“You shall carry much seed into the field but shall gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. ³⁹ You shall plant vineyards and dress them, but you shall neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes, for the worm shall eat them. ⁴⁰ You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil, for your olives shall drop off. ⁴¹ You shall have sons and daughters, but they shall not remain yours, for they shall go into captivity. ⁴² All your trees and the fruit of your ground the cicada shall take over. ⁴³ Aliens residing among you shall ascend above you higher and higher, while you shall descend lower and lower. ⁴⁴ They shall lend to you but you shall not lend to them; they shall be the head and you shall be the tail. ⁴⁵ All these curses shall come upon you, pursuing and overtaking you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the Lord your God, by observing the commandments and the decrees that he commanded you. ⁴⁶ They shall be among you and your descendants as a sign and a portent forever.” Deuteronomy 28:38-46

In Deuteronomy, we encounter the blessings and the curses – similar to the Sermon on the Plain in Luke in which Jesus lists his own Blessings and Woes. In the case of Deuteronomy, the text claims that if you will obey the commandments of the Lord, then you will have all of these blessings—however, if the people choose not to obey, then “…these curses shall come upon them.” In our society, one of the richest societies in the world, one where people have numerous blessings including wealth, and material goods, etc.—well, perhaps these blessings have created people who have turned their backs on G-d. They see their blessings as man-made—not blessings that have come down from G-d. In his Sermon on the Plain, Jesus confronts this very issue.

Please note what comes in the next two verses” “Because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and with gladness of heart for the abundance of everything, ⁴⁸ therefore you shall serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you, in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and lack of everything. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.” The bible has some harsh things to say about people when we turn our backs on G-d. Perhaps we should mark and remember both the blessings, and the woes.

Pastor Dave

“So again Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, I am the gate for the sheep. ⁸ All who came before me are thieves and bandits; but the sheep did not listen to them. ⁹ I am the gate. Whoever enters by me will be saved, and will come in and go out and find pasture. ¹⁰ The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly.” John 10:7-10

The “I AM” sayings of Jesus in the Gospel of John…

I am the bread of life

I am the living bread that came down from heaven

I am the light of the world — I am the gate for the sheep

I am the good shepherd — I am the resurrection and the life

I am the way, and the truth, and the life

I am the true vine, and my Father is the vine grower.

In these sayings, Jesus identifies himself with symbols that come from the common fund of ancient Near Eastern religious and human experience, i.e. bread, life, truth, light.  In these common symbols, Jesus declares that people’s religious needs and human longings are met in him.  (New Interpreter’s Bible Commentary, Volume IX, page 601 – 602.)

I guess what I hear Jesus saying is this: Jesus offers all of us sustenance, light, protection, truth, life and, of course, resurrection.

Pastor Dave