Blessings and Curses: Understanding God's Intentions

You're listening to the Bible Guys, a podcast where a couple of friends talk about the Bible in fun in practical ways. Good morning, Jeff, we're back, Yes, we are back. You have a song for us, good morning, good morning, we talk home, not do good morning, good morning to you and you and you. And it takes almost no nudge. Yes. Yeah. And by the way, last time I sang that I couldn't come up with the words. I went back and watched it. Nothing could be grander than being Louisiana. Nothing could be granted them being Louisiana. That's that's what they say. What one of our listeners put that, posted that on YouTube? Are they really that's great? Well, hey, if indeed you're listening in the morning, we want to say good morning. If it's at night, then well good morning. Anyway, tomorrow is going to be a good morning. That's right. There, you go. Well, today is Friday Friday, and as is one of our customs. That's not the only Friday custom, but one of our customs is it's time for the best segment of the week. I don't know about that, and that is what made Chris mad this week. Yes, and so I haven't. Hey, you've had all these days to find something you're mad about. Yes, well, it happened yesterday, and uh yes this morning. Yes, well not this morning, yet it will happen today. Probably it will happen today. And the thing that I've decided, and by the way, I'm not even sure if anybody will even notice this, but I've decided that if an ad comes up in the middle of the video that I'm watching, I refuse to watch the end of the video, no matter how compelly it is. Wow, don't tell people that, because I think ads pop up in the middle of our videos. Oh well there's a big difference. Oh, you should finish ours, but Chris isn't going to finish yours. Yeah, yeah, well, well I think is usually. At the beginning in the end. Well, happened to think about this? So our YouTube ad it's a twenty five minutes that's right, deal, and then our ads are what ninety seconds. At the most? Right? Okay, So didn't you say that you were watching a minute? Yeah, so yesterday this happened. Yesterday. I watched a one minute in six second video, sixty six seconds, but I had an unskippable ninety second commercial at the beginning of it, Yes for candy crush. Right said right, mind numbingly right, right, and so and so. So here's so, here's my deal. My deal is is I uh, I'm scrolling through, you know, I'm just like wasting time, you know, sort of those brain dead sort of like videos. So they're pretty quick anyway. The videos are probably like a minute and a half on you know, whatever it is, like Facebook videos or Instagram reels or TikTok videos, whatever it is is those. Kinds of things. Sure, and I'll stop and I'll see something and I'm like, oh, this is great. You know, I'm like waiting for it. I'm waiting for it, and it's like building up to it. And then they purposefully put the ad so that you'll wait and see the conclusion of the video. And I'm telling you right now, it does not matter how compelling. I want to know what happens in that video. I'll stand on principle. I was standing on principal and I will swipepe. I'm just like, I'm like, well, it looks like I'll never know. That's right, I just release it. I release it to the curiosity. Gods, small g yes, because I'm just like, I'm like, I'm done. I'm like, I'm not. I refuse to do so. Is a man of principle? Yes on this one instance. Well here. As opposed to he's very open of life, very open to a lot of things. But he's going to draw the line. Well, you know what I'm thinking, I'm thinking about I'm just like, this is outrageous, right, outrageous, outrageous, and it may be mad because I'm thinking to myself, like we shouldn't have to uh, you know, like there are certain things like I get it, like you either pay for Amazon Prime and you pay the monthly fee and then there's no commercials, or if you want the free version, then you need commercials. Like I get that part of it right. But then there's this, there's the other side of things where it's like, now even the weather channel, did you know this? The weather channel, I click on, I look at the weather. Oh that's great, and then I click on the radar. And before the radar, if you want to see the radar, you got to see the commercial. It's like, and it's like, oh you don't you just click off? Then you're not going to see how close is the town because you're not gonna watch that video. I'm not watching it. I'm gonna put my family. I'm not gonna watch that video. No, but it didn't make me mad, And I thought to myself, unskippable ads are out of control people. So whoever's in charge of unskippable ads, I'm mad, and I think the I think. The nation is to nay the world, nay the world. That's right. Uh so I believe ours. So you know, we're not in charge of whether or not YouTube puts ads on stuff. If you get. Clicks, that's Unbible guys. Yeah, yeah, but I think what ours right now are relegated at the beginning. In the end, we've we've asked them not to do. In the middle, you can kind of click on that thing, and uh but we don't have a lot of control over those. So if a video pops up, a commercial pops up in the middle of ours, you wouldn't be mad about a video in the middle of one of our videos. Well maybe maybe