Deuteronomy 28:1-68

Deuteronomy: God’s Law of Love

Love and Obey the *LORD your God

Deuteronomy

Philip Smith

Chapter 28

v1 ‘Listen carefully to the *LORD your God. *Keep and obey all his *commandments. I am ordering that to you today. If you do, the *LORD your God will make you greater than any other nation on earth. v2 If you obey the *LORD your God, you will have all these *blessings:

v3 God will *bless you in your towns and in the country.

v4 He will *bless your children. He will *bless your crops. He will *bless your young sheep and your young *cattle.

v5 He will *bless the grain that you harvest. You will always be able to make bread.

v6 God will *bless you when you come in. And he will *bless you when you go out.

v7 The *LORD will defeat your enemies whenever they attack you. They will attack you from one direction, but they will run away in seven directions.

v8 The *LORD will send a *blessing on your buildings where you store your crops. And he will send a *blessing on all the work that you do. The *LORD your God will *bless you in the country that he is giving to you.

v9 You must *keep the *commandments of the *LORD your God. And you must do what he wants you to do. Then the *LORD will make you his *holy nation as he has promised to you. v10 Then all the nations will see that the *LORD has chosen you as his own nation. They will be afraid of you. v11 The *LORD will give to you many possessions. He will give to you many children, many *cattle and good harvests in your country. This is the country that he promised to your *ancestors to give to you.

v12 The *LORD will open up his stores in heaven. He will send the rain from the sky at the proper time. He will *bless all that you do. You will lend to many nations. But you will not ask for anything from them. v13 The *LORD will make you the leader. He will not make you the follower. You must obey carefully all the *commandments of the *LORD your God that today I have ordered you to do. Then you will always be at the top and not at the bottom. v14 Do not leave these commands in any way. Do not *worship false gods or serve them.’

God promised all these *blessings to the *Israelites if they obeyed his commands. God did not give the *covenant to the *Israelites because they deserved it. (See Deuteronomy 7:6-7.) But they would receive the *blessings of the *covenant only if they obeyed it. The *blessings were for the nation, the family and each person. The *blessings involved their work in the city and in the fields. The *blessings affected the *Israelites’ children, their crops, their *cattle and their daily food. God would protect and provide for his people. He would make them the leaders of other nations. But to enjoy those *blessings they must continue to obey God.

v15 ‘I am giving to you these *commandments and rules today. Suppose that you do not obey the *LORD your God. Suppose that you do not continue to *keep his *commandments carefully. All these *curses will happen to you.

v16 God will *curse your towns and your fields.

v17 God will *curse your crops of grain and the food that you prepare.

v18 You will have only a few children, poor crops and a few *cattle and sheep.

v19 God will *curse you when you go in. And he will *curse you when you go out.

v20 The *LORD will send upon you *curses, *disaster and trouble in everything that you do. You have done evil acts and you have left him. Therefore, he will *destroy you and quickly ruin you. v21 The *LORD will send diseases to attack you. He will leave none of you in the country that you will soon enter to possess. v22 The *LORD will send these particular problems to attack you. He will cause your bodies to be sore and you will be hot because of the diseases. He will send very hot winds and a lack of water. Diseases called blight and mildew will attack your crops. Because of those *disasters you will die. v23 No rain will fall and the ground will be as hard as iron. v24 Instead of rain in your country, the *LORD will send dust and sand. He will do that until he has *destroyed you.’

There are more *curses than *blessings. Perhaps it is better to warn someone about punishment. It may have more effect than to promise a *blessing. The *curses are the opposite of the *blessings. God often defeated the *Israelites’ enemies. He caused the enemies to become afraid. But God warned the *Israelites too. And this would cause them to be afraid. They will have diseases that make them very ill. Bad weather and disease will cause their crops not to grow. Because of all those things, the *Israelites will die.

v25 ‘The *LORD will allow your enemies to defeat you. You will attack them from one direction but you will run away in seven directions. All the people in every country will see what happens to you. You will be an awful sight. v26 The birds in the air and the animals on the earth will eat your dead bodies. Nobody will frighten them away. v27 The *LORD will send painful spots under your skin as he did on the *Egyptians. You will have unpleasant things that grow in your body. And you will have diseases on your skin. Your skin will hurt you. Nobody will be able to cure you of those things. v28 You will go mad. The *LORD will make you blind and confused. v29 At midday you will have to feel round, like a blind man. You will not succeed in anything that you do. Day after day, people will be cruel to you and they will rob you. Nobody will come to help you.

