Latest / A Chapter a Day Bible Reading / July 31 - Deuteronomy 28

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July 31 - Deuteronomy 28 · A Chapter a Day Bible Reading

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  Hello friends, it's Sean here and it's Thursday and it's the
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  very last day of July, the 31st of July, and you have decided on
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  this auspicious last day of the month to press play and invite
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  me into your day. Thanks for that.
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  I appreciate your company. Excuse me?
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  Clearing my throat. And today's Bible reading might
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  seem a little bit familiar, as this echoes other parts of our
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  lives. Like our trainer that says if
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  you eat rubbish and don't exercise, you'll end up looking
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  like that, and if you eat the right things and exercise,
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  you'll end up looking like this. Or your tutor that says if you
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  don't memorise your Greek, you'll end up struggling like
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  this. But if you get on top of this
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  early, you'll end up nailing it. This is God speaking to his
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  people, saying if you do this, you will be blessed in this way,
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  and if you do the wrong thing like these things, you'll be
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  cursed in this way. So it's God setting up some
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  clear expectations and some clear consequences for obeying
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  and disobeying nice and early in the peace as His people are
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  about to head into their promised land to begin their new
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  life. So the blessings and curses that
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  await them is what our Bible reading is all about.
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  Let's do it. Let's read together Deuteronomy
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  chapter 28. If you fully obey the Lord your
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  God and carefully keep all his commandments that I'm giving you
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  today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the
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  nations of the world. You will experience all these
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  blessings if you obey the Lord your God.
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  Your towns and your fields will be blessed.
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  Your children and your crops will be blessed.
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  The offspring of your herds and flocks will be blessed.
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  Your fruit baskets and bread boards will be blessed.
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  Wherever you go and whatever you do, you will be blessed.
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  The Lord will conquer your enemies When they attack you.
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  They will attack you from One Direction, but they will scatter
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  from you in seven. The Lord will guarantee a
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  blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses
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  with grain. The Lord your God will bless you
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  in the land He is giving you. If you obey the commands of the
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  Lord your God and walk in His ways.
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  The Lord will establish you as His holy people, as He swore He
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  would do. Then all the nations of the
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  world will see that you are a people claimed by the Lord, and
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  they will stand in awe of you. The Lord will give you
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  prosperity in the land He swore to your ancestors to give you,
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  blessing you with many children, numerous livestock, and abundant
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  crops. The Lord will send reign at the
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  proper time from His rich treasury in the heavens and will
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  bless all the work you do. You will lend to many nations,
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  but you will never need to borrow from them if you listen
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  to these commands of the Lord your God that I'm giving you
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  today. If you carefully obey them, the
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  Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you will
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  always be on top and never at the bottom.
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  You must not turn away from any of the commands I'm giving you
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  today, nor follow after other gods and worship them.
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  But if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and do not
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  obey all the commands and decrees I'm giving you today,
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  all these curses will come and overwhelm you.
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  Your towns and your fields will be cursed.
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  Your fruit baskets and bread boards will be cursed.
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  Your children and your crops will be cursed.
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  The offspring of your herds and flocks will be cursed wherever
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  you go, and whatever you do, you will be cursed.
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  The Lord himself will send on you curses, confusion, and
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  frustration in everything you do until the last of you are
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  completely destroyed for doing evil and abandoning me.
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  The Lord will afflict you with diseases until none of you are
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  left in the land you are about to enter and occupy.
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  The Lord will strike you with wasting diseases, fever and
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  inflammation, with scorching heat and drought, with blight
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  and mildew. These disasters will pursue you
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  until you die. The skies above will be as
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  unyielding as bronze, and the earth beneath will be as hard as
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  iron. The Lord will change The rain
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  that falls on your land into powder and dust will pour down
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  from the sky until you are destroyed.
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  The Lord will cause you to be defeated by your enemies.
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  You will attack your enemies from One Direction, but you will
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  scatter from them. In seven you will be an object
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  of horror to all the kingdoms of the earth.
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  Your corpses will be food for all the scavenging birds and
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  wild animals, and no one will be there to chase them away.
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  The Lord will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with
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  tumours, scurvy, and the itch from which you cannot be cured.
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  The Lord will strike you with madness, blindness and panic.
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  He will grope around in broad daylight like a blind person
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  groping in the darkness that you will not find your way.
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  He will be oppressed and robbed continually, and no one will
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  come to save you. You will be engaged to a woman,
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  but another man will sleep with her.
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  He will build a house, but someone else will live in it.
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  You'll plant a vineyard, but you will never enjoy its fruit.
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  Your ox will be butchered before your eyes, but you will not eat
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  a single bite of the meat. Your donkey will be taken from
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  you, never to be returned. Your sheep and goats will be
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  given to your enemies, and no one will be there to help you.
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  You will watch as your sons and daughters are taken away as
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  slaves. Your heart will break for them,
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  but you won't be able to help them.
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  A foreign nation you have never heard about will eat the crops
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  you worked so hard to grow. You will suffer under constant
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  oppression and harsh treatment. You will go mad because of all
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  the tragedy you see around you. The Lord will cover your knees
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  and legs with incurable boils. In fact, you'll be covered from
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  head to foot. The Lord will exile you and your
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  king to a nation unknown to you and your ancestors.
