Deuteronomy 28 – If you obey the voice of God by observing the law, you will prosper.  Disobedience will bring destruction (28:45). The big word in this chapter, as in others, is if or “provided” or “so long as.”  This is the great condition that hangs over the redemption people.  The word does not disappear under the new covenant either as we sometimes like to think.  “You are my friends if you do as I command you.” (John 15:14).  The convincing power of the gospel is not in its syllogistic impregnability but in the fruits that flow from obedience, fruits that are the blessings God promises from the beginning—productivity, fertility, favor, and the more refined fruits of the spirit, joy, hope, and love overflowing.  To get back to “if” - the “if” does not mean that God’s love is conditional either.  God’s patience with the hard-headedness and recalcitrance of his people is amply demonstrated in both old and new testaments; but the blessings of the promise—the fruitfulness and power—are conditional.  It is, after all, a covenant and our free compliance with it is right at the core of its success.

Turning to the curse side of the equation.  Aside from hunger, thirst and poverty, they will be made to serve their enemies.  A nation from afar will besiege their communities until you are reduced to barbarity.  “Just as the Lord once took delight in making you grow and prosper, so will he now take delight in ruining and destroying you, and you will be plucked out of the land you are now entering to occupy. The Lord will scatter you. . .”(28:63-64). These verses make it pretty apparent that the writing of Deuteronomy, or at least part of it, happened during the “captivity” that followed the Neo-Babylonian defeat and exile.  “You will live in constant suspense and stand in dread both day and night, never sure of your existence.  In the morning you will say, ‘Would that it were evening!’ and in the evening you will say, ‘Would that it were morning!’” (28:66-67). 

Galatians 6 - Correct people in a spirit of gentleness.  Carry each other’s burdens.  God is not cheated: “Where a man sows, there he reaps. . .” (6:7).  What this means is that man will be rewarded as he deserves.  If a person works for the wrong reasons, the fruits will be a frustration to him; so we ought never to tire of doing what is right (6:8), for such dedication will reap a blessing at some point.

The people seeking to force circumcision on the Galatians are seeking a fleshly prize—freedom from persecution, cessation of conflict with Jewish authorities; what is important is not the works of the flesh but becoming “an altogether new creature” (6:15).