. It begins with laws about family duty and ends with a solemn command never to forget the cruelty of Amalek. In both cases, God is shaping His people to reflect justice, faithfulness, and trust in His promises.

When a man died without a son, his brother was to marry the widow—not for romance or convenience, but to preserve the name and inheritance of the dead. This was not about personal gain. It was about faithfulness. God had given His people a land, a name, and a future. That future was not to be lost through carelessness or selfishness. Even when the law made room for refusal, it came with the shame of turning away from the duty.

Then come instructions about fairness in conflict, fairness in trade, and finally the remembrance of Amalek’s treachery. Amalek attacked the weak—those lagging behind, tired and defenseless. They did not fear God, and they did not fear justice. The Lord had not forgotten, and He did not want His people to forget either. “You shall blot out the remembrance of Amalek… You shall not forget.”

There is a tension here. We are told to remember—and to forget. Forget the wrongs done by a brother who has repented. Forget the gain that could be made through dishonesty. But remember what God remembers. Remember the weak. Remember the treachery that preyed on the helpless. And above all, remember the Lord who watches and judges in righteousness.

In the fullness of time, Christ came not to seek advantage but to take our shame. He did not walk past the vulnerable. He laid down His life for those the world forgets. The Son of God did not keep a perfect weight and measure only in trade—He offered the full measure of His righteousness in place of our sin. He bore the reproach that belonged to us and secured an everlasting inheritance that cannot be blotted out. Let us pray: Lord, teach us to remember what You remember, to forget what You forgive, and to live as people shaped by Your justice and mercy. Amen.

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