THE BLESSINGS AND CURSES The goal of this book is the enjoyment of the holy life by the Holy God. This chapter comes like the end of the book, to reveal the blessings that dwell upon those who receive God’s work in obedience to His commandments; as well as the curses that dwell upon those who reject the divine commandment, and do not receive the holy life; as a natural fruit of sin and disobedience. 1- Worshipping the Holy God 1 -- 2 2- The blessings of obedience to the Holy God 3 - 17 3- The curses of disobedience to the Holy God 18 – 39 4- Receiving the repentant sinners 40 – 46 1- WORSHIPPING THE HOLY GOD: Seeking from them to be bound to Him, God commands them not to make idols for themselves, neither a carved image, nor a sacred pillar, or to set up an engraved stone in their land, before which to bow down, the way the heathen do. The sign of their bond to Him is: “You shall keep My Sabbaths and reverence My sanctuaries; I am the Lord” (2). This commandment with its two items: keeping the Sabbaths, namely consecrating it to the Lord, and behaving with awe in His sanctuary or house, are the signs of our love for the Lord, and our bond with Him. Keeping the Sabbath means consecrating the time to the account of the Lord; and revering the sanctuary means consecrating the place; As though the believer consecrates the whole time of his life, and every place, perpetually to the Lord. We should keep the Sabbath, so that God may lift us up by His Holy Spirit, beyond the time; namely, set us forth to His eternity; And we should, as well, revere His earthly sanctuary to enjoy His heavenly sanctuaries. By that we live for the Lord forever, on a heavenly level. 2- THE BLESSINGS OF OBEDIENCE TO THE HOLY GOD: Calling on us to worship God and no one else, proclaiming our acceptance of His kingdom, through consecrating His Sabbath forever, and our reverence to His heavenly sanctuary, He reveals to us the following blessings of this encounter with God, specifically through the obedience of His commandments and statutes, responding to the Holy One, through our submission to His holy law: (1) “If you walk in My statutes and keep My commandments, and perform them, then I will give you rain in its season” (2, 3). Rain in its literal form is God’s gift for all; as “He sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5: 45), not as a reward, only to those who walk in His statutes. However, according to the spiritual concept, in our interpretation of several books of the prophets, we saw rain as one of the main features of the Messianic era; being the gift of the Holy Spirit, given in abundance to the church on the day of the Pentecost, for the Christian to live abiding in Christ by the Holy Spirit; who sends rain to turn their barren hearts into a fruitful garden and a heavenly paradise that bring joy to the heart of the Groom. According to the scholar Origen, rain refers to the enjoyment of the divine words through spiritual perception, to revive our souls; saying: [In the book of Deuteronomy, God says on the mouth of His prophet Moses:: “Give ear, O heavens, and I will speak; and hear, O earth, the words of my mouth. Let my teaching drop as the rain; my speech distill as the dew” (Deuteronomy 32: 1, 2)... Listen to Ezekiel say that Opening His mouth, God will cause showers of blessing to come down on earth {Ezekiel 34: 26}; … And to the apostle Paul, say: “For the earth which drinks in the rain that often comes upon it, and bears herbs useful for those by whom it is cultivated, receives blessing from God. But if it bears thorns and briars, it is rejected and near to being cursed, whose end is to be burned” (Hebrew 6: 7, 8). Namely, that this earth will get the blessing of the Lord, when it drinks the rain and produces the fruit; And curses will dwell upon it from the Lord, when, being deprived of the rain, bears thorns and briars. … Therefore, if our earth – namely our heart – receives the rain of teaching the law, that perpetually fall on it; and if it bears the fruit of works, it will enjoy the blessings; But if it has no spiritual works , it will bear instead thorns and briars, namely the worries and desires of this world, “it will be near to perdition, whose end is to be burned”]. Let us, therefore, receive the word of the Lord as heavenly rain to water our inner earth, to make it produce an increase of fruit; and to turn our depths into a joyful paradise. Such rain “will fall in its season”, not that sometimes it will be given, and in other times it will not; but this rain will be given to the believers according to their possibilities and readiness; Some of them will receive it light, and others will receive it as torrent flood. The word of God is sometimes given as “milk to babes” (1 Corinthians 3: 2), and other times, “they are abundantly satisfied with the fullness of Your house” (Psalm 36: 8). Saying “in its season” probably refers to the rich flow of the gift of the Holy Spirit which dwelt upon the church as dense rain after the crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension of the Lord