Deuteronomy 28, I'll begin in verse 15. But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. Curse shall you be in the city and curse shall you be in the country. Curse shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Curse shall be the fruit of your body, and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle, and the offspring of your flocks. Curse shall you be when you come in, and curse shall you be when you go out. The Lord will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken me. The Lord will make the plague cling to you until he has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. The Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. And your heavens, which are over your head, shall be bronze, and the earth, which is under you, shall be iron. And the Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust. From the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed. The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and all the beasts of the earth. And no one shall frighten them away. The Lord will strike you down, strike you with boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch from which you cannot be healed. The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart, and you shall grope at noonday. As a blind man gropes in darkness, you shall not prosper in your ways. You shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you. Let's pray. Oh Heavenly Father, I pray that we would obey your words, as it says, diligently obey your voice and carefully observe all your commands. Lord, I pray that that would be our heart's desire, Lord. I pray for the preaching of the word, that you would bless it, that you'd fill Jason with the words that you have for him, that you have for us, Lord. Amen. Joshua 8. 30 through 35. Now, Joshua built an altar to the Lord God of Israel in Mount Ebal, as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded the children of Israel, as it is written in the book of the Law of Moses, an altar of whole stones over which no man has wielded an iron tool. And they offered on it burnt offerings to the Lord and sacrificed peace offerings. And there, in the presence of the children of Israel, he wrote on the stones a copy of the Law of Moses, which he had written. Then all Israel, with their elders and officers and judges, stood on either side of the ark before the priests, the Levites who bore the Ark of the Covenant of the Lord, the stranger as well as he who was born among them. Half of them were in front of Mount Gerizim. and half of them in front of Mount Ebal as Moses, the servant of the Lord, had commanded before that they should bless the people of Israel. And afterward, he read all the words of the law, the blessings and the cursings, according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded, which Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel with the women the little ones and the strangers who were living among them. Joshua 8 is an account of the fulfilling of what's been prescribed over the last several Sundays beginning in Deuteronomy 27 and now extending all the way through Deuteronomy 28. It's so refreshing because when we go to Joshua 8 we find out they did exactly what they were instructed to do and they fulfilled the law of God given through Moses. But when we think about this occasion It's a little odd to me. You would think if there was ever an occasion for unbridled celebration, this would be it. They've just come into the promised land. Depending on how you count, this is a day that's been 40 years in the making or almost 500 years in the making, depending whether you count from the people of God exiting Egypt or if you count from the time where Jacob took his sons and entered Egypt. It's either been 40 years or almost 500 and finally these things are being fulfilled and now we have this event to commemorate it being fulfilled and then beginning to take possession of the promised land and what do we have? Unbridled celebration? No, really muted celebration. There is a celebration but as we look at Deuteronomy 28, what we find is there's 14 verses of blessing and 54 verses of cursing. And what we have here is God desiring that a soberness would settle on His people and that they would understand and that they would contemplate the devastating effects of sin. And we're actually, in our study of this, trying to keep some sense of proportion as God has given it to us. And so we're We had one week with the blessings, last week Scott preached on that and now we'll have three weeks and about the same size chunks going through the curses of Deuteronomy because we believe that God has done this for a reason. It was not arbitrary that we have this ratio. So we want to hold to the ratio because God is causing us to feel the weight of the devastation of sin and we don't want to miss it. God is piling it up, the curses for disobedience and unbelief. And we don't want to pass by that and miss an opportunity to feel the weight of what is being given to us. This is how we'll proceed today. First, we're going to talk about the first occurrence of curses. We'll go to Genesis 3, look at the fall and the curse, and just look at the first occurrence. Secondly, we'll come back to the text and we'll go verse by verse through Deuteronomy 28, starting at 15, ending in 29. And lastly, we'll make application. Let's pray. Heavenly Father, how good it is that you have given your people your word, how much, God, we want to honor it, how much we want to truly be placed under the authority of it and have our own thoughts and ways swept away by your thoughts and ways that we might be blessed by you, Lord, that we might live under the shadow of your favor, Lord. God, we thank you that you have told us when you are displeased so that we might learn to hate the things that you hate, Lord. God, I pray that this text would be a mighty tool in your hand to accomplish great things in your people, needed things. