Deuteronomy chapter 28

vs 11

Abundant prosperity to Israel - in their land of promise - is one of the ways God shows the other nations of the world the kind of God he is. He's a god of relationship, promise fulfilling, of blessing, and of power. You can trust this God to do what he says.

vs 12

This isn't a command - the lending and borrowing bit - it's just to show how great the blessing on their land will be. It's funny, really - when Naomi and her family had to move from Israel to Moab, it was because of famine. I wonder how many people at the time realised that there must be something wrong if there's a famine in Israel, when God's meant to be pouring out rain from his shed?

vs 13

The head and not the tail - how quaint. It's a nice turn of phrase. The condition is obedience, and the result should put them on top. It's hard to accept this historically - I mean, they were never going to be a huge empire like Egypt and Babylon, were they? Were they? I guess we'll never know, because they weren't obedient enough! But even when Solomon was at his heights, it wasn't that big. Perhaps they had a higher standard of living than people in Babylon, and that's what they meant? Certainly I'd be interested to know the wife count of some of the emperors of the time...

vs 14

Of all the commandments, the one that gets mentioned especially is the idolatry one. It's just so foundational. Everything else you do, you are at least doing under God I guess.

vs 15

Uh oh. You mean you were serious when you said that thing about curses?

vs 16

So the opposite of before - regardless of where you go, it will be bad.

vs 17

There's a hole in my bucket!

vs 18

That's pretty harsh. I mean, the cursing of the womb either means no kids (which is awful in that culture) or it could possibly even mean birth deformities (which in that culture could even be worse? I don't know.)

vs 19

You'll go out to harvest and find nothing much, and then you'll go home and beat your wife. Or any other number of a hundred other situations I'm sure you can imagine.

vs 20

So it's pretty much total calamity followed up by destruction. It's an all or nothing bet, this relationship with God. Perhaps when we're so keen to claim on the blessings of the OT promises, we should turn our minds to the curses that are tied up in it.