Deuteronomy 28
God has given instructions for ceremonial obedience, social compassion, national distinctives, personal morality, purity of worship, evidence, capital execution, marriage and other things. Now He instructs the nation to obey all of these commandments. The universal moral law of the Ten Commandments as well as law establishing the practice of Israel as a “peculiar people” would determine the prosperity and longevity of this recently rescued people. The necessity of obedience was without exception, whether universally and perpetually moral or national and temporal, for the Lord of Hosts had spoken it. Chapter 27 ended with a series of curses capped in the end by the verse Paul quoted in Galatians 3:10: “Cursed is he who does not confirm the words of this law by doing them,” (NASB) who does not “persist in carrying out this book of the law” (Knox}. Disobedience to these laws in any instance demonstrated the lawlessness of their hearts. Moses gives 15 verses to the blessings of obedience and 45 to the devastation of disobedience. That last part of Deuteronomy 28 reads like the historical narrative of Jeremiah 52.
I. Moses sets forth some general principles of promised blessings on premised obedience.
A. Obedience must be diligent, that is faithfully as a matter of heart worship, and performed carefully (1).
Verse 13 reiterates, “Observe them carefully.” Half-hearted, careless, or begrudging performance of the letter of the requirement does not constitute obedience. Heart commitment and energetic execution denote an obedience that derives from worship.
B. The commandments come immediately from God.
Literally the text says to obey “the voice of the Lord your God,” as if they received immediately from God’s own speech these requirements. Again, it is worth observing that these are not suggestions, but commandments. As had been the case on almost every occasion, these undiluted God-given statutes were communicated through Moses–“all His commandments which I command you today” (1). God’s designated messengers in both the Old and New Testaments speak the oracles of God (1 Corinthians 2:12, 13; Galatians 1: Galatians 1:8–12; 2 Thessalonians 3:14; 2 Peter 1:16–23; 1 John 4:1–6).
C. Obedience means an extraordinary position in the world and great prosperity within the nation.
Following the commandments as given from Exodus through Deuteronomy 27 will lift Israel “high above all nations of the earth” (1). Fragmentation, oppression, cultic cruelty, societal and political corruption dominate the other nations because of their paganism—they do not have the wisdom of the Creator and sustainer of the world in whose image we are created. Any nation will prosper by following the principles of life together clearly stated in chapter 27. For Israel, not only would they be raised above other nations, the particular blessings described through verse 15 would be theirs. The blessings attached to the commandments would “come upon” them and, as it were, “overtake” them. So connected are the blessings with obedience to the commandments that the promised blessings rush forward to saturate their lives with good things and spiritual health. As they live in obedience the favor of God overtakes them as if intrinsically tied to a life under His authority.
D. Verse 9 reiterates two things.
One, the Lord will establish them; Their conduct and relations will be governed by righteousness, and, unlike all other peoples, they will reflect the divine character and show that they know the One True God. Two, obedience to His commands, walking in His ways prescribed for His covenant people remains the invariable condition of blessings generation upon generation.
II. Moses narrates the specific nature of these blessings.
A. All places will experience the blessings fitting for their location—“in the city, and … in the country.”
The latter will experience abundant crops sufficiently productive to feed the nation. The former will benefit from that and also will have a lawful, compassionate, stable culture.
B. The nation will rejoice in its comprehensive experience of fertility (4).
The fruit of the womb, the fruit of the land, and the fruit of the herds will be abundant, healthy, and resilient. They will have babies, and their babies will have babies; their land will grow crops in abundance, and their animals will produce food for the nation and the designated sacrifices for worship.
C. Household prosperity will be abundant (5, 8).
-
- The baskets that keep a variety of grains and other provisions will always have sufficient amounts for future security. The kneading bowl for the preparation of bread would always be in use. They could say with confidence, “Give us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11). The writer of 1 Kings illustrates how disobedience reversed these promised blessings. The spiritual destitution and the accompanying poverty and hunger of the time of Ahab may be seen in many parts of 1 Kings 17–19. It is graphically seen in the widow’s response to Elijah when he asked her to bring him bread. “As the Lord your God lives I do not have bread, only a handful of flour in a bin, and a littles oil in a jar; and see I am gathering a couple of sticks that I may go in and prepare it for myself and my son, that we may eat it and die” (1 Kings 17:12).
- The household storage baskets and the kneading bowl bless a household daily because God commands a blessing for full barns during harvest. All of their work, “all to which you set your hand,” in the context of obedience will succeed. God does not abandon the created order as the Deists argued but sustains it with the same power and purpose that brought it into being originally. Even so, obedience to God’s commands finds Him in His faithfulness, commanding the promised blessing.
D. It would be impossible to detail every circumstance in life that begs for divine blessing.
Verse 6 gives assurance of God’s favorable presence in every daily routine and in extraordinary circumstances—“when you come in, and … when you go out.”
III. Obedience will result in the Lord’s granting victory over enemies (7, 10).
A. The Israelites will immediately confront opposition for enemies as they seek to occupy the land.
They will experience organized attempts of enemies to overthrow their towns and cities after they have settled. We see clearly that God does not promise them an unfallen world nor freedom from awareness of the desire for evil to overthrow the good. The Christian must wear armor for the evil day and to repel the fiery darts of the evil one (Ephesians 6:10–12). So must they be ready. The faithful enter battle under the protection and potency of obedience accompanied by the promise. Their enemies’ apparent formidable organization in arms will end with their fragmentation and perfectly disorganized flight. God will give the victory. See an example of David’s defeat of Goliath and the subsequent rout of the Philistines. This happens in a time of mixture of faithlessness and faithfulness (1 Samuel 13–15) and turns Israel eventually toward a time of blessing (1 Samuel 17:48–54; 2 Samuel 2 and 7). This culminates with the reign of Solomon.