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen. So the first occurrence, why go to Genesis 3? and look at the first occurrence. One of the things we get with the first occurrence is you really get to the nature of a thing when you look at the first time it appears. And often in a first occurrence there are many details that you get in the first occurrence that all the occurrences afterwards just assumes that you know those things. And so if you want to learn about a thing it's often very helpful to go to the first time it appears because you get all sorts of surrounding details that don't appear in the subsequent occurrences. So that's why we would go there. And the truth of the matter is we don't deal a lot in curses today. We don't go around cursing each other, at least I hope we don't. And we don't think a lot about it. We don't talk a lot about it. And so going to Genesis 3 and the fall and looking at the curses there gives us an opportunity to go and to get more information, get better information for something we don't deal in a lot today. In Genesis 3 Adam and Eve are in the garden. They've been given it to tend and to keep in chapter 2 verse 15. And then we learn in 3 verse 8 that God walks there in the cool of the day. And if you can hear that and not have your heart burn within you and have a longing rise up in you, then you should check your pulse. In the garden, before the fall, God just walked there in the cool of the day and he would meet with Adam and Eve. And he's given a single commandment, a simple commandment, and they have no internal vent in their hearts to disobey it. And the deal is this, touch it and die. But the serpent comes to contradict the voice of God and he says, you will not surely die. You will be like God. And so the fall is fundamentally about two things, one, not heeding the voice of God, casting aside the voice of God and heeding a different voice, and two, about wanting to be like God, about not being satisfied with the parameters, with the boundaries given to us by God and wanting to go beyond the boundaries set by God. And so Adam and Eve both disobey and God comes in the cool of the day to question them. And we have this blame game that has continued from that time until now where everyone's responsible but Adam and Eve. Adam for his sin and Eve for hers. And then in chapter 3 verses 14 through 19 we get the curses that God pronounces. And for the serpent, it's that he'll always be on his belly eating dust. And that there will be enmity between the serpent and the seed. And it's not little s seed, it's big S seed. It is Jesus Christ, the Son of God. There's a war that begins then and continues till now and will continue until the Day of Judgment. There is a war that has begun between the devil and the son of God. And then the woman is cursed and all her successors are cursed with her. And there's a multiplication of sorrows and there's a pain in childbearing. And there is that she will be at odds with her husband, that she'll want to rule over him and he will dominate her. And the natural unity between the two becomes very difficult. The whole nature of the relationship changes. And then there's a curse for Adam and all of his successors. In 317 it says, because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded to you. And the curse is given for him. And it's that The ground that used to be so naturally fruitful, now you'll only get increased through toil, through thorns, through thistles, through sweat. And the nature of his work fundamentally changes for being one of tending and keeping to one of fighting and scratching for provision. So I want to offer three conclusions about the curses. that we learn here in this first occurrence in Genesis 3. The first is, who you heed is at the center of it. Who you heed is at the center. Man always initiates the curse by heeding another voice, by casting aside the voice of God to heed another voice. And it involves heeding the serpent and putting yourself on the wrong side of a war. Did you understand that? When you heed another voice other than God's, you're putting yourself on the wrong side of the war between the serpent and the seed, between the devil and the Son of God. Number one, who you heed is at the center. Number two, it involves a pronouncement by God. This is what we see in Genesis 3, pronouncements by God saying what he will do. This is not arbitrary calamity that comes out of the blue. This is God Almighty saying what he will do as a consequence of his ways being cast aside. Number three, it involves a radical change of circumstances. God's program changes. The program was I walk in the garden in the cool of the day, tending and keeping it is very natural. And the program changes. There will be no more walks for God in the garden in the cool of the day. There will be no more ease intending the garden, simplicity intending the garden. There will be no more childbearing without pain. Sorrows will be multiplied. The marital relationship, the natural unity that God created will become very difficult. So we should stop now and just address a really pivotal question that has gotten wrong a lot. Are Christians subject to curses? Yes. And no. Let me explain. And I'll start with no because that's the popular answer and everybody has something inside them that wants that to be the answer so maybe I'll be able to build some momentum with this one. No. Christians are not subject to the curse. Galatians 3.13, Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law. And Galatians 3.13 is in the context of justification. God coming and pronouncing us innocent. It's a one-time justification. He doesn't have to pronounce us innocent day after day, but He's pronounced something. He's made a provision for sin and pronounced something to be so and so. It is so. And we are redeemed from the curse of the law, Romans 8.1. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus. For those who are in Christ Jesus, the condemning voice of God has ceased in an eternal sense. Are Christians subject to curses? Yes. Do Christians die? Do Christians die? Yes, you will die. That is because of Genesis 3 and the curse that was given to Adam and Eve and their successors. Do Christian women have sorrows? Do Christian women have pain in childbirth? Are they ever at odds with their husbands? Do Christian men have to toil and contend with thorns and thistles and the sweat of their brow? Yes. Yes, they do. This is because of the curse. And we are not immune from that. We are subject to that. And so maybe we need to go to a system where we have a big C and a little c, like we do with church. The big C church, when you see church with a capital C, it means the church universal. All true Christians throughout all time, the little c church just means us, our local church. And so maybe we'll use the same scheme for curses. Big C curse means, in an eternal sense, is your soul damned to hell for your sins? And for Christians, the answer is, once and for all, no, it is not. But the little c curse means, are there temporal curses that still apply that could be brought on people or churches or nations that we would be subject to? And the answer is yes. And the simple list of questions proves it to be so. Do Christians die? Do Christian women have pain in childbirth? And the answers are undeniable. So there's a big difference between curse in the ultimate sense and curse in the temporal sense. And we'll see that in the curses as we walk through them today. So we've talked about the first occurrence. Now let's go to the text and look at it. And I hope you have your Bibles open because we will be going verse by verse. Verse 15. But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all his commandments and his statutes, which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you. Again, like in Genesis 3, it begins with the voice of the Lord. And the curses are for a people who have not heeded the voice of the Lord through obedience. Hearing is not heeding. Hearing is only a part of heeding. Hearing and obeying is heeding. That's why we see the phrase to observe carefully all his commandments. To observe carefully all his commandments. This is what it means to heed the voice of the Lord. And it's contrasted with verse 1 and 2 from last week. Last week the blessings began with a very similar statement. Now it shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God to observe carefully all his commandments which I command you today. Blessing. Blessing. Blessing. Blessing. Blessing. So we have to ask, where do we belong? Are we diligent to carefully obey all? Are we diligent to carefully obey all or do we find ourselves being casual? being careless, being selective in our obedience. Well, church, how do you stack up? I know which category I find myself in frequently. And these should be very sobering for us, as delighted as we were to hear that the blessings could overrun you last week. They'll overtake you. We should be equally terrified that the cursings will overtake those who are not diligent, who are not careful, who do not obey all. These things are for us. In Daniel 9, now Daniel's a great example of cursings in Christians. Daniel is what I will refer to as a pre-incarnate Christian. Daniel was a Christian long before Christ. walked the earth. But he was a Christian as sure as there ever had one because his trust was in God and not in himself. And this is a man who was part of God's people to be sure and he was a faithful man. Daniel 9 verses 10 through 14 he says this, we have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God. So Daniel is in captivity. Daniel is a Christian who's been carried away by a curse, not because of his own sin, but because of the sins of the people of God. And so Daniel is assessing this and talking about this from captivity. We have not obeyed the voice of the Lord, our God, to walk in his laws, which he set before us by his servants, the prophets. Yes, all Israel has transgressed your law and has departed so as not to obey your voice. Therefore, the curse and the oath written in the law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us because we have sinned against him. And he has confirmed his words which he spoke against us and against our judges who judged us by bringing upon us a great disaster. For under the whole heaven such has never been done as what has been done to Jerusalem. As it is written in the law of Moses, all this disaster has come upon us. Yet we have not made our prayer before the Lord our God that we might turn from our iniquities and understand your truth. Therefore, the Lord has kept the disaster in mind and brought it upon us. For the Lord our God is righteous in all the works which he has done, though we have not obeyed his voice." We see the phrase here, he has confirmed his words. He has confirmed his words. This is one of the ways that God reveals himself to us, that he reveals his truth