How Heaven’s gardening lessons help us avoid cursed results (Deuteronomy 27–28; Matthew 13)

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“The LORD has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments; and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, for praise, fame, and honor; and that you shall be a consecrated people to the LORD your God, as He has spoken.”

Deuteronomy 26:18–19 NASB

How did Israel become a people “today” when they were originally called a nation via Abraham (Gen 12:2)? This commission recorded in Torah reading כִּי־תָבוֹא Ki Tavo (“when you come in,” Deut. 26:1–29:8) is one of the rebirths (John 3:1–21) of the people of Israel. This is the “remnant” is spoke about throughout the Scriptures (e.g., Genesis 19:24–25; Isaiah 1:9; 10:22–23; Romans 9:27–28).

For example, only a small subset of the first generation of post-slavery Israel rejected the Land, men of fighting age (20–50). Their rejection of the land of freedom — the land of rest — condemned the entire first generation to a 40 year sojourn in the wilderness. God’s words of victory to them had become, “blah, blah, blah,” or “yada, yada, yada” (“I know, I know, I know”; Isaiah 28:9–13).

Should we be praying for persecution?

We may have a veneer of separation from the dangers recorded in Deuteronomy 28, but we have spiritual brothers and sisters in China and other oppressive areas who are suffering persecution.

And they are praying that we will suffer the curses of Deuteronomy 28. In the USA, we have lived in the “good ground” for 400 years, taking a lesson from Messiah Yeshua (Christ Jesus) in the Parable of the Sower (Matt. 13:3–23; Mark 4:2–9; Luke 8:5–8). We live with the conveniences of life that fool us into believing that we have everything figured out, but what these things really do is choke out God’s calling.

We ignore the fact that much of America is no longer “good soil,” but rather, we have many who are not dwelling in good soil, but in rocky soil, or hard soil. What all kinds of soil needs is rain. The parable of the sower is not only a diagnostic tool for individual believers but for communities and nation, too.

As Americans we trust in our “high walls” — a dominant military, commanding economy, leading innovation — but they will not save us from God’s rebuke and correction. Entering the Promised Land is living in the rest God gives us, fully realized through the Messiah Yeshua and the Holy Spirit (Hebrews 3–4; Psalm 95).

God broke the bonds of the superpower of the day, Egypt, so the people of Israel could leave in safety. He supplied and resupplied them with bread and water every day for 40 years. The bread ancient Israel ate in the wilderness was a supernatural blessing, but they still died because they didn’t combine the blessing with faith (trust) in the Blesser. The True Bread of God, the Word of God, came down from Heaven, gave us eternal life and sustains us through our life on earth and into eternity too. (John 6:47-51; Heb. 4:1-11)

Parable of the Sower reveals sources of our blessings and curses

Depending on the condition of our “soil,” we may not “produce” anything at all. Or you may produce a small plant, but the fruit got burned in the sun and withered. If your soil is full of thorns, the plant is strangled and the fruit drops off prematurely and dies before its time. One can be dehydrated, or one can be overwatered. Either extreme is dangerous.

In Romans 9–11, apostle Paul struggled with the fact that most of Israel didn’t discern the Messiahship of Yeshua (Jesus). But as he reflected on the Scriptures, particularly the book of Isaiah, he learned why they rejected their Messiah. The Spirit revealed through Paul why many in Israel were rejecting their Messiah. Like ancient Israel in the wilderness coming out of slavery in Mitzraim (Egypt), they lacked humility. They were not grateful for what God had given them. They were always looking for more (Num. 14:22–23).

In Romans 11:1-10, Paul exhorts the gentile believers in Rome — and all of us — to not be like ancient Israel. We are called to be “good soil,” those who hear the word of God, understands it and bears good fruit. Bearing good fruit is how we reciprocate God’s love. God plants seeds in expectation of a crop, which is the fruit of the Spirit. Plants don’t eat their own fruit. It’s produced for others.

Deuteronomy 27-28 is a stark warning about what happens when God’s people refuse our calling to be the life preserver for the world. He will cut off those who reject their purpose in being a life line and graft others in who are willing to partner with God to bring life to the world.

