by Douglas Goodin
Promised Blessing
Now it shall be, if you will diligently obey the LORD your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you will obey the LORD your God.
So begins the 28th chapter of Deuteronomy.
In the following dozen verses, God lays before Israel an unprecedented picture of prosperity. He promised profit, fortune, and ease in every facet of life. He would bless them wherever they go and whatever they do. If they lived in the urban areas, He would bless them; if in the rural areas, He would bless them. The joyful sounds of giggly little mouths shouting at play would fill their houses. The world’s finest foods would fill their cupboards. They would dominate all of their political enemies and collect interest from all their allies. Verse 8 summed up their (potential) lives—they would be blessed in all they put their hands to.
Can you imagine life with no sour grapes, real or metaphorical? Or where a woman’s pregnancy brings no concern about birth defects? Or where a nation is one hundred percent certain of overwhelming victory in every military engagement? Or where there are no discussions regarding care for the poor, because there are no poor? In America, our constitution affirms the right of every citizen to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness; God assured every Israeli citizen the experience of abundant life and total liberty. Not merely the pursuit, but the utter achievement of happiness in every aspect of earthly life would be theirs. Israel was offered a veritable heaven on earth. If ever there was to be a Land of Utopia, it would have been the Land of the Jews.
Promised Curses
But we must not forget the most important word of the covenant. Israel would enjoy this colossal affluence if they would “diligently obey the Lord” and remain “careful to do all His commandments.” But if they did not obey all of the commandments?
But it shall come about, if you will not obey the LORD your God, to observe to do all His commandments and His statutes with which I charge you today, that all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. (Deuteronomy 28:15)
The following verses contain promises of cursing for Israel’s disobedience as dreadful as the blessings were wonderful. In equal measure, the Jews would abound in suffering, poverty, devastation, and distress in every facet of life, if they broke God’s covenant. He would curse them wherever they go, whatever they do. If they lived in urban areas, He would curse them; if in the rural areas, He would curse them. Their children, crops, and livestock would be scarce and sickly. Israel’s enemies would dominate and collect tribute from them.
Specifically, pestilence would cling to them (v21). Fever, inflammation, fire, sword, blight, and mildew would chase after Israel wherever she went (v22). They would be defeated by all their enemies (v25) and their bodies would be food for birds and beasts (v26). Boils, tumors, scabs, itching which could not be healed (v27), insanity, blindness, and bewilderment (v28) would overtake them. Their wives would be molested by other men who would also hijack their homes and drink their wine (v29). Their children would be taken captive into foreign lands (v32). All of this would drive them mad (v34). Sores would cover them from head to toe (v35). They would be enslaved to other kings where they would continue in their idolatry (v36). Other people would look upon Israel as an object of horror and ridicule (v37).
In the midst of the horrible warning, God reminds Israel of the covenant requirements:
So all these curses shall come on you and pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you would not obey the LORD your God by keeping His commandments and His statutes which He commanded you (Deuteronomy 28:45).
Then He continues: A far-off nation would consume all of Israel's food (v51), and destroy their cities and walls and towers (v52). The Jews would become so desperate that they would eat their own children during the siege (v53). Those previously regarded as gentlemen would turn on their wives and children with great wickedness (v54), and after slaughtering their own son or daughter would not share the meal with the others (v55). Wives would become equally desperate and wicked (v56), eating their children (v57).
Finally, the Lord makes a most terrible declaration:
If you are not careful to observe all the words of this law which are written in this book, to fear this honored and awesome name, the LORD your God, then the LORD will bring extraordinary plagues on you and your descendants, even severe and lasting plagues, and miserable and chronic sicknesses. And He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt of which you were afraid, and they shall cling to you. Also every sickness and every plague which, not written in the book of this law, the LORD will bring on you until you are destroyed. Then you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven for multitude, because you did not obey the LORD your God. And it shall come about that as the LORD delighted over you to prosper you, and multiply you, so the LORD will delight over you to make you perish and destroy you; and you shall be torn from the land where you are entering to possess it. (Deuteronomy 28:58-63)
God states that just as it would be His great joy to bless Israel with unimaginable prosperity, so it would be His great joy to utterly destroy them until they perish. Again, if we forget the terms of the covenant, the thought of God delighting to oppress and massacre the Jews is almost unthinkable. If, as we discussed in God’s Proposal to Israel, one assumes that God’s commitment to Israel persists eternally and without condition, then we have little hope of making sense of this passage (or of accepting what it actually says). But God’s commitment to Israel was conditional, from the very beginning; it depended upon the terms of the covenant. And we must always keep in mind that the curses were just as much a part of the covenant promises as were the blessings.