to us, is that by bringing to pass what he has said. When God brings to pass a curse that he's promised for disobedience, he is confirming his word. He is telling us what he's like. He confirms his word by bringing to pass what he has said. Secondly, that we might turn from our iniquities and understand your truth. This is one of the key objectives. Whenever God gives a curse, one of the key objectives is that we would turn, that we would fear, that we would repent and return to him and heed his voice through obedience. So when God brings calamities, he has a purpose. And this is one of the purposes. One of the purposes is that the wicked would be destroyed. But one of the purposes is that the righteous would turn and see. The righteous not being the self-righteous, people who have tried to make themselves good, but those who are really his people, those who he has called. And these curses are for those who will not obey, who will not observe carefully all his commandments. Oh, brothers and sisters, these words should make us sober. These words should make us tremble. As we move into the first four curses, verses 16 through 19, we see that they correspond one to one with the first four blessings at the beginning of the chapter. And instead of Scott did a great job with that last week. Instead of just teeing up the recording and playing it backwards so you can see what the reverse of the blessing is, I think we'll just use this as an opportunity to go expeditiously through these, starting in 16. And I'm actually going to do some pairings that are a bit out of order. Generally they're in order, but on a couple of occasions I'm going to pair thoughts that seem to go together to me together. So the first pairing will actually be verse 16 and verse 19. Cursed shall you be in the city and cursed shall you be in the country. Cursed shall you be when you come in and cursed shall you be when you go out. And as Scott said last week, this means that it applies wherever, whenever. In the city or the country, wherever. When you go in, And when you go out, whenever, there is no escape in time or in location from either the blessings or the cursings. This is what David says in Psalm 139. Where can I go from your spirit? Where can I go from your spirit? Or where can I flee from your presence? If I ascend into heaven, you are there. If I make my bed in hell, behold, you are there. If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there your hand shall lead me and your right hand shall hold me. If I say, surely the darkness shall fall on me, even the night shall be light about me. Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from you, but the night shines as the day. The darkness and the light are both alike to you. And so it is, both with the blessings and with the cursings. This should be such a comfort to us when we obey, that God will tend to us wherever and whenever, and this should be such a terror to us when we will not heed the voice of God, that nothing can stay His hand, that there is no place and there is no time when He cannot reach out and bring a curse upon us. verses 17 and 18. Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. This is often the way that God deals with the self-sufficient. So frequently God deals this way with the self-sufficient. God wants us to understand how utterly dependent upon him we are. In Romans 1, we're told that we're here to glorify God as God and to be thankful. To glorify God as God and to be thankful. But instead of thankfulness, when we throw off the voice of God, when we refuse to heed His voice, we take the provision of God that He's given to us out of His goodness, and we use it to sustain rebellion. Our provision is not from us. Our provision is from God. And so when we throw off the voice of God, when we will not heed His voice, we're taking the provision that He gives to us and we're using it to sustain rebellion. Friends, God will not aid and abet His enemies. He will not continue to give provision to sustain your rebellion. And that's what's being said in this curse here. Verse 20, the Lord will send on you cursing, confusion and rebuke and all that you set your hand to until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken me. Seven times in this passage, very similar to last week, seven times in this passage, we see the phrase the Lord will He will. The Lord will bless, the Lord will bless, the Lord will bless, the Lord will curse, the Lord will curse, the Lord will curse. And we should not miss the certainty of the phrase. It's given us seven times in this passage for a reason so that we won't miss it. And when we see the phrase, the Lord will, the Lord will, the Lord will. It will not do to simply say that the curses are just sowing and reaping. They are sowing and reaping, but they're not just sowing and reaping as if some impersonal force of justice in the universe imposes a, you're getting what you deserve on you. No, there is a very personal force in the universe. It is God Almighty. He rules from heaven and He says, I will do this. I will bring this. We shouldn't miss the certainty of it. There are two other things in this verse that we should notice. One is the comprehensiveness of it. And secondly, it's the suddenness of it. It is comprehensive until you are destroyed. There are 54 verses dedicated to cursing in Deuteronomy 28. 