Blessings and Curses

The covenant. God had made a covenant, a special agreement, with Israel at Mount Sinai. Deuteronomy renews it before they enter the land. If you obey. “Now it shall come to pass, if you diligently obey the voice of the Lord your God” (28:1). Diligently means carefully and faithfully. Set on high. God promised to “set you high above all nations of the earth” (28:1). Israel would be a light to the world. Overtaken by blessing. “And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you” (28:2). To overtake is to catch up with you. The blessings would chase them down! Because you obey. The blessings came “because you obey the voice of the Lord your God” (28:2). Two mountains. In chapter 27, Moses told Israel to announce blessings from Mount Gerizim and curses from Mount Ebal (27:12-13). The other side. The curses began with the same words reversed: “if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God” (28:15). What we learn. God's commands are good, and He loves to bless. Turning away from Him always brings harm.

Covenant blessings and curses. In the ancient world, treaties between kings and nations often ended with blessings for loyalty and curses for betrayal. God spoke to Israel in a way they already understood, so they would know how serious His covenant was. The ceremony (ch. 27). Israel was to stand on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal near Shechem, with the Levites reading the covenant aloud. Joshua carried this out (Joshua 8:30-35). “Diligently obey” (28:1). The Hebrew repeats the verb hear: shamoa tishma (say: shah-MOH-ah teesh-MAH), meaning if you surely hear. To God, really listening and obeying are the same thing. The order of grace. God did not give the law so Israel could earn His love. He had already rescued them from Egypt. The blessings describe life within a relationship He began. A national covenant. These blessings and curses were promised to Israel as a nation in the land. They are not a formula promising wealth to every Christian who obeys. Galatians 3:10. Paul quotes Deuteronomy 27:26: “Cursed is everyone who does not continue in all things which are written in the book of the law, to do them.” No one has kept every word, and that is why we need a Savior.

Moses was almost finished with his last talks to Israel. Soon the people would cross the Jordan River. Moses wanted them to understand an important choice. He told them to obey the Lord their God completely. They must carefully follow all His commands. Then the Lord would make them greater than any other nation. His blessings would come to them and stay with them. A blessing is a good gift from God. God had made a special agreement with Israel. It was called a covenant. If they obeyed Him, He would bless them in the land. If they turned away, hard things would come. God wanted them to choose His good way. He wanted to bless them because He loved them.

Moses told them to obey God. Then good things would come. God wanted to bless His people. God's ways are good.

City and country. “Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the country” (28:3). Wherever they lived, God would bless them. Family and fields. “Blessed shall be the fruit of your body, the produce of your ground” (28:4). The fruit of your body means your children. Flocks and herds. The blessing reached “the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks” (28:4). Basket and bowl. “Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl” (28:5). A kneading bowl is where bread dough is mixed. In and out. “Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out” (28:6). This means all of daily life. Enemies scattered. Enemies “shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways” (28:7). Storehouses. “The Lord will command the blessing on you in your storehouses and in all to which you set your hand” (28:8). What we learn. God cares about every part of life: home, work, food and safety.

Six blessings (28:3-6). The blessings come in pairs: city and country, children and crops, basket and bowl, coming in and going out. Together the pairs cover the whole of life. The same pairs as curses. In 28:16-19 the same pairs come back as curses. Obeying God and turning from Him lead to two opposite lives. Fruitfulness. Children, crops and flocks recall God's first blessing at creation, to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28). Covenant blessing restores what God intended. Seven ways (28:7). Enemies coming one way and fleeing seven ways means a complete rout. It is a picture of total victory, not a number to decode. The source of blessing. “The Lord will command the blessing” (28:8). Blessing is God's gift, not a reward Israel produces by itself. Blessed is the man. Psalm 1 describes the one who delights in God's law as “like a tree Planted by the rivers of water” (Psalm 1:3). Jeremiah 17:7-8 uses the same picture for the one “who trusts in the Lord.”

Moses described the blessings God would give. You will be blessed in the city. Out in the country, God will bless you too. Your children will be blessed. Your crops will grow well in the fields. Your cows will have calves, and your sheep will have lambs. Your basket and your kitchen will be blessed. That means there would always be food on the table. Coming in or going out, God will bless you. In other words, God would bless every part of life. God will help you defeat enemies who come to fight you. They will come at you one way and run away seven ways! God will fill your barns. God would bless them at home, at work and everywhere.

