Deuteronomy 28: Do Not Turn Aside

“Do not turn aside from any of the commands I give you today, to the right or to the left, following other gods and serving them.” -Deuteronomy 28:14

Have you ever considered that every failure to obey God is to serve other gods? This appears to be the underlying message of Deuteronomy 28:14, the climax of the “blessings” section of this chapter.

God commanded his people to not “turn aside” from any of his commands, “to the right or to the left.” The next half of the verse concludes the thought, stating, “following other gods and serving them.” To turn aside from God’s commands was serving other gods. There is no neutral with God. We either follow him or something or someone else.

How often we miss this! We hear or read of the idol worship of ancient times and assume we are okay because we don’t pray to a statue or give offerings to an idol. But we all fail to follow every command of God. We declare a greater allegiance to a variety of pursuits, some appearing more innocent than others, turning aside from God in the process.

Today, consider what you are tempted to “turn aside” to follow. What is pulling you away from God? Don’t let that area of life become an idol or a god. Follow the Lord.

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Dillon Burroughs is the author and coauthor of numerous books and is handwriting a copy of all 31,173 verses of the Bible at HolyWritProject.com. Find out more about Dillon at Facebook.com/readdB or readdB.com.