54. And what we should learn from that, if we learn nothing else, is that it touches every category of life. This verse says, The Lord will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do. There is no category of life which is immune. It is comprehensive. Haggai 1 verses 5, 6, and 11. Now therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts, consider your ways. You have so much and bring in little. You eat, but do not have enough. You drink, but you are not filled with drink. You clothe yourselves, but no one is warm. And he who earns wages, earns wages to put into a bag with holes. For I called for a drought on the land and on the mountains, on the grain and the new wine and the oil, on whatever the ground brings forth, on men and on livestock, and on all the labor of your hands." Welcome to war with God. Welcome to war with God. You can earn as much as you want to earn. You can store up as much as you want to store up. God has 10,000 ways to put a hole in the bag. and deplete you of everything that you would use as a buffer to keep his judgments from you. The curses of God, the judgments of God are comprehensive. When we get to verse 29, we're going to see this. You shall be only oppressed and plundered continually. And no one shall save you. There's this categorical language that permeates the whole text that tells us that it's comprehensive, that there's no escape, that it touches everything. You shall be only plundered and oppressed continually and no one shall save you. Secondly, we see the suddenness of it. You'll perish quickly. And this just makes us think of Luke 17 when Jesus is talking about coming back and he talks about the days of Noah and he says they ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage. They just thought that life would continue that way forever. It was business as usual forever. And then it started to rain and they were swept away. And the whole earth was left with eight people. No one can save them from God's hand. And then Jesus begins to talk about the time of Sodom and Gomorrah. And He says that these people were eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. And in one day it was all gone. They thought life would continue forever as it was. That it was business as usual. And yet God had said what He would do. And He did it. He confirmed His word. Verses 21, verses 22, and I'll actually fold verse 27 into this one as well, into this grouping. 21, 22, and 27. The Lord will make the plague cling to you until he has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. The Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch from which you cannot be healed." When Jeshurun kicks, when they begin to grow fat, when they begin to grow thick, when they are obese, God begins to strip away all the things that they presumed upon. God begins to strip away all the things that they've taken for granted that they begin to attribute it for themselves. God in his grace provided abundance and that abundance caused them to rise up in pride and they began to kick against him. And so God responds to that and he begins to strip away things that we take for granted. Maybe at first it's the abundant provision that's been enjoyed. And then maybe the success from your labors that you just presumed were from your hard work and your good attitude and how smart you were and how well trained you had been just resulted in something good and then that gets stripped away as well as the abundant provision. And now your good health that you just thought was a natural part of life is stripped away and some malady begins to cling to you. Listen to this, the Lord will make the plague cling to you, from which you cannot be healed. And the air of pride that made you careless, that made you thick and fat and obese, so that you thought you could kick, that air of pride gets stripped away. Verses 23 and 24. And your heavens which are over your heads shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust. From the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed." This is how you get an empty basket and an empty kneading bowl, friends. This is how the basket empties out and the kneading bowl empties out. Verse 12 in the blessings last week, it said that the Lord opens the treasure of heaven to give rain on the earth. And when we begin to presume that rain is owed to us because we live on the earth and that's just how the earth works, then the Lord will strip that away also. And we'll find that just the normal things that we assumed We're owed to us that we're a natural part of life, aren't a natural part of life at all. It's just that the mercy of God has just been so full and consistent that we thought we could take it for granted. We never even thought about it. Amos 4, 7 and 8 talks about how this curse actually was fulfilled. I also withheld rain from you. when there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, and where it did not rain, the part withered. So two or three cities wandered to another city to drink water, but they were not satisfied. Yet you have not returned to me, says the Lord." Again, God wants us to understand how much we utterly depend on Him. The simple things that we must have in order to survive are not guaranteed. They are gifts from God. And we only presume on them because of how good He is, how consistent He is to pour out His mercy. God gives, God withholds. God kills and God makes alive. God wounds and God heals. Nor is there any who can deliver from His hand." The Song of Moses. If we forget that we are utterly dependent on God and begin to presume upon His mercies, watch out. Watch out, beware. And what is God looking for? He's looking for repentance. You either fall on the rock or the rock falls on you. You either fall on the rock and are broken and yet God can heal you, God can lift you up if you will turn to Him or the rock will fall on you and you will be crushed and