YOUR QUALIFICATION FOR THE BLESSING

When I was a teenager, a visiting preacher at our church said Christians are not entitled to pray the blessings of Deut. 24:1-14 (“I shall be the head, and not the tail”, or “I am blessed in my going out and coming in” etc.)

Like a clever lawyer, he drew our attention to the opening clause of that chapter, which said,

And it shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD your God, to observe and to do ALL his commandments which I command you this day... (Deu 28:1)

“See?” he exclaimed. “You have no right to seek those blessings unless you’re obeying every one of Moses’ specific laws – which of course you don’t”.

I felt downcast after hearing that. So all those our “You will be blessed in the city and blessed in the field.” was all for nothing.

However, I kept wondering, of what good then were those blessings in the Bible if they were  not available to us? Indeed, they were not even available to the original Jewish audience themselves because NO ONE of them, Moses included, could claim to have obeyed “all” the commandments.

It seems then, that it would have been better for God to just let us be ignorant of the blessings seeing that they will be unattainable.

Then I saw Mat 5:17, “Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil.” I saw then that Christ was the ONLY man who perfectly fulfilled the demands of the Mosaic Law.

But who is Christ? Christ is God in the flesh (John 1:1,14). Why would God go all the way to fulfil His own stringent laws? The answer is found in Rom 5:19, For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

Jesus is the one who qualifies us for every single blessing because He has kept all of God’s commandments. And now we have been made the righteousness of God IN HIM (2Co 5:21).

God does not need those blessings in Deut 28:1-14, yet He came as a man to earn those blessings so that He can qualify US for them. On the Cross, He took ALL the curses of Deut 28 (see Gal 3:13) and qualified us for ALL the blessings.

Today, as you read the list of blessings in Deut 28, Know with full confidence in your heart that YOU QUALIFY for them BECAUSE OF JESUS.

They’ve all been paid for by the precious blood of Christ, so rise up and take them all by faith!

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN