Deuteronomy 28:1-68 - chart comparing blessings and curses

Deuteronomy 28:1-68

The Blessings and Curses

I have tries in this chart to place together the related blessings and curses. While some were clearly opposites of each other, many were not so obviously related, and may not have been intended to be seen as opposites. I hope that seeing the blessings and curses side by side (in this poor attempt of that feat) may be of some help in looking at this chapter in Deuteronomy.

Blessings	Curses: vv15-46	Curses: vv47-57	Curses: vv58-68
[1] It shall happen, if you shall listen diligently to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments which I command you this day, that Yahweh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. [2] All these blessings will come upon you, and overtake you, if you listen to Yahweh your God’s voice.	[15] But it shall come to pass, if you will not listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses will come on you, and overtake you.	[47] Because you didn’t serve Yahweh your God with joyfulness, and with gladness of heart, by reason of the abundance of all things; [48] therefore you will serve your enemies whom Yahweh sends against you, in hunger, in thirst, in nakedness, and in lack of all things. He will put an iron yoke on your neck, until he has destroyed you. [49] Yahweh will bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies; a nation whose language you will not understand;	[58] If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, YAHWEH YOUR GOD;
[3] You shall be blessed in the city, and you shall be blessed in the field.	[16] You will be cursed in the city, and you will be cursed in the field.
[4] You shall be blessed in the fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the fruit of your animals, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock.	[18] The fruit of your body, the fruit of your ground, the increase of your livestock, and the young of your flock will be cursed.	[50] a nation of fierce facial expressions, that doesn’t respect the elderly, nor show favor to the young, [51] and they will eat the fruit of your livestock, and the fruit of your ground, until you are destroyed. They also won’t leave you grain, new wine, or oil, the increase of your livestock, or the young of your flock, until they have caused you to perish.
[5] Your basket and your kneading trough shall be blessed.	[17] Your basket and your kneading trough will be cursed.
[6] You shall be blessed when you come in, and you shall be blessed when you go out.	[19] You will be cursed when you come in, and you will be cursed when you go out.
[7] Yahweh will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck before you. They will come out against you one way, and will flee before you seven ways.	[25] Yahweh will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and will flee seven ways before them. You will be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth. [26] Your dead body will be food to all birds of the sky, and to the animals of the earth; and there will be no one to frighten them away.	[52] They will besiege you in all your gates, until your high and fortified walls come down, in which you trusted, throughout all your land. They will besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land, which Yahweh your God has given you.
[8] Yahweh will command the blessing on you in your barns, and in all that you put your hand to. He will bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you.	[20] Yahweh will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke, in all that you put your hand to do, until you are destroyed, and until you perish quickly; because of the evil of your doings, by which you have forsaken me. [21] Yahweh will make the pestilence cling to you, until he has consumed you from off the land, where you go in to possess it. [22] Yahweh will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with fiery heat, with the sword, with blight, and with mildew. They will pursue you until you perish.
[9] Yahweh will establish you for a holy people to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you shall keep the commandments of Yahweh your God, and walk in his ways. [10] All the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by Yahweh’s name, and they will be afraid of you.	[36] Yahweh will bring you, and your king whom you will set over yourselves, to a nation that you have not known, you nor your fathers. There you will serve other gods of wood and stone. [37] You will become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all the peoples where Yahweh will lead you away.