no one can save you. There's a companion passage to Deuteronomy 28 that we could have spent the whole time in. We're going to spend very little time in it, but it's Leviticus 26. It would really be beneficial as families to just look at Leviticus 26 because it says, in almost the same words, almost everything that's said in Deuteronomy 28, but you get different shades, you get different perspectives, different angles in Leviticus 26 that aren't present in Deuteronomy 28. And the same thing, you get things in Deuteronomy 28 you don't see in Leviticus 26. It's really helpful to look at both of them together. But four times in Leviticus 26 we see something. It's in verse 18, verse 21, verse 24, verse 28, and it says this, And after all this, if you do not obey me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. So in Leviticus 26, you'll have a grouping of cursings and God says, I will do this. And then it says, and after all this, if you do not obey me, then I will punish you seven times more for this. And there's another grouping of cursings, but they're a little bit worse. They're a little more frightening. And then you come to the end of that grouping and it says, And after all this, if you do not turn to me, I will make it seven times worse. And there's another grouping and so forth. And that whole progression plays itself out four times where God says, I will bring this upon you. Turn. But if you don't turn, I'll bring worse. Turn. But if you don't turn, I'll bring worse. But turn. God's desire is that we would fall on the rock. Yes, that we would be broken, but God is able to heal and lift up. Verse 25 and verse 26. The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies. You shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them. And you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air, and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away." This is exactly the opposite of the blessing pronounced in verse 7, where our enemies would come out against us one way and they would flee seven ways. This is the exact opposite. We'll go out one way against our enemies and we'll flee seven ways. And when you flee seven ways, that is not a retreat. That is after a route haphazardly running for your life. There are no retreats seven ways. This is running for your life, abandoning the field of battle to save your skin. Again, the Song of Moses 3230. How could one chase a thousand and two put ten thousand to flight unless their rock had sold them and the Lord had surrendered them? When God says, I will, and he brings a curse, it doesn't matter how many people you have, it doesn't matter how mighty your army, it doesn't matter how few people the enemy has, or how weak their army, you will go out one way, and you will flee seven ways. And the bodies will be eaten by birds and beasts, and no one will be there to frighten them away. And then we come to this phrase, you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. The New King James is unlike any of the other translations here. And there's two groupings of alternate translations. And the New King James sort of straddles them, but I think misses the point of either one of the groupings. So I'll give them both to you. The first grouping is the King James Version and the Geneva. And the point of that is you'll go into exile. The King James says, you'll be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth. And Geneva says, you'll be scattered through all the kingdoms of the earth. So the point is exile. They'll plunder you and take you away into their kingdoms. You'll be scattered. Now the other grouping of translations, which includes the NASD, the ESD, the Home of Christian Standard, and NIV, the point is that Nations will look upon you and be astonished. They'll be horrified at what they see. The NASD says you will be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth. The ESV, the Homo Christian Standard and the NIV says you'll be a horror. to all the kingdoms of the earth. And this really lines up with verse 27, which is a verse, excuse me, verse 37, which is a verse we'll cover next week, which says that you will be an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword to the nations. The nations will look upon you and they'll be astonished at what they'll see. The nations will look at you and you'll be a proverb. You'll become a statement. So when they're looking for something to describe bad things that are happening, they'll say your name. You'll become a proverb, a byword. And Psalm 78, Asaph writes, excuse me, Psalm 79. Asaph writes Psalm 79. And he provides a text that pulls all these thoughts together into one text. It says this, Oh God, The nations have come into your inheritance. Your holy temple they have defiled. They have laid Jerusalem in heaps. The dead bodies of your servants they have given as food for the birds of the heavens, the flesh of your saints to the beasts of the earth. Their blood they have shed like water all around Jerusalem and there was no one to bury them. We have become a reproach to our neighbors. a scorn and derision to those who are around us. So I think Psalm 79 captures what is being said in this curse. Finally, verses 28 and 29. The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. And you shall grope at noonday as a blind man gropes in darkness. You shall not prosper in your ways. You shall be only oppressed and plundered continually. And no one shall save you. So this cursing is that madness will be brought upon you. Daniel 4 is one of my favorite chapters of the Bible. And in Daniel 4, King Nebuchadnezzar is up on his palace. He's overlooking