Christ. (2) “The land shall yield its produce” (4). What is this land that shall yield its produce, but the body of dust that is sanctified by the rain of the Holy Spirit, who takes away its barrenness, and turns it into a fruitful spiritual paradise?! … But our body of dust, which for such a long time, lived fruitless, until the time came for it to be taken up by the Word of God through His incarnation, to produce an exalted fruit that brought pleasure to the heart of the Father?! … Hence, in his liturgy, St. Gregory the Theologian says: [You have blessed my nature in You]. According to some, this land that yielded its produce, is St. Mary, who, being “land” as we are, produced the greatest of fruits, namely, our Lord Jesus Christ, through His incarnation in her womb. (3) “And the trees of the field shall yield their fruit” (4). The prophet Ezekiel, describing the new temple, says: “There was water flowing from under the threshold of the temple toward the east; … to form a great river, and along it banks were very many trees on one side and the other” (Ezekiel 47). And the Psalmist likens the believer to “a tree planted by the rivers of water that brings forth its fruit in its season” (Psalm 1: 3). According to the scholar Origen: [Inside us there are trees, either good or bad (Matthew 7: 18). The righteous would not have trees that bear bad fruit, but trees that yield good fruit. … Do you want me to tell you the names of the trees inside our souls? …. There are no apple trees nor vines, but there is a tree called ‘righteousness’, and others called ‘alertness’, ‘strength’, and ‘moderation’. … Inside us there are many trees, planted by the Lord, Himself, in His paradise; … In truth, there are trees of ‘godliness’, ‘wisdom’, ‘teaching’, ‘knowledge of good and evil’, and above all, there is ‘the tree of life’ (Genesis 2: 9)]. (4) “Your threshing shall last till the time of vintage, and the vintage shall last till the time of sowing; You shall eat your bread to the full” (5). He means to say that, because of the abundance of the crop, the season of threshing the grains will last till the time of plucking the fruit from the trees; and this in turn will last till the time of reaping the harvest…. It is as though the believer’s life will turn into an endless abundance; he will spend his whole life gathering new fruits every day, and enjoying an unceasing harvest. Hence it is said: “The poor shall eat and be satisfied” (Psalm 22: 26).About that, the scholar Origen says: [We shall have no void in our life… “For he who sows to the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life” (Galatians 6: 8)]. He also says: [I do not understand the saying: “You shall eat your bread to the full” (5), to mean a physical blessing, as though he who keeps the law of the Lord will enjoy the regular bread to the full; for even the atheist and the criminals eat it, not only to the full but also with lust! … But let us look at Him who says: “I am the living bread who came down from heaven. If anyone eats from this bread, he will live forever” (John 6: 51). … Meditating in that, He who so utters is “the Word” (John 1: 1), who satisfies the souls. we can understand “the bread from the Lord” to concern the blessing… Here, Solomon presents to us a like proclamations in his proverbs, saying “The righteous eats to the satisfying of his soul; but the stomach of the wicked shall be in want” (Proverb 13: 25)…. The righteous eats the bread of life, perpetually and unceasingly, to the satisfying of his soul by the heavenly food, which is the word of the Father and His wisdom]. (5) “You shall dwell in your land safely” (5). In the debates of St. John Cassian, it came that a father monk was asked: How could the divine promise that whoever forsakes houses or lands for the sake of the Lord will be rewarded in this world a hundred fold, when we find the monks who so did possess nothing?! His answer was: [The monk forsook a household to find all men his brethren;… he forsook land to find all the land of the world within his hands]. As a contemporary example we find it in the father monk ‘Abdel-Messih the Ethiopian’, how he forsook much to find, even in the temporal things greater than what he has forsaken; … how he used to lie anywhere in the wilderness without closed doors, and even the serpents, the scorpions, and the wild beasts could not dare to approach to harm him; When many of us have houses with secured doors, and yet their hearts are never in peace, and they always feel threatened, and terrified. Commenting on that divine promise, the scholar Origen says: [The oppressor could never be in peace, but in continuous disturbance; “tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness by which they lie in wait to deceive” (Ephesians 4: 14); Whereas the righteous, keeping the law of the Lord, “dwells in his land safely”, having the solid faith, saying to the Lord: “Revive me according to Your word” (Psalm 119: 25); Plant me deep to dwell in the land founded in faith (Colossians 1: 23; Ephesians 3: 17); for his house is not built on