Daily Journey: April 7th

Deut. 28:1-68, John 10:22-42

Thought from Today’s Old Testament Passage:

Blessings. 28:1-14…

If thou shalt hearken diligently. Although Israel’s inheritance and continued enjoyment of the promises was not a matter of legal merit, there was a connection between the nation’s corporate piety and her prosperity. For the Old Testament theocratic kingdom prefigured the consummate kingdom of God, in which righteousness and glory are to be united. Accordingly, to keep the message of the typical-prophetic picture clear, God allowed the Israelites to enjoy the blessings of the typical kingdom only as they, and especially their official representatives, exhibited an appropriate measure of the righteousness of the kingdom. Since any righteousness that Israel possessed was a gift of grace from the God of her salvation, the principle which informs Deuteronomy 28 has no affinities with a religion of works-salvation. …

If Israel would obey the Lord, she would come out on top in every military and commercial encounter with other nations. Within the kingdom there would be abundance of the earth’s goodness. Canaan would truly be a paradise flowing with milk and honey. Of primary import Israel would prosper in her relationship to her covenant Lord. That is the secret of all beatitude, for his favor is life. From the manifest tokens of God’s favor to Israel, … it would be clear that God’s covenant was established with Israel and that he… was Israel’s Owner and Defender. (Charles F. Pfeiffer, Everett F. Harrison, eds, The Wycliffe Bible Commentary (Chicago: Moody Press, 1962), pp. 192-193)