‘Arise, shine, your Light has come’

The horror show we read in Deuteronomy 27-28 is exactly what happened to the people of Israel during the Assyrian (733 B.C.) and Babylonian conquests (587 B.C.; 2Kings 24–25), particularly with the siege and destruction of Yerushalayim (Jerusalem). Rome also did this again in A.D. 70. In the reverberations of these judgments and rebukes by God, Isaiah describes who God will restore His people after His judgments.

“Arise, shine; for your light has come, And the glory of the LORD has risen upon you. For behold, darkness will cover the earth And deep darkness the peoples; But the LORD will rise upon you And His glory will appear upon you. Nations will come to your light, And kings to the brightness of your rising.”

Isaiah 60:1–3 NASB

We will know the redemption is coming when Zion lies in desolate darkness. Only those who “hope against hope” will be fully prepared to see it. There were those like Simeon and Anna, who were elders in the Temple, whose hearts were ready to receive the Messiah and met Him when He was an infant.

The sinner is in a state of exile away from God, spiritually blind and lost in materialism and nihilism. We sometimes get things backwards: We expect people to bear strong fruits before they receive God’s Spirit, but they need God’s Spirit before they can produce those fruits.

It should be like the path of our spiritual forebears. Heaven first freed Israel from bondage in Mitzraim through the plagues and through the Red Sea before leading them to Sinai to learn the Ten Commandments. So too, those today need to be freed from their “house of bondage” — the things that hold them captive to a life apart from God — then the Word and Spirit of God will teach Who God is and what “crop” each can produce. We should not expect people to be Ph.D’s in theology before being baptized.

We all have to go through from the house of bondage to the house of freedom and in this life. As we remember each Sukkot (Festival of Tabernacles/Booths), we live in temporary dwellings — our mortal bodies — like tents. Our tents are susceptible to so many threats, such as disease, violence and old age, but we look forward to the new life, with a new body that will no longer be vulnerable to disease, violence or wear out with age.

‘Eternal Father, Prince of Peace’: Light of the world stepped into our darkness

It is not without reason that it is Messiah Yeshua Who is the only One who can put an end to both the physical and spiritual exiles of His people, both Jewish and gentile.

In Isaiah 9:1–6 reveals the ideal future of the world to come which the Messiah will bring to fruition. The Messiah is not just a ruler, but much, much more.

Now when Jesus heard that John had been taken into custody, He withdrew into Galilee; and leaving Nazareth, He came and settled in Capernaum, which is by the sea, in the region of Zebulun and Naphtali. This was to fulfill what was spoken through Isaiah the prophet: “THE LAND OF ZEBULUN AND THE LAND OF NAPHTALI, BY THE WAY OF THE SEA, BEYOND THE JORDAN, GALILEE OF THE GENTILES —THE PEOPLE WHO WERE SITTING IN DARKNESS SAW A GREAT LIGHT, AND THOSE WHO WERE SITTING IN THE LAND AND SHADOW OF DEATH, UPON THEM A LIGHT DAWNED” [Isa. 9:1–2]. From that time Jesus began to preach and say, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Matthew 4:12–17 NASB

The traditional lands of Zebulun and Naphtali are the areas that border of Kinneret/Chinnereth (Sea of Galilee) on the west and northwest. Isaiah says that the Prophet (Deut. 18:15; aka the Messiah) would in fact have a strong ministry and following in the area around the Sea of Galilee. So those who circulated the notion behind apostle Nathaniel’s question “Does anything good come from Nazareth?” (John 1:46) and the retort of certain members of Israel’s leadership that “no prophet arises out of Galilee” (John 7:52) were willfully ignorant of — defiant against — the prophecy.

The prophet Daniel knew that God could either open or close the mouths of the lions (Daniel 6). His friends knew that God could either put out the fire of the furnace or allow it to consume them (Daniel 3). They all knew that regardless of what happened to their bodies, that God would take care of their souls, which was more important to them than living. There are some things worse than death (Matt. 10:28).

Summary: Tammy