Peter Pett's Commentary on the Bible
Deuteronomy 29:22-28
The Curse That Will Come On The Whole Nation For Unchecked Evil And Those Who Will Witness Against Them (Deuteronomy 29:22).
But if he was allowed to go unchecked it was not only he but the whole nation who would be affected. Moses jumps rapidly from the first unchecked failing to the final consequence. The whole nation would eventually suffer.
Analysis using the words of Moses:
a And the generation to come, your children who will rise up after you, and the foreigner who will come from a far land, will say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which Yahweh has made it sick, and that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and a burning; that it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath (Deuteronomy 29:22).
b Even all the nations will say, “For what reason has Yahweh done thus to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?” (Deuteronomy 29:24).
b Then men will say, “Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods that they knew not, and that he had not given to them”, that is why the anger of Yahweh was kindled against this land, to bring on it all the curse which is written in this book, and Yahweh rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as at this day” (Deuteronomy 29:27).
a The secret things belong to Yahweh our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law (Deuteronomy 29:19).
Note that in ‘a' the children of such people (as follow idols), and also visiting foreigners, will wonder at the sad state of the land because Yahweh in His anger has made it sick and parched, and in the parallel this is one of the secret things of which only a part may be revealed to men. In ‘b' all the nations will ask what it all means and in the parallel the full reply will come, “Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods that they knew not, and that He had not given to them”, that is why the anger of Yahweh was kindled against this land, to bring on it all the curse which is written in this book, and Yahweh rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as at this day”.
‘ And the generation to come, your (of ye) children who will rise up after you (ye), and the foreigner who will come from a far land, will say, when they see the plagues of that land, and the sicknesses with which Yahweh has made it sick, and that the whole land thereof is brimstone, and salt, and a burning; that it is not sown, nor bears, nor any grass grows in it, like the overthrow of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, which Yahweh overthrew in his anger, and in his wrath,'
With astonishing rapidity the thought immediately springs from the individual to the whole nation. They had allowed the person to continue unchecked and so the whole nation has been affected, the watered with the parched (Deuteronomy 29:19). This sudden leap is powerful in its impact, and is in accordance with warnings previously given (Deuteronomy 13:6; Deuteronomy 19:19). To begin with it was one man, allowed to sin unchecked, and now suddenly it is the whole nation. It is saying that such compromise allowed unchecked must eventually bring disaster for all. They should have put him to death from the start. The final consequence is simply assumed as the necessary result of their failure to act.
Now the whole land is affected. It is riddled with plague, and sickness, and barrenness. It is parched (all has now become parched as threatened in Deuteronomy 29:19) with brimstone, salt and burning, symbols of barrenness and destruction. It is no longer sown, it no longer produces grain or fruit, no grass grows on it. It has become like Sodom and Gomorrah, like Admah and Zeboiim which Yahweh overthrew in His anger. The picture is not one of exile but of judgment (Genesis 19:28 with Genesis 14:2). The land is devastated.
Then the bewildered children who are growing up amidst the devastation, and the foreigners who have come from far (and possibly wrought the devastation - see Deuteronomy 28:49) will look on it with horror as to how this could have come about in the land of milk and honey.
When any asks what has brought this sad state about, the witnesses to the covenant will reply, ‘It was because they broke their covenant with Yahweh.'
‘ Even all the nations will say, “For what reason has Yahweh done thus to this land? What does the heat of this great anger mean?” '
And all the nations will ask, ‘why has Yahweh done this to the land? What is the reason for His great anger? What does it all mean?'
‘ Then men will say, “Because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which he made with them when he brought them forth out of the land of Egypt, and went and served other gods, and worshipped them, gods that they knew not, and that he had not given to them,”
And the reply will come that it was because they forsook the covenant of Yahweh, the God of their fathers, which He made with them when He delivered them from Egypt. The crime was deep because it was not only their own covenant that they had broken, but the covenant made with their fathers. They had not only broken their own promises but had frustrated God's purposes in and for the world. And how had they done it? By seeking to other gods, and serving them, and worshipping them, strange and unknown gods (compare Deuteronomy 28:64) which He had not given them (compare Deuteronomy 4:19). They had not acted within His will, but against it, in direct contravention of His covenant. They had dallied with other overlords. And this was the consequence.
“ That is why the anger of Yahweh was kindled against this land, to bring on it all the curse which is written in this book, and Yahweh rooted them out of their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and cast them into another land, as at this day.”
That would be why they had been turned out of the land, rooted out by Yahweh in ‘His anger, His wrath, His great indignation'. The threefoldness reveals the inexorability of His anger. And He had then inevitably cast them out into another land. This was not ‘a prophecy of the Exile'. It was simply describing the inevitable result of disobedience in Yahweh's land. Their possessing the land would in fact be dependent on whether they were obedient or not. This fate being described had been made clear from the beginning, if they failed to be true to the covenant (Deuteronomy 4:25). It was rooted in the fact that the land was Yahweh's. Their fathers had been driven out of the land because they had entered it in unbelief (Deuteronomy 1:44). The Canaanites had had to be cast out of the land because of their wickedness. For none could live in the land who were not obedient to Him. It was the inevitable consequence that must follow once they began to compromise with any who defiled the land. This was not so much a prophecy as a declaration of inevitability.
And the reason why He had done this was that in His anger He was bringing on them ‘all the curse written in this book'. The reference of these descriptions to Deuteronomy 28 is unmistakable.
And the harsh lesson for us is that if we also fail in our true response to God, then inevitably at one point or another there will be a price to pay. God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows he will reap. If we allow our idols of wealth, and fun, and lust, and sport, and music to take out hearts away from God then we must expect judgment as well.
‘ The secret things belong to Yahweh our God, but the things that are revealed belong to us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.'
He stresses that he was not trying to dictate to God. He was not seeking to pierce the veil of the inscrutability of Yahweh. It was not for him or for them to be dogmatic about God's doings. There was much that was unknown to him, and to them all, the secret things which belonged to their covenant God, ‘Yahweh our God'. They could not yet know those. Compare Isaiah 55:8.
But what they could know were the things that were revealed, and what he had been speaking about were some of them. God had revealed to them sufficient of them. He had revealed His instruction, He had revealed to them His covenant, and that was in order that they and their children might observe them for ever. None of what he had described need happen. That was not God's purpose. God purpose was that His people might ‘do all the words of this Instruction'. They had sufficient to go on, and it was all that was needed.
If some of us concentrated less on understanding ‘the secret things' and more on obeying the known things we would be the more greatly blessed.
Alternately, and quite likely, this verse may be a reference to the curses in Deuteronomy 27:13 onwards, the curses over secret sins. It may then be saying that Yahweh would deal with secret sins, but they must be ready to deal with open sins in accordance with His instruction, and thus avoid the fate described previously.