Now that we have established WHY God promised some people that He will bless them and WHY He promised all others that He will curse them and WHY those in each category are able to switch groups by doing a 180 degree reversal of life, let us examine the ultimate WHY question: WHY DID THE LORD MAKE THE INCREDIBLE PROMISES FOUND IN DEUTERIONMY 28:1-14 AND LEVITICUS 26:1-13? No one asked Him to make such promises. So why did He? What was His motive? What end did He want to achieve?

Long before those promises were made the Lord had singled out a man named Abram (henceforth called Abraham) to be the forefather of a group (family) of people who would be His light to the Gentile world. These people would live in such a way so as to draw the Gentiles (Heb.–heathen) to Him so that they could be saved. His will has not changed.

To understand who Gentiles are and how God views them, let us read Ephesians 2:11,12 so as to understand why He wants 1) to identify them and 2) to have them obey His Word, as do His true, Law-keeping Israelites, a tiny remnant of His “chosen people” who make up the true New Testament Church. In his letter to the church at Ephesus the Apostle Paul is writing the biological Gentiles that made up the church at Ephesus who, by obeying God, had become spiritual Israelites and no longer spiritual (sinful, heathen) Gentiles who have become part of His church by obeying His Law, making them spiritual Israelites. In his letter to the Gentile church Paul told them to remember that in the past (prior to conversion) they were spiritual Gentiles (pagans), and that they were “without Christ, aliens from the commonwealth (family) of Israel and separated from the (Old and New) covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world.” That description probably described 99% of the world’s population, much like today. Ninety-nine percent of Israelites, having become spiritual Gentiles, do not know they are Israelites. Having embraced the Gentiles’ religions, customs, languages, etc., they believe they are Gentiles. Read Who and Where is Israel Today? Key word–Who? Now back to Abraham, the father of God’s “chosen people”–the Israelites.

The Lord had chosen Abraham because He knew Abraham would “… command his children and his household (descendants) to KEEP THE WAY OF THE LORD ….” (Gen. 18:19). And they did. Through his son Isaac and his grandson Jacob (renamed Israel), Abraham’s descendants would be taught the ways of the Lord and commanded to obey those ways. As the Old Testament asserts, their obedience finally gave way to disobedience, causing God to have them defeated, enslaved and scattered throughout the world where they became in all ways, except genetically, like the Gentiles among whom they settled.

As is always the case, there is always a contingent in any group who refuses to walk as they are commanded to walk. Such was the case with the sons of Israel (Jacob) who, due to their hatred of their brother Joseph, sold him into slavery. Every Sunday School child knows the story of Joseph so we will not go into it here except to mention that eventually the Egyptians enslaved the Israelites and made their lives miserable.

Now we will skip to the time of Moses’ arrival on the Egyptian scene and his demand that the Israelites be allowed to leave Egyptian slavery. The story of their deliverance is also well-known so we will fast-forward to God’s meeting with them after He had freed them from slavery. Upon Israel’s arrival at Mt. Sinai (also called Mt. Horeb), the Lord spoke to Moses and instructed him to tell the Israelite people that IF they would OBEY WHAT HE WOULD TELL THEM HE WOULD MAKE A COVENANT WITH THEM. The covenant consisted of two parts: THEY WOULD BE HIS PEOPLE AND HE WOULD BE THEIR GOD. (Exo. 19:3-6). They would be His “special people,” His “peculiar treasure above all other people” on earth. They would be a “kingdom of priests” and a “holy nation.” Like Adam and Eve and everyone since, the Israelites had to choose whom they would obey–God or Satan.

Moses went back to the people and told them about God’s covenant offer. In verse eight we find the people telling Moses: “All that the Lord has spoken we will do.” The Israelites agreed to obey the God Who had rescued them. Having heard their response, God then spoke His Ten Commandment Law in an audible voice, telling them that they must obey that Law as their part of the covenant. No obedience–no covenant. Everyone knows about their refusal to enter the Promised Land because of the giants there. As a result, they spent the next 40 years wandering in the Sinai desert while everyone above age 20 died off.

Forty years after receiving the Ten Commandment Law at Mt. Sinai we find Moses speaking to the descendants of those people, reminding them of the Law God had given to the previous generation that they had failed to obey, thereby disqualifying them from entering the Promised (Holy) Land. THEY FAILED TO FULFILL THEIR PART OF THE COVENANT WHICH THEY HAD PROMIED TO DO. We find Moses speaking to the next generation of Israelites as recorded in Deuteronomy 5:1-21. Here Moses repeated what the Lord had spoken to their ancestors 40 years earlier which was their part of the covenant He was offering them. The covenant God was offering the second generation of Israelites was the same as He had offered the first generation. In Deuteronomy 28 Moses speaks specifically about the two parts of the covenant–1) what man must do (obey God’s Law) and 2) what God would do–bless them in all areas of life.

Note in verse 22 that, upon finishing the Ten Commandments, God “ADDED NO MORE.” The Law was perfect. The sacrificial law, called “the law that was added because of transgressions” (sins)–Gal. 3:19.–would guide them until “Shiloh (Jesus of Nazareth) come.” The added law would remain in effect until Christ shed His blood on the cross. At His death the added law was “nailed to the cross.” From that time until His return, the blood of Jesus would be the cleansing flow for man’s sins, which is what He told the disciples at the Last Supper.

The first 13 and 14 verses in Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28 are today offered to spiritual Israelites (Law keepers) and those Gentiles who would become spiritual Israelites by obeying the Law of the Lord. WHY DID GOD MAKE SUCH AN INCREDIBLE OFFER TO ALL OF MANKIND? BECAUSE HE WANTS TO BLESS HIS MOST PRIZED CREATION–MANKIND. HE WAS NOT COMPELLED, NOR WAS HE OBLIGATGED TO MAKE SUCH PROMISES WITH HIS HUMAN CREATIONS; HE OFFERED THE COVENANT BECAUSE HE LOVES HUMAN BEINGS AND WANTS TO SPEND ETERNITY WITH THEM. BUT THERE IS A CAVEAT (CONDITION) ATTACHED TO THE PROPOSED COVENANT–MANKIND MUST OBEY HIM. God’s covenant, which He offers to all of mankind, reveals God’s desire for every person ever born to spend eternity with Him in A worldly paradise. He also wants every person ever born to obey Him. By joining His two desires into one entity, He created an eternal covenant between Himself and man. To seal the covenant, He sent His fellow God (the Word–Spokesman–Jn. 1:1-4,14) to earth to die so as to provide His Holy Spirit of power which enables those who want to obey Him to do so, thereby qualifying to enter the earthly paradise called THE KINGDOM OF GOD following His Second Advent. Read The Kingdom of God. Key word–Kingdom.

In view of what He provided and what the Word (Jesus) gave up in order to make available the Holy Spirit’s power needed to obey Him, God has every right to expect total obedience of those who would join the two Gods and their Holy Spirit in their earthly Kingdom. Considering the price Christ paid, the Father has every right to curse those who refuse to obey Him. He sends all manner of curses on them in an effort to bring them to Him. Soon, this process will end, Christ will take His true saints to a place of safety, then the Great Tribulation will begin. The “beginning of sorrows” (Mat. 24:4-8) will end and hell will be loosed on the earth. L.J.