Blessings will abound! Blessed will you be in the city, in the field, your children, your land and produce, your flock (verses 3-6). Your enemies will flee from you! (v.7) You will lend and not borrow, you will be the head and not the tail (v.12, 13).
What’s not to like?
Certainly all of us who claim to love Adonai resonate with these promises. Surely, we are established as His holy people (v.9) and surely we walk in His ways. Right?
Uh oh. We may be getting on a slippery slope, my friends.
Blessings require us to LISTEN and to OBEY
These blessings are contingent upon consistent relationship with the Holy One of Israel. These blessings don’t just come because we have professed faith. These blessings require us to constantly LISTEN to what His Spirit is saying and obey what is written in His Word.
It is only natural for us to dwell on the things we like and try not to think about the stuff that we don’t. But we are not called to be natural, we are called to be spiritual.
Many believers know parts of Deuteronomy 28 very well – but if you check closely, those commonly cited passages are all found in the first 14 verses of the chapter.
I don’t hear anyone talking about the curses! And understandably so . . . they are overwhelming! Terrifying. But we must acknowledge the reality that there are REAL curses that DO afflict those who choose to disobey God.
There are 69 verses in Deuteronomy 28, not just 14. MOST of those verses describe the destructionthat will come to those who turn from ADONAI’S instructions.
Most people are concentrating on only 20% of the entire chapter. Most of us are ignoring 80% of Deuteronomy 28.
www.Adonaishalom.com
BUT THERE IS HOPE!
The curse of sin and death has been broken.
But if we do not understand what we have been saved from, we are missing half of that very blessing. Also, if we do not understand that sanctification is an ongoing process and that we either invite blessing or demise into our lives based on our choices (even after receiving salvation) we are prone to confusion and a less dynamic understanding of the relationship we hold as children of the Most High God.
THE CURSES ACTUALLY REVEAL HOW AMAZING LIVING UNDER BLESSING REALLY IS
You don’t have to live under any curse. You have the choice to follow the Savior, who chooses to bless us when we repent and reject a cursed life of sin and death.
How great a salvation! We were destined for curse but the Son of God, Yeshua ha Mashiach (Jesus the Christ) came to earth, died for our transgressions, our failings, and our disobedience, so that we may have life eternal if we believe in His Name.
We must confess that He alone is Lord and follow His ways.
www.adonaishalom.com
The curses outlined in Deuteronomy 28:15ff are so horrific that it just makes me think of just how awesome the gift of salvation truly is. We have been saved from terror, a hopeless, despairing future and so freely given love, security, and peace – the shalom that surpasses all understanding. So many people fear “keeping Torah,” citing legalism and claiming irrelevance, but if only they would understand how Torah illuminates what pleases God and rather than bind us, it frees us to more fully understand the richness of our salvation!
2 Timothy 2:15
So let’s commit ourselves to reading the entirety of the Bible, not just the parts we like.
Because even in those passages that seem so difficult or even dreadful to read . . . – even there in the depths, we can find the glimmer of the Gospel. He has given us hope and a future, so let’s learn and study the whole Word so we can step into our callings as ambassadors for His glorious Truth.
Distinction between the unclean and the clean, distinction between that which is holy and that which is not, distinction between those who belong to Him and those who . . . don’t.
For consistency, a very similar passage is found in Deuteronomy:
We know what pleases God because He revealed to us plainly what animals are abominable for human consumption.
Let’s put this in today’s language. He revealed what animals are GROSS to eat.
Shrimp are bottom feeders. They are the garbage trucks of the ocean. Some go so far as to call shrimp the cockroaches of the sea! Pigs are dirty critters, too, you know, but also function as vacuum cleaners. You wouldn’t eat a vulture, would you? They clean up the roads nicely, but according to the Word, God really doesn’t want us eating them.
This really isn’t about being “under the law” or not – we are no longer under the curse of the law. But the law reveals to us that which has pleased our Father. Only Yeshua (Jesus) could fulfill it in its entirety, but as we live into our sanctification, it is fair to say we should strive to do all that which pleases God. Not for our salvation, but as fruit of our salvation.
Our lifestyle should reflect godliness!
Many preach that Christian believers should now eat whatever they want because we have been freed from the law and are now under grace. I can appreciate the intent, but in my view celebrating being freed from the curse of the law is much different than declaring independence from God’s wise and Holy Instructions. We can’t possibly keep every aspect of the law, that’s why Yeshua (Jesus) came, but it does give us, at the very least, an outline for holy living.
For me, this is a hard passage. It pleased God to bruise His Son. We have to ask the question, “why?” I believe it is because at the point this Scripture was fulfilled, Yeshua (Jesus) had taken our sin upon Him and sin is such an affront to a Holy God that it actually pleased Him to see it dealt with. And what is sin? Lawlessness.
So we need something to go by, a standard. God’s instructions give us that standard and Yeshua (Jesus) died for it.
So what about pork bacon? Pork barbecues? Shrimp scampi?
Well, let me tell you a story. A true one.
