THE FEARFULL RESULT OF DISOBEDIENCE

INTRODUCTION

This is again the Greek name for this book, and signifies the “second giving of the Law.” It contains the records of public addresses to Israel, delivered in the eleventh month of the fortieth year of their wanderings through the Wilderness. As Moses uttered them on the eve of his own speedy removal, he was able to speak with unusual emphasis and urgency. The allusions to the natural features amidst which these addresses were given are consistent with the place and speaker. It has been shown also by competent scholarship that Deuteronomy has all the peculiarities of Moses’ style; and any differences of hortatory entreaty and appeal may be accounted for by the mellowing effect of age.

The special references to this book in the New Testament are very significant. Our Lord quoted from it thrice in His Temptation, Mat_4:4; Mat_4:10. See also Rom_10:19; Act_3:22; Act_7:37. There are touches by a later writer, and an appendix, Deu_34:1-12; but the origin of the treatise as a whole must be ascribed to the great Lawgiver.

Deuteronomy 28:15-46

CURSES FOR DISOBEDIENCE

“But it shall come about, if you do not listen to and obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments and His statutes which I am commanding you today, then all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

“You will be cursed in the city and cursed in the field.

“Your basket and your kneading bowl will be cursed.

“The offspring of your body and the produce of your land, the offspring of your herd and the young of your flock will be cursed.

“You will be cursed when you come in and you will be cursed when you go out.

“The LORD will send upon you curses, confusion, and rebuke in everything that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed, perishing quickly because of the evil of your deeds, because you have turned away from Me.

The LORD will make the pestilence and plague cling to you until He has consumed and eliminated you from the land which you are entering to possess.

The LORD will strike you with consumption [causing you to waste away] and with fever and with inflammation and with fiery heat and with the sword and with blight and with mildew [on your crops]; and they will pursue you until you perish.

The heaven which is over your head shall be bronze [giving no rain and blocking all prayers], and the earth which is under you, iron [hard to plow and yielding no produce].

The LORD will make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it will come down on you until you are destroyed.

“The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you will go out against them one way, but flee before them seven ways, and you will be an example of terror to all the kingdoms of the earth [when they see your destruction]. [2Ch_29:8]

Your carcasses will be food for all the birds of the sky and the beasts of the earth, and there will be no one to frighten them away.

“The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt and with tumors and with the scab and the itch that you cannot heal.

The LORD will strike you with madness and with blindness and with bewilderment of heart and mind;

and you will be groping at noon [in broad daylight], just as the blind grope in the darkness, and nothing you do will prosper; but you will only be oppressed and exploited and robbed continually, with no one to save you.

You will be pledged to marry a wife, but another man will be intimate with her [before you]; you will build a house, but you will not live in it; you will plant a vineyard, but you will not use its fruit.

Your ox will be slaughtered before your eyes, but you will not eat any of it; your donkey will be torn away from you, and it will not be returned to you; your sheep will be given to your enemies, and you will have no one to save you.

Your sons and daughters will be given to another people, while your eyes look on and long for them continually; but there will be nothing you can do. [2Ch_29:9]

A people whom you do not know will eat the produce of your land and all the products of your labors, and you will never be anything but oppressed and exploited and crushed continually. [Jdg_6:1-6; Jdg_13:1]

You shall be driven mad by the sight of the things you see.

The LORD will strike you on the knees and on the legs with sore boils that you cannot heal, from the sole of your foot to the crown of your head.

The LORD will bring you and your king, whom you appoint over you, to a nation which you and your fathers have never known; there you will [be forced to] serve other gods, [lifeless gods of] wood and stone. [2Ki_17:4, 2Ki_17:6; 2Ki_24:12, 2Ki_24:14; 2Ki_25:7, 2Ki_25:11; Dan_6:11-12]

And you will become a horror, a proverb [a mere object lesson], and a taunt [a derisive joke] among all the people to which the LORD drives you.

“You will bring out a great quantity of seed to the field, but you will gather in little, because the locusts will consume it. [Hag_1:6]

You will plant vineyards and cultivate them, but you will not drink the wine or gather the grapes, because the worm will eat them.

You will have olive trees throughout your territory but you will not anoint yourselves with the oil, because your olives will drop off.

You will have sons and daughters, but they will not be yours [for long], because they will go into captivity. [Lam_1:5]

The cricket will take possession of all your trees and the produce of your ground. [Joe_1:4]

The stranger who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, and you will go down lower and lower.

He will lend to you [out of his affluence], but you will not lend to him [because of your poverty]; he will be the head, and you the tail.

“So all these curses will come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the voice of the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He has commanded you.

They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever.

Comments by
F.B.Meyer
On
Deuteronomy 28:15-46

If we compare this chapter with Exo_23:20-23 and Lev_26:1-46, we shall see how Moses resumes and amplifies the promises and threatenings already set forth in the earlier editions of the Law. The blessings are declared in fourteen verses, while the curses require four times as much space. This is due to God’s eagerness that men should be warned from courses that injure, and shut up to those that lead to blessedness. Note the language, which rises to the sublimest level, especially in the latter part. The forecasts of the dispersion and the degradation of the Hebrew people are especially remarkable.

It is not only that God goes out of His way to reward the obedient and to punish the ungodly, but these rewards and punishments are part of the nature of things, just as fire stings and burns, when we transgress its laws, but blesses when we obey. If we are at one with God, through Jesus Christ, we are at one with the universe. But if not, “the stars in their courses” fight against us. See Jdg_5:20; 1Co_3:21.

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By Philippus Schutte

New Covenant Israelite! "And if some of the branches be broken off, and thou, being a wild olive tree, wert grafted in among them, and with them partakest of the root and fatness of the olive tree;  Boast not against the branches. But if thou boast, thou bearest not the root, but the root thee."  Rom 11:17 -18