B. Such success in combat will soon intimidate their enemies–“They will be afraid of you” (10).
Solomon, wise above all the kings and philosophers of the world (1 Kings 4:25–34), wrote a few thousand proverbs and published a few hundred as inspired literature. Immediately before the observation concerning Solomon’s superior wisdom, 1 Kings 4:24, 25 asserts that Solomon “had dominion over … all the kings on this side of the river.” That passage ends with these words, “He had peace on every side all around him. And Judah and Israel dwelt safely, each man under his own vine and fig tree, from Dan as far as Beersheba, all the days of Solomon.”
C. Israel’s mixture of outrageous disobedience and heroic courage and virtue testifies to God’s mercies as a factor that operates in the distance between utter obedience and progressive disobedience.
It is no wonder that Paul introduced his discussion of justification by faith and the necessity of the substitutionary death of Christ (Galatians 3:10–22) with a quote from Deuteronomy 27:26.
IV. Obedience will produce prosperity internally and externally (12, 13).
A. Israel will prosper agriculturally in the immediate needs of food for maintaining health and strength for the enjoyment of the good things of life with which the Lord will bless them.
God will “open His storehouse” (cf. Malachi 3:10–12) for all prosperity and success comes from divine power. He will do this by providing the earthly resources needed for successful labor. Here we find abundant mercy in the promise of plenty as man works in the context both of the original command (Genesis 1:28) and of the curse (Genesis 3:17–19). He will give “rain to your land in its season” and bless the labor of their hands.
B. He will bless them financially in international relations (12 b).
They will prosper in selling the goods they produce and in trade relations so that their wealth increases. They will not be in a position of needing to borrow but for lending at interest to outsiders. They do not lend at interest to fellow Israelites but to those who are engaged in economic relations in other nations (Deuteronomy 23:19, 20). Their wealth will multiply as they show compassion within and wise dealings without.
C. Careful observance of God’s commands in the multitude of their relationships and situations—social, economic, agricultural, worship and revealed liturgy, moral, etc.—will give them a dominant position among the nations (13).
Obeying the laws of war (eg. 20:16–20), evidence (19:15–21; 21:1–9), as well as compassion (24:10–21), will emulate the relation between justice and mercy. If they recognize their absolute dependence on the Lord for their very existence and for every benefit they have (26:1–15), they will be set above all other nations. Not only will they be safe from hostile engagement with other nations (10), but both in esteem and in true power and internal stability, they will be the leader of nations. They will be in a masterful position. Moses had reminded them, “The Lord has today declared you to be His people, a treasured possession, as He promised you, and that you should keep all His commandments; and that He will set you high above all nations which He has made for praise, fame, and honor, and that you shall be a consecrated people to the Lord your God as He has spoken” (26:18, 19).
V. Again Moses emphasized the importance and exclusivity of God’s words—“Do not turn aside from any of the words which I command you today” (14).
This is not nation-building based on human wisdom nor random rules established by those who have seized the reigns of power. These stipulations come from God Himself to a people in a fallen world who seek to build a nation based on holy fear, unchanging justice (16:18–20), and absolute obedience with the permeating sense of dependence on redeeming mercy (16:1–8).
VI. Near the end of chapter 28, Moses describes in sorrowful detail the result of disobedience: “And among those nations you shall find no rest, nor shall the sole of our foot have a resting place, but there the Lord will give you trembling a heart, failing eyes, and anguish of soul” (65).
Chapter 52 of Jeremiah has these words as part of its narrative: “For because of the anger of the Lord this happened in Jerusalem and Judah, till He finally cast them out from His presence” (Jeremiah 52:3). After a description of the execution of priests, doorkeepers, a scribe of the army, a military officer, and sixty men—“the king of Babylon struck them and put them to death”—we find this concerning King Jehoiachin: “32 He [the king of Babylon] spoke kindly to him and gave him a seat of honor higher than those of the other kings who were with him in Babylon. 33 So Jehoiachin put aside his prison clothes and for the rest of his life ate regularly at the king’s table. 34 Day by day the king of Babylon gave Jehoiachin a regular allowance as long as he lived, till the day of his death” (NIV). “In wrath remember mercy” (Habakkuk 3:2).
Poem
A people for His own possession, God has made provision.
Though fallen and corrupt in heart, they start by His redemption.
Not a people, now a people, purchased as His own possession,
Rules to prosper, rules for life, He gave by revelation.
Follow fully God’s requirements, embrace humbly His decree;
Have clear heads with hearts attuned to gain promised prosperity.
Food and rain, livestock and children, He will give abundantly,
If diligence defines your purpose, clear, precise, carefully.
How beautiful, how bountiful, to view a nation of God’s choice.
Should they follow, truly worship, weak and mighty would rejoice.
Praise from nations they would hear, while worship transcends heart and voice.
Rebellion provoked divine anger, foreign tongues in judgment noise.
Yet from the nation God would save a remnant of His keeping.
Saving mercy tuned with justice comforted their weeping.
A remnant graciously preserved, their seed the promise reaping,
Abundant mercy lay in storehouse, falling goodness heaping.
Tragic sin has marred the beauty of God’s freely given plan.
Given life, death we preferred; and strife engulfed the first man.
In Him we fell, our verdict hell, but grace and mercy now expand.
A higher purpose, grace and wisdom, will fulfill the Law’s demand.
Son of God, yet Son of Man, from David’s loins He rose.
His innocence His perfect life for our sins interposed.
Sin forgiven, righteousness for us to God He shows.
So shall we serve with thanks and praise, to know that us He chose.