the sand (Matthew 7: 26, 24)]. The Lord consummates His promise, saying: “I will give peace in the land, and you shall lie down, and none will make you afraid” (6). The peace that dwells in the land of our inner heart: “The peace of God which surpasses all understanding” (Philippians 4: 7). Our land, that was a stage of continuous disturbance, anxiety, and bitterness, having been sanctified by our Lord Jesus Christ, and having enjoyed the work of His Holy Spirit, it became a temple of God, so full of the exalted peace of God; that not even the devil with all his angels could terrify (Revelation 12: 7); to say together with the Psalmist: “You shall not be afraid of the terror by night; nor of the arrow that flies by day” (Psalm 91: 5); and, “The Lord is my light and my salvation, Whom shall I fear? The Lord is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?!” (Psalm 27: 1); and, “Though an army should encamp against me, My heart shall not fear” (Psalm 27: 3). Through such an exalted peace, we can lie down and sleep, even in the midst of afflictions; the way the apostle Peter did, when he was awakened by the angel in prison, to bring him out passing through the outer gate … By that we can understand the divine promise that “He gives His beloved sleep” (Psalm 127: 2). (6) “I will rid the land of evil beasts” (6). If our doors became open wide before any evil beast, … If our inner life became a dwelling place for every wickedness and defilement, … If our city became without walls, and through it the beasts of the wilderness crawl with no hindrance; Our Lord Jesus Christ came to rid our land, which is His land, of the evil beasts, to dwell in it Himself. According to the scholar Origen: [The spiritual evil beasts are those called by the apostle: “The spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6: 12). About these beasts, the Holy Book says: “The serpent was more crafty than any other wild animal on earth” (Genesis 3: 1). And: “Your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith” (1 Peter 5: 8, 9)…. If you wish to know about other evil beasts, the prophet Isaiah saw them in a vision as “Through a land of trouble and anguish, from which come the lioness and lion, the viper and the fiery flying serpent. They will carry their riches on the back of young donkeys; and their treasures on the humps of camels, to a people who shall not benefit them” Isaiah 30: 6]. … How could this happen with the physical beasts of the wilderness?! …How could the lioness, the lion, the viper and the fiery flying serpent, carry their riches on the backs of a donkey or a camel?! … It is obvious then, that the prophet, full of the Holy Spirit, means the aggressive power of the fiercest of devils; He intends to say that the devils carry their riches, which are their deceptions to the souls, through the foolishness (the donkey), and the defilement (the camel). And in order not to be delivered to those beasts, the soul that has the fear of God, is committed to say: “Oh, do not deliver the life of Your turtledove to the wild beasts” (Psalm 74: 19). (7) “The sword will not go through your land” (6). Commenting on this verse the scholar Origen says: [Many are the swords that go through our land, if we do not keep the law of the Lord, and walk according to His commandments. Let everyone of us enter into his own soul, to meditate within himself, lest our land, namely, our body, be stirred up by the spirit of adultery, or disturbed by the spirit of anger, by the movement of meanness, or by the arrow of lust and evil pleasures.; … things known by the apostle, who says: “casting down arguments, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God” (2 Corinthians 10: 5); … Lest we submit to that sword, and to those wars, but to pray to the Lord to keep our land in peace]. (8) “You will chase your enemies” (7). According to the scholar Origen: [What are those enemies other than the devil and his angels?!, the evil spirits and the unclean demons (Luke 4: 33)?! If we keep the divine commandments, God will crush the devil; and the enemies would fall dead underneath our feet]. “Five of you shall chase a hundred, and a hundred of you shall put ten thousands to flight. Your enemies shall fall by the sword before you” (8). Who are those “five” who shall chase a hundred, but the holy senses that carry the power to defeat the crowd of evil and sin?! And who are those ”hundred” who shall put ten thousands to flight, but the multitude of our holy thoughts, and of our energies, blessed by the Lord; chasing ten thousands of evil spirits?! Man, therefore, can hold the word of God as a double-edged sword, by which he can bring the sin down; and can corrupt the tricks of the devils; to trample the enemy underneath his feet. (9) “”I will look on you favorably, and make you fruitful, multiply you, and confirm My covenant with you” (9).It will not stop at destroying our enemy, however huge are his weapons, and however violent is his attitude, but we shall also become stronger and more numerous; as it is said about the work of God even on