God will bless you in the city. He will bless you on the farm. Your basket will be full. God gives good gifts!

A holy people. “The Lord will establish you as a holy people to Himself” (28:9). Holy means set apart for God. Seen by all. “Then all peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the Lord” (28:10). Plenty. “The Lord will grant you plenty of goods” (28:11). Heaven's treasure. “The Lord will open to you His good treasure, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season” (28:12). Lending. “You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow” (28:12). They would have enough to help others. Head, not tail. “And the Lord will make you the head and not the tail” (28:13). A head leads; a tail follows. No turning aside. “So you shall not turn aside from any of the words which I command you this day, to the right or the left, to go after other gods” (28:14). What we learn. God's people are meant to show the world what He is like, and that means staying close to Him.

Holy people (28:9). The phrase echoes Exodus 19:6, where Israel is called a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. Israel's blessing was meant to make God known. Called by His name (28:10). To be called by someone's name is to belong to them. The nations would see whose people Israel was. Rain (28:12). In Canaan, rain meant life. Unlike Egypt's Nile, the land depended on rain “in its season” (compare 11:14). God controlled the heavens, not Baal, whom the Canaanites credited with rain. Lending, not borrowing (28:12). Economic strength would allow Israel to be generous. The covenant included care for the poor (15:7-11). Head and tail (28:13). In 28:44 Moses warned that if Israel turned away, the foreigner living among them would become the head and Israel the tail. Leadership among the nations depended on faithfulness. The great danger (28:14). Turning aside “to go after other gods” sums up covenant breaking. Idolatry was the root sin. Israel's history. Israel did turn to other gods, and the northern and southern kingdoms were later taken into exile (2 Kings 17; 25), as the curses warned.

Moses kept describing God's blessings. The Lord would make them His holy people. Holy means set apart to belong to God. Everyone on earth would see that they were the Lord's people. God would give them many children and lots of good food. He would open up His storehouse in the sky. The rain would fall at the right time. Their crops would grow, and they would have plenty. They would lend to other nations and never need to borrow. God would make them like the head and not the tail. They would be on top and not on the bottom. But Moses said they must keep God's commands. They must not turn to the right or the left. And they must never serve other gods.

God will make you the head. Not the tail, but the head! Keep obeying God. Do not follow other gods.

The warning. “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God… that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you” (28:15). The mirror. “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country” (28:16). Every blessing had a matching curse. Hard things. The rest of chapter 28 describes sickness, hunger, defeat and being taken far from home. Moses wanted Israel to take sin seriously. Not too hard to know. “For this commandment which I command you today is not too mysterious for you, nor is it far off” (30:11). Very near. “But the word is very near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (30:14). The choice. “I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life” (30:19). This is the memory verse. He is your life. Choose life “that you may love the Lord your God… and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life” (30:20). What we learn. Life is found in God Himself. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life” (John 14:6).

The turn (28:15). The curses begin with the same words as the blessings, turned around: “if you do not obey the voice of the Lord your God.” The curses in 28:16-19 match the blessings of 28:3-6 one for one. The long warning (28:20-68). Moses went on to warn of disease, drought, defeat, siege and exile. The warning is long because God takes unfaithfulness seriously, and He wanted His people to turn back before any of it came. Justice, not cruelty. Later, Nehemiah prayed, “You are just in all that has befallen us; For You have dealt faithfully, But we have done wickedly” (Nehemiah 9:33). Hope after judgment (30:1-10). Moses foresaw exile and also return: God would gather His people and circumcise their hearts (30:6). The word is near (30:11-14). Paul applies these verses to the gospel: “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart (that is, the word of faith which we preach)” (Romans 10:8). Choose life (30:19). Moses called heaven and earth as witnesses, as ancient treaties did. Then he pleaded with the people like a shepherd who loved them. Life is a Person. “He is your life” (30:20). Jesus says, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25).

Then Moses gave a warning. What if they did not obey the Lord their God? Then curses would come upon them and stay. The blessings would turn upside down. There would be sickness, hunger and enemies. Later they might even be taken far from home. Moses did not want this to happen. He told them he was setting life and death before them. Then he said, “Now, choose life!” To choose life means to love God and obey Him. It means staying close to Him, because He is our life. None of us obeys God perfectly. But Jesus took the curse so we can have God's blessing.

Turning from God brings trouble. Moses said, “Now, choose life!” Love God and stay close. Jesus took our curse.