if you'd watch the whole thing and you'd keep going. Well, only because the Jews has to be worth the squeeze, right, So you gotta you gotta just eat right. You got to be like, well, I'm going to endure it because I want to watch the bibble guys. And by the way, there are things like that where I'm on my Apple TV whatever I searched for a movie and it says, yeah, you can watch it on this network and it's one of these weird networks like two B or tuo vo whatever that's called, whatever that is, and and it's like, Okay, you're gonna want You're gonna see six ads throughout the movie. It's a very very rare thing that I say yes to that, really, But if it's something that we just specifically say as a family, we want to watch this movie. You pay nine dollars for it? No, no, no, well, no want to watch any comm No, but we will endure them. But it's just painful. It's just painful. Do you remember when when you were a kid, do you remember being the remote control for your family? Yes? Right, So commercials come on and my dad would be like, hey, flip the channel real quick. See what's that channel seven? Yes, and then we'd have to change the antenna, yes, move on the roof. On the roof. Wow, those were the days. So we were stuck with commercials back then. Yes, but I think there's more commercials now than there used to be. I do agree. So this is the thing you're mad about. Yes, you're you're mad for all of humanity. For the world, Jeff, for the world, Yes. Over unnecessary video commercials in the middle of it. It's like bank fees and credit card interest rates and home insurance interest rates. You can't do anything about it. But if the world gets mad, Jeff, we can maybe do something together. Do something. So, of all the things we need to change in the world, let's start on this one. Let's start with this. Let's put it on the list. Let's I didn't say start with it, okay, but it needs to be on the list. All right, thank you, Thank you for being I rate the rest of us. You're welcome. I'm not sure that I had thought about being mad about it. I've been frustrated a few times. I think you're elevating my my frustration to anger. I think you're agreeing with me. I'm gonna start protesting. I'm tapping into something. That needs to be there, Okay, right, Okay, the whole world needs to rise up, rise up against unscable. Start like a political party against ads. If if that is worth your tie. If that is your life protesting Google, you give your life to that, that's great. Okay, So hey, we're getting into one of my favorite parts. And I've already referenced this a couple times. I think this week in Deuteronomy, as we get to the end of the Book of Deuteronomy, Deuteronomy chapter twenty eight, this is kind of the last big Hurrah for Moses, and this happens where he kind of hits this blessing curse thing a couple of times. This one is really amazing because what he has there's two hills, the valley in between, and half you know, there's twelve tribes of Israel. Half the tribes are on Mount Ebel and half the tribes are on Mount Garrison, and they're chanting these things back and forth, the curses and the blessings, and the curses and the blessings. It's kind of a big illustration people calling these things out. So we're only gonna because Chris doesn't believe in the cursings, We're just going to read the blessings. Wow. Here in Deuteronomy chapter and by the. Way, side note, if you have a life application study Bible. There is a cool little photo of Mount Ebel and Mount grism Gurrism here that actually shows you where it was where it was, which is extremely cool. It's one of my favorite things about the Bible is this rooted in real history in real places, right, and so that's really cool. Anyways, here you go and dud Rhanomy chapter twenty eight says, if you fully obey the Lord your God and carefully keep all his commandments that I'm giving you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the world. You will experience all these blessings. If you obey the Lord your God. Your towns in your fields will be blessed. Your children and your crops will be blessed. The offspring of your herds and flocks will be blessed. Your fruit, baskets and bread boards will be blessed. Wherever you go, whatever you do, you'll be blessed. The Lord will conquer your enemies when they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will scatter from you in seven. The Lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do, and will fill your storehouses with grain. The Lord your God will bless you in the land he is giving you. If you obey the commands of the Lord your God and walk in his ways, the Lord will establish you as his holy people, as he swore he would do. Then all the nations of the world will see that you are a people claimed by the Lord, and they will stand in awe of you. The Lord will give you prosperity in the land he swore to your ancestors to give you, blessing you with many children, numerous livestock, and abundance crops. The Lord will send rain at the proper time for his rich treasury in the heavens, and will bless all the work you do. You will lend to many nations, but you will never need to borrow from them. If you listen to these commands of the Lord, your God that I'm giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the