149. Be the Head and Be Above
Deuteronomy 28:13 And the Lord shall make thee the head, and not the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath; if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the Lord thy God, which I command thee this day, to observe and to do them.
The conditional promises for keeping God’s commandments are extended. Here the promise is that we, God’s people, will be the head and not the tail; we will be above and not beneath. Politically, this did not happen because they did not keep the commandments. But for us believers in Christ the promise is still in effect: we are the head and we are above. In Christ we are seated with Him in the heavenly places. In the spiritual world we are over and above our enemies; we are in Christ greater and stronger than the forces that oppose our wellbeing.
Christ is ever victorious, and by faith we are in Him, and so we are victorious under His Lordship in His kingdom. The old joke goes like this: One says, “How are you?” The other answers, “Not bad, under the circumstances.” The first one says, “What are you doing under the circumstances?” The humorous truth is that the Christian does not need to be under; for the promise is that we are above. Our Lord Jesus is the head and He is in charge of our life. The devil, the world, and our flesh will continually try to bring us down, but by faith we rise up and live above. Our Lord is much greater than circumstances.
The question, however, is this: are we obeying the commandments? No. So we can’t claim the promise until we repent and receive forgiveness through the Gospel. Then the promise is true: We will be above, and not beneath. The burden has been lifted; we feel lighter; we are unbound; we are released; we are set free. This is all true, but we don’t always apply the truth to our lives. Our circumstances are always messed up, confusing and scary, but we live with Christ, above them. It may be hard to believe, but we really are the head over the enemies that weigh us down.