Blessed basket and store is God's promise that careful and diligent obedience to His commandments brings blessing on provisions and possessions, while disobedience brings a curse on them. Basket and store means the food gathered and kept, the supply of produce from fields, flocks, herds and vineyards, and the temporal goods and abundance of daily work and life in the land. It belongs to a covenant of mercy whose terms of blessing and curse are plainly stated and read aloud as a conditional agreement requiring hearing and doing, for even the ark gives no blessing apart from obedience to the law within it. The same blessing or curse still stands before individuals and nations today, so obedience can still bring temporal and spiritual prosperity to be taught diligently in families. Because all worldly prosperity comes from God it should call forth gratitude and generosity in gifts, offerings, tithes and firstfruits, for honoring Him with possessions brings plenty while withholding robs Him and brings loss. God proves professed lovers of truth by prospering them in basket and store far beyond expectation, yet the blessing becomes a test that reveals the heart as desire for gain grows, and putting worldly interests first and withholding worship and offerings turns blessing into a curse.
Blessing Promised for Obedience
If Israel carefully and diligently obeyed the Lord's commandments, their basket and store would be blessed, while disobedience would bring a curse upon their provisions, possessions, people and land. The blessing was part of the promised provision for obedience, extending to food and daily life together with land and livestock, and the curse was its reverse for transgression. Obedience brought material prosperity in what was gathered and kept, and disobedience forfeited it.
Basket and store means the food gathered and stored, the stored supply of produce, and the blessing upon daily work and possessions. It includes fields, flocks, herds and vineyards and all that the hand is put to, with temporal goods, material provision and abundance in the land and daily life. The directions were made specific and plainly stated so minds would not be left in ignorance and uncertainty about this never-ceasing obligation.
The promise belongs to the covenant of mercy and its terms of blessing, stated plainly in Deuteronomy and read aloud by Moses from the written book containing their past history, together with the curses for disobedience. It is an agreement based on conditions, requiring diligently hearkening to the voice of the Lord, doing what is right in His sight, giving ear to His commandments, keeping all His statutes, and hearing and doing as His peculiar people. Health as a reward of obedience belongs to the same promise.
The law alone gave the ark its sacredness, and its presence could bring prosperity only as that law was obeyed. The ark itself is not God and gives no blessing apart from obedience to the law inside it. The living Creator who made heaven and earth and gave His law upon Sinai sends prosperity and adversity according to obedience or transgression of His law contained in the sacred chest. To expect blessing while violating the conditions upon which alone it could be bestowed is presumption, for every specification of the law is the character of the infinite God.
History proves this conditional dealing, for distrust and unbelief, pride, disobedience, transgression of holy requirements, idolatry, and breaking the solemn pledge forfeited favor and kindled wrath again and again. This delayed settlement in Canaan as a prosperous, holy, happy people governed by His judgments and walking in His ordinances. The refusal to bring the adult army that left Egypt into the promised land is the proof that the Lord alters His purpose toward His people when they disobey. To receive the blessing they must be free from the sins of the Canaanite nations, maintain a high standard of purity and holiness, and show in all words and acts that they loved, feared and obeyed the great Ruler, guarding against idolatry and loving Him with all heart and soul and might.
Obedient Israel would be exalted to represent divine goodness, mercy and love, with Jesus as their hope and tree of life. God would prosper them and make them a terror to surrounding nations, manifesting His power with them by His angels to drive out the inhabitants of Canaan because of their wickedness. He as Deliverer, Protector and Healer would put none of the diseases of Egypt upon them, remove sickness from among them, preserve them to live in health and holiness, and teach them obedience in their journeyings under the special direction of Christ, so that sickness would not prey upon them. If they acted independently of God and imitated heathen iniquity, they would come under Satan's controlling power, with guilt as much greater than that of idolatrous nations as were their privileges.
Application to Believers Today
The same conditional blessing and curse set before ancient Israel still stands before modern Israel today. If they guard against idolatry and love God with all heart and soul and might, He abundantly blesses basket and store with material provision and removes sickness, but being led away from serving the living God brings His curse upon them. This is especially urgent for professed Sabbath-keepers, who are in even greater danger of forgetting God and falling into idolatry; blessing comes by coming out from the world and being separate and walking in humble obedience, and cursing comes by uniting with the idolatrous and departing from God. The promises whose fulfillment depended on obedience show that obedience brought good then, and obedience can bring as great blessings to individuals and nations now. Obedience to the law brings blessing that includes both temporal and spiritual prosperity, under terms that require diligently obeying and teaching the law in the family.
