God loves to bless His people, but blessing the willfully disobedient sends a dangerous message.
In light of all that has gone before, the last half of Deuteronomy 26 gives what we might call the bottom line. I can do no better than to quote it verbatim: “This day the Lord your God commands you to observe these statutes and judgments; therefore you shall be careful to observe them with all your heart and with all your soul. Today you have proclaimed the Lord to be your God, and that you will walk in His ways and keep His statutes, His commandments, and His judgments, and that you will obey His voice. Also today the Lord has proclaimed you to be His special people, just as He promised you, that you should keep all His commandments, and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made, in praise, in name, and in honor, and that you may be a holy people to the Lord your God, just as He has spoken” (vv 16-19). Here’s the recap. Since God’s people are commanded to observe His Word, we should be careful to observe it. If we proclaim the Lord to be our God, then we should acclaim all that He has told us as right and good and beneficial. If the Lord has declared us “to be His special people,” then we should be a separated [or holy] people to the Lord. In the end, it’s as simple as that. Do we like to have the Lord treat us as special, ready to listen to our prayers, eager to help at a moment’s notice? Well then, do we treat Him as special to us? Or do we suddenly “get religion” only when we get desperate? The Lord wants to lift us up and use us as examples to the nations of the blessings that come through obedience and devotion to Him. But the only way up is down, because “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time” (1 Pet 5:5-6).