Contemplative Bible Reading

Deuteronomy 28:28 (English Standard Version)

The Lord will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of mind

In this section of the second giving of the law, God’s people are warned of the curses that will come from disobedience. This one strikes home–confusion of mind. My mother, following in the footsteps of her father and two older sisters and leading the way for her younger sister, suffered horribly with confusion of mind.

Read this section of Deuteronomy. The curses are horrible for the nation and all the persons around them. This curse, however, is personal. A person, once vibrant and capable, will be reduced to wondering where they are and who is standing next to them—often a spouse, child, or lifelong friend.

Confusion of mind is a horrible curse. My mother and her relatives didn’t suffer it from disobedience to God under the Old Law. Still, they lived as examples of the horrible curses God’s people suffered from disobedience.

Hell on earth? Maybe. Something to be avoided. And something that brings to mind what should be daily thankfulness from me for the grace of God and the sacrifice of His Son.