Lord will make you the head and not the tail, and you'll always be on top and never at the bottom. You must not turn away from any of the commands I've given you today, nor follow after other gods and worship them. There you go, There you go. You got one in good job, Chris, you go come, what we're talking about. I'm influencing you. Yes, And so I've always had a phrase and I actually thought about writing books and one of the one of the titles of the books, uh you know, or at. Least a chapter title. I think that I've always coined throughout my life is that God's commands are for first and foremost. It's for his glory, but always for our benefit. Oh there you go. That's good. So, so I like to actually write that book. You should write it and just put it on our website, the Bible Guy's website. Oh there you go. I really should. I should write a mini book or an e book. Right, yeah, But the idea that like you read some of. It, read some of it. I love it. I love it. It's see, I'm able to take it. Jeff just a minute ago, you go, because Chris doesn't believe in the cursings, just move on. Right. But if I were to say, if I were to say. To you, I actually thought in my mind when you were reading that, I thought to myself, I'm going to say, well, because Jeff doesn't believe in the grace of God, and move on. But you couldn't take it. You'd say well wait a minute, No, No, I couldn't let that. That's wrong off the sleeves, that's right, off the sleeves, that's fighting words. So so, but I could take it. The oldest brother and the youngest. Brother, right, right, right, that's it. That might be it. I am five, right, I am yeah, and I'm the oldest brother of four. Or maybe it's just because I beat down my brothers. You took the beat down from. Maybe it's because I don't. I don't. I don't view debate is the sport as much as you do. Although I do view debate as a sport, just not as much as perhaps you do. So I'm able to I'm able to take it. And I like humor. That was funny, Yes, it was funny. So that's what the point is. Is that early on, when I was like eighteen, I think I wrote a message or a sermon or whatever, and I and I and I talked about for His glory, for our benefit, and I thought to myself, that is really key for people who view God's commandments as punishment or restrictive. Right. You know, in the seventies they would have say cosmic kill Joy, right, like he's the cosmic kill joy. He's he's the God, He's the He's the one who gives you all the rules so that you won't have any fun and and and that's the idea. But you know, we've been talking about this, especially in the Book of Deuteronomy. How you know, God gives us commandments and even though we don't necessarily understand it, it's actually for our benefit. And the thing that I think I mentioned here before, so I won't expand on it, but it's like the rules of football, right, So can you imagine if somebody said, man, what do you love about football? I just love the fifteen yard penalty of you know, personal foul. I just love it. Right, It's just like, man, I just I live for that. It's my favorite thing. And it's like no, no, no, no, It's like you avoid all those things so that you can enjoy the brilliance of football. Of the game, right of the game. And so then when everybody does the rules, and nobody goes out of bounds, and everybody is able to not. To you know, hit each other in the face, mask. And all this kind of stuff happens on the field. Magic happens. And then and all of a sudden football becomes football and you know, and it's like, you know, it's it's that phrase they say. Like when Lebron James takes nine steps to the basket. Without it, Oh my goodness, trade for travel. If Trey's listening, he's getting write in, well, Michael Jordan, I remember one guy. Remember Michael Jordan leapt from the free throw line. That's right, that's right. You didn't have to take nine steps. That's correct, that's correct, that is exactly correct. But when you obey the rules, when you follow the rules, the game is not the rules. The rules are so the game can be played well, right. That's right, that is right, that's right. But the whole point is is that if you want to watch football, it's a well remember the Titans. What he say, let the boys play? Ref right, let him play right, And it's like that's what you got to do. You got to like, hey, let him play. But then the ref's like, hey, as long as they obey the rules. They can play right. Right. But but but you know, but. Then then that illustration can carry further on on the phar pharasetical rules. Right. But the point is is that that's really what this chapter reminds me of right because it's saying like, hey, here here are the rules that God is going to lay out, and if you will experience verse number two, you'll experience all the blessings if you obey the Lord, your God. And the key of that isn't obey. The key is you'll experience the blessings. So every time that God gives us a rule in our lives. Or don't you feel like the key to the blessings is the if you unlock the blessings. With the if Oh yeah, there's no doubt. Yeah, because we talked about that before. But the point, the point isn't the obey. The point is the blessings God's offering. Well, I think I think the point is the relationship with your heavenly Father. Yes, I