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DEUTERONOMY: GETTING OTHERS TO BE VICTORS, NOT CASUALTIES
Part XXVII: Motivating Others To Heed God By Explaining The Results Of NOT Doing So
(Deuteronomy 28:15-68)
  1. Introduction
    1. God loves to reward His people for obedience -- that is much better than disciplining them for sin!
    2. However, in motivating us to obey Him, sometimes just mentioning the rewards of heeding Him is not as effective as explaining the discipline to come were we not to obey the Lord. Deuteronomy 28:15-68 explains how Moses motivated Israel to obey God by explaining the undesirable results of not doing so:
  2. Motivating Others To Heed God By Explaining The Results Of NOT Doing So, Deut. 28:15-68.
    1. Just before his death, Moses addressed Israel on her need to heed God's Law for blessing, Deut. 1:1-5.
    2. A part of that address detailed the troubling consequences that would befall Israel for disobeying the Lord, and we enumerate them as follows (Deuteronomy 28:15-68):
      1. Moses revealed sin would produce God's discipline of failure in city and rural living, Deut. 28:16.
      2. He revealed sin would bring failure in their harvest and food storage endeavors, Deuteronomy 28:17.
      3. God would judge sin in Israel with reproductive tragedies in human, animal and plant realms, 28:18.
      4. Moses revealed disobedience to the Law would yield failure in the market place, 28:19-20, 38-40, 42:
        1. Sin would lead to God's punishing the people with trouble in their daily routines, Deut. 28:19-20.
        2. As Israel was an agricultural nation, God would punish sin with agricultural failures, 28:38-40, 42.
      5. Moses taught sin against God would be met with punishing diseases, Deut. 28:21-22, 27, 35, 59-61.
      6. In fact, Moses revealed sin would lead to God's cutting off the opportunity for business as He would cause Israel to have a drought, cutting off agricultural activity, Deuteronomy 28:23-24.
      7. God would judge disobedience to Him with national defense disaster, Deuteronomy 28:25-26, 36-37, 46-52, 62-64, 68:
        1. Sin would lead to God's causing Israel to experience defeat in battle, Deut. 28:25-26.
        2. Sin would lead to God's causing Israel to experience captivity in battle, Deut. 28:36-37, 46-52.
        3. Sin would lead to God's allowing Israel to be killed off, leaving small remnants in number, 28:62.
        4. Sin would lead to God's causing Israel's captives to be dispersed from one another, 28:63-64.
        5. Sin would lead to God's causing Israel to be returned to Egypt in ships, Deut. 28:68a.
        6. Sin would lead to God's causing ultimate humiliation -- the humiliation of being rejected even as slaves when slavery was their only option for survival, Deuteronomy 28:68b.
      8. Moses revealed God would judge sin by allowing Israel to suffer mental failure, 28:28-29, 34, 64-68:
        1. Sin would lead to despair in the short-term, Deuteronomy 28:28.
        2. In turn, this despair would give way to a lack of helpers to relieve the problems causing it, 28:28-29.
        3. Finally, personality disorders would come from viewing the destruction of their homes, 28:34.
        4. In the end, depression and suicidal tendencies would be the lot of the judged, Deut. 28:65-67.
      9. God would judge sin in Israel with the destruction of the family unit, Deut. 28:30-33, 41, 53-57:
        1. Sin would be followed by the failure of marriage unions, Deuteronomy 28:30a.
        2. Sin would be followed by the loss of their homes and yards, Deuteronomy 28:30b.
        3. Sin would be followed by the destruction of pets and livestock, Deuteronomy 28:31-33.
        4. Sin would be followed by parents seeing their children forcibly taken from them, 28:32.
      10. Moses taught God would judge sin in Israel by causing foreigners to excel at their demise, Deut. 28:43.
      11. Moses revealed God would judge Israel's sin by bringing a loss of financial independence, and with it Israel's growing dependence upon foreign financial powers, Deuteronomy 28:43-44.
Lesson: Not only did Moses ENCOURAGE Israel to OBEY God for REWARD, but he also revealed the troubling PUNISHMENTS that would come for FAILING to heed Him.

Application: (1) BESIDES motivating disciples to HEED God by explaining the REWARDS for doing so, (2) we should WARN them of the DISCIPLINE God holds for SIN! (3) Though we are NOT under the Mosaic Covenant NOW, the PRESENCE of ANY of the problems in Deuteronomy 28:15-68 should AT LEAST cause us to examine ourselves to see if God is punishing us for sin, 1 Corinthians 11:29-31!