If You Walk in My Statutes

If you follow my statutes and keep my commandments and observe them faithfully, I will give you your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the trees of the field shall yield their fruit.

This is the trajectory of blessing: follow the law and you flourish - crops succeed, security is assured, communities thrive. It's presented as cause-and-effect, not magic.

I've seen this practically. Communities that have strong relational practices, sexual boundaries, economic fairness - they're more stable, their children do better, violence is lower. It's not that God magically rewards them; it's that the laws are written into reality itself.

But then the chapter turns...