Deuteronomy 28:20-46

the Fearful Results of Disobedience

Deuteronomy 28:20

If we compare this chapter with Exodus 23:20 and Leviticus 26:1, 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 Judges 5:20; 1 Corinthians 3:21.