The curses listed in the book of Deuteronomy, chapter 28, include “consumption, fever, inflammation, extreme burning, “the botch of Egypt”, hemorrhoids, the scab, the incurable itch, madness, blindness, and astonishment of heart. Then there’s drought: the sky overhead becoming like copper, and the ground underfoot as hard as iron. (There are plenty more but I’m sure you get the picture.)
As for the blessings, they would not be inevitable – God would on their obedience “command” them! (Deuteronomy 28:8)
What many Christians fail to realize is that for us there is no “right side” and “wrong side” of the Law, since we are all under Grace. We don’t need to try and stay in God’s “good books” by trying hard to keep His Law lest we get into His “bad books”! Love fulfils the Law. “Against love there is no law.” Jesus pleased His Father in all that he said and did, and then bled and died for a world of sinners who had broken the Law. To come under Law, we would have to fall from Grace, and grace enables us to stand (Romans 5:2).
Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us — for it is written, ‘Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree’ – that the blessing of Abraham might come upon the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Galatians 3:13, 14)
Christ has not redeemed us from the Law itself but from the curse of the Law – the curses that come upon those who break the Law; those listed in Deuteronomy 28. There are no performance blessings and non-performance curses for those who are in relationship with the Father through the Son, because the Grace of God has done away with the treadmill of performance-based religion. We are not blessed in Moses, who represents Law, but in Abraham, who represents Faith.
Nor are we in the shadow of any mountain — Jesus said so (John 4:21-24). There is no “location, location” — we worship the Father “in spirit and in truth”!
Still trying to stay in God’s ‘good books’? Deuteronomy chapter 27 records that six of the twelve tribes of Israel stood on Mt Ebal and shouted “Amen!” to the curses that would come upon the children of Israel if they broke God’s Law. Chapter 28 records that on the other side of a valley separating them the other six tribes shouted “Amen!” from Mt Gerazim to the blessings that would come upon the children of Israel if they kept the Law.
Moses told the people: “I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing: therefore, choose life, that both you and your descendants may live.” (Deuteronomy 30:19) God was not impartial: He urged them to choose life! He wanted to bless them!
No wonder the Samaritans chose to live in the shadow of Mt Gerazim, which was associated with God’s blessings on the obedient! (John 4:20) Who would choose to live in the shadow of Mt. Ebal, which was associated with His curses on the disobedient? The list of curses is not nice reading The Good News is that we are not the children of Moses through Law but the children of Abraham through faith in Jesus Christ.
The only Good Book that God keeps is The Book of Life, and if your name is in it you are safe through Time and into Eternity. You are not on probation – you are pardoned, and there’s a huge difference between the two!
So, walk in the light and love God with all that’s in you — and love your neighbour as do yourself. And if you do sin, confess it to God and He will forgive you, immediately (1 John 1:5-10). If you’ve been “born again”, your name is in God’s Good Book, the Book of Life!