[11] Yahweh will grant you abundant prosperity, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you.	[27] Yahweh will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with the tumors, with the scurvy, and with the itch, of which you can not be healed. [28] Yahweh will strike you with madness, with blindness, and with astonishment of heart. [29] You will grope at noonday, as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways. You will only be oppressed and robbed always, and there will be no one to save you. [30] You will betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her. You will build a house, and you won’t dwell in it. You will plant a vineyard, and not use its fruit. [31] Your ox will be slain before your eyes, and you will not eat any of it. Your donkey will be violently taken away from before your face, and will not be restored to you. Your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you. [32] Your sons and your daughters will be given to another people. Your eyes will look, and fail with longing for them all day long. There will be no power in your hand. [33] A nation which you don’t know eat the fruit of your ground and all of your work. You will only be oppressed and crushed always; [34] so that the sights that you see with your eyes will drive you mad. [35] Yahweh will strike you in the knees and in the legs with a sore boil, of which you can not be healed, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head. [38] You will carry much seed out into the field, and will gather little in; for the locust will consume it. [39] You will plant vineyards and dress them, but you will neither drink of the wine, nor harvest, because worms will eat them. [40] You will have olive trees throughout all your borders, but you won’t anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives will drop off. [41] You will father sons and daughters, but they will not be yours; for they will go into captivity. [42] Locusts will consume all of your trees and the fruit of your ground.	[53] You will eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom Yahweh your God has given you, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemies will distress you. [54] The man who is tender among you, and very delicate, his eye will be evil toward his brother, toward the wife whom he loves, and toward the remnant of his children whom he has remaining; [55] so that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he will eat, because he has nothing left to him, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in all your gates. [56] The tender and delicate woman among you, who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground for delicateness and tenderness, her eye will be evil toward the husband that she loves, toward her son, toward her daughter, [57] toward her young one who comes out from between her feet, and toward her children whom she bears; for she will eat them secretly for lack of all things, in the siege and in the distress with which your enemy will distress you in your gates.	[59] then Yahweh will make your plagues fearful, and the plagues of your seed, even great plagues, and of long duration, and severe sicknesses, and of long duration. [60] He will bring on you again all the diseases of Egypt, which you were afraid of; and they will cling to you. [61] Also every sickness and every plague, which is not written in the book of this law, Yahweh will bring them on you, until you are destroyed.
[12a] Yahweh will open to you his good treasure in the sky, to give the rain of your land in its season, and to bless all the work of your hand.	[23] Your sky that is over your head will be brass, and the earth that is under you will be iron. [24] Yahweh will make the rain of your land powder and dust. It will come down on you from the sky, until you are destroyed.
[12b] You will lend to many nations, and you will not borrow.	[44a] He will lend to you, and you won’t lend to him.
[13] Yahweh will make you the head, and not the tail. You will be above only, and you will not be beneath; if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I command you this day, to observe and to do, [14] and shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right hand, or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.	[43] The foreigner who is in your midst will mount up above you higher and higher, and you will come down lower and lower. [44] He will lend to you, and you won’t lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail. [45] All these curses will come on you, and will pursue you, and overtake you, until you are destroyed; because you didn’t listen to Yahweh your God’s voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded you. [46] They will be for a sign and for a wonder to you and to your seed forever.		[62] You will be left few in number, even though you were as the stars of the sky for multitude; because you didn’t listen to Yahweh your God’s voice. [63] It will happen that as Yahweh rejoiced over you to do you good, and to multiply you, so Yahweh will rejoice over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you. You will be plucked from off of the land where you go in to possess it. [64] Yahweh will scatter you among all peoples, from one end of the earth to the other end of the earth. There you will serve other gods, which you have not known, you nor your fathers, even wood and stone. [65] Among these nations you will find no ease, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot; but Yahweh will give you there a trembling heart, failing of eyes, and pining of soul. [66] Your life will hang in doubt before you. You will be afraid night and day, and will have no assurance of your life. [67] In the morning you will say, “I wish it were evening!” and at evening you will say, “I wish it were morning!” for the fear of your heart which you will fear, and for the sights which your eyes will see. [68] Yahweh will bring you into Egypt again with ships, by the way of which I told to you that you would never see it again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies for male and female slaves, and nobody will buy you.

