Sanctions: Covenantal Blessing and Curse
Within the ancient treatise are found an elaborate series of covenantal sanctions, i.e., blessings and curses. If the covenantal parties conform to the stipulations of the treaty, there is blessing. If, however, they violate those stipulations, there is curse.
Deuteronomy has a rather extensive section on covenant sanctions, chapters 27-30. There are more curses than blessings, but that was not uncommon in the ancient world. Of all the curses in Deuteronomy, the most traumatic is the exile, the removal of the Israelites from their covenanted homeland due to their violation of the covenantal stipulations. A graphic depiction of the exile is given in Deuteronomy 28 (cf. Lev 26). This was more than becoming geographically homeless. Due to the theocratic nature of Israel, their homeland of Canaan was like a grand cosmic temple where the covenant God dwelt with His people. The land was holy because the God who dwelt within it was holy. The people were holy in light of the redemptive work of the Lord. However, once Israel showed herself to be like the unholy Canaanites, the land had to be purged of their desecrating the holy dwelling of God. Their status as a covenant people did not supersede their idolatry and immoralism; they needed to be exiled from that holy land. To be removed from the land was to be removed from the divine presence. More than the physical difficulties of being refugees, the real shock of the exile was to no longer have the blessing of a holy bond of communion with their Redeemer-King-Creator.
There are several lessons that can be gained from this section of Deuteronomy. First, it points to the need for a greater covenant, namely the New Covenant. Deuteronomy 30:6 alludes to just this as it states that at a time after the exile, the Lord “will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul” (Deut. 30:6). According to Jeremiah 31:31-34, this divinely endowed circumcision of the heart will occur under the administration of a “New Covenant,” which the Lord will make with a newly united Israel and Judah. This New Covenant, however, would differ from the Old Covenant. Where the Old Covenant was breakable, the New would not be so. The commands of the Old were engraved outward on tablets of stones, whereas in the New they would be written within the people, “on their hearts” (Jer 31:33; cf. 2 Cor 3:3). This internalization of the law makes it so that obedience is not a condition upon which we receive the blessings of the covenant. Obedience is itself a covenant blessing. As we examine the history of Israel in the biblical books of Judges through Kings, we see that Israel systematically violated the Old Covenant of Deuteronomy and thus justly suffered the curse of the exile. However, such curse is something the true Israel (Rom 9:6) under the New Covenant will never have to suffer. This is because of the active obedience of the true Israelite, Jesus Christ, who fulfilled the law of the Lord and imputed that righteousness to all those who embrace Him by faith.
One of the consistent challenges for the Asian American church is the tendency towards moralism. Although our cultural upbringing is a cause of this, we are part of fallen humanity who constantly strives to establish our own independence from the sovereign authority of God. We tend to always justify our own thoughts and deeds as opposed to acknowledging our sins and need for repentance and restoration. The reality is that the law of God testifies to our continual failure to conform to the covenantal standards the Lord established. This reminds us that there is a greater covenant, the New Covenant (cf. Heb 8-10). In this New Covenant, we have a greater high priest in Christ (Heb 8:1; 9:15) who makes the promised circumcised heart a reality (Heb 8:10). We do not need to strive towards establishing our own righteousness divorced from faith in Christ (which is not even possible). Instead, we can embrace a “righteousness from God that depends on faith” (Phil 3:9). As Paul says, “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1).
The second lesson from the sanctions is to understand the nature of the restored land. Not only does Deuteronomy prophesy the internal work the Lord will do on our hearts, but it also describes the blessing of a new homeland “that will be greater than your fathers” (30:5). In this new homeland, “The LORD your God will make you abundantly prosperous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your cattle and in the fruit of your ground” (30:9). The fact that Israel suffered the covenant curse of exile was a dramatic and distressing event that affected them significantly. Although they were restored after approximately seventy years in exile (2 Chr 36:21; Jer 25:11-12; 29:10; Dan 9:2), the post-exilic community did not enjoy the blessings of the land described in Deuteronomy 30. The fact is that this would not come until the coming of the true Davidic Son, who would restore the true Israel (Rom 9:6-7; cf. Rom 2:28; Gal 3:28-29) and bring them into their true homeland, the New Heavens and New Earth (Isa 65:17; 2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21:1). Thus, Deuteronomy 30 is anticipating something greater than a mere restoration to a meager plot of land in Palestine. That does not even begin to grasp the grandeur of the new home the Lord is preparing for us.
Asian Americans are immigrants, and we live in a challenging situation. As English speakers, many have lost touch with their ethnic language and have embraced the lifestyles of the west. This has made us feel like foreigners in our own ethnic group. However, we also stand out in a society that is dominantly non-Asian. This is one reason why westernized Asian Americans feel most at home within their own subculture group. It is not uncommon for this group to feel socially homeless. The comfort that Deuteronomy reminds us is of a blessed homeland that awaits all those in Christ.
Redeeming Chillingworth 