think I think the point is is that to know God, right, to know God, to love God, to depend on God, because God's ultimate end. Game, want to bless you. Here's how you get them. Yeah, God's ultimate endgame even today. The application from Deuteronomy to today is is that you know God's endgame is our relationship with him. So God calls us, gives us commandments, he invites us, or he commands us. Both invitations and commandments are given ultimately for His glory, for the furthering of His kingdom, so that God may get the glory in all things. And I think primarily that you know that that chief among those in our lives is that we might experience God in a way that we would not if we weren't so close to him, obeying him, experiencing him, getting to know him so ultimately our relationship with him. And then from that, the overflow of that is also you know, our benefit. It's going to We're going to experience the blessings from that. We're going to experience good things. We're going to experience God, God's favorite. We're going to have the stories. We're going to be a part of God's story. We're going to be able to say, man, I was a part of that. God used me. I get to see miracles. And I think that so anyway, all that to say, it's for His glory first, but always for our benefit. Always the word is always, it's not most of the time, it's always. Well, when I read these passages, because what we didn't read I mentioned, you know, you had Mount Ebel and Mount Garrizone and they're calling. It's a call and response kind of a thing that's happening here. So what we didn't read was the curses side, which, by the way, the curses are exactly the opposite. Where he says your towns and fears to be blessed. He said, your towns and fields are going to be cursed, right, your children, your crops will be blessed. Your children and your crops will be cursed. He unloads it that way. It's exactly the opposite. That's when he's calling out to them back and forth. When you get down to verse literally verse sixteen, your towns and your fields to be cursed. Your fruit baskets and bred boards will be cursed. Your children and your crops will be cursed. Your offspring of your herds and flocks will be cursed. So what he's doing is he's going, hey, there's a choice here when I read these curses or when I I don't see negative, I only see positive. I see a God who wants, a good God who wants to bless his people, and I see a God that is just who reluctantly says there are consequences if you don't right. That's I don't see like an eager god for justice and for a God that's eager for wrath. I see a God who desires. And proof of that is in the last chapter verse thirty. Is that the last chapter. It's one of the last chapters. Yeah, because Moses dies like thirty two or something. But in chapter thirty he literally says, I'm giving you the choice between life and death. This is all still the same. Remember, it's all one big event that's happening. This isn't like we tend to read chapters like they're different events. But this is all one really long event. We're just not getting to the end of it, right, We're kind of taking a piece in the middle. But he literally says, I'm giving you the choice between life and death. Oh, that you would choose life. He's saying, I'm begging you to choose the right way. I'm begging you to choose life. And So when I read these and I see here's what God wants to do. God wants us to experience all of his blessings. He wants to set us high above the rest of the world. He wants our towns and our fields to be blessed. Literally, he's saying, your communities. That's what he's saying. I want your whole community to be blessed. I want your children to be blessed. I want your crops to be blessed. I want your herds and your flocks. These are your investments, your herds and your flocks. Right. Do you remember Pastor job in Kenya among the Pocots. He was a big leader, like a big l leader. He influenced so many people. Yeah, he had a stroke and died, but I loved him. Way out in the bush, just in almost incomprehensible living conditions and one of the poorest places I've ever been in my life. Chep Turu was where he was based. But he had influence over thousands all around that area and he chose to continue to live there. We went to visit his home, and he's good friends with Jay Lucarelli, who's a mutual friend of ours. And so we were pulling in and we were driving through the bush. We'd been driving for an hour and a half. I hadn't seen another human and then he just steps out of the bush like somehow he knew he were there. He steps out, he gets in the truck, and so Jay was asking how are you doing? How are you doing. Job? And he goes, oh, God is blessing me, he said, I'm telling you on every level. He starts telling us about how God's been blessing the churches, how God's been bringing freedom to the people in his churches. And so Jay shifts and he goes, how are you doing personally? Because he'd had some health issues and he'd been single for a long time, been praying for a wife. And he said, oh, Jay, let me tell you. And he's just celebrating. As we're pulling onto his property. He goes, I started off with four goats, He said, I have one hundred goats. God has given me one hundred goats, and for him, that makes him a rich man. He