Brother H. T. Tucker, Star, N. C., asked us to give our views through the paper of Deuteronomy xi 26 and xxx 15.

Deuteronomy xi 26, 27, 28 reads as follows: "Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; a blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: and a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known." It seems to us that this language is as plain as language could make it that the Lord here promised the children of Israel a blessing if they would render that obedience unto Him which He required of them. The blessing which He promised depended upon their doing what He commanded. Here were blessings that they were to enjoy upon the ground of rendering obedience, and upon that ground only. He did not promise these blessings whether they rendered obedience or not, or unconditionally. On the other hand, He promised a curse if they did not render that obedience unto Him, but if they should turn aside and serve other gods. Here is punishment promised upon their disobedience

Deuteronomy xxx 15 to 20 reads: "See, I have set before thee this day life and good, and death and evil; in that I command thee this day to love the Lord thy God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments and his statutes and His judgments, that thou mayest live and multiply: and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to possess it. But if thine heart turn away, so that thou wilt not hear, but shall be drawn away, and worship other gods, and serve them; I denounce unto you this day, that ye shall surely perish, and that ye shall not prolong your days upon the land, whither thou passest over Jordan to go to possess it. I call heaven and earth to record this day against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessings and cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live: 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: that thou mayest dwell in the land which the Lord sware unto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob to give them." It seems to us that this language, too, is as plain as it can be made. He did not set life and death before the Gentiles, or the world of the ungodly; but He set them before Israel, His people, and required obedience of them, and promised the blessing if they rendered the obedience required. On the other hand, rebellion and disobedience would bring death and destruction upon them. The life nor the death were neither of them eternal, but the life was to be enjoyed in the land of Canaan, which the Lord promised to give to Abraham and to his seed after him. The land, therefore, belonged to the Israelites. It was theirs by gift and by birth. They were not required to render obedience to the Lord in order that the land be theirs; but they were required to render obedience unto Him in order that they continue in the land and enjoy the blessings in the land.

National Israel were a typical people; they were a type of spiritual Israel. As national Israel were required to render obedience unto the Lord in order that they enter the land of Canaan and enjoy the blessings of that land, even so the Lord's Israel today--spiritual Israel--must obey the Lord, or render service unto Him, in order that they enter the church--the antitype of the land of Canaan, the gospel Canaan-and enjoy the blessings in the church. The blessings here promised were to be enjoyed only when they rendered the service unto the Lord which He required, and could not be had or enjoyed any other way. The Lord made the enjoyment of these blessings to depend upon the obedience rendered by them unto Him. As the Lord put it that way, no man could or can change it and make it some other way.

Here the Lord commanded them to choose life. It would be folly to command one to choose life who had no life. Choice is something that pertains to and belongs to life. One must have life in order to choose. Hence those people were not alien sinners, or destitute of life. They were to prolong their life in Canaan by doing what the Lord commanded. They would escape punishment, sorrow, distress, captivity, and destruction by the sword by doing what the Lord required. This belongs today to the Lord's people. If all would only awake to duty and each one of us be found at our post doing what the Lord requires of us, how much better it would be, May the Lord help us so to do. C. H. C