This will begin a multi-week series on the consequences of sin in our lives.

I love the story of Jonah. We see a story of disobedience and obedience with a mix of consequences. Jonah made a clear choice to disobey God and found himself in a precarious situation- inside the belly of a fish.    

Jonah had made an absolute mess out of his life by not being obedient to the Lord when He called Jonah to go to Nineveh. We surely won’t be facing the muck and mire of the inside of a fish, be we often face circumstances and situations that are muddy and gross, circumstances we don’t want to be in. Circumstances that make us feel dirty and unworthy of the love of God. Unfortunately for us, these circumstances are usually of our own making and because of our poor choices.

Sin always has consequences, and the consequences are always unpleasant, even if they don’t seem that way at first. When we choose to turn away from God, His blessings, and His protection, we turn to Satan’s world, a world of destruction and death. A world where God cannot reach us until we decide to turn back to Him and repent for what we have done.

In the book of Deuteronomy, God outlines specific blessings and curses for the people of Israel. At first glance, it seems like these blessings and curses have little to do with us. However, the blessings of obedience and curses of disobedience are still relevant to our modern world. When we follow God, we are blessed and live under His tent of protection. When we don’t follow God, we are not blessed but live under the curses of this world until we repent.

Let’s start with the blessings of obedience that God outlined to the Israelites:

If you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully follow all his commands I give you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations on earth. All these blessings will come on you and accompany you if you obey the Lord your God: you will be blessed in the city and blessed in the country. The fruit of your womb will be blessed, and the crops of your land and the young of your livestock—the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. Your basket and your kneading trough will be blessed. You will be blessed when you come in and blessed when you go out. The Lord will grant that the enemies who rise up against you will be defeated before you. They will come at you from one direction but flee from you in seven.  (Deuteronomy 28:1-7)

In our modern-day language, our homes will be blessed, our children will be blessed, and our families will be blessed. God will provide for all our needs and will make sure we have everything we need to survive and thrive on this planet. (Notice I said everything we need and not everything we necessarily want. God knows what we need and what will make us thrive in our lives much better than we do.) Our workplaces will be blessed because we are blessed. Everywhere we go, blessings will abound around us if we stay obedient to God. Our enemies will come against us but will have no power over us because we belong to God.

And the curses of disobedience:

However, if you do not obey the Lord your God and do not carefully follow all his commands and decrees I am giving you today, all these curses will come on you and overtake you: you will be cursed in the city and cursed in the country. Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed. The fruit of your womb will be cursed, and the crops of your land, and the calves of your herds and the lambs of your flocks. You will be cursed when you come in and cursed when you go out. The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you put your hand to until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him. (Deuteronomy 28:16-20)

To apply the curses to our world, read the paragraph about the blessings and know that you will not have any of those blessings. You will have the exact opposite. Our enemies will come against us and win. Our homes and jobs will not be blessed. We will struggle and our families will struggle until we come back to God and repent for our wrongdoings.

Like in everything God related, we have a choice to make. If we are obedient, God will bless us, provide for us, and send His blessings our way. If we choose to be disobedient, we are out of God’s protection and Satan has access to us, but only as much access as God allows.

I think the final verse of curses has the most impact on me. Let’s read it again:

The Lord will send on you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything you put your hand to, until you are destroyed and come to sudden ruin because of the evil you have done in forsaking him.  (v. 20)

This might seem harsh that God would allow all these things to happen to us, but how else is He going to get our attention if we won’t do what He asks us to do? God does not choose any of these things for us—we choose them for ourselves. When we chose disobedience, we choose the filth and destruction of poverty, disease, hardships, and a life away from God.

We are left asking why me and searching for the relief only God can provide. We are left to face God’s discipline.

Next week, we will look at God’s discipline and why it happens.