Thou shalt beget sons and daughters, but thou shalt not enjoy them; for they shall go into captivity.
Moses read the warning as one of the covenant curses for disobeying God's law: parents would beget sons and daughters but would not keep or enjoy them, for they would be taken into captivity. It was a fearful result of transgressing God's commands, set in contrast with the blessings that follow obedience. Israel's experience in the promised land was made to depend on obedience, with disobedience bringing the loss of their children to captivity. The same warning illustrates the broader principle that God sends prosperity or adversity according to obedience to or transgression of His law, without developing the specific detail about children going into captivity.
The Lord's promises rest upon the condition of obedience. Keeping His judgments, ordinances, and statutes and walking in them brings life, while disobedience causes His purpose to be altered. This explains why the adult army that left Egypt was refused entry into the promised land, a reason seen by reading Deuteronomy 28. The chapter plainly states the blessings of obedience and expresses the principles of the law of God's kingdom made specific, so that minds are not left in ignorance and uncertainty. Those directions present the never-ceasing obligation of all who have been blessed with life and health and with advantages in temporal and spiritual things.
Its message has not grown weak because of age, and God's claims are just as binding now and just as fresh in importance as His gifts are fresh and continual. The voice speaking there is not the voice of man but the voice of Christ from the enfolding pillar of cloud. Christ has repeated the same directions with His own voice, calling His followers to a life of consecration and self-denial. The instruction belongs with Exodus 15:26, where God promised to put none of the Egyptian diseases upon Israel if they diligently hearkened to His voice and kept His commandments and statutes. Breaking down the barriers God erected to preserve health brings disease upon human beings through transgression of the law of God.
Moses read the warning as one of the covenant curses for disobeying God's law: parents would beget sons and daughters but would not keep or enjoy them, for they would be taken into captivity. It was a fearful result of transgressing God's commands, set in contrast with the blessings that follow obedience. Israel's experience in the promised land was made to depend on obedience, with disobedience bringing the loss of their children to captivity. The same warning illustrates the broader principle that God sends prosperity or adversity according to obedience to or transgression of His law, without developing the specific detail about children going into captivity.
The Lord's promises rest upon the condition of obedience. Keeping His judgments, ordinances, and statutes and walking in them brings life, while disobedience causes His purpose to be altered. This explains why the adult army that left Egypt was refused entry into the promised land, a reason seen by reading Deuteronomy 28. The chapter plainly states the blessings of obedience and expresses the principles of the law of God's kingdom made specific, so that minds are not left in ignorance and uncertainty. Those directions present the never-ceasing obligation of all who have been blessed with life and health and with advantages in temporal and spiritual things.
Its message has not grown weak because of age, and God's claims are just as binding now and just as fresh in importance as His gifts are fresh and continual. The voice speaking there is not the voice of man but the voice of Christ from the enfolding pillar of cloud. Christ has repeated the same directions with His own voice, calling His followers to a life of consecration and self-denial. The instruction belongs with Exodus 15:26, where God promised to put none of the Egyptian diseases upon Israel if they diligently hearkened to His voice and kept His commandments and statutes. Breaking down the barriers God erected to preserve health brings disease upon human beings through transgression of the law of God.