The Itch

Deuteronomy 28:27 The LORD will afflict you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors, festering sores and the itch, from which you cannot be cured.

I live in fire ant country. For those of you who don’t have the pleasure of these little creatures in your yard and garden, count yourselves blessed. Who knew that such small creatures could cause so much misery.

If you make the mistake of standing in a fire ant pile, this is what will happen. Hundreds of ants swarm our and onto your clothes and skin. And then with an undetectable signal, they all start to bite. And at this point it is too late. You rip off your shoes and socks and brush madly to try to get them off, but the damage has been done.

Then over the next few days small pus-filled bumps appear where they have injected their poison. Around those small bumps there often develops a much larger area of redness and swelling. And the unrelenting itch! It lasts for weeks. Their bites are the gift that keep on giving.

Maybe you have gotten poison ivy or poison oak or poison sumac on your skin. Not much fun is it. All that pink calamine lotion for days and days. And the itching! It will keep you up at night.

“The itch” is one of the results of Israel rejecting the LORD’s will for their lives. There are also many other things that are on the negative side of the obedience/disobedience scale. If you read these chapters, I hope you will come away with a clear idea, and that idea is that obedience is better!

The LORD wants to bless his people. That is the bottom line. And the path to that blessing is not a difficult one. Just as the path for us isn’t difficult.

Trust Jesus. Put him first in your priorities. Seek him more than you seek football or the best deal on a purse. It isn’t that hard.

Why isn’t it hard? Because Jesus did the hard part. He took the death we should have received. And then he rose from death to prove that his payment was enough for us all. Obedience is always easier than disobedience. We might have walked down the disobedience road with more frequency, but obedience is enabled by the power of the Holy Spirit. Disobedience is all our energy.