Continuing a chronological Bible study:
(Deuteronomy 28:1) "And it shall come to pass, if you shall hearken diligently to the voice of the Lord your God, to observe to do all of His commandments which I command you this day, that the Lord your God will set you on high above all nations of the earth."
In the last chapter, Moses told the people when they entered into their land that the Lord was giving them, they were to erect a monument of stone that listed all of God's commandments, and were to make two mountains, Gerizim and Ebal, visible reminders of blessings (Mount Gerizim) and curses (Mount Ebal). Then Moses and the priests would call out several curses to which the people were to answer, "Amen" in their agreement with the just curse. Moses now continued with his speech, telling the people if they would diligently follow God's commandments, their Lord God would set them high above all nations, making them the most excellent among all people.
(2) "And all these blessings shall come on you and overtake you, if you shall hearken to the voice of the Lord your God."
Moses told the people that if they would listen to and diligently perform God's commandments, they would be overwhelmed by all the blessings they would receive.
(3) "Blessed you in the city and blessed you in the field."
Moses began a list of the blessings they could expect if they followed God's commandments. They would be blessed wherever they were in the land the Lord was giving them, in the city and in the field.
(4) "Blessed the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your ground, and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your cattle, and the flocks of your sheep."
Moses told them they would be blessed with many children and those children would be blessed. Everything of theirs would be blessed, their land, their livestock, and the increase of their livestock.
(5) "Blessed your basket and your store."
The baskets they carried with their immediate needs, as well as their storehouses where their goods were stored, would be blessed. It might rather or also mean the baskets they used to collect their fruits and the storehouses where their produce was kept.
(6) "Blessed you when you come in and blessed you when you go out."
In all their business of the day, they would be blessed coming and going, in everything.
(7) "The Lord will cause your enemies who rise up against you to be struck down before your face; they shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways."
The Lord would make their enemies who rose up against them to be struck down and to flee from them.
(8) "The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses, and in all that you set your hand to, and He shall bless you in the land which the Lord your God gives you."
The Lord would bless them with overflowing storehouses; He would bless them in all the work they did; and He would bless them with health and long life with an abundance of all good things in the land that He was giving them.
(9) "The Lord shall establish you a holy people to Himself, as He has sworn to you, if you shall keep the commandments of the Lord your God and walk in His ways."
The Lord would set His people apart from the rest of the world as His holy people if they kept His commandments and walked in His ways.
(10) "And all people of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they shall be afraid of you."
All the people of the world would see that they were called the Lord's special people, and they would be afraid of them.
(11) "And the Lord shall make you plenteous in goods, in the fruit of your body, and in the fruit of your cattle, and in the fruit of your ground, in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers to give you."
The Lord would give them plenty of all goods, He would increase their numbers with plenty of children, plenty of livestock, and plentiful harvests, in the land that He had sworn to their forefathers to give to them.
(12) The Lord shall open to you His good treasure, the heaven to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand, and you shall lend to many nations, and you shall not borrow."
The Lord would open up heaven to give them rain in due season and He would bless all the works of their hands. They would have an abundance that they could share with other nations, but they would never need to borrow.
(13) "And the Lord shall make you the head and not the tail, and you shall be above only, and you shall not be beneath, if you hearken to the commandments of the Lord your God which I command you this day to observe and to do."
Moses said that the Lord would make them the head of all nations and not the tail, being subject to other nations. They would only be above other nations, having dominion over them, and never subject to them. That is, if they listened to and obeyed God's commandments.
(14) "And you shall not go aside from any of the words which I command you this day, the right hand or the left, to go after other gods to serve them."
They were to obey God's commandments and not stray from them in any way to go after other gods to serve them.
(15) "But it shall come to pass, if you will not hearken to the voice of the Lord your God to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes which I command you this day, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you."
However, Moses said that if the people did not listen to and obey the words of their Lord God and follow all His commandments and statutes, that curses rather than blessings would overtake them.
(16) "Cursed you in the city and cursed you in the field."
Moses then began a list of curses that would come upon the people if they did not obey God's commandments. As a direct opposite to the blessings in verse 3, they would be cursed in anything they did, whether in the city or in the fields.
(17) "Cursed your basket and your store."
If the people did not obey God's commandments, they would find that their baskets of goods and their storehouses would be cursed and perhaps empty.
(18) "Cursed the fruit of your body, and the fruit of your land, the increase of your cattle, and the flocks of your sheep."
If the people did not obey God's commandments, they would find that their very bodies and health would be cursed, as their children would be or their lack of children, as well as their livestock. All they would do would be cursed.
(19) "Cursed you when you come in and cursed you when you go out."
If they disobeyed God's commandments, they would find that they were cursed in all of their business of the day, whether coming or going.
