DCLM Daily Manna 2025: DCLM Daily Manna 2 June 2025: Cursed?
Text: Deuteronomy 28:15-44 (KJV)
“But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:
16 “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.
17 “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.
18 “Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.
19 “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
20 “The Lord will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. 21 The Lord will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. 22 The Lord will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. 23 And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. 24 The Lord will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
25 “The Lord will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. 27 The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. 28 The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. 29 And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.
30 “You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; you shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes. 31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them. 32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be no strength in your hand. 33 A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually. 34 So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. 35 The Lord will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.
36 “The Lord will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. 37 And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the Lord will drive you.
38 “You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. 39 You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms 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 beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity. 42 Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land.
43 “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. 44 He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.
KEY VERSE: (Deuteronomy 28:15) But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee.
It is eternally true that “All scripture is given by the inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: That the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (2 Timothy 3:16). This shows that no part of the Scripture is redundant. However, Some Bible passages enjoy more patronage and traffic than others do.
Today’s text is one of those scriptural passages that are less frequented because it deals with the subject of curses. Incidentally, the preceding verses are read out frequently, even at wedding occasions. The difference is that the first part deals with the blessings that God pronounced on the obedient and the special privileges earmarked for the faithful people of God, whereas the latter part contains terrible curses and miseries reserved for those who live in disobedience to God’s commandments. By stating these curses plainly to the Jews, the awful prospects that attend to a life of ungodliness and apostasy are clearly outlined.
Observe the nature and dimensions of the curse stated here. The curse trails the sinner everywhere he goes and whatever he does. It affects even his possessions. There is also such misery that the New Testament captures thus: “…unto them that are contentious, and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation and wrath, Tribulation, and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first, and also of the Gentile” (Romans 2:8,9). For the apostate Jews, God declared that they shall be smitten with epidemic, starvation, assorted diseases, drought and barrenness.
Many professing Christians are actually going through one divine chastisement or the other; yet, they rationalise it by assuring themselves that Christ has taken away every curse. Some quote Scripture that says “curse causeless shall not come” without examining their lives to find out if there is a cause for the curse. The redemptive effect of Christ’s work can only apply when we care enough to repent of sin and place our faith in Him. It will work for every backslider that retraces his/her steps back to Calvary and for any erring believer who relinquishes any accursed thing with him/her and resolves to do God’s will.
THOUGHT FOR THE DAY: The only protection from divine justice is the shelter of grace.
THE BIBLE IN ONE YEAR: 1 Samuel 25-26
Daily Manna 2 June 2025
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