In Deuteronomy 6:10-11(ESV) God promised his people that he would bring them “…into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good 16 curse of lawcities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant…” If you ask me, this sounds like a violation of the laws of sowing and reaping that God established with Adam when Adam and Eve ate of the tree and bore the consequences of their choice. In Genesis 3:17-19 (ESV) God cursed Adam and said, “…cursed is the ground because of you; in pain you shall eat of it all the days of your life; thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you; and you shall eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your face you shall eat bread…” Yet in Deuteronomy, God promises to give Abraham and His descendants all the good things of life without having to “sweat” for them. What’s up with that?

In the cursed world in which we all find ourselves, we live under the curse of the law. We have to work for our bread, we have to sweat to make a living and we have to “labor” to bring forth children into the world. Thorns and thistles obstruct our progress in every area of life in the land God has given us to live in. But God wants us to know that He loves us with an “everlasting love” (See Jeremiah 31:30). He wants us to know that there is another “land.” It’s the land for those who trust in God. In that land God does not relate to us by the curse of the law. He relates to us on the basis of His great love for us. Like the Israelites who trusted God and received many good things they did not deserve, God wants to bless all the children of Abraham who will live by faith.

By Jeremiah’s day the children of Israel had lost their faith in God and trusted in other gods, other nations, or their own military strategies and strength. When we don’t trust (believe in) God He relates to us on the basis of the law. If you do good you get good in return. If you do bad you get bad in return. Israel did bad and the natural law of reaping what you sow came into play. Jeremiah tells the people in chapter 6 and verse 12, “Their houses shall be turned over to others and their fields and even their wives, for I will stretch out my hand against the inhabitants of the land, declares the LORD.” I thank God that as a believer in Jesus, I don’t relate to Him on the basis of the law of sowing and reaping. Paul writes in Galatians 3:13, “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us.”