“Look, today I am giving you the choice between a blessing and a curse! You will be blessed if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today. But you will be cursed if you reject the commands of the Lord your God and turn away from him and worship gods you have not known before. (Deuteronomy 11:26-28 NLT)

A blessing or a curse awaits all of us, and hope and fear guide us to our destiny.  Obedience always determines whether we receive a blessing or a curse.

As Israel is ready to cross over into the Promise Land, Moses gives them a promise and a warning.  The commentator Matthew Henry once said the promise of blessings and the threat of curse lay hold of hope and fear, the two handles of the soul, by which our lives are restrained, kept, and managed.” 

Anywhere you go or anything you do for God; you will find foreign gods residing there.   People will proclaim them, or their principles privately practiced.  The purpose of all idols is to draw us away from the one true God.  We are led into idolatry through disobedience.

Hope and fear, generally considered opposites, can restrain and manage our soulish nature.  Hope motivates us to obtain the promise, while a healthy fear curbs us from losing the promise through disobedience.  Moses went into detail, upon arriving in Canaan, about the blessings on Mount Gerizim and the curses on Mount Ebal (Deuteronomy 27:11-28: 68 NLT).  Israel exactly knew what they were to do and not do.

Even without the Bible, people today have the knowledge of good and evil within them called the conscience.  We are without excuse.

Hope and fear will lead us to the promised land.

I worked for seventeen years as a missionary with Youth With A Mission.  My missionary work has taken me to Mexico, Canada, Chile, Argentina, Bolivia, Spain, and Ukraine.  I hold a Masters of Education in curriculum and instruction from Virginia Commonwealth University.  [email protected]