Deuteronomy 10:12-22

Deuteronomy 10:12-22

Deuteronomy 10:12-22

[12] Now, Israel, what does Yahweh your God require of you, but to fear Yahweh your God, to walk in all his ways, and to love him, and to serve Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul, [13] to keep the commandments of Yahweh, and his statutes, which I command you this day for your good? [14] Behold, to Yahweh your God belongs heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth, with all that is therein. [15] Only Yahweh had a delight in your fathers to love them, and he chose their seed after them, even you above all peoples, as at this day. [16] Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked. [17] For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn’t respect persons, nor takes reward. [18] He does execute justice for the fatherless and widow, and loves the foreigner, in giving him food and clothing. [19] Therefore love the foreigner; for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt. [20] You shall fear Yahweh your God; you shall serve him; and you shall cling to him, and you shall swear by his name. [21] He is your praise, and he is your God, who has done for you these great and awesome things, which your eyes have seen. [22] Your fathers went down into Egypt with seventy persons; and now Yahweh your God has made you as the stars of the sky for multitude.

10:12 – What does the Lord your God require of you

Is it not a light thing that the Lord requires of us? Yes and no. We must take up our cross daily. In that it is a cross, it is not a light thing. And yet, in that it is a yoke, it is easy and light. What God requires of us gives rest to our souls.

When compared with the world, is it heavy or light? If we look only at the empty promises of the world, then the world wins every time. But, as we consider not only how empty the promises of the world are, but also the temporal and ultimate end of its path, we must admit that the world lays a heavy yoke upon those who serve it.

Is God asking us to trade our soul for a bowl of soup? Is he requiring us to give up our eternal soul for fleeting, passing pleasures? No. The end result of his requirements is the gaining of our eternal soul. Along the way it is peace and rest to our soul. It is health to our being and our existence.

Micah 6:6-8 [6] How shall I come before Yahweh, and bow myself before the exalted God? Shall I come before him with burnt offerings, with calves a year old? [7] Will Yahweh be pleased with thousands of rams? With tens of thousands of rivers of oil? Shall I give my firstborn for my disobedience? The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul? [8] He has shown you, O man, what is good. What does Yahweh require of you, but to act justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

Jeremiah 7:22-23 [22] For I didn’t speak to your fathers, nor command them in the day that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: [23] but this thing I commanded them, saying, ‘Listen to my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people; and walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you.’

10:12,20 – Fear the Lord your God

Jeremiah 32:39-40 [39] and I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear me forever, for their good, and of their children after them: [40] and I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from following them, to do them good; and I will put my fear in their hearts, that they may not depart from me.

Psalm 128:1; 1 Peter 1:13-17

10:12 – Walk in all his ways

Psalm 81:10-13 [10] I am Yahweh, your God, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt. Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it. [11] But my people didn’t listen to my voice. Israel desired none of me. [12] So I let them go after the stubbornness of their hearts, that they might walk in their own counsels. [13] Oh that my people would listen to me, that Israel would walk in my ways!

Titus 2:11-14

10:12 – Love him

Psalm 145:20; Romans 8:28; 1 John 5:2

10:12,20 – Serve the Lord your God with all your heart and all your soul

Hebrews 12:28-29

10:13 – Keep his commandments and his statutes

10:14-15 – All things and people belong to God, but he chose your fathers and you after them.

Verse 16 has a “therefore.” These verses (14-15) are the first reason given, or first motivation given, to circumcise the hearts and to cease stiffening the necks. God's love for the fathers and his choice of their descendants after them should cause them to humble themselves, no longer being stubborn and rebellious.

It is the same for God's people today. As we consider God's love for us, it should motivate us to humble ourselves before God, to cease our stubborn and rebellious ways in holding onto sin against the will of the one who loves us so.

10:16 – Circumcise your heart

Leviticus 26:40-42 [40] “‘If they confess their iniquity, and the iniquity of their fathers, in their trespass which they trespassed against me, and also that, because they walked contrary to me, [41] I also walked contrary to them, and brought them into the land of their enemies; if then their uncircumcised heart is humbled, and they then accept the punishment of their iniquity; [42] then I will remember my covenant with Jacob; and also my covenant with Isaac, and also my covenant with Abraham; and I will remember the land.

Deuteronomy 30:1-10 [1] It shall happen, when all these things have come on you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you shall call them to mind among all the nations, where Yahweh your God has driven you, [2] and return to Yahweh your God, and obey his voice according to all that I command you this day, you and your children, with all your heart, and with all your soul; [3] that then Yahweh your God will release you from captivity, have compassion on you, and will return and gather you from all the peoples where Yahweh your God has scattered you. [4] If your outcasts are in the uttermost parts of the heavens, from there Yahweh your God will gather you, and from there he will bring you back. [5] Yahweh your God will bring you into the land which your fathers possessed, and you will possess it. He will do you good, and increase your numbers more than your fathers. [6] Yahweh your God will circumcise your heart, and the heart of your seed, to love Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, that you may live. [7] Yahweh your God will put all these curses on your enemies, and on those who hate you, who persecuted you. [8] You shall return and obey the voice of Yahweh, and do all his commandments which I command you this day. [9] Yahweh your God will make you plenteous in all the work of your hand, in the fruit of your body, in the fruit of your livestock, and in the fruit of your ground, for good; for Yahweh will again rejoice over you for good, as he rejoiced over your fathers; [10] if you will obey Yahweh your God’s voice, to keep his commandments and his statutes which are written in this book of the law; if you turn to Yahweh your God with all your heart, and with all your soul.