v30 You will make plans to marry a woman, but someone else will have sex with her. You will build a house, but you will never live in it. You will plant a field of *grapes, but you will never eat its fruit. v31 You will see someone kill your *ox. But you will not eat it. Someone will take your *donkey from you cruelly and you will not get it back. Someone will give your sheep to your enemies. And nobody will rescue them. v32 You will see someone give your children as slaves to foreigners. Every day you will look for your children to return, but they will not return. v33 You will work hard to produce your crops but a foreign nation will take them all. You will receive nothing but terrible cruelty. v34 The things that you see will make you go mad. v35 The *LORD will cover your knees and your legs with painful spots under the skin. Nobody will be able to cure them. The painful spots will cover you from your head to your feet.

v36 The *LORD will force you and your king to go to another nation. Neither you nor your *ancestors will have known that nation. There, you will *worship false gods that they make out of wood and out of stone. v37 The *LORD will send you into other countries. The people there will look at you with disgust and shock. The people there will laugh at you.’

Moses knew that the *Israelites were not very *faithful. He warns them what would happen. If they are not *faithful, their enemies will defeat them. Nobody will bury the people who have died. Birds will eat their bodies. The *Israelites will have many diseases that nobody can cure. The *Israelites will not know what to do. They will be like blind people. Their enemies will take the *Israelites’ wives, their property and their children. They will not be able to stop their enemies. The worst thing will be that the enemies will take the *Israelites out of their country. They will make the *Israelites serve false gods. People make these false gods out of wood and stone. All that happened to *Israel in 721 *B.C. And it happened to Judah in 598 *B.C. Psalms 137:1-3 describes how their enemies laughed at them. ‘Our enemies demanded songs of joy. “Sing to us one of the songs from Zion (Jerusalem).” ’

v38 ‘You will sow plenty of seeds but you will have only a little harvest. Insects called locusts will eat your crops. v39 You will plant fields of *grapes and you will look after them. But you will not pick the *grapes or drink the wine. Tiny animals called worms will eat them. v40 *Olive trees will grow everywhere in your country. But you will not put the oil on your body because the *olives will drop off the trees. v41 You will have sons and daughters, but you will lose them. The enemy will take them away as prisoners. v42 Insects will eat all your trees and your crops.

v43 The foreigners who live in your country will continue to get more power. Slowly you will lose your power. v44 The foreigners will lend money to you, but you will have no money to lend to them. In the end, they will be the leaders and you will be the followers.

v45 All these *curses will come upon you. They will come after you and they will catch you. Then people will *destroy you. That is because you did not obey the *LORD your God. You did not *keep all his *commandments and his rules that he ordered you to do. v46 These *curses will be a *sign and a *wonder to you and to your *descendants for always.’

There are *blessings in the first part of the chapter. But these events in these verses are the opposite of those *blessings. There would be very big problems with the country’s trade and supply of money. Insects called locusts fly in huge groups. And they very quickly eat everything in a field that is full of crops. Worms would eat the plants that produce *grapes. (Worms are tiny animals without legs.) The *olives would fall off the trees before they were ripe. Enemies would take the children of the *Israelites. Those children would probably have to work very hard on farms in the enemy’s country. The ‘foreigner’ may refer to the *Canaanites. They used to live in the country that God gave to the *Israelites. Perhaps they could now enjoy the country again. God would take away his *blessings from *Israel because his people did not obey him.

v47 ‘The *LORD your God *blessed you. But you did not serve him in a joyful and happy way. v48 Because of that, you will serve the enemies that the *LORD will send against you. You will be hungry and you will not have enough to drink. You will be naked. You will need everything. The *LORD will deal with you severely until he has *destroyed you.

v49 The *LORD will bring against you a nation from far away. You will not understand their language. That nation will come upon you like a large bird called an eagle. v50 Its people will have very fierce faces. They will not respect old people and they will not pity young people. v51 They will eat your young *cattle and your crops. You will die because you are hungry. They will not leave any corn, wine, oil, young *cattle or young sheep. Then you will die. v52 They will attack all the cities that are in the country. The high, strong walls that you trusted will fall down. Your enemies will surround all the cities in the country that the *LORD your God is giving to you.

