Deuteronomy 11: 19-28 “And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth. For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him; Then will the Lord drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves. Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea shall your coast be. There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the Lord your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you. Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: And a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.”

Please note: “Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;” verse 26

You do not have to be the sharpest knife in the drawer to understand the text! Blessing or curse, you make the choice! We are living in a day when everybody wants everything except the responsibility for their own failures. The people of God were faced with a choice and the outcome would rest totally on their shoulders. The same basic principle applies to each of us today. Only a fool would choose the curse of God over the blessing of God! The question that we must ask is, “How hard is it to get the blessing?” For the nation of Israel to enjoy the prosperity of Canaan, God only required two things; love and loyalty. Within Deuteronomy 11, three times we find the phrase, “love the Lord” (vs.1, 13, 22). God just wants His people to love Him! When Jesus was asked what was the greatest of all the commandments, He replied, “Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. This is the first and great commandment” (Matthew 22:37-38). There is a word used three times in reference to God’s commandments in Deuteronomy 11. It is the word, “keep” (vs.1, 8, 22). God wants His people to be loyal by being obedient to His Word. Speaking to His followers, Jesus said, “And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say?” (Luke 6:46). Jesus also rebuked them with these words, “If ye love me, keep my commandments” (John 14:15). In many cases, the blessing of God is as simple as Love and Loyalty! You make the choice.