Today’s devotional is a brief apologetic note.
It comes from the blessings and cursing section. The the blessing that is pronounced features some pretty noteworthy warnings, and the curse the is pronounced is… long. Very long. And quite descriptive. And both the blessing and the cursing are conditional on the actions of the people. And before I get to the apologetic note, I want to point out that God is not a blustery wind-bag. He means what He says. So we should expect that if Israel is disobedient in the ways described, the consequences described should come to pass. Moses himself said that this is how you will know a true prophet, right? So let’s keep our eyes on Deuteronomy 28 as we continue to read through the Old Testament together.
It shall come about that as the LORD delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you will be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it.
Deuteronomy 28:63(NASB)
Does the Lord really DELIGHT in the destruction of the disobedient? Most people will cite Ezekiel and say that this cannot be true:
Do I have any pleasure in the death of the wicked,” declares the Lord GOD, “rather than that he should turn from his ways and live?
Ezekiel 18:23 (NASB)
It’s worth noting that these are two different words in Hebrew, even though they are the same English word. The word in Deuteronomy means “to be glad or rejoice“. The one in Ezekiel means “to be pleased in or inclined toward“. The latter is indicative of God’s will, desire, or preference. The former shows that God is pleased when justice is done. A worker earns his wages (1 Timothy 5:18), so the question is this: what are you earning? What wage will be paid to you?
It is God’s desire that all should be saved, but He will still rejoice when justice is done. We were told earlier in Deuteronomy to “have no pity for the guilty”. God won’t.