I enjoy reading the Bible in the morning. It sets the course for my day. Often, it is in the morning that the Lord will speak to me about different things that are happening in my life, in the church and in my country. And then we pray about those things. I say “we pray” because prayer is a two-way conversation. I speak, and then He speaks. When believers pray in the Spirit, He is literally praying through us about things happening all over the world, not just the things in our own lives.
So, on one particular morning, as I was going through the scriptures in my devotional time, the Lord led me to a favorite passage, Deuteronomy 28. I like to read and quote the first 13 verses to remind myself of the covenant blessings of obedience. As long as I obey God, these things are certain to show up in my life. It’s the most comprehensive blessing package that I know of in the Bible right now. So I remind myself of it often.
But this particular morning, after reading and meditating on the first 13 verses, I was led to continue reading, and it blessed me. Now, if you know that passage, “it blessed me” might sound a little strange, because the rest of the 55 verses in that chapter go over “the curse of the law”, which includes some of the worst things that can happen to anyone in life (which is why I usually skip it. It’s depressing!) But on this particular morning, I read up to the 27th verse and was stopped cold in my tracks after I read that verse. It says this:
Deut. 28:27 (KJV) “The LORD will smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch, whereof thou canst not be healed.”
Now, my daughter Azhia used to suffer horribly with eczema, which, the doctors have told us, cannot be healed. Every summer, her face and arms would get bumpy, itchy and sometimes even scaly. In fact, the spot of skin where her arms bend would be literally cracked, bloody from her scratching and very painful for most of the summer. She didn’t want to wear short sleeves in the summer because her arms looked and felt so badly. The long sleeves would shield her skin a bit from the constant scratching. Her neck and especially the spot of skin just under her nose were also affected badly. We went to dermatologists, who would prescribe things, but those things would offer only partial relief. Never a cure. It was a very great problem for us. Yet, if you look at her now, her skin is beautiful and glowing…clear as a bell.
I prayed over her skin for years, but never got the results I wanted. However, after Azhia got to college, she began saying over herself, “I have clear and beautiful skin.” I wasn’t there to care for her, and it finally just hit her that she needed to take authority over the plague on her skin once and for all. (You can see her tell her own testimony here.)
What I did not realize until much later was that it was her covenant right, as a born again believer and the seed of Abraham by faith, according to Galatians 3:13 and 3:29, to never suffer from an “itch that cannot be healed.” The fact is that as born again believers, we are “redeemed from the curse of the law.”
Let’s look at that more closely. Galatians 3:13-14 says, “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”
If we are redeemed from everything in the curse of the law, meaning Deuteronomy 28:14-68 along with curses found in other Bible passages, then all of those horrible things are things from which we have been set free!
Looking at verse 27, that means that hemorrhoids (“emerods” mentioned in the verse), eczema, psoriasis and the like are of the curse. And therefore, we are redeemed / delivered from it as Abraham’s seed, and as those who obey God.
In addition to that great redemption blessing, let's look at the very next verses:
Deuteronomy 28:28-29 (KJV) “The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart: And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save thee.”
The Curse:
Here are the definitions of the conditions listed above:
"Madness" - wild and helpless panic
"Blindess" - inability to see, incapacity due to blindness
“Astonishment” = bewilderment, the act of rendering stupid, or being in a senseless state, being dull, want of power of perceiving, consternation (amazement or horror that confounds the faculties, and incapacitates a person, excessive terror, wonder, or surprise), terror.
"Grope at noonday as the blind grope in darkness" - being clueless, lost, utterly unable to see, even though light is available to you
"Shalt not prosper in thy ways" - not just being in lack, but nothing working for you
"Only oppressed" - oppressed, defrauded, violated, treated deceitfully, violently or wrongly
"Spoiled" - robbed, stripped, consumed, to have something torn away by force or violence
"Save" - to make one safe or free, to defend, deliver, help, preserve, rescue, get victory (the verse indicates that the curse prevents this)
The Blessing: Galatians 3:13- 14 “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree: That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”
Through Christ's finished work on the cross and His resurrection, we have been REDEEMED from ALL these hideous conditions!!! HALLELUJAH!!!
So, according to those two verses, we are delivered / redeemed from:
• Wild and helpless panic
• Blindness and the incapacity associated with it
• Bewilderment
• Being made stupid
• Being put into a senseless state
• Being dull of understanding
• Inability to perceive
• Consternation, horror or excessive amazement
• Excessive terror, wonder or surprise
• Groping around in the dark, not knowing which way to go or what to do
• Not prospering
• Any and all forms of oppression
• Being robbed
• Being physically beaten
• Being left without any protection
• Being left without anyone to look out for you to help you or rescue you
Talk about the unsearchable riches of Christ!!! He who the Son sets free is free indeed!!! (John 8:36) Truly and carefully consider the freedom that you have as a child of God. Don’t just let it sit on a shelf and collect dust. Think about it. Meditate upon it… Then live in it! Because the Word of the Lord is rock solid. The scriptures cannot be broken (John 10:35). Psalm 12:6 says, “The words of the LORD are pure words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times.” NOTHING stops His words.
Bible literally says in these verses that we are free from panic, from terror, from being blind and unable to perceive things that are happening under our noses. We are also redeemed from “being made stupid”. We are redeemed from being deceived, from being oppressed, from being robbed, from being physically beaten. Jesus took that horrible beating on Good Friday so we so we not have to be beaten! We are redeemed from having no protection. Redeemed from not having someone to rescue us from the crises of life. We have a Savior!! We have a Protector!! We have a Deliverer!! His name is Jesus!!! As the Word of God becomes more and more real to you and you firmly receive this truth into your heart, you will experience the freedom and joy that goes along with having Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, experiencing what Jesus called in John 10:10 “life, and that more abundantly!” My prayer is that you will grasp the full measure of this gospel truth, and that it will cover and protect you at critical times in your life, in Jesus' name.