v53 They will cause you to suffer so much that you will even eat your children. You will eat the bodies of the sons and daughters that the *LORD your God has given to you. v54 Even the gentlest man will not pity his own brother. Nor will he pity the wife whom he loves. He will not pity the rest of his children. v55 He will not give to them any of the bodies of his own children that he is eating. He will have no other food, because the enemy will cause you to suffer so much in your towns. v56 The gentlest woman, who would not even walk anywhere, will do these things too. She will not give anything to the husband, whom she loves, or to her own children. v57 She will not give to them the material that comes out of her body after the birth of a baby. Nor will she give to them her baby who has just been born. She will eat both of them secretly. That is because of her great trouble when the enemy surrounds the city.’

God had given to the *Israelites so many good things. But they would forget to thank him. And they would forget to serve him. As a result, their enemies would attack them. Their enemies would come from a long distance away. Because the *Israelites would not praise God, another nation would attack them. The *Israelites would not understand those people’s languages. The enemies would be like a large bird that arrives suddenly. They would *destroy everything and everybody. There would be no food for the *Israelites, so that they would even have to eat their own children! That happened to the *Israelites several times. In 2 Kings 6:28-29, it tells us about two women in the town called Samaria. They made a plan to eat their children and they did eat one child. Jeremiah 19:9 says that the same thing would happen in Jerusalem too.

v58 ‘Suppose that you do not obey carefully all the law in this book. Suppose that you do not give honour to the wonderful and powerful name of the *LORD your God. v59 The *LORD will send to you and to your *descendants terrible diseases, awful *disasters and serious illnesses. v60 He will send to you again all the terrible diseases that you had in Egypt. You will never recover. v61 The *LORD will send to you every kind of illness and *disaster. This book of the law does not even record them. Then you will die. v62 Then you, who were as many as the stars in the sky, will become few in number. That will be because you did not obey the *LORD your God. v63 The *LORD was happy to give to you good things. And he was happy to make you increase in numbers. Now he will be happy to ruin and to *destroy you. God will take you out of the country that you had entered to possess.

v64 And the *LORD will scatter you among the nations. You will go from one end of the earth to the other end. There you will serve false gods that people make out of wood and stone. Neither you nor your *ancestors have known those false gods. v65 You will not find any peace among those nations. There will be nowhere where you can stay. The *LORD will give to you an anxious mind. Your sight will be weak. You will feel full of despair. v66 You will be in danger. During the day and the night, terror will fill you. You will be in constant fear of death. v67 In the morning, you will wish for the evening. In the evening, you will wish for the morning. That will be because of the fear that fills your minds. The things that you will see will also make you afraid. v68 The *LORD will send you back to Egypt in ships. I had said that you would never make that journey again. There you will try to sell yourselves as male and female slaves to your enemies. But nobody will buy you.’

In chapter 11 verses 10-16, God had promised physical *blessings. They would come if the whole *Israelite nation obeyed God. But the people might forget to serve and to obey God. Then they would suffer all the diseases that they had in Egypt. They would decrease in numbers. They would serve *idols, and they would not continue to serve the *Lord. They would leave their country and they would not feel safe. Finally, they would go back to where they began. They would try to be *slaves in Egypt, but nobody would want to buy them!

The third speech: 29:1 to 30:20 – Choose to Live in the way that God Wants You to Live

Lord ~ a name for God. It translates the word ‘Adonai’ in the Hebrew language, which means ‘my ruler’. The word ‘lord’ (without a capital letter) means an ordinary ruler.

LORD ~ God gave this special name to himself. It translates the word ‘Yahweh’ in the Hebrew language. It is the Covenant name for God. It links to the words ‘I am’; it means that God has always been here.

covenant ~ the special promise that God made to his people. God’s covenant with the Israelites established a relationship between him and them. But they must obey him.

Israelite ~ a person from the nation called *Israel; Israelites is another name for the Jews.

Jew ~ a person who belongs to the family of the Israelites. Jews are descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

descendant ~ a person in your family who will live after you.
keep ~ to do whatever you should do because of a promise or a law; to respect and to give honour to the law.
commandment ~ a rule or a command that God gave to the Jews; the 10 rules that God gave to Moses. That was on the mountain called Mount Sinai (or Horeb); a command from someone who has authority.