said, I started off with four cows. He said, I have one hundred cows. One cow is worth five goats, right, I have a one hundred coll He said. God has blessed me, Jay, God has blessed me beyond comprehension. And he said, I just served the Lord, and my cattle and my sheep and my goats keep producing. It's amazing. He said. Then God gave me a good wife. He said, Oh, Jay, her name is Miriam. He said, God has given me she's so fat. So fat. He's talked about how God's blessing so for a rich man. The only reason why a woman out in the bush would be fat is because she's married to a rich man. Because the women so much, they work so hard, and they barely eat. They eat once every three days. And so he wanted her to come out just kind of spin twirl for us to show us how fat she was because God's blessed him. He's got a hundred cows, one hundred goats, sheep, and a fat wife. God's blessed him. And then he wanted to show us how his house had two rooms, you know. So he had a sitting and sleeping room and he had a kitchen. Wow, and they were attached. He has two rooms in his house. He said, God has blessed me so much. And that's what I read when I see this. So his investments, his bank account is his sheep and his cows, right right. They live today, the pocat people live today like the people were living in the Bible, right right. And so this is what he's saying, is we have plenty of food. He literally brought out a bread board, had snacks for us, he poured us some tea. Right, And this is what God's saying, Man, everything, in every area of your life, you should be able to celebrate if you obey My commands, and every of your life you should be able to celebrate how good God is to you. You are blessed. Try that when the next time somebody comes over and says, hey, Jeff, how are you invoting? No, get me killed? Hey, good Chris, Chris, how are you guys doing? Let me tell you man, Let me tell you I. I my back account is stable, and my wife is so fat. Could you even imagine a human being and then your life would be over? Your life would be over, hey, And then then say honey. Yeah, yeah, he brought her out. She was fixing, she was fixing the snacks for the and he brought her out and had I can't even imagine, yeah, she's probably yeah. I can't even imagine bringing Liz out and saying twirl honey. But but but this, this is the thing, right is by. The way, my wife would go, oh yeah, well you stand up, Chris, you to. That exactly, But this is what I said. So he commented on the fact that that the fact that God was doing good work in his villages. Lives are being changed. Everybody's prospering right because God's people are here and and people are beginning to follow God's ways, and the whole village. You know, your towns, in your fields are being blessed. Your children. And he had a son. His names was His name was Headsman, which is funny. And your crops will be blessed, the offspring of your herds and flocks. That's the interest on your investment. Wherever you go, whatever you do, you'll be blessed. The baskets, the fruit baskets, and the bread boards be blessed. And God says, I'll go out and conquer your enemies when they attack you. They're going to attack for one direction and run seven directions. He says, I'm going to guarantee a blessing on everything you do. Dude, I cannot imagine hearing these words or reading these words and thinking we have a mean God. I can only hear these things going. That's what I want. I want everything. I want to guaranteed the blessing that God says if I just choose to obey him. Now I can't obey him. Perfectly. But I can tell you this, I can work harder today to obey him better than I did yesterday. And I can show him the trajectory, because God doesn't consult your past to determine your future. But I can't show him the trajectory of my life is running to him in his ways. And I want to be holier tomorrow than I was yesterday. I want to be leaning in discovering how to better honor him and obey him today than I was six months ago or a year ago. Right, I want to trajector my life to be holier because I want that promise. The Lord will guarantee a blessing on everything you do and will fill your storehouses with grain. The Lord will your God will bless you. And then then you read the others and he goes. But if you choose to do your own thing, if you refuse, he literally says that the next verse that we didn't read, if you refuse to listen to the Lord your God and do not obey all the commandments and decrees, all these other curses will come on you. And it's the flip side of these promises that he gave. Right. Yeah, so hey, I want that right, well, that that is a good place to end. I think that the I think that the final word, maybe the takeaway is to see God's justice, to see his characters nature, and God's intention for you is a good life, a blessed life, a life of favorite. How God wants. Us to uh to you know, be in communion with him, to have relationship with him, and then to live a life of blessing, fulfillment, purpose, love. And he doesn't live in a mystery. He tells us how, He tells us how to qualify for these these blessings, so. They're for there, for his glory and for our benefit. There is correct. So hey, so hey, thanks for tuning in, and we will see you on Monday, hopefully on the Bible guys. Mhm h mh