OVERTAKEN AND LIBERATED

“All these blessings will come upon you and accompany you if you obey the LORD your God.”
Deuteronomy 28:2

As a lover of history, especially the historic events related to World War II, I find myself drawn to reading articles or stories of Holocaust survivors. Without going into a full history lesson, I want to share a brief overview of historic events related to the liberation of Nazi concentration camps. In July 1944, Soviet forces were the first to approach Majdanek, outside of Lublin, Poland. The march on the Germans by the Soviets caught them off guard, therefore allowing the Russian army to see the extent of death being used by their enemy. But this liberation was only one of many. In the months to follow, additional camps in Belzec, Sobibor, and Treblinka were also overtaken by Soviet forces before they finally liberated Auschwitz in January 1945. As the Allies continued to work together liberating additional camps in the Baltic states and Poland, Germany soon realized they were being overtaken with massive efforts. Shortly thereafter, Germany surrendered.
In Deuteronomy 28, Moshe challenges the people of Isra’el with words concerning blessing. Moshe spoke that if they fully obeyed the Adonai and followed His commands, then He would set His people above all nations. But then he continued and spoke that all these blessings of Adonai would come on the people and accompany them. Another version uses the term ‘overtake them’. In practicality, just as the Allied forces overtook Germany, so Adonai would send His blessings to overtake those who walked in obedience to Him. Let us look at two examples of this truth.
The first example that comes to my mind is Yosef. Granted, Yosef suffered many things in his younger years before finding himself in the position of second in command, but look at Genesis 39:3-4a. “When his master saw that the LORD was with him and that the LORD gave him success in everything he did, Yosef found favor in his eyes and became his attendant…” Did you catch that? Adonai blessed Yosef in everything he did. Why? Because Yosef obeyed and served Adonai in everything he did. The blessings of Adonai overtook Yosef because he lived his life in obedience to Him alone. Although he lived in a foreign land, he did not forsake his God. Adonai’s blessings came upon Yosef and when the time was right, his liberation from prison also came and he was promoted to a place of prominence.
But let us also look at another example from the time after Moshe’s words were spoken. If we look into the book of Ruth, we find that Adonai used Boaz as a means of blessing for Ruth and Naomi. Ruth 2:15-16 shares that Boaz gave orders to his men to pull out some stalks for her from the bundles and leave them for her to pick up. Ruth and Naomi had little, and as such, Ruth went and found the approval of Boaz to glean in his field. Basically, Ruth was given the approval to go behind the workers and gather any leftover grain. Boaz, then, instructed his men to purposefully leave larger portions behind that she then would glean and use for food. By using Boaz, blessings overtook Ruth.
I want to be in a position where blessings come upon me. I want to be in a place where I am overtaken by Adonai’s hand of blessing and liberated from the enemy of lack and bondage. But, this cannot happen if I am not walking in obedience to Him. The examples of Yosef and Ruth show that Adonai’s blessing can overtake us. True, He will bless us with what we need out of His love for us, but I don’t want just enough. I want blessings to overtake me. And I want to see blessings overtake you. Let us then put ourselves in a place where this can happen; where we can be overtaken and liberated. Let us walk in full obedience to Adonai.

Deuteronomy 27:1-10
Deuteronomy 27:11 – 28:6