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  There in exile, you will worship gods of wood and stone.
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  You will become an object of horror, ridicule, and mockery
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  among all the nations to which the Lord sends you.
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  You will plant much, but harvest little, for locusts will eat
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  your crops. You will plant vineyards and
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  care for them, but you will not drink the wine or eat the
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  grapes, for worms will destroy the vines.
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  You will grow olive trees throughout your land, but you
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  will never use the olive oil, for the fruit will drop before
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  it ripens. You will have sons and
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  daughters, but you will lose them, for they will be LED away
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  into captivity. Swarms of insects will destroy
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  your trees and crops. The foreigners living among you
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  will become stronger and stronger, while you become
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  weaker and weaker. They will lend money to you, but
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  you will not lend to them. They will be the head and you
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  will be the tail. If you refuse to listen to the
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  Lord your God and to obey the commands and decrees He has
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  given you, all these curses will pursue and overtake you until
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  you are destroyed. These horrors will serve as a
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  sign and warning among you and your descendants forever.
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  If you do not serve the Lord your God with joy and enthusiasm
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  for the abundant benefits you have received, you will serve
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  your enemies, whom the Lord will send against you.
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  You will be left hungry, thirsty, naked, and lacking in
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  everything. The Lord will put an iron yoke
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  on your neck, oppressing you harshly until He has destroyed
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  you. The Lord will bring a distant
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  nation against you from the end of the earth, and it will swoop
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  down on you like a vulture. It is a nation whose language
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  you do not understand, a fierce and heartless nation that shows
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  no respect for the old and no pity for the young.
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  Its armies will devour your livestock and crops, and you
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  will be destroyed. They will leave you no grain,
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  new wine, olive oil, calves or lambs, and you will starve to
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  death. They will attack your cities
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  until all the fortified walls in your land, the walls you trusted
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  to protect you, are knocked down.
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  They will attack all the towns in the land the Lord your God
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  has given you. The siege and terrible distress
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  of the enemy's attack will be so severe that you will eat the
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  flesh of your own sons and daughters whom the Lord your God
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  has given you. The most tender hearted man
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  among you will have no compassion for his own brother,
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  his beloved wife and his surviving children.
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  He will refuse to share with them the flesh he is devouring,
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  the flash of one of his own children, because he has nothing
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  else to eat during the siege, and terrible distress that your
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  enemy will inflict on all your towns.
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  The most tender and delicate woman among you, so delicate she
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  would not so much as touch the ground with her foot, will be
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  selfish toward the husband she loves and toward her own son or
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  daughter. She will hide from them the
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  afterbirth and the new baby she is born so that she herself can
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  secretly eat them. She will have nothing else to
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  eat during the siege and terrible distress that your
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  enemy will inflict on all your towns.
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  If you refuse to obey all the words of instruction that are
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  written in this book, and if you do not fear the glorious and
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  awesome name of the Lord your God, then the Lord will
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  overwhelm you and your children with indescribable plagues.
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  These plagues will be intense and without relief, making you
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  miserable and unbearably sick. It will afflict you with all the
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  diseases of Egypt that you feared so much, and you will
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  have no relief. The Lord will afflict you with
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  every sickness and plague there is, even those not mentioned in
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  this book of instruction. Until you are destroyed.
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  Though you become as numerous as the stars in the sky, few of you
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  will be left because you would not listen to the Lord your God.
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  Just as the Lord has found great pleasure in causing you to
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  prosper and multiply, the Lord will find pleasure in destroying
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  you. You will be torn from the land
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  you are about to enter and occupy, for the Lord will
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  scatter you among all the nations, from one end of the
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  earth to the other. There you will worship foreign
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  gods that neither you nor your ancestors have known, gods made
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  of wood and stone. There, among those nations, you
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  will find no peace or place to rest, and the Lord will cause
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  your heart to tremble, your eyesight to fail, and your soul
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  to despair. Your life will constantly hang
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  in the balance. You will live night and day in
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  fear, unsure if you will survive.
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  In the morning you will say if only it were night, and in the
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  evening you will say, if only it were mourning, for you will be
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  terrified by the awful horrors you see around you.
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  Then the Lord will send you back to Egypt in ships, to a
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  destination I promised you would never see again.
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  There you will offer to sell yourselves to your enemies as
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  slaves, but no one will buy you. Well Lord, if this is not the
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  most terrifying Bible reading we have read in a long time, I
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  don't know what is. To modern ears, this sounds
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  horrific, but we understand that this is an ancient text and at
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  the Time Lord, they used hyperbole to make sure that the
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  point was clear. And the point is abundantly
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  clear that you want your people to follow you and choose life
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  and choose blessing. And that entails following you,
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  remembering you, and worshipping you and Lord, while this text
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  uses the language of blessing and curses.
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  Ah Lord, here we live under a new paradigm, a new covenant
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  where through the work of Jesus on that cross, we are forgiven
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  and loved. And even when we deserve
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  cursing, we receive your blessing.
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  All we need do is come before you with our arms open wide and
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  say we are sorry. Please, Lord, forgive us and
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  your blessings rain down on us. We are so grateful for the wide
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  and wild generosity of your love to us.
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  And so we claim that love today, and we thank you for it.
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  And we pray all of this in the name of Jesus, through whom all
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  of this is possible. Amen.