Deuteronomy 29:22-29 – Being faithful to God and live for Him gratefully

It is difficult to imagine anyone wanting to leave for his descendants a legacy of woes. If anything, a person would rather leave a heritage of lasting blessings to his posterity. What we see in Deuteronomy 29:22-28 is a description of a legacy of woes. That would be what the people of Israel would leave for their children if they chose to break their covenant with God. That is: if they deflect from worshipping and serving Him and go after other gods instead of remaining faithful to Him alone.

How would such a legacy look like? The land God gave to them would be drastically affected. It would be inflicted with plagues and diseases. Like Sodom, Gomorrah, and the nearby cities of Admah and Zeboiim, their land would be judged, overthrown, and left in ruin. It would become non-productive, unsown, and uncultivatable land that would be left in desolation and waste. Verse 28 said that the LORD in His anger would uproot their descendants and “cast them into another land.”

Their ruin would cause nations to ask uncomfortable questions. The answers would cause them to be scorned and labeled as unfaithful and ungrateful people. These would be said of them, “Because they forsook the covenant of the Lord, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them out of the land of Egypt. They went and served other gods and worshiped them, gods whom they have not known and whom He had not allotted to them. Therefore, the anger of the Lord burned against that land, to bring upon it every curse which is written in this book; and the Lord uprooted them from their land in anger and in fury and in great wrath, and cast them into another land, as it is this day.”

What would we rather leave behind for our children and their children? A legacy of blessings or a legacy of woes? If the former, then be faithful to God. Develop an attitude of gratitude. Set our hearts and affections on God alone. We must not allow our passion for other things in life to distract us and dislodge our devotion for Him. Let us seek to be steadfast, constant, faithful, and loyal to God alone. We and our children will inherit a legacy of rich blessings. That’s the promise of God!