Jeremiah 6:10-11 [10] To whom shall I speak and testify, that they may hear? Behold, their ear is uncircumcised, and they can’t listen. Behold, Yahweh’s word has become a reproach to them. They have no delight in it. [11] Therefore I am full of the wrath of Yahweh. I am weary with holding in. “Pour it out on the children in the street, and on the assembly of young men together; for even the husband with the wife shall be taken, the aged with him who is full of days.

Jeremiah 9:25-26 [25] Behold, the days come, says Yahweh, that I will punish all those who are circumcised in uncircumcision: [26] Egypt, and Judah, and Edom, and the children of Ammon, and Moab, and all that have the corners of their hair cut off, who dwell in the wilderness; for all the nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart.

Ezekiel 11:16-21 [16] Therefore say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Whereas I have removed them far off among the nations, and whereas I have scattered them among the countries, yet will I be to them a sanctuary for a little while in the countries where they have come. [17] Therefore say, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: I will gather you from the peoples, and assemble you out of the countries where you have been scattered, and I will give you the land of Israel. [18] They shall come there, and they shall take away all the detestable things of it and all its abominations from there. [19] I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them a heart of flesh; [20] that they may walk in my statutes, and keep my ordinances, and do them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. [21] But as for them whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things and their abominations, I will bring their way on their own heads, says the Lord Yahweh.

In verses 16-20 it appears there is no condition for God's work in verse 19 being done. However, verses 21 seems to show that there is in fact a condition. If those whose heart walks after the heart of their detestable things will not receive a heart of flesh, then it seems reasonable to understand that it is those whose heart has turned from their detestable things who will receive a heart of flesh.

Ezekiel 36:26

Ezekiel 44:6-9 [6] You shall tell the rebellious, even to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: you house of Israel, let it suffice you of all your abominations, [7] in that you have brought in foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, to be in my sanctuary, to profane it, even my house, when you offer my bread, the fat and the blood, and they have broken my covenant, to add to all your abominations. [8] You have not performed the duty of my holy things; but you have set performers of my duty in my sanctuary for yourselves. [9] Thus says the Lord Yahweh, No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into my sanctuary, of any foreigners who are among the children of Israel.

Acts 7:51 “You stiff-necked and uncircumcised in heart and ears, you always resist the Holy Spirit! As your fathers did, so you do.

Romans 2:25-29 [25] For circumcision indeed profits, if you are a doer of the law, but if you are a transgressor of the law, your circumcision has become uncircumcision. [26] If therefore the uncircumcised keep the ordinances of the law, won’t his uncircumcision be accounted as circumcision? [27] Won’t the uncircumcision which is by nature, if it fulfills the law, judge you, who with the letter and circumcision are a transgressor of the law? [28] For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is that circumcision which is outward in the flesh; [29] but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit not in the letter; whose praise is not from men, but from God.

Colossians 2:9-13 [9] For in him all the fullness of the Godhead dwells bodily, [10] and in him you are made full, who is the head of all principality and power; [11] in whom you were also circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the sins of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ; [12] having been buried with him in baptism, in which you were also raised with him through faith in the working of God, who raised him from the dead. [13] You were dead through your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. He made you alive together with him, having forgiven us all our trespasses,

10:17 – God is almighty God and is an impartial judge.

This seems to be another reason or motivation to circumcise our hearts and no longer stiffen our necks. Before this exhortation, God's love is spoken of as a reason or motivation. After this exhortation, the coming judgment before the impartial judge is spoken of as a reason or motivation.

In this case, the fear of God and the coming judgment should motivate us to circumcise our hearts and humble ourselves.

