Deuteronomy 11:13-17 (ESV)
“And if you will indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul, he will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your wine and your oil. And he will give grass in your fields for your livestock, and you shall eat and be full. Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that the LORD is giving you.
The above instruction from Moses to the nation of Israel may be the most basic instruction of the entire story of Israel. It might be the simple, but major, story of the Bible. Obey God’s commands and word and you will experience blessings. Disobey God’s commands and word and you will have curses. This is certainly the theme of Deuteronomy. It was the theme of the Garden of Eden. It was the theme after the flood given to Noah. It was the theme given to Abraham. It was the theme talked about my Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel. It was and is the theme of the New Testament. Obedience to God equals blessing and disobedience does not. God gets to define the meaning of blessing. We read that and we think something quite different than God means. Here we might remember the story of Job. In the end he was blessed. But the journey felt much less. Obedience to God is the key to life. Simple, but true and powerful.
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