“Adonai your God will put all these curses on your enemies, on those who hated and persecuted you; but you will return and pay attention to what Adonai says and obey all his mitzvot which I am giving you today.”-Deuteronomy 30:7-8
We next encounter a true mystery in terms of how God’s mind and actions operate.
We’re told in verses 7 and 8 of Deuteronomy 30 that the Lord will inflict upon those nations who persecuted Israel the same set of curses He inflicted upon Israel.
That’s right.
The very same gentile nations God raised up to use as His hand of judgement against Israel, He will now punish them for how they treated His Chosen people.
This is actually one of those hidden things reserved only for the Lord mentioned in chapter 29.
This mystery may be something He doesn’t want us to know or it may be something far beyond our mental capacities to know.
Looking back in history, what we can know is that in His divine providence, the Lord allows nations to grow in irrational hatred and seething jealousy against His People that eventually boils over into intense persecution.
And at the same time, He gives Israel the freedom to choose to be blessed or cursed by either obeying or disobeying His Torah.
If Israel chooses disobedience, the Lord will use a wicked nation to punish His people so that they will repent and come back into obedience.
Yet, and this is where it might seem illogical, because the nation the Lord used to punish Israel was evil in what they did, the Lord will punish them big time for the way they treated His people.
This may not seem fair or illogical but that’s what the Scripture says.
I’m done.
The Lord Thy God will punish those evil and wicked doctors and psychiatrists and hate preachers who heil Hitler and destroy innocent lives.
If DT 30 is tricky (possibly unfair or illogical in isolation) then consider more perspective from JDG 2:20-23 and ISA 10. These are two examples where the warnings of DT were less prophecy and more reality. Part of the trick is people have a habit of getting prideful when God blesses them, and that pride needs checked. Arguably the best example in the Bible is in 2KI 19. God gave us wonderful perspective on appropriate and inappropriate pride in JER 9:23-24.
The child in the hotel lobby plonks on the keyboard making an awful din. A man sits down next to him and plays at the same time on the same keyboard such that the sum of the child’s notes and his fathers is harmonious.
God sovereignly plays around our rebellious self determining racket & uses our rebellion for our benefit by humbling us with it and so affording us the opportunity to see our depravity. Looking full into the face of our sin we can realise that our only possible hope is in his mercy & grace & we can see the dark and cruel master that is our pride.
Israel & the nations weave large on the tapestry of history the truth that without the mercy & favour of God, we as individuals like Jacob are eternally & utterly lost to our deceiving nature. A nature which from it’s fall has been capable of deceiving us into believing that we can ascend the heavens and be seated on God’s throne.
Thus the judgement against the nations which God uses to punish Israel is logical, in the sense that he wants all to be saved and will reduce us as far as is neccesary for us to see our depravity in the patient hope of our salvation and His care for the glory of his name in the nations of people whom He created. Should not the created worship the creator? When his name is uppermost in our hearts we walk in the blessing of communion with God. A communion of which the doubting of his goodness robbed us.
I used to think it was cruel that God hardened Pharo’s heart liken to someone picking up a hot iron pan and not permitted to let go. Just as Pharoh wanted to let them go because of the chaos that was caused by not doing so I finally learned this:
Our perspective is not God’s perspective. Things that appear to be predestination are only a reelection of what will happen. Time is just a short line between two points of eternity, our frame of reference is of the here now and past, from our beginning to our end. We see only what we are and have been but not the future. God is seeing the frame of eternity before time and after time and is seeing that short spec of eternity which we call time.
HE sees those who will not change as well as the ones who will change, repent and obey.
Romans 8:28 revealed
“28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.”
According to his purpose is the key, God will forge and use an evil man, or nation, into a rod of discipline for children while making also making it an example of what he will do to evil and addressing both. The difference is his children are being taught to learn not to be punished only be destroyed.
If HE didn’t not love his children, HE would just send them their way and deal with them the same way he did the rest of the evil.
I Peter 1:13-16
13 Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.14 As obedient children, do not be conformed to the passions of your former ignorance, 15 but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, 16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”
Here we see children to take action, be clear-minded and think about whey they are doing and knowing Christ with the striving commitment to be patterned after his living example in actions, mind and spirit. We too are to be alive being obedient in continuing actions to His teachings, learning and growing. Grace not saving us by our sitting around covering our indiscretions and willful transgressions. The difference is it was in our former “ignorance” but after God shows his people the way we are no longer ignorant, and we make a choice.
The only difference between the sheep and the goats is what they DID and DIDN’T DO.
See the servant with the one talent entrusted to him, though little given, something was expected of him with it. We are called to be holy,yes, but also in our conduct. That is not an option that is a command, just like a good father telling his son to set up and behave and be the example he should be.
Now the question is: Are any of us His children, are we listing, are we resting back hearing what dad has to say nodding our head like a teen saying yeah yeah, expecting the grace of dad loving us and being dad not doing anything only to ignore him or are we trying our best to lean and accept HIS grace, accountability and discipline?
Our Father did not spare his own son for our sake to put a stop and break to sin how much more will he do it to evil men and nations who were not His son and were not righteous. He turned his back on his own son because of sin and we stand in awe and think unfairness that he destroyed evil men and nations for harming Israel.
Angels in the presence of God rebelled, this is something that I cannot fathom we know nothing of the Father like that, and knowing God they threw it all away. Once knowing God and turning rejecting Him, not only His instruction and discipline but his holiness and sovereignty that is when destruction comes there is no redemption.
I believe that is why the angels have no redemption because they KNEW God, but once we know Christ we’ve seen the father. It’s our choice to try and live up to His expectations or to ignore Him and be an example to others to be used by HIM what not to do and why.
Be thankful for Christ’s obedience and love, and the Father’s grace that we are not yet the ones who are examples of disappointment but examples of a proud Father seeing his children try grow and learn while teaching one another to be like the Father outside of the family and even more so inside the family. Getting along with siblings is harder than strangers but we are all seen by the Father and the world for what we do and how we act.
Thanks for sharing, Vincent. I believe Pharaoh had already made his choice and God was just following up on it by hardening his heart.
Yes indeed.
God, in His omniscience, saw the entire picture from beginning to end, fully aware of Pharaoh’s nature and unchanging heart. Pharaoh’s story became a profound lesson for the people of Israel and the nations. Yet, much like humanity today, their memories of this lesson were fleeting, and only a few truly grasped its deeper meaning. Joshua stood out as one who understood and internalized this lesson, making a bold and committed declaration for himself and his household to serve the Lord. God has a purposeful plan for each of us. However, finding our own purpose without truly listening to Him is like trying to answer a question that hasn’t been asked.
Love your concluding statement, Vincent: “God has a purposeful plan for each of us. However, finding our own purpose without truly listening to Him is like trying to answer a question that hasn’t been asked.”
This is a truth worth praying about and meditating on.
Thanks for sharing and be blessed!
Shalom.