Babylon. And these words escape his mouth. Is not this great Babylon? that I have built for a royal dwelling, for my mighty power, and for the honor of my majesty." And while these words are still on his lips, the kingdom is taken from him. And God strikes him with madness. He becomes a madman and he goes out into the surrounding hills. And he eats grass like cattle, and his hair grows long, and his fingernails grow out like talons. And he lives as an insane man for seven years, and then God restores his sanity and restores his kingdom to him. And then he prays one of the most remarkable prayers you'll ever see about the sovereignty of God. And boy, has he ever experienced the sovereignty of God. He's taken as king of nations and his kingdom is removed from him and he lives like a cow. He eats grass for seven years and then it's all restored to him. But we learn in Romans 1 that this is not unusual and this is not reserved for kings. Madness for those who raise themselves up against God is not for kings and it's not unusual. It is the downward spiral that will happen to all that would cast off His Word. Romans 1 says this, of those who will not glorify God as God and be thankful. It says, they became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. They became futile in their thoughts and their foolish hearts were darkened. Brothers and sisters, this is what sin does. It takes a clear mind and it makes it cloudy. It takes a bright mind and it makes it dark. It takes a clear mind and it disrupts it so that you grope about at noonday as a blind man gropes in darkness. So that you're double blind. Even if you weren't blind, you'd be in the dark. This is what sin does. Why are we casual? Why are we careless? Why are we selective in our obedience when we know that these sins that we toy with, that we play with, that we make provision for will darken our minds, will put us on a path that removes the clarity of our thinking so that we don't even see the solution. Matthew Henry says this, those that will not walk in God's counsels are justly left to be ruined by their own. And those that are willfully blind to their duty deserve to be made blind to their interest. And seeing they love darkness rather than light, let them grope at noonday as in the dark. Three applications, three. One, and the obvious one, Flee to Christ. There is only one antidote for the curses in Deuteronomy 28, and it is Jesus Christ. Flee to Christ. Unbeliever. How will you win this war with God? How will you win it? I tell you there is a God in heaven. I tell you there is a God in heaven. What weapons will you use? How will you advance against Him? How will you stay His hand? It is madness. You're on a fool's errand. Unbelievers. How will you win your war with God? Those of us who know God would say, why would you even want to win this war with God? His mercy is abundant. Turn to His mercy. Believer. Are you diligent? Are you careful? Do you obey all? How often are you finding yourselves very casual about your sin, very careless about your obedience, very selective in it? Flee to Christ. He is full of mercy. And He conforms His people to His image. Let us not be casual. Let us not be careless. Let us not be selective in our obedience to our kind Father. Number two, cry out for an increase of compassion. Cry out for an increase of compassion. These curses are what await those who will not obey God through obedience. In this life. And 10,000 times more forever in the life to come. These curses are all that there are for your neighbors who will not obey God's voice. And that is nothing compared to eternity for them. Brothers and sisters, how can our eyes be dry? Are we not like them? Did we have anything to commend ourselves to God? Or were we sinners like them, blind like them, with no merit like them, and yet God has chosen to save us, and now would we be hard in our hearts? Oh, may it never be. Cry out to God for an increase of compassion. They are like us. They're no different than us. Only the grace of God has prevailed upon us. We should be like Spurgeon who cried out, God save the elect and please elect more. We don't know who's elect. We only have our duty. to be sinners who have been saved and have nothing but the mercy of God to praise. Cry out to God for an increase of compassion. These curses await your neighbor. And ten times, ten thousand times worse in the life to come. Number three, long for heaven. Long for heaven. In Revelation 22, John describes what God shows him. This is God showing John this vision, and he showed me a pure river of water, of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb. In the middle of its street on either side of the river was the tree of life which bore 12 fruits. Each tree yielding its fruit every month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. And there shall be no more curse. But the throne of God and the lamb shall be in it. and his servants shall serve him. I read this yesterday and I wept and I just thought, come quickly. Oh, for a day when the curses will be swept away and we'll just serve him. Long for heaven, brothers and sisters. Let's pray. Oh, God. We pray that you would help us, Lord, to flee to you for refuge. Lord, we pray for an increase of compassion that we would know that we are just like our neighbor. Only your grace has prevailed upon us. And God, we come with a longing in our hearts for the day when the curses will be no more. We can serve you in purity. And we'll enjoy you and you Well, once again, walk in the garden in the cool of the day. How precious are these thoughts to us, Lord? Come quickly. In Jesus name, Amen.