our dry bones: “They lived and stood upon their feet, an exceedingly great army” (Ezekiel 37: 10) – “Then you shall know that I, the Lord, had spoken it and performed it’, says the Lord” (Ezekiel 37: 14), As to the secret of the spiritual power, It is “I will look on you favorably” … The Look by the Lord is enough to grant a multitude of fruit; like the ray of the sun that, when it shines on the field, it gives an increase to the harvest; while if it does not, it will produce no harvest. He Looks on us, not to judge us, but to “confirm His covenant with us” (9); saying: “and confirm My covenant with you; You shall eat the old harvest, and clear out the old because of the new” (9, 10). According to the scholar Origen: [How could we clear the old, to make place for the new?! By clearing out the letter of the law (the old), to keep it according to the spirit (the new)… We can say that before the coming of the Heavenly One, before He was born, we were all of the earth, made of dust, and have the earthly image (1 Corinthians 15: 47); Now, with the coming of the new man, created according to God (Ephesians 4: 22); we cleared off the old, by taking off the old man and putting on the new (Ephesians 4: 22), who, according to the inner man, is renewed day by day (2 Corinthians 4: 16). (10) God ends His talk about the blessings of obedience of His commandment, by the greatest of promises, namely, “His dwelling among His people, and inside His believers”; saying: “I shall set My tabernacle among you, and My soul shall not abhor you. I will walk among you and be your God, and you shall be My people” (11). And, on the eve of His passion, the Lord clearly says: “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word, and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him” (John 14: 23) … The heavenly Jerusalem was called: “The tabernacle of God with men”; “He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and be their God” (Revelation 21: 3). This is the eternal gift; that God dwells among us, receives us as heavenly people for Himself, and be God who transfigure in us. By dwelling in us, God will take away from us our inner void, which no one can fill except God Himself; on account of that the soul created according to the image of her Creator, would never be satisfied except by the Original Himself. According to St. Erinaos, man could be either full or void. He who receive God dwelling in him would be full; whereas he, who has no knowledge of the heavenly Father, nor of the Holy Spirit, or has not got in him, Christ the Life, he would be void.. And according to St. Augustine: [What does he mean, saying by the prophet: “I shall be your God, and you shall be My people”, but that I shall be their satisfaction, everything that they reverently seek: life, health, food, prosperity, glory, honor, peace, and every goodness?! Which is interpreted by the apostle saying: “God will be all in all” (1 Corinthians 15: 28); He will be the ultimate goal of our longings to no end]. 3- THE CURSES OF DISOBEDIENCE TO THE HOLY GOD: After presenting the positive aspect, proclaiming God’s gifts to him who keeps His commandments, He starts now to present the negative aspect, as the natural fruit of rejecting His commandment; counting it as “breaking His covenant” (15), and a rejection of His Person. Those bitter fruits are: (1) “I will even appoint terror over you, wasting disease and fever, which shall consume the eyes and cause sorrow of heart” (16). God will forsake him who rejects Him, to make him fall in bitterness, and live with no inner peace, physical health, or insight! … God may allow for those apparent things, so that man would understand that what happens to him is the fruit of his disobedience; and that the chastisement would come on him as a thermometer proclaiming his inner corruption, to make him say: “My spirit is broken ; My days are extinguished” (Job 17: 1). (2) “And you shall sow your seed in vain, for your enemies shall eat it” (16)..They work, not to the account of the Lord, but sow their own seed; which will not be blessed by the Lord, but be eaten by the enemies. (3) “I shall set My face against you, and you shall be defeated by your enemies. Those who hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when no one pursues you” (17). Once man loses his inner peace, and his fellowship with God, he will be weak before the spiritual enemies, even if they are worth nothing much; as according to Solomon the Sage: “The wicked flee when no one pursues” (Proverb 28: 1).The secret of the weakness and defeat is not in the might of the enemy, as much as it is in the inner collapse of man. (4) In case we do not respond to all that by repentance, God will double His chastisements; saying: “I will break the pride of your power. I will make your heavens like iron, and your earth like bronze; and your strength shall be spent in vain; for your land shall not yield its produce, nor shall the trees of the land yield their fruit” (19, 20). God starts His chastisement by diseases and through enemies; and in case we do not