When I was in grad school, I used to attend a small Pentecostal church just a few miles from the university. I loved that church. I loved the people, I loved the music, I loved the ministry! The believers at this church loved the LORD and really did a good job of including newcomers and students (like me) and sharing the Gospel with love. It didn’t feel cliquish like so many small churches, and it was a wonderful place for any young believer to grow in their faith.
Like most evangelical churches, the pastor and leaders emphasized such spiritual practices as fasting and prayer and encouraged everyone to read the Bible for themselves. If you didn’t bring a Bible with you, an usher would have given you one.
The preaching seemed balanced and examples of Biblical praise and worship were cited from both Testaments.
These folks knew the Scriptures, and knew them well.
But I wasn’t entirely prepared for the fact that these believers had a slightly different understanding of the Christian’s relationship to the Hebrew Scriptures than I did. After accepting Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) during my undergrad years in Chicago, I have since held to what gets labeled as a “Messianic” (albeit thoroughly Pentecostal!) theological perspective.
I never struggled with the fact that my Messiah Yeshua (Jesus) was a Jewish Rabbi! When I moved out of my college bubble, I discovered most believers were not really interested in the Jewishness of Jesus, much less studying Torah’s relationship to the New Testament. Yeshua (Jesus) followed and fulfilled Torah so it seemed strange to me that everyone seemed to want to delete the first half of the Bible.
And I will never forget the day when many of us from the church went out for lunch at a little restaurant.
I guess I shouldn’t have been at all surprised when the pastor and the church leaders all ordered pork bbq plates. But I’m certain I unwittingly raised an eyebrow!
There were some cultural factors at play.
North Carolina is famous for pork barbecue, and I know from experience finding a place that serves turkey or chicken bbq is not easy. But this was actually a seafood restaurant. There were Biblically cleaner foods on the menu than swine flesh.
When the food arrived, one of the church elders actually said, “Thank you Jesus, for allowing us now to eat this pork!” I didn’t know to laugh or cry!
I realized that day in the restaurant that there was disconnect in traditional Christian practice from what is actually written in the Bible.
These same Christians who routinely practiced fasting and prayer were ok with the dietary restriction of fasting (another concept introduced in the Old, rather than New, Testament), but they were anti-dietary restriction regarding consumable foods.
Ultimately, aren’t we all guilty of picking and choosing at times, to strictly adhere to the things we like and to less fervently notice those things we don’t like?!
But, I simply posit this today: why not adhere to the LORD’s dietary instructions? For the most part, the only foods being argued about among Christians in America are pork chops, pork bacon, pork ham, and shrimp.
Paul (Rabbi Sh’aul) invites believers in 1 Corinthians 6:12to ask themselves an important question. Just because something is lawful to you, is it beneficial?
Something may or may not be permitted, but is it helpful?
A certain meal may not defile spiritually, but is it truly of benefit to me physically, especially when consumed with frequency?
The United States has a Judeo-Christian heritage. It seems to me that believers in the United States used to have a more holistic and pure understanding of the Scriptures. As a nation, we collectively know that certain animals should not be consumed!
No one is upset that restaurants don’t serve owls and bats.
But today, we have become divided by denominationalism and agendas.
And pork is cheap (and some would argue, delicious).
This has led to a selective and collective cultural amnesia.
We have forgotten where we came from.
It is no secret that our country has strayed farther and farther from God’s Word and ways.
Have you ever noticed the amount of fast food advertisements that obsess about pork bacon?
It is a symptom of a much larger problem.
Doctrines have been misaligned over the years to assimilate into our culture. I’m picking on the pigs today, but this applies to so many other Biblical issues, not just dietary choices.
Even if it is unintentional, most believers pick and choose when it comes to obeying the Word of God. We really ought to work hard not to over or under emphasize verses of Scripture to suit our personal desires.
The blame has to start at the top because so many Christians have simply been taught this way for their whole lives.
We have to guard our testimony because it can get a little tarnished by stuff like this.
What does Leviticus 11 have to do with our testimony?
The Gospel is intended to be preached to all, but specifically to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.
If we do not take passages like Leviticus 11 seriously, it is difficult to share our testimony in communities that may look different from our own.
Reaching Jews and Muslims with the Good News
Christian outreach efforts in Jewish communities often fall flat.
Why?
Why won’t Jewish people accept the Good News?
A lot of it has to do with controversial passages such as Leviticus 11.
A Jewish person is simply not going to attend the local church pork barbecue event.
The pig is considered the mostrepulsive of all the unclean animals to most Jews! Can you see how it would seem very strange to a potential convert to see Christians eating unclean meats and praying a blessing over it in the name the same God of Israel?
How about the Muslim community? I have known many a Muslim who have very openly said to me that they are surprised Christians in our country eat “forbidden” meats. Like Jews, Muslims do not eat just anything.
Whether we eat or drink, we are to do so to the glory of God (1 Cor.10:31). We are free, yes. But let’s align our lifestyles to the Scriptures! Sometimes, for the sake of another, we must refrain from certain things. Even Paul had Timothy circumcised – not for the sake of salvation, but for the sake of the Jews in the region they were going to testify in of the goodness of Gospel Truth.