Worldly prosperity and surrounding benefits come from God, and His blessing includes provision in basket and store. That prosperity should call forth gratitude and the offerings He requires, not become a reason to withhold from Him. Material prosperity is His gift of provisions and goods, and it should call forth gratitude and generosity rather than self-serving attachment to wealth. God promised material prosperity in proportion to obedience, with plenty on barns and produce when His people honored Him with possessions and first fruits, while withholding tithes and offerings is robbing God and brings loss to themselves. Obedience brings blessing plainly stated, including blessing on temporal goods, and these directions express the principles of the law of the kingdom of God made specific so minds are not left in ignorance and uncertainty. They present the never-ceasing obligation of all whom God has blessed with life and health and advantages in temporal and spiritual things, including gifts, offerings and tithe, and the message has not grown weak with age, for His claims are just as binding now and just as fresh in importance as His gifts are fresh and continual.
God gives His people material prosperity with increased substance and benefits on every side. Because He gives this blessing, believers owe Him a small sacrifice of time and means to leave worldly business and assemble to worship Him, and it is wrong to put worldly interests before His requirements and stay away to avoid that offering. That duty of gratitude is shown by leaving worldly business to attend the yearly worship gatherings and by bringing the small offerings He requires. To stay home year after year engrossed in worldly cares, to serve self and love possessions, and to withhold attendance and offerings is base ingratitude that turns blessing into a curse. It leaves the soul like a desert without dew or rain and forfeits spiritual strength, which comes only by effort. This is especially inexcusable for those who have received grace, deliverance from the slavery of sin and the bondage of error, light of present truth for darkened minds, and who profess that the end of all things is at hand, yet live for this world alone and neglect their eternal interest. The same blessing on provisions applies to the work at Loma Linda, whose success depends on God's blessing as His requirements are upheld and He is made supreme, not on the ideas of people opposed to His law.
God proves men and women in humble poverty who profess great love for truth and tell what they would do with means by prospering them and blessing them in basket and in store far beyond their expectations. The blessing becomes a test of character that reveals the deceitful heart. Good intentions and promises prove like rolling sand. The more they have the more they desire, and the more they are prospered the more eager they are for gain. Some who were once even benevolent in poverty become penurious and exacting, oppressing the needy poor for the lowest figure, overbearing because money is power to them. Money becomes their god, and they delight in the power money gives and the honor received because of it, while God watches them and marks how they stand the test.
God blesses the basket and store with temporal prosperity for those who tenderly care for and supply the wants of His workers in trial and labor. The blessing is asked in prayer and surely follows, covering material supply and food increase and joining with health and with grace and spiritual strength. It appears in remarkable temporal increase, such as wheat fields yielding twenty-seven and even forty bushels to the acre while neighboring fields yield only seven.
Blessed basket and store is God's promise that careful and diligent obedience to His commandments brings blessing on provisions and possessions, while disobedience brings a curse on them. Basket and store means the food gathered and kept, the supply of produce from fields, flocks, herds and vineyards, and the temporal goods and abundance of daily work and life in the land. It belongs to a covenant of mercy whose terms of blessing and curse are plainly stated and read aloud as a conditional agreement requiring hearing and doing, for even the ark gives no blessing apart from obedience to the law within it. The same blessing or curse still stands before individuals and nations today, so obedience can still bring temporal and spiritual prosperity to be taught diligently in families. Because all worldly prosperity comes from God it should call forth gratitude and generosity in gifts, offerings, tithes and firstfruits, for honoring Him with possessions brings plenty while withholding robs Him and brings loss. God proves professed lovers of truth by prospering them in basket and store far beyond expectation, yet the blessing becomes a test that reveals the heart as desire for gain grows, and putting worldly interests first and withholding worship and offerings turns blessing into a curse.
Blessing Promised for Obedience
If Israel carefully and diligently obeyed the Lord's commandments, their basket and store would be blessed, while disobedience would bring a curse upon their provisions, possessions, people and land. The blessing was part of the promised provision for obedience, extending to food and daily life together with land and livestock, and the curse was its reverse for transgression. Obedience brought material prosperity in what was gathered and kept, and disobedience forfeited it.
Basket and store means the food gathered and stored, the stored supply of produce, and the blessing upon daily work and possessions. It includes fields, flocks, herds and vineyards and all that the hand is put to, with temporal goods, material provision and abundance in the land and daily life. The directions were made specific and plainly stated so minds would not be left in ignorance and uncertainty about this never-ceasing obligation.
The promise belongs to the covenant of mercy and its terms of blessing, stated plainly in Deuteronomy and read aloud by Moses from the written book containing their past history, together with the curses for disobedience. It is an agreement based on conditions, requiring diligently hearkening to the voice of the Lord, doing what is right in His sight, giving ear to His commandments, keeping all His statutes, and hearing and doing as His peculiar people. Health as a reward of obedience belongs to the same promise.
The law alone gave the ark its sacredness, and its presence could bring prosperity only as that law was obeyed. The ark itself is not God and gives no blessing apart from obedience to the law inside it. The living Creator who made heaven and earth and gave His law upon Sinai sends prosperity and adversity according to obedience or transgression of His law contained in the sacred chest. To expect blessing while violating the conditions upon which alone it could be bestowed is presumption, for every specification of the law is the character of the infinite God.
