What Do You Choose?

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God certainly promised tremendous blessing upon his people when they walked in obedience

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with him.

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He also promised great hardship if they were to enter into this agreement and then renege

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on it by disobeying its terms.

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So this was the privilege and the price of being his treasured people.

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But at the end of the day, it was their choice.

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Would it be blessing or curse?

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Well, welcome to this week's Shabbat Shalom devotional when I seek to share a little

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inspiration and bring a little peace to the close of your very busy week.

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This week's Torah portion comes from Deuteronomy 26 verse 1 through 29 verse 8.

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It's called Ki Tavvoh, when you enter, meaning when you enter the land.

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Now all of Deuteronomy has just been about preparing the people to enter the promised

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land.

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And in 26 verses 8 through 9 this week, we see that even the Exodus is connected to

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entering the land.

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Everything is now being prepared to be connected to entering that land.

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This week we also finished reading all those stipulations and commandments that were a

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part of God's covenant.

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And we enter now into the section of penalties or rewards.

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In other words, blessings or curse.

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Well first we start out with blessing.

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Thank goodness.

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And boy, are they great.

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I want to read them to you from 28 verses 1 through 14.

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Please stick with me.

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Now it shall come to pass if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe

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carefully all of His commandments which I command you today, that the Lord your God will set

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you high above all nations of the earth, and all these blessings shall come upon you and

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overtake you because you obey the voice of the Lord your God.

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Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country.

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Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground, and the increase

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of your herds.

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The increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.

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Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

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Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out.

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The Lord will cause your enemies to rise against you to be defeated before your face, that

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shall come out against you one way, and flee before you seven ways.

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The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses, and in all to which you

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set your hand.

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He will bless you in the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

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The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you,

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if you keep the commandments of the Lord your God, and walk in His ways.

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Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and

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they shall be afraid of you, and the Lord will grant you plenty of goods in the fruit

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of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the

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land in which the Lord swore to your fathers to give to you.

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The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land

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and its season, and to bless all the work of your hand.

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You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow, and the Lord will make you the

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head and not the tail.

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You shall be above only, and not beneath.

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Wow!

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I want those blessings, don't you?

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That the blessings would overtake His children.

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That's what I want, Lord.

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I want to be overtaken by blessing.

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But then we read about the curses, the hardships that would come from disobedience.

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It's a long section, I'm not going to read it all, but I just want to jump to the end

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of it where it talks about that really the last step in judgment would be exile from

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the land.

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And this is what it says.

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This is 28 verses 63b through 66a.

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You shall be plucked from off the land which you go to possess, then the Lord will scatter

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you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve

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other gods, which neither you nor your fathers have known, wood and stone.

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And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the soul of your foot have

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a resting place, but there the Lord will give you a trembling heart, failing eyes and anguish

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of soul.

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Your life shall hang in doubt before you.

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You shall fear day and night and have no assurance of life.

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It goes on, but that's a taste of what exile would be.

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Now Moses calls them to stand before the Lord and to accept the covenant.

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This is what he says in 29 verses 12 through 13, that you may enter into covenant with

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the Lord your God and into his oath, which the Lord your God makes with you today, that

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he may establish you today as a people for himself, and that he may be God to you, just

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as he is spoken to you, and just as he is sworn to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and

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Jacob.

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So you see, this was all a part of the plan and covenant God had made with Abraham, Isaac

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and Jacob.

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The exodus from Egypt was because of what he had promised Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, which

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was that their people would inherit this land and they would be his people.

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All of this in order to bring them in to the land promised to Abraham.

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What a journey.

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What a covenant.

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What a God of the covenant that we all serve.

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With that I wish you Shabbat Shalom.