That is the agreement. Let us take a quick look at Deuteronomy 28. This is just before they go into the Land. Moses repeats this, in a little bit different fashion.
Here is a little bit of an expanse on that original promise.
You will be so special! God says, I'll do so much with you.
So here is the agreement. If you will do this, then I will do this. It is simple to understand. Simply stated, God was just stating, If you will obey My laws and statutes, I will do this for you. I'll give you wonderful physical blessings. This is something that each of us can understand in society. IF you do this, THEN I'll give you this. We do this all the time in the world. You put so much down on a home, the interest rate is so much, and that is in the agreement. If we buy a car and make the payments, the car is ours. We have agreed to it. The guarantee is there; and all of these things.
For instance in our contracting with the Capitol Plaza Hotel, there is a clause in our contract that states that if we do not attend the Feast, then we have to pay them $60.000. We asked that the clause be waived. So they sent the contract out this year, and that was not waived. It was not taken out of the contract. And so they said, Well, we agreed to it verbally. Well, we sent the contract back - not because we did not trust them; but because whatever we sign our name to (whatever is written there) that is the contract that we have to honor. So they sent it back to us with that amended.
The nice thing about these covenants is that everything is carefully listed for both parties to fulfill. It is a simple thing. When a question comes up, one can go back to the agreement and review what was agreed to in black and white. This is what I said that I'd do; and this is what you promised.
God's Old Covenant with Israel was this way: If you do this, I will do that for you.But how about the New Covenant - the better covenant. This deals with faith. This deals with believing the promises of God. This involves trusting in the statements uttered by Jesus Christ. It does not involve a list to check off against, so that we can feel secure. There is more to it than this.
God guarantees blessings on obedience if. . . and here is a simple solution in Deuteronomy 28:1, where it talks about the blessings on obedience:
I've read from Deuteronomy 28 because it's such a simple solution that this nation has to solve all of its problems. Just obey God and do what He says. But this nation, with its enmity against God and its human nature, just refuses to submit, just like a child who is young and who you tell that they should be doing something and they ignore you. And sure enough, what you told them would happen if they did not listen to you happens. This nation is full of children today that refuse to obey its Parent.
This is the only real solution to the curse of this nation and all the other Israelitish nations are under today. Although it's not likely that the nations will turn to God and submit to Him any time soon, it's never too late for individuals and families to do so. Diligently obeying the voice of the Lord is the only way of being safe from the brunt of the curses that are beginning to hit the descendants of the ancient Israelites today. It's such a simple solution, and even those of us in the church sometimes forget what it is, and that is to submit to God repent of our sins.
I want to show you at the beginning here that these appear in the Bible; very clearly they appear. We are going to begin in Deuteronomy the 28th chapter and beginning in verse 1. This is the Blessings and Cursings chapter and two of the principles are very clearly stated here.
Now, there is the expectation or the hope of reward that, if you will just obey Me, I am going to reward you by making you the great nation on the face of the earth.
Now with those things in mind, which are not very happy things, let us go back to verse one.
We are going to look at another scripture that folds right into this one and it is the first time that healing is mentioned in the Bible. Turn to Exodus 15. Notice how close this is to Deuteronomy 28:1.
