ON THE VANGUARD

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, Moses challenges the people of Israel with words concerning blessing. Moses spoke that if they fully obeyed the Lord and followed His commands, then He would set His people above all nations. But then he continued and spoke that all these blessings of God 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 God 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 Joseph. Granted, Joseph 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, Joseph found favor in his eyes and became his attendant…” Did you catch that? The Lord blessed Joseph in everything he did. Why? Because Joseph obeyed and served God in everything he did. The blessings of God overtook Joseph because he lived his life in obedience to God alone. Although he lived in a foreign land, he did not forsake his God. God’s blessings came upon Joseph 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 Moses’ words were spoken. If we look into the book of Ruth, we find that God 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 God’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 God. The examples of Joseph and Ruth show that God’s blessing can overtake us. True, God 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 God.