DEUTERONOMY 27

Here’s what shocked me from Deuteronomy 27: "When you have crossed the Jordan, these tribes shall stand on Mount Gerizim to bless the people: Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Joseph and Benjamin. And these tribes shall stand on Mount Ebal to pronounce curses: Reuben, Gad, Asher, Zebulun, Dan and Naphtali." (vs 12-13)

To pronounce curses? What does that mean? But before I could wonder any more about that, I ran right smack dab into the list of "curses" that would be announced. Apparently, cursed is anyone who:

practices idolatry
disrespects their parents
tries to steal their neighbor’s land
leads a blind person astray
treats a foreigner, orphan, or widow unjustly
has sex with his father’s wife
has sex with an animal
has sex with his sister
has sex with his mother-in-law
kills their neighbor
performs murder for hire
doesn’t practice God’s law

God is not articulating punishments here. He’s articulating reality. In other words, He’s not threatening that He will do something to people who don’t obey His law; rather, He’s sounding a warning bell — letting the Israelites know that anybody who disregards the law of love is cursed. God doesn’t curse them for not keeping the law. Not keeping the law is the curse.

So, what we’re talking about here is intrinsic versus imposed consequences. If we wanted, we could fashion our own kind of "cursed" list. Cursed is anyone who:

jumps out of a plane without a parachute
drinks poison
wades out into the ocean wearing lead boots

Anyone who engaged in such behaviors would face dire, even life-threatening, consequences. And the same thing applies to the more abstract concepts of God’s law. You see, following the law of love — living in the way God has prescribed — is a blessing. It is its own reward. On the contrary, ignoring the law of love — living in the way God has proscribed — is a curse. It is its own punishment. God is not in the business of threatening; He’s in the business of warning. Oh,
when the circumstances are really dire, He’ll issue a threat. But the reality is that such threats — when carried out — are acts of discipline designed to redirect our path away from the real danger, which is a persistent rejection of God’s law.

God doesn’t want us to be cursed! He wants us to be blessed! And that’s why He acts like a loud siren to warn us of impending danger. When we’re even thinking about heading down a self-destructive path, He goes into five-alarm-fire mode in order to get our attention. When we’re in harm’s way, He will sound the warning cry!