Jew ~ a person who belongs to the family of the Israelites. Jews are descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Mount ~ mountain. For example, ‘Mount Sinai’ means the mountain called Sinai.

Israelite ~ a person from the nation called *Israel; Israelites is another name for the Jews.

descendant ~ a person in your family who will live after you.
blessing ~ a good thing that God does for us; when someone asks God to do good things for a person or for people; when a person speaks good words about someone.
keep ~ to do whatever you should do because of a promise or a law; to respect and to give honour to the law.
holy ~ morally good; something completely good and perfect; something that people consider to be very important in their religion.
ancestors ~ people in your family who lived before you.
worship ~ when people show honour to God, or to a false god. People may sing or pray. Or they may kneel down or give a sacrifice.

sacrifice ~ something valuable that people give to God, or to a false god; or, to make such a gift.
Israelite ~ a person from the nation called *Israel; Israelites is another name for the Jews.

Jew ~ a person who belongs to the family of the Israelites. Jews are descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

descendant ~ a person in your family who will live after you.
covenant ~ the special promise that God made to his people. God’s covenant with the Israelites established a relationship between him and them. But they must obey him.

Israelite ~ a person from the nation called *Israel; Israelites is another name for the Jews.

Jew ~ a person who belongs to the family of the Israelites. Jews are descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

descendant ~ a person in your family who will live after you.
curse ~ the opposite of a blessing; bad things that God will do to people because they have been wicked; to say that God will curse someone.

blessing ~ a good thing that God does for us; when someone asks God to do good things for a person or for people; when a person speaks good words about someone.
destroy ~ to damage something so that it does not continue to exist; to kill people or animals.
disaster ~ an event that makes people suffer and causes great damage and perhaps, death.
Egyptian ~ someone from the country called Egypt; anything with a relationship with Egypt. The Israelites were *slaves in Egypt before God freed them.

Israelite ~ a person from the nation called *Israel; Israelites is another name for the Jews.

Jew ~ a person who belongs to the family of the Israelites. Jews are descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

descendant ~ a person in your family who will live after you.
grape ~ small green or purple soft fruit that people can use to make wine.
donkey ~ an animal like a small horse with short legs and long ears.
faithful ~ when someone always does what they have promised to do; when someone is loyal at all times.
olive ~ small green or black fruit that comes from a tree. Oil comes from this fruit.
olive ~ small green or black fruit that comes from a tree. Oil comes from this fruit.
sign ~ an unusual event that God uses to teach people something. But sometimes false prophets promised signs.
wonder ~ an event that astonishes people and it shows God’s power. But other people who did not love God sometimes did them too.
descendant ~ a person in your family who will live after you.
Canaanites ~ the people who originally lived in the country called Canaan.
cattle ~ cows and bulls.

bull ~ male farm animal; (the female is called a cow). The Israelites made a metal image of a bull, which they worshipped as an idol.

Israelite ~ a person from the nation called *Israel; Israelites is another name for the Jews.

worship ~ when people show honour to God, or to a false god. People may sing or pray. Or they may kneel down or give a sacrifice.

idol ~ an image of a false god that people give honour to; an object of wood, stone or metal that people worship.

Jew ~ a person who belongs to the family of the Israelites. Jews are descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

sacrifice ~ something valuable that people give to God, or to a false god; or, to make such a gift.

descendant ~ a person in your family who will live after you.
idol ~ an image of a false god that people give honour to; an object of wood, stone or metal that people worship.

worship ~ when people show honour to God, or to a false god. People may sing or pray. Or they may kneel down or give a sacrifice.

sacrifice ~ something valuable that people give to God, or to a false god; or, to make such a gift.
Lord ~ a name for God. It translates the word ‘Adonai’ in the Hebrew language, which means ‘my ruler’. The word ‘lord’ (without a capital letter) means an ordinary ruler.

LORD ~ God gave this special name to himself. It translates the word ‘Yahweh’ in the Hebrew language. It is the Covenant name for God. It links to the words ‘I am’; it means that God has always been here.

covenant ~ the special promise that God made to his people. God’s covenant with the Israelites established a relationship between him and them. But they must obey him.

Israelite ~ a person from the nation called *Israel; Israelites is another name for the Jews.

Jew ~ a person who belongs to the family of the Israelites. Jews are descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

descendant ~ a person in your family who will live after you.