respond, He doubles the plagues through humiliation, by breaking down our pride. Man would stand humble, when he finds nature itself against him, when heavens becomes like iron, and gives no rain; and the earth like bronze, not fit for plantation. In case he lifts his eyes up toward heaven, hoping that it would respond to him, he will find it solid as iron; and if he looks down to the earth, he will find everything around him like bronze with no sympathy toward him. If heaven refer to the human soul, and the earth to the body, When man does not listen to the divine commandment, nor responds to the word of God, he will promptly get his due reward; his soul will become like iron, and his body like bronze, not submitting to him, nor responding to his inner voice. (5) “I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, destroy your livestock, and make you few in number, and your highways will be desolate” (22). … When the people spoke against God in the wilderness, He sent fiery serpents among them, and they bit the people (Numbers 21: 5, 6). When little children mocked the prophet Elisha, God allowed two bears to kill 42 of them. And when the king of Assyria sent heathen people to dwell in the land of Canaan, after taking the children of Israel into captivity, God sent wild beasts to devour them (2 kings 17: 24, 26). What are these beasts that come against us but the sins which God keeps away from us, as long as we abide in His presence, respond to His voice. But if we give Him the back instead of the face, He will let the wild beasts rob us of our children, namely, our inner fruits, and destroy our livestock; namely, corrupt our body. (6) “I will bring a sword against you; … And I will send a pestilence among you” (25). Namely, chastisement through the sword of the enemy, and allowing for a pestilence, so as to make the wicked too weak to stand before the enemy. (7) “I will cut off your supply of bread; ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall bring back to you your bread by weight, and you shall eat and not be satisfied” (26). Breaking off their supply of bread; refers to cutting off the bread of life, the divine word; that their souls would live in famine, and would find no rod to lean upon. The sign of that famine would be that every woman, instead of having her own oven to bake her bread, ten women would use a single oven, on account of having no bread enough, nor fuel enough for using more than one oven. The second sign of a famine is to make the bread by weight, on account of having only few of it, and of their lack of blessing. The famine would reach its climax when the hands of the parents would stretch to eat the flesh of their own children, as it did happen in the days of Jehoram the son of Ahab, king of Israel, when two women agreed to eat together the son of each every other day (2 kings 6: 24-30); And also in the days the king of Babylon put Jerusalem under siege, when it was said: “The hands of the compassionate women have cooked their own children, they became food for them in the destruction of the daughter of my people” (Lamentation of 4: 10); And it happened again when the Roman commander Titus put Jerusalem under siege. Once we give our backs to the divine commandment, we are struck by an inner famine that would make us lose the necessary sustenance; to stretch to our own children, namely to our inner fruits, to eat them and die. (8) “I will destroy your high places, cut down your incense altars, and cast your carcasses on the lifeless forms of your idols; and My soul shall abhor you” (30). Rejecting the divine commandment, the people worshipped the idols on the high places, and set forms to worship the sun; … God, in His jealousy, would destroy the strange idols in which those who rejected His commandment, trusted; proclaiming that the ultimate end of rejecting His commandment will be the destruction of the idols they made by their own hands, their sure death, and casting their rotting carcasses on the lifeless forms of their idols; hence He says: “My soul shall abhor you”. (9) Through rejecting the commandment of God, “I will lay your cities waste, and bring your sanctuaries to desolation”, in which no one will find refuge. Even the land on which you dwell, will cast you off, scatter you among the nations to become persecuted. In their evil, having not committed themselves to the Sabbatical year, to give rest to the land, Behold, the land cast them off. They are cast off to live in a foreign land with the spirit of humiliation; flee when no one pursues them, other than their inner evil. 4- RECEIVING THE REPENTANT SINNERS: After proclaiming the extent of bitterness of man because of his disobedience to God, He again confirms that the only way for man to enjoy the blessing instead of the curse, will be his return to God by repentance; For then, God will remember His promise; proclaiming that, even while they were in their darkest moments, God did not intend for their utter perdition, but for their chastisement.
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