Heads, Not Tails

Deuteronomy 28:11-14

If you listen to these commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom. (Deuteronomy 28:13)

GOD GAVE A PROMISE TO his people as they were preparing to enter the Promised Land. He told them that if they remained faithful to him and carried out the instructions he gave them, he would give them success in all they did. They would be lenders, not borrowers; victors, not the vanquished; heads, not tails. It was a promise we now distance ourselves from, fearful of equating the gospel with a health-and-wealth lifestyle that focuses more on God’s blessings than on God himself. We don’t want to distort the message of Jesus.

It’s true that Jesus gave us a renewed covenant, and this promise was given in the old. God’s people never did live up to the standards of the law; human nature always falls short. Even so, there is something of the heart of God in this promise, a desire for his people to be blessed, to prosper (as he defines prospering), to experience as much of the fullness of his Kingdom as they can, even in this age. And where human nature falls short, Jesus does not. He fulfills the covenant on our behalf. In some real and meaningful ways, we can step into the Kingdom even now, as it is coming. We can experience the fullness God wants for us.

That doesn’t mean we will never have problems or face challenges, or that we will never stumble and fall. It does mean, however, that we will never actually be defeated—and that we are not to live with a defeatist mind-set. In this age, we are to be problem-solvers, culture-changers, leaders and innovators, heads and not tails. We are here to receive God’s blessings and share them extravagantly as harbingers of the coming Kingdom. When we live with that outlook, we exude life and offer transformation, things the people around us desperately need. We step into the desires of God for his people.

{Father, I know we experience trials and tribulations in this world. But you promise the power to overcome. We rise above to lead and to bless. May I do that well today and influence many for your Kingdom. Amen.