Both motivations are given, and both are important. Each has a place in the Christian's life. May the Lord grant that we understand both his love for us and the awfulness of the coming judgment. Both should cause us to flee unrighteousness, and pursue God. Both should teach us of the goodness of God.

As both motivations are given time and again, we should learn to value both, and to lay hold of both. For those who know the fear of God, meditate on his love. For those who know the love of God, consider the fear of the Lord. Both are an important part of the Christian's spiritual armor.

2 Chronicles 19:7 Now therefore let the fear of Yahweh be on you. Take heed and do it: for there is no iniquity with Yahweh our God, nor respect of persons, nor taking of bribes.”

2 Corinthians 5:9-11 [9] Therefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing to him. [10] For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ; that each one may receive the things in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad. [11] Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are revealed to God; and I hope that we are revealed also in your consciences.

Galatians 6:3-5 [3] For if a man thinks himself to be something when he is nothing, he deceives himself. [4] But let each man test his own work, and then he will take pride in himself and not in his neighbor. [5] For each man will bear his own burden.

10:18 – Widow and orphan

Isaiah 1:16-17 [16] Wash yourselves, make yourself clean. Put away the evil of your doings from before my eyes. Cease to do evil. [17] Learn to do well. Seek justice. Relieve the oppressed. Judge the fatherless. Plead for the widow.”

James 1:27 Pure religion and undefiled before our God and Father is this: to visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unstained by the world.

10:19 – Love the foreigner

10:20 – Cling to him

Joshua 23:6-8 [6] “Therefore be very courageous to keep and to do all that is written in the book of the law of Moses, that you not turn aside from it to the right hand or to the left; [7] that you not come among these nations, these that remain among you; neither make mention of the name of their gods, nor cause to swear by them, neither serve them, nor bow down yourselves to them; [8] but hold fast to Yahweh your God, as you have done to this day.

Acts 11:22-23 [22] The report concerning them came to the ears of the assembly which was in Jerusalem. They sent out Barnabas to go as far as Antioch, [23] who, when he had come, and had seen the grace of God, was glad. He exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they should remain near to the Lord.

Acts 11:22-23 [KJV] [22] Then tidings of these things came unto the ears of the church which was in Jerusalem: and they sent forth Barnabas, that he should go as far as Antioch. [23] Who, when he came, and had seen the grace of God, was glad, and exhorted them all, that with purpose of heart they would cleave unto the Lord.

10:20 – Swear by his name

As God's people swear by his name, and prove trustworthy, faithful and true, then God's name will be honored among all men as they hear of those who swear by God's name. This will serve ultimately to the salvation of all men.

[*MHCC*] - (Matthew Henry Concise Commentary) Deuteronomy 10:12-22

12-22 We are here taught our duty to God in our principles and our practices. We must fear the Lord our God. We must love him, and delight in communion with him. We must walk in the ways in which he has appointed us to walk. We must serve him with all our heart and soul. What we do in his service we must do cheerfully, and with good will. We must keep his commandments. There is true honour and pleasure in obedience. We must give honour to God; and to him we must cleave, as one we love and delight in, trust in, and from whom we have great expectations. We are here taught our duty to our neighbour. God's common gifts to mankind oblige us to honour all men. And those who have themselves been in distress, and have found mercy with God, should be ready to show kindness to those who are in the like distress. We are here taught our duty to ourselves. Circumcise your hearts. Cast away all corrupt affections and inclinations, which hinder you from fearing and loving God. By nature we do not love God. This is original sin, the source whence our wickedness proceeds; and the carnal mind is enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be; so then they that are in the flesh cannot please God, #Ro 8:5-9|. Let us, without delay or reserve, come and cleave to our reconciled God in Jesus Christ, that we may love, serve, and obey him acceptably, and be daily changed into his image, from glory to glory, by the Spirit of the Lord. Consider the greatness and glory of God; and his goodness and grace; these persuade us to our duty. Blessed Spirit! Oh for thy purifying, persevering, and renewing influences, that being called out of the state of strangers, such as our fathers were, we may be found among the number of the children of God, and that our lot may be among the saints.

#433 - Napoleon's Opinion of Christ.

