What Doth The LORD Require

As Moses spoke final instructions to the Children of Israel before their entrance into the Promised Land, he posed the question that has been asked by every generation since the beginning of time, “What doth the LORD require of me?” At the dawn of a new year the answer to that question is as pertinent as ever to each and every person living in this time. (Deuteronomy 10:12-13)

Moses instructed the Children of Israel to first of all “Fear the LORD thy God,” to reverence who HE is, be in awe of who HE is for His great power and majesty revealed to them throughout their forty years of wilderness wandering.

As they first and foremost were to “Fear the LORD,” they were also to “Walk in all His ways,” not to walk after the idolatrous ways of the heathen they were about to encounter. As the Apostle Paul wrote to the Corinthian Church in 2 Corinthians 6:17-18, “Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing: and I will receive you, and will be a Father unto you, and ye shall be my sons and daughters, saith the Lord Almighty.”

They were also to “Love Him” as Moses had previously instructed them in Deuteronomy 6:5, “And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.” Later in the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses told them “That thou mayest love the LORD thy God, and that thou mayest obey His voice, and that thou mayest cleave unto Him: for He is thy life, and the length of thy days,” (Deuteronomy 30:20).

In like manner were they also to “Serve the LORD thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul.” As King David later wrote in the Psalms, “Serve the LORD with gladness: come before His presence with singing… Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise,” (Psalm 100:2-4).

Moses then told them it is required of them to “Keep the commandments of the LORD,” not only the Ten Commandments written on stone tablets by the finger of God, but additionally some 600 commands found throughout the Law of Moses given to him by God during his long stays on Mount Sinai. (Exodus 19-31; Deuteronomy 9:10)

God also required the Children of Israel to keep “His statutes” found throughout The Book of Leviticus concerning clean and unclean foods, dealing with leprosy in the camp, keeping their festivals throughout their generations, honoring the Sabbath, and much more.

Moses then asked a question of them concerning, “What doth the LORD thy God require of thee;” he asked, is it “for thy good?” He then reminds them of who God is and how He cared for them in the wilderness when they had to rely on Him for everything, telling them, “He is thy praise, and He is thy God that hath done for thee these great and terrible (wonderful) things, which thine eyes have seen. Thy fathers went down into Egypt with threescore and ten persons (70); and now the Lord thy God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude. Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep His charge, and His statutes, and His judgments, and His commandments, alway,” (Deuteronomy 10:14-11:1).

No Sin Preached, No Revival

It has been the prayer of many for decades of the Lord granting another Great Awakening to America and beyond. It was during the 1730s into the 1740s the First Great Awakening took place, with the Second Great Awakening following fifty years later during the 1790s into the early decades of the 1800s. Lives were dramatically changed, along with communities, as sin was repented of within a person’s heart and their utmost desire became to live for God by obeying His Word.

“Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God” as the Apostle Paul wrote in Romans 10. It was by the preaching of a young pastor named Jonathan Edwards in Massachusetts that sparked the First Great Awakening. Edwards was greatly concerned that those who sat under his preaching were prepared for what lie ahead of them in Eternity, either Heaven above or Hell beneath. In order for them to make their decision they needed to know of their lost condition, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23); they needed to know of God’s wrath concerning their sin, “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men” (Romans 1:18); they needed to know of God’s provision through His Son’s death on the cross to pay for their sin, “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Romans 6:23). Jonathan Edwards preached powerful sermons that caused men and women, boys and girls to grip their church pews tightly with their hands, cry out to God for forgiveness and fall on their knees in total surrender to Him.

Jonathan Edwards is noted for his greatest sermon, “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,” taking his text from Deuteronomy 32:35, “Their foot shall slide in due time.” Other sermons preached by Edwards to reveal through Scripture the reality of “the place of torment” (Luke 16: 19:31) awaiting those who reject the Son of God, were titled:

• “The End of the Wicked Contemplated by the Righteous” – Revelation 18:20, “Rejoice over her thou heaven, and ye holy apostles and prophets; for God hath avenged you on her.”
• “The Future Punishment of the Wicked Unavoidable and Intolerable” – Ezekiel 22:14, “Can thine heart endure… in the days that I shall deal with thee? I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it.”
• “The Wicked Useful in Their Destruction Only” – Ezekiel 15:2-4, “What is the vine tree more than any tree…Behold, it is cast into the fire for fuel… Is it meet for any work?”
• “The Eternity of Hell Torments” – Matthew 25:46,“These shall go away into everlasting punishment.”
• “The Unreasonableness of Indetermination in Religion” – I Kings 18:21, “How long halt ye between two opinions?”
• “The Folly of Looking Back in Fleeing Out of Sodom” – Luke 17:32, “Remember Lot’s wife.”
• “When the Wicked Shall Have Filled Up the Measure of Their Sin, Wrath Will Come Upon Them to the Uttermost” – I Thessalonians 2:16, “To fill up their sins alway.”

Not until the pulpits of our churches begin to proclaim the full counsel of God concerning sin that so easily besets us all and His wrath that is to come upon sinful people, will revival break forth. Man must first realize his lost condition before God in his inability to keep the Ten Commandments, “for whosoever shall keep the whole law, and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all,” (James 2:10). Once man is presented with his total depravity before God and his weakness to do anything about it by himself, will he cry out with the Philippian jailer in Acts 16, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?”…saved from God’s wrath that is to come.

Blessings & Cursings

The LORD has written in His Word the blessings He will bring upon those who listen to His voice through His Word, to observe and to do all He commands. He promises His blessings will come UPON them and OVERTAKE them. But for those who choose not to read God’s Word and be obedient unto Him, curses will be what comes upon them and overtakes them in their daily lives (Deuteronomy 28).

HIS BLESSINGS

• Blessed will you be in the city, and in the field.
• Blessed will be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground.
• Blessed will be the fruit of your cattle, your oxen, and the flocks of your sheep.
• Blessed will be your basket and your store.
• Blessed will you be when you come in, and when you go out.
• Blessed will you be when your enemies are brought down.
• Blessed will be your storehouses.
• Blessed will be all you do.
• Blessed will be your land.
• Blessed will be the rain that falls on your land in season.
• Blessed will you be to lend and not to borrow.

“All these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, IF thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.” Deuteronomy 28:2

HIS CURSES

• Cursed you will be in the city, and in the field.
• Cursed will be your basket and your store.
• Cursed will be the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your land.
• Cursed will be the increase of your cattle, and the flocks of your sheep.
• Cursed will be when you come in, and when you go out.
• Cursed, vexation and rebuke will come upon all that you do.
• Cursed with pestilence, consumption, fever, inflammation, and extreme burning.
• Cursed with the sword, blasting, and mildew.
• Cursed with heaven as brass and earth as iron under your feet.
• Cursed with rain as powder and dust coming down upon the land.
• Cursed with enemies smiting you.
• Cursed with diseases, madness, astonishment of heart.
• Cursed with children given to others.
• Cursed with others getting what you produce.
• Cursed with oppression.
• Cursed with sowing much seed, reaping little.
• Cursed with destruction of vineyard by worms.
• Cursed with children given to captivity.
• Cursed with trees and fruit eaten by locust.
• Cursed with being brought low.
• Cursed with having to borrow, and not lend.

“Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and shall pursue thee, and overtake thee, till thou be destroyed: Because thou hearkened not unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded thee… Because you served not the LORD thy God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, for the abundance of all things.” Deuteronomy 28:45,47