In Deuteronomy 28, God give the Israelites the list of blessings for their obedience in verses 1 to 14. It is followed by a list of curses in verse 15 to 68 if the Israelites disobey God. Verse 16 to 19 elaborate on the extent and seriousness of these curse that will happen on Israel. Their city and fields, their food supply, their descendants, crops and livestock and everything they do and have will be cursed. Verse 19 says “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.”Moses is also clear to the Israelites that their cursed situations will not be caused by natural or manmade disasters. 26 times in this set of verses, Moses highlighted that it will be “the Lord” who will send these curses unto them who are disobedient to Him.

The curses will lay on their individual health, property and family, and also the entire nation of Israel. When it happens, the curses will pursue and overtake them relentlessly until they are completely destroyed (v22). God will bring them ultimate shame and fear in the last verse in the chapter by sending them back to Egypt to be enslaved again (v 68). After being slaves for 400 years, and wondering in the wilderness for 40 years, it is clear to the nation of Israel that they will never want to be return back to those lives again.

Amidst the curses described, the ones that were most uncomfortable to me were the visuals of the men and women from verse 54 to 57. These tender and delicate men and women will come to such desperation and despair that they will eat their own new-born out that come out in between the woman’s feet. Oh, how unsettling to imagine having to eat your own out of desperate needs, how great a curse it would be!

On the fateful day of October 13, 1972, a plane carrying an Uruguayan rugby team crashed high in the snowy Andes mountain range. Of the 45 people onboard, 29 survived the initial crash. They were trapped in the high altitude of the Andes, and starvation set in quickly. They had to slice off the flesh of the dead body and ate them in order to survive. The survivors first ate the pilot whom they had no emotional connections to, but soon, they had to eat their friends. The ordeal lasted 72 days, and in the end 16 survivors were rescued. Out of desperation of the survivors, they had resorted to cannibalism. Can you imagine the trauma they will face after this ordeal, and the guilt they carry every time they have flashbacks of what happen during the 72 days? In the same way, can you imagine the pain of these curses that came upon the Israelites?

Dear brothers and sisters, Paul would remember the weight of these terrible curses in Deuteronomy 28 as he wrote Galatians 3:13. He said that Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. You see, when we received Jesus as our saviour, we did not only received blessings from above. If it was so, then not having Jesus in our lives simply meant that we will go on with life with little blessings. When Christ came, He bore these treacherous curses on behalf of humanity. Jesus took on our behalf every single curse that God has laid on those who had disobeyed God. He took the curses of humanity up on the cross and paid it with His blood. He who had no sin was cursed on our behalf. He who had no sin, paid the price of our sins.

Dear brothers and sisters, grace is free but not cheap. It is freely given to those who believe, but the price paid for our sins was hefty. Take time to give thanks to the Lord for His willing sacrifice out of His love and grace for us. Lest we forget the price he paid for the curses that were meant for us.

Prayer: Dear Jesus, thank you for redeeming us by becoming the curse for us. You had not done anything that deserved such curses, but yet you took them willingly for our sake. Thank you God for your loving mercy and grace! Lord, help me to live a life that is worthy of this calling to be your children, that I will live a life that is pleasing to you.