(20) "The Lord will send upon you cursing, vexation, and rebuke, in all that you set your hand to for to do until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly because of the wickedness of your doings whereby you have forsaken Me."
The Lord would send curses and troubles to the people in all that they set their hands to until they were quickly destroyed because of their disobedience whereby they abandoned Him. I don't doubt that the Lord in His almighty power could send whatever curse He wanted, but it was always in an effort to get His people to turn back to Him which was their only hope for salvation and life. However, I don't believe that God always has to send a curse; sometimes just by turning His back on us because we have pushed Him away, we are cursed because we don't have Him to protect and guide us in this fallen world.
(21) "The Lord shall make the pestilence cling to you until He has consumed you from off the land where you go to possess it."
The Lord would make a pestilence come upon them and stay with them until they had completely perished from the land He was giving them.
(22) "The Lord shall strike you with a consumption, and with a fever, and with an inflammation, and with an extreme burning, and with the sword, and with blasting, and with mildew, and they shall pursue you until you perish."
The Lord would strike them with consumption, a progressive wasting away of their bodies. He would strike them with fever and inflammation and burning; He would strike them with the sword, blasting winds, and mildew. He would strike them with various plagues that would continue until they had perished from the land.
(23) "And your heaven that is over your head shall be brass, and the earth that is under you, iron."
The heaven above them would be as brass, hard and dry and not letting any moisture come through it. The earth under them would be as iron, hard and impenetrable.
(24) "The Lord shall make the rain of your land powder and dust; from heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed."
Instead of rain, the Lord would send dust storms upon them until they were destroyed.
(25) "The Lord shall cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them and shall be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth."
The Lord would cause them to be defeated by their enemies. In direct opposition to the blessing in verse 7, the Israelites would be the ones to go against their enemies one way and then flee from them seven ways, and they would be removed from their land into various kingdoms of the earth.
(26) "And your carcass shall be food to all the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the earth, and no man shall frighten them away."
Their bodies would be left as food for the birds and animals with no one to frighten them away.
(27) "The Lord will strike you with the boils of Egypt, and with the hemorrhoids, and with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed."
The Lord would strike them with the boils of Egypt, either a disease well-known in Egypt or with the boils which the Egyptians were plagued with for refusing to let Israel go. He would strike them with hemorrhoids, scabs, and rashes, from which they could never be healed.
(28) "The Lord will strike you with madness, and blindness, and astonishment of heart."
The Lord would strike them with insanity, blindness, and dread. The blindness spoken of here seems to refer to a mental blindness, not knowing what to do.
(29) "And you shall grope at noonday as the blind gropes in darkness, and you shall not prosper in your ways, and you shall be only oppressed and plundered evermore, and no man shall save you."
Like a blind man gropes in darkness even at noonday, so would the people grapple with things most evident and clear because they would lack discretion and judgment. They would not prosper in any of their ways, and they would be only oppressed and plundered forevermore. No man would be able to save them.
(30) "You shall betroth a wife and another man shall lie with her; you shall build a house and you shall not dwell in it; you shall plant a vineyard and shall not gather its grapes."
They would be cursed in all things. They would betroth wives, but other men would take their wives-to-be sexually. They would build houses but never get to live in them and plant orchards but never be able to gather any fruit, either because they were destroyed or plundered.
(31) "Your ox slain before your eyes, and you shall not eat of it; your ass violently taken away from before your face and shall not be restored to you; your sheep given to your enemies, and you shall have none to rescue them."
Their oxen would be slain in front of them and they would not be able to partake of the flesh, their donkey would be seized as well as their sheep and given to their enemies, with no hope of getting them back.
(32) "Your sons and your daughters given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail for them all the day long, and there will be no might in your hand."
Their children would be given to other nations of people, and they would look for them to be returned all day long, but would fail, and there would be no strength in them to do anything about it.
(33) "The fruit of your land and all your labors a nation which you do not know shall eat up, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed always. (34) So that you shall be mad for the sight of your eyes which you shall see."
Their harvests and everything they worked for would be eaten up by foreign nations they did not even know of, and they would always be oppressed and crushed to the point that they would be driven mad at the sight of all the calamities and persecutions they would see.
(35) "The Lord shall strike you in the knees and in the legs with a sore botch that cannot be healed from the sole of your foot to the top of your head."
The Lord would strike them with severe boils in their knees and their legs which could not be healed, and they would spread all over their entire bodies.
(36) "The Lord shall bring you and your king whom you shall set over you, to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there shall you serve other gods, wood and stone."
The Lord would bring the people and the king they had selected to rule over them to a nation neither they nor their forefathers had ever known, and there they would serve idols made of wood and stone.
