Thought for the Week:

The blessings in this week's Torah reading are not the ultimate reward for keeping God's commandments. Rather they are consequences that may be enjoyed in this world, but the ultimate reward is reserved for the World to Come.

Commentary:

So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. (Deuteronomy 28:45)

It is true that the list of curses reads much like a history of the people of Israel. If Israel ever held any hope that Deuteronomy 28 contained merely idle threats, the record of history has dashed that hope. The curses of Deuteronomy 28 turned out to be accurate prophecies. But Christians must repent of the tendency to look at Deuteronomy…