The Church Need Not Fear the Rise of Evil Men as God Will Deal with Them

God has promised to deal justly with mankind. God’s covenant blessings and covenant curses relate directly to those who hear and obey His voice, or don’t hear and obey his voice (Deut. 28). These promises are extensive and touch every area of our lives either lifting us up or destroying us, and they are re-affirmed to us through Jesus Christ: “As many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us” (2 Cor. 1:20).

Yes, Jesus is still speaking into our hearts: "My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me (Jn. 10:27). However, many churches teach He no longer speaks, so here is Jesus’ response to these churches: “IN VAIN DO THEY WORSHIP ME, TEACHING AS DOCTRINES THE PRECEPTS OF MEN. Neglecting the commandment of God, you hold to the tradition of men. You are experts at setting aside the commandment of God in order to keep your tradition” (Mk. 7:7-9).

So yes, these churches believe for evil to arise and calamity to overtake them, which I guess is proper since because they no longer believe God is speaking, they will be the reaping covenant curses of Deut. 28. So listed below are God’s covenant blessings and curses from Deut. 28:1-48 NKJV.

The Blessings

"Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments which I command you today, that the LORD your God will set you high above all nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of the LORD your God: "Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country. "Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground and the increase of your herds, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks. "Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. "Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. "The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. "The LORD will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God is giving you. "The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, just as He has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. And the LORD will grant you plenty of goods, in the fruit of your body, in the increase of your livestock, and in the produce of your ground, in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. The LORD will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand. You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail; you shall be above only, and not be beneath, if you heed the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, and are careful to observe them. So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods to serve them (Deut. 28:1-14 NKJV).

The Curses

"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: "Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country. "Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. "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. "Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out. "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. The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. 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. And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. 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. "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. 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. 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. The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. 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. "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. 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. 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. 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. So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. 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. "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. And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the LORD will drive you. "You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. 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. You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off. You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity. Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land. "The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail. "Moreover all these curses shall come upon you and pursue and overtake you, until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. And they shall be upon you for a sign and a wonder, and on your descendants forever. "Because you did not serve the LORD your God with joy and gladness of heart, for the abundance of everything, therefore you shall serve your enemies, whom the LORD will send against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in need of everything; and He will put a yoke of iron on your neck until He has destroyed you (Deut. 28:15-48 NKJV - and the list of curses continues for 20 more verses).

Dig Deeper

Since some translations don’t translate Deuteronomy 28:1 as listening to and obeying the voice of the Lord, here are the two Hebrew words found in Deuteronomy 28:1, and how the KJV translates these two words the other 1650 times they show up in the Old Testament. You can decide if we are talking about the commandments of the Lord or the voice of the Lord.

shâma‛ H8085 Total KJV Occurrences: 1149

• hear (and forms of) 792
• hearken (and forms of) 199
• sound/noise/tell/call/loud 19
• obey (and forms of) 81
• miscellaneous – about 58

qôl H6963 Total KJV Occurrences: 501

• voice, noise, thunder, proclamation, cry,  488
• Miscellaneous – about 13

Yes, it IS God who is in control

There is no one besides Me. I am the LORD, and there is no other, The One forming light and creating darkness, Causing well-being and creating calamity; I am the LORD who does all these. (Isa. 45:6-7)

Action step

Repent from believing the traditions of men which invalidate the word of God, and learn to hear His voice and live and walk by the Spirit (Gal. 5:25). Those who establish a relationship with Jesus find that “Christ has redeemed us from the curse of the Law, having become a curse for us” (Gal. 3:13). "When He, the Spirit of truth, has come, He will guide you into all truth; whatever He hears He will speak; and He will tell you things to come" (Jn. 16:13). A relationship involves hearing, seeing, feeling, and honoring. Same as in our engagement and marriage relationships. My relationship with my wife Patti includes hearing her, seeing her, sensing her emotions, and honoring what I hear see and feel from her. Let the Church be the Church, so the world is afraid of us (Deut. 28:10). THE BIBLE IS MEANT TO BE LIVED!