(37) "And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword, among all nations where the Lord shall lead you."
They would become an astonishment to all other nations that observed them because of their overthrow and captivity and miserable condition they found themselves in. They would become a proverb or a saying among the nations where the Lord would lead them, to the effect of "None but a Jew would have done so," or "Do you think I am a Jew?"
(38) "You shall carry much seed out into the field and shall gather little in for the locust shall consume it. (39) You shall plant vineyards and tend them but shall neither drink the wine nor gather the grapes for the worms shall eat them. (40) You shall have olive trees throughout all your borders but shall not anoint with oil for your olives shall drop."
All that the people planted and tended to would be brought to nothing. Their plants would be either eaten and destroyed by pests, or would fail on their own.
(41) "You shall beget sons and daughters, but you shall not enjoy them, for they shall go into captivity."
They would have children, but their children would be taken captive from them.
(42) "All your trees and fruit of your land the locust shall consume."
Locusts would consume all their plants and trees, not only their crops as in verses 38-40, but every green thing.
(43) "The stranger who is within you shall get up above you very high, and you shall come down very low. (44) He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail."
The strangers or aliens among the people would become very high above them in wealth and power and honor, and they would become very low. Those strangers or aliens among them would be in positions to lend to them, but they would be unable to lend to anyone because of their low circumstances. The strangers among them would become their rulers above them, and they would be the lowly bottom, serving them.
(45) "Moreover, all these curses shall come on you and shall pursue you and overtake you till you be destroyed, because you did not hearken to the voice of the Lord your God to keep His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you. (46) And they shall be upon you for a sign and for a wonder and upon your descendants forever. (47) Because you did not serve the Lord your God with joyfulness and with gladness of heart for the abundance of all."
Moses told the people that all the curses he was detailing to them would come upon them and overtake them until they were destroyed if they did not listen to and obey God's commandments and statutes. Those curses would be upon them and remain on them and their descendants to be observed by others as a sign of the wrath of God and the fulfillment of prophecy and the truth of divine revelation. And that would be because they did not serve their Lord God with a joyful and glad heart for all the things He had done for them.
(48) "Therefore shall you serve your enemies which the Lord shall send against you, in hunger and in thirst and in nakedness, and in want of all things, and he shall put a yoke of iron upon your neck until He has destroyed you."
Because they had not served God, they would be forced to serve the enemies He would send against them. They would be in hunger and thirst and nakedness and in want of all things, and He would bring them into bondage to their enemies until they were destroyed.
(49) "The Lord shall bring a nation against you from far, from the end of the earth, as the eagle flies, a nation whose tongue you shall not understand. (50) A nation of fierce countenance which shall not regard the person of the old or show favor to the young; (51) And he shall eat the fruit of your cattle and the fruit of your land until you are destroyed, whom shall not leave you corn, wine, or oil, the increase of your cattle or flocks of your sheep, until he has destroyed you. (52) And he shall besiege you in all your gates until your high and fenced walls come down, in which you trusted, throughout all your land, and he shall besiege you in all your gates throughout all your land which the Lord your God has given you."
The Lord would bring a nation from the far ends of the earth as they knew it, a nation whose language they would not understand. It would come upon them as an eagle that flies swiftly in to snatch its prey. It would be a fierce nation with no regard for young or old, but would swoop in and eat all the produce of their land and the increase of their livestock until they were left with nothing and destroyed. They would be surrounded and attacked from all sides until all their high fenced walls in which they had trusted to keep them safe had come down throughout the entire land that their Lord had given them.
(53) "And you shall eat the fruit of your own body, the flesh of your sons and of your daughters, whom the Lord your God has given you, in the siege and in the dire straits in which your enemies shall distress you."
The people would be brought to such dire straits and severe famine that they would kill and eat their own children!
(54) "The man tender among you and very delicate, his eye shall be evil toward his brother and toward the wife of his bosom and toward the remnant of his children which he shall leave, (55) So that he will not give to any of them of the flesh of his children whom he shall eat because he has nothing left him in the siege and in the dire straits in which your enemies shall distress you in all your gates."
Even the most gentle and delicate man would become so barbaric that he would not even provide for his wife and his other children and family with the flesh of the children he killed. The verse states that was because he had nothing left in the siege, but more than that has afflicted him. Even with nothing left, the natural order of men would be to be the protector and provider for their families, but under this siege as part of the curse, even the most gentle men would become shockingly unnatural and barbaric.
(56) "The tender and delicate woman among you who would not venture to set the sole of her foot on the ground because of her delicateness and tenderness, her eye shall be evil toward the husband of her bosom and toward her son and toward her daughter, (57) And toward her young one who comes out from between her feet and toward her children whom she shall bear, for she shall eat them for want of all secretly in the siege and dire straits in which your enemy shall distress you in your gates."