Napoleon's Opinion of Christ.

  When Napoleon was at Saint Helena, in the enforced retirement that followed his boisterous campaigns, he faced, with all the powers of his mighty intellect, the problem of the Unaccountable Man. Not a few of his devoted friends had been carried away on the flood-tide of infidelity which, at that time, was sweeping everything before it. On one occasion, when General Bertrand had been speaking of Jesus as a man of commanding genius, Napoleon interrupted him and said:
  “I know men; and I tell you Jesus Christ was more than a man. Superficial minds see a resemblance between him and the founders of empires; but there is the distance of infinity between them. As for me I recognize those great men as beings like myself; they have performed their lofty parts, but there was nothing to prove them divine. They have had foibles which ally them with me. It is not so with Christ. Everything in Him astonishes me. His spirit overawes me; His will confounds me; He stands a being by Himself. His thoughts and principles are not to be explained by human organization or the nature of things. His birth and the history of His life, the profundity of His doctrine which grapples with the mightiest difficulties and solves them; His gospel, His kingdom, His march across the ages; these are too deep a mystery for me! They plunge me into reveries from which I find no escape. The nearer I approach Him, the more I perceive that everything is above me.
  “Who will presume to lift his voice against an intrepid voyager who recounts the marvels of lands which he alone has had the boldness to visit? Christ is that voyager. I search in vain through history to find his peer. He died an object of contempt, and left a Gospel which has been called 'the foolishness of the cross.' What a mysterious symbol! And what a tempest it provoked! On the one side all the furies; on the other gentleness and infinite resignation. And with what result? You speak of Caesar and Alexander, of their conquests and the enthusiasm which they enkindled in the hearts of their soldiers; but can you conceive of a dead man making conquests with an army devoted to his memory? Can you conceive of Caesar from the depth of his mausoleum watching over the destinies of Rome? Yet such is the history of the Christian invasion and the conquest of the world. Such is the power of the Christian's Gods!
  “We have founded empires, Caesar and Alexander and Charlemagne and I; we have founded empires upon force; but Christ has founded an empire on love. And at this hour, millions would die for him. What a proof of his divinity! Now that I am at Saint Helena, chained upon this rock, where are my friends? My life once shone with a royal brilliance; but disaster overtook me and the gold became dim. Behold the destiny of him whom the world calls Napoleon the Great! What an abyss between my misery and the eternal reign of Christ!”
  For a moment the exiled Emperor was silent and then, with a broken voice, he added, “My friends, if you do not perceive that Jesus Christ is God, I did wrong to place you in command of my army.”--David James Burrell, D.D.

Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #433 (Page 232).

#423 - A Worthy Confessor

A Worthy Confessor

  It was a fine reply which Basil, of Caesarea, made when the Emperor Valens sent by his prefect, endeavoring by threats to compel him to receive acknowledged Arians into the fellowship of the Church. The prefect demanded whether he alone when all others obeyed the Emperor, dared to wish to have any other religion than that of his master. Basil replied that he had nothing to be afraid of; possessions, of which men might deprive him, he had none, except his few books and his cloak. An exile was no exile for him, since he knew the whole earth was the Lord's. If torture was threatened, his feeble body would yield to the first blows; and as for death, that would only bring him nearer to God after whom he longed. The prefect gave up the case. It was vain to threaten such a man.

Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #423 (Page 231).

#431 - Pull Out the Nail Hole

Pull Out the Nail Hole

  John B. DeMotte, A.M., gives this little story of father's teaching.

  “My boyhood home was not far south of the great chain of North American Lakes. Our fuel was poles cut from a neighboring tamarack swamp. It was my business, after they had been brought to our yard, to saw them to proper length for the stoves. They were long and slick and hard to hold. One morning, when I was in a hurry to be off fishing, they seemed to be especially aggravating. Getting the saw fast, I jerked about until finally I plunged the teeth some distance into one of my feet, making an ugly gash. My father saw the exhibition of my tempter, but said nothing until I had finished my work and my passion had subsided. Then he called me to him.

  “John,” said he, very kindly, “I wish you would get the hammer.”

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Now a nail and a piece of pine board.”

  “Here they are.”

  “Will you drive the nail into the board?”

