Do Christians have car accidents? Do they get cancer? Are they ever fired from their jobs? The answer to all three questions is, of course, yes. But that answer causes big problems for some new Christians. Doesn't the Bible promise that God will look out for and protect his followers? How can such bad things occur?
People puzzled by such questions often refer to Old Testament books, where God clearly promised success and protection to the Israelites. In Deuteronomy, Moses spelled out God's promises in complete detail. Israelite wives would have many babies. All the crops - grain, grapes, olive trees - would produce bountifully. Cattle and sheep would multiply. And Moses even included this extraordinary promise: "The Lord will keep you free from every disease" (7:15).
A Special Arrangement
For the Israelites to receive these benefits, God asked only one thing in return: follow the covenant agreement first set forth in the book of Exodus. Deuteronomy repeats much of the covenant and affirms, "It was not with our fathers that the Lord made this covenant, but with us, with all of us who are alive here today" (5:3).
God had a unique relationship with the band of refugees who had been roaming the Sinai for 40 years (10:15; 14:2). Moses, for one, could not seem to get over the arrangement. "Ask from one end of the heavens to the other," he said. "Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like it ever been heard of? Has any god ever tried to take for himself one nation out of another nation . . . like all the things |