Even the most tender and delicate woman who would not have even set the sole of her foot on dirty ground would also become so barbaric as to eat her own children and even her newborn baby. She would eat them in secret and not provide any to her other children and husband. Again it's not just because she was so hungry; she had also lost all sense of humanity and became as a ravenous wolf. However, even a ravenous wolf would feed its young.
(58) "If you will not observe to do all the words of this law that are written in this book, that you may fear this glorious and fearful name, THE LORD THY GOD, (59) Then the Lord will make your plagues severe, and the plagues of your descendants, great plagues and of long continuance, and sore sicknesses and of long continuance."
These were the curses that would come upon the people if they disobeyed the laws of God that Moses had written in this book of Deuteronomy. They should have a proper awe and reverence for their Lord as He held their very lives and the lives of their descendants in His hands. The glorious name Moses gave that was translated as THE LORD THY GOD was in the original Hebrew "Yehovah Elohim," which meant the self-existent, eternal God. If the people did not obey God's laws, then He would make their plagues severe and prolonged, and even to their descendants, severe and prolonged plagues and sicknesses.
(60) "Moreover He will bring upon you all the diseases of Egypt which you were afraid of, and they shall cling to you. (61) Also every sickness and every plague which is not written in the book of this law, those the Lord will bring upon you until you are destroyed. (62) And you will be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven in multitude, because you would not obey the voice of the Lord your God."
Additionally, the Lord would bring upon the people all the diseases of Egypt which they had been afraid of when they lived among the Egyptians, and those diseases would continue with them. Also any other sickness or plague that was not mentioned in the curses Moses wrote in this book would come upon them until they were destroyed. They would be destroyed as a nation, but note that Moses said they would be few in number, so there would be a remnant of God's people that remained. However, as God would have them as numerous as the stars in the heaven, they would be brought to a small remnant because they had not obeyed God's word.
(63) "And it shall come to pass, as the Lord rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so the Lord will rejoice to destroy you and to bring you to nothing, and you shall be plucked from off the land where you go to possess it."
If the people would not obey the Lord and hold to their covenant with Him, then the Lord who had rejoiced over His people and was pleased to do them good would rather rejoice in their destruction and being brought to nothing. It's not that God would find pleasure in destroying His people, but rather He would rejoice in righteous judgment and the preservation of the honor of His laws. God will not be mocked (Galatians 6:7). The people would be violently plucked off the land which their Lord had given them.
(64) "And the Lord shall scatter you among all people from one end of the earth to the other, and there you shall serve other gods which neither you nor your fathers have known, wood and stone."
The Lord would scatter His people all over to various places all over the world. There they would serve other gods made of wood and stone that neither they nor their forefathers had ever known. They would not have their Lord God to serve there.
(65) "And among these nations you shall find no ease, neither shall the sole of your foot have rest, but the Lord shall give you there a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind, (66) And your life shall hang in doubt before you, and you shall fear day and night, and shall have no assurance of your life. (67) In the morning you shall say, 'I wish to God it were evening!' and at evening you shall say, 'I wish to God it were morning!' for the fear of your heart in which you shall fear and for the sight of your eyes which you shall see."
Among the nations to which they would be scattered they would find no peace. Their feet would find no rest as they would have to move from place to place always with a fearful heart, and their eyes would never find one to deliver them, and they would have great sorrow of mind because of their afflictions. Their lives would always be in doubt, whether they might survive through the day until night. They would also fear the night, wondering if they would survive till the morning. They would have constant terror in their hearts for the sights their eyes beheld, dreadful cruelty and torture.
(68) "And the Lord shall bring you into Egypt again with ships by the way of which I spoke to you, 'You shall see it no more again,' and there you shall be sold to your enemies for bondmen and bondwomen, but no one will buy."
The Lord would bring them back to Egypt in ships. Where He had once miraculously led them out of Egypt through the midst of the Red Sea, He would now deliver them back in slave ships. In Deuteronomy 17:16, Moses said that God had said, "You shall not return that way again." God never intended that they should be returned to bondage and indeed, they would not return "that way," but would return in ships as slaves. There in Egypt they would be offered for sale as slaves but no one would want to buy them as they had become so despicable to all mankind.
What an awful state in which a cursed Israel would find herself! Moses spoke prophetically, certainly under inspiration of God, as through the years we have seen the fulfillment of these prophecies as truth. Once again, I am struck by the thought that God didn't necessarily have to bring all these curses upon Israel, although He certainly can and will in order to bring His people back to Him, but I tend to think that God simply turns His back on a people who pushes Him away and lets them perish in the world of their own making. Oh, that we all should heed such warnings!
No comments:
Post a Comment