  It was done.

  “Please pull it out again.”

  “That's easy.”

  “Now, John”--and my father's voice dropped to a lower, sadder key--“pull out the nail hole.”

  Ah! Boys and girls, every wrong act leaves a scar. Even if the board were a living tree, yea, a living soul, the scars remain. 

Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #431 (Page 231).

#1165 - What is a Weight?

What is a Weight?

  A weight is anything which, without being essentially wrong or hurtful to others, is yet a hindrance to ourselves. We may always know a weight by three signs: first, we are uneasy about it; second, we argue for it against our conscience; third, we go about asking people's advice, whether we may not keep it without harm. All these things must be laid aside in the strength which Jesus waits to give.--selected.


Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #1165 (Page 565).

#411 - "I Don't Know!"

“I Don't Know!”

  It was one of those delightful autumn days and the Westchester Presbytery was enjoying its noon recess. Several candidates had been examined for ordination, among them young Stanley Phraner, son of one of our best-known and best-loved ministers. In answer to several questions about future affairs I noticed that he answered firmly, “I do not know.” We took a little stroll along the country road that passed the church, and I asked him why he had made that answer, “I do not know.” He said:
  “That is a lesson I learned at sea. I will tell you the whole story.
  “One summer when a college student at Princeton, I thought I would vary my vacation by taking a trip as a sailor. The invitation of a sea captain, known to our family, offered the opportunity. I started from New York on a three-masted schooner bound for the island of Porto Rico. Being good at figures, the captain asked me to do his navigation for him. He gave me a chart, an almanac, a book of logarithms, and a quadrant. He showed me how to use these things, and this was the formula by which I was always to work:
  “'Secant your latitude, co-secant your polar distance, take the co-sine of one-half the sum and the sine of the remainder.'
  “So day after day, under the watchful eye of the captain, I calculated the ship's position. The captain was always careful to note that the rule had been followed exactly. So one day I asked him:
  “Captain, why do you secant your latitude?”
  “I don't know!” said the captain bluntly.
  “Well, can you tell my why you co-secant your polar distance?”
  “I don't know! Except—except—well, that's the rule. Young man, you want to know too much. Do as I tell you, follow the rule, all sailors use it. Trust your book of logarithms and you will make port all right.”
  “So day by day I put down the position on the chart. On the fourteenth day out I went to the captain and ventured my first forecast.
  “'To-night if the wind holds fair,' I said, 'we ought to make the Saul Rock passage into the Caribbean Sea.' That night I watched eagerly, and sure enough about eleven o'clock we sighted the great white rock looming up in the ocean, and the next day we entered the harbor of Mayaguez. Along the shore giant palms waved their lofty plumes in the soft breeze. Beyond, we could see the groves of orange and banana trees and all the tropical verdure of the island, while from bluff to bluff of the headlands on either shore of the harbor arose a mighty rainbow arch, which, reflected on the sea beneath, formed a circle of wondrous light into which we slowly drifted that Sabbath evening as we came to anchor in the harbor of our destination. The rule was right, and by it we made port. When I got back to Princeton I was able to study out some of the reasons why of the rule that could not be explained at sea, but had to be followed in simple trust.”
  In the school of the sea this Princeton student had learned to say “I don't know!” It is a lesson in the faith-life worth learning. How many queries rise in our Christian thinking and living when we ought just to set to our seal that God is true and that His promises are sure.
  Why did the holy angels fall from heaven?
  “I don't know!”
  How was it sin entered Eden?
  “I don't know!”
  Why is it some wicked people seem to prosper while some very good people suffer?
  “I don't know!”
  How can one reconcile man's free will and God's sovereignty?
  “I don't know!”
  For the present I can get along without knowing some of these things, for I walk by faith and not by sight. We seek a better country, we are still at sea. We have not yet reached the home port—God's haven of eternal rest. Our book is the Bible, God's own word. The Gospel rule is, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.” When at last we enter the City of Light we may learn many a reason why that cannot be given now. “For now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to face; now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.”--John S. Allen, D. D.


Illustrative Anecdotes for Preachers, Sunday School Teachers, and the Family Circle. Henry M. Tyndall. 1925. #411 (Pages 220-221).