History proves this conditional dealing, for distrust and unbelief, pride, disobedience, transgression of holy requirements, idolatry, and breaking the solemn pledge forfeited favor and kindled wrath again and again. This delayed settlement in Canaan as a prosperous, holy, happy people governed by His judgments and walking in His ordinances. The refusal to bring the adult army that left Egypt into the promised land is the proof that the Lord alters His purpose toward His people when they disobey. To receive the blessing they must be free from the sins of the Canaanite nations, maintain a high standard of purity and holiness, and show in all words and acts that they loved, feared and obeyed the great Ruler, guarding against idolatry and loving Him with all heart and soul and might.
Obedient Israel would be exalted to represent divine goodness, mercy and love, with Jesus as their hope and tree of life. God would prosper them and make them a terror to surrounding nations, manifesting His power with them by His angels to drive out the inhabitants of Canaan because of their wickedness. He as Deliverer, Protector and Healer would put none of the diseases of Egypt upon them, remove sickness from among them, preserve them to live in health and holiness, and teach them obedience in their journeyings under the special direction of Christ, so that sickness would not prey upon them. If they acted independently of God and imitated heathen iniquity, they would come under Satan's controlling power, with guilt as much greater than that of idolatrous nations as were their privileges.
Application to Believers Today
The same conditional blessing and curse set before ancient Israel still stands before modern Israel today. If they guard against idolatry and love God with all heart and soul and might, He abundantly blesses basket and store with material provision and removes sickness, but being led away from serving the living God brings His curse upon them. This is especially urgent for professed Sabbath-keepers, who are in even greater danger of forgetting God and falling into idolatry; blessing comes by coming out from the world and being separate and walking in humble obedience, and cursing comes by uniting with the idolatrous and departing from God. The promises whose fulfillment depended on obedience show that obedience brought good then, and obedience can bring as great blessings to individuals and nations now. Obedience to the law brings blessing that includes both temporal and spiritual prosperity, under terms that require diligently obeying and teaching the law in the family.
Worldly prosperity and surrounding benefits come from God, and His blessing includes provision in basket and store. That prosperity should call forth gratitude and the offerings He requires, not become a reason to withhold from Him. Material prosperity is His gift of provisions and goods, and it should call forth gratitude and generosity rather than self-serving attachment to wealth. God promised material prosperity in proportion to obedience, with plenty on barns and produce when His people honored Him with possessions and first fruits, while withholding tithes and offerings is robbing God and brings loss to themselves. Obedience brings blessing plainly stated, including blessing on temporal goods, and these directions express the principles of the law of the kingdom of God made specific so minds are not left in ignorance and uncertainty. They present the never-ceasing obligation of all whom God has blessed with life and health and advantages in temporal and spiritual things, including gifts, offerings and tithe, and the message has not grown weak with age, for His claims are just as binding now and just as fresh in importance as His gifts are fresh and continual.
God gives His people material prosperity with increased substance and benefits on every side. Because He gives this blessing, believers owe Him a small sacrifice of time and means to leave worldly business and assemble to worship Him, and it is wrong to put worldly interests before His requirements and stay away to avoid that offering. That duty of gratitude is shown by leaving worldly business to attend the yearly worship gatherings and by bringing the small offerings He requires. To stay home year after year engrossed in worldly cares, to serve self and love possessions, and to withhold attendance and offerings is base ingratitude that turns blessing into a curse. It leaves the soul like a desert without dew or rain and forfeits spiritual strength, which comes only by effort. This is especially inexcusable for those who have received grace, deliverance from the slavery of sin and the bondage of error, light of present truth for darkened minds, and who profess that the end of all things is at hand, yet live for this world alone and neglect their eternal interest. The same blessing on provisions applies to the work at Loma Linda, whose success depends on God's blessing as His requirements are upheld and He is made supreme, not on the ideas of people opposed to His law.
God proves men and women in humble poverty who profess great love for truth and tell what they would do with means by prospering them and blessing them in basket and in store far beyond their expectations. The blessing becomes a test of character that reveals the deceitful heart. Good intentions and promises prove like rolling sand. The more they have the more they desire, and the more they are prospered the more eager they are for gain. Some who were once even benevolent in poverty become penurious and exacting, oppressing the needy poor for the lowest figure, overbearing because money is power to them. Money becomes their god, and they delight in the power money gives and the honor received because of it, while God watches them and marks how they stand the test.
God blesses the basket and store with temporal prosperity for those who tenderly care for and supply the wants of His workers in trial and labor. The blessing is asked in prayer and surely follows, covering material supply and food increase and joining with health and with grace and spiritual strength. It appears in remarkable temporal increase, such as wheat fields yielding twenty-seven and even forty bushels to the acre while neighboring fields yield only seven.