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Warning to the Guilt-Ridden: Don’t Read This Verse! — Deuteronomy 28:47-48
Jack Klumpenhower
11/5/2009
The Bible is filled with curses, and my temptation is to avoid reading them. Oh, I know they’re necessary. Given the evil in this world, God would be unfit if he had only nice things to say. But curses still make me feel guilty, and that can’t be good.
I know fine, churchgoing people who feel guilty pretty much all the time. They may put on a good face. But they’re aware of God’s rules and his disfavor toward those who fail to obey. They know they don’t measure up. To avoid the nagging guilt, they tend to skew their Bible reading toward pleasant passages about God’s blessings. But the curses still bug them. They have no deep joy and are too worried about themselves to really live for God.
I know. I’ve been there. At times I still struggle.
Confronting the curse
The only solution is to confront these curses head-on. So let’s take one that really hammers us. In Deuteronomy 28, Moses recites a long list of curses that will come on God’s people if they fail to obey him in the land he’s giving them. For me, the killer blow comes here:
“If you do not serve the Lord your God with joy and enthusiasm for the abundant benefits you have received, you will serve your enemies whom the Lord will send against you. You will be left hungry, thirsty, naked, and lacking in everything. The Lord will put an iron yoke on your neck, oppressing you harshly until he has destroyed you.” ( Deuteronomy 28:47-48, NLT)
This passage says it isn’t enough just to obey God. We must do it with both joy and enthusiasm. After all, the text reminds us, he’s given us abundant benefits. We must not be ungrateful. If we are—even the least bit—we deserve destruction.
Can’t you just feel a truckload of guilt settling on you?
Well, I feel it too sometimes. But there’s no need to. As Christians we have the entire Bible. We know the unlikely but exhilarating direction God was headed when he concocted this curse.
Being free of the curse
Look again at the last half of our passage, where the curse is described. There’s hunger, thirst, nakedness, and complete poverty. There’s subjection and final destruction. Doesn’t that sound like Jesus on the cross?
You see, the one guy who actually served God with complete joy and enthusiasm suffered the curse that we who fail deserved: “When he was hung on the cross, he took upon himself the curse for our wrongdoing” (Galatians 3:13, NLT).
You and I cannot grow spiritually unless we know that, if we belong to Jesus, that feeling of guilt is a false feeling. No real guilt is there. Not even a trace. It’s long gone, all heaped on Jesus centuries ago.
In the cleverness of God, being free of the curse actually produces a level of joy and enthusiasm we could never achieve otherwise. When I teach, I’ve been accused of talking too much about Jesus and the cross, neglecting more “practical” instruction. My response is that the message of the cross, spoken to hearts by God’s Spirit, brings rebirth. And to those who’ve been reborn, that same message of the cross brings ongoing joy and confidence. Nothing could be more practical.
So don’t be timid. Read the curses. I challenge you to read them with the cross in view. God’s purpose for curses is not to make us feel guilty. Just the opposite. They show how thoroughly we’ve been cleaned, how fully Jesus has saved us. They lead to bigger worship.
Jack Klumpenhower is a writer and communications consultant living in Colorado. He has authored Bible study lessons and a family devotional guide.
Read More: The prophet Micah pronounced curses on the people of Jerusalem for amassing wealth at the expense of others. Read Micah 6:9-16. How have you sinned in ways similar to the charges in verses 9-12? How did Jesus suffer for you in ways similar to the curses in verses 13-16?
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