๐ [Deuteronomy 28] God Shows, Through the Most Severe Curses and Warnings, His Desire to Keep Israel from Turning Away
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๐ Key Summary of Deuteronomy 28
God had already promised that He would make Israel superior to all the nations of the earth if they obeyed all His commandments. In the first verse of chapter 28, this promise is repeated.
Verse 2 then explains how blessings would come upon those who listened to and obeyed His Word.
① How blessings would come upon those who listened to and obeyed the Word (1–14)
They would be blessed in the city and in the countryside.
Their children, the produce of the land, and their livestock would be blessed.
Their basket and kneading bowl would be blessed.
They would be blessed when they came in and when they went out.
Their enemies would be defeated and flee before them.
God would bless their storehouses and everything they did with their hands, and He would bless them in the land He was giving them.
All the peoples of the earth would see that the name of the Lord was called upon them and would fear them.
God would cause their children, livestock, and produce to multiply.
He would open His good treasure, the heavens, and give rain to their land in its proper season.
They would lend to many nations but would not need to borrow.
The Lord would make them the head and not the tail; they would be above and not beneath.
๐ All of this would happen if they obeyed the commandments of the Lord and did not serve other gods.
② The warning about the curses that would come because of disobedience (15–68)
๐ God warns that if they did not listen to and obey all His commandments, all these curses would come upon them:
They would be cursed in the city and in the countryside.
Their basket and kneading bowl would be cursed.
Their children, crops, and livestock would be cursed.
They would be cursed when they came in and when they went out.
Everything they did with their hands would be cursed, leading to destruction.
The Lord would strike them with disease and destroy them from the land they were going to possess.
They would suffer from plague, fever, inflammation, scorching heat, drought, blight, and other disasters.
There would be drought and famine.
They would be defeated in war.
They would be taken captive by foreign nations.
Their dead bodies would become food for the birds of the sky and the animals of the earth.
They would suffer from tumors, hemorrhoids, scurvy, and skin diseases, without finding healing.
They would become confused, blind, and mentally disturbed.
They would grope about at midday like a blind person, suffering oppression and robbery without anyone to rescue them.
Their betrothed women would be taken by others.
Their houses would be taken.
Their vineyards would be taken.
Their livestock would be taken, and there would be no one to help them.
Their children would be taken away to other nations.
The produce of their land would be consumed by other peoples.
They would suffer oppression and abuse.
They would be driven to madness by the things they saw with their own eyes.
They would suffer terrible diseases, from the soles of their feet to the crown of their heads.
Eventually, the nation would be destroyed and the people would be taken into captivity.
They would long to return to Egypt, but would reach such a miserable condition that they would not even be accepted as slaves.
And so on.
➡️ The most terrible of these curses is described in verses 55 and 57, where the situation would become so desperate that they would eat the flesh of their own children.
Then, in verse 63, God says that He would take pleasure in causing them to perish and be destroyed.
✔️ However, this does not mean that God takes pleasure in destruction itself. Rather, we can understand this expression as showing that the justice of the covenant would inevitably be carried out. In fact, when Israel later recognized its sins and returned to God, the Lord also brought about restoration.
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๐ Final Thoughts
Deuteronomy 28 is a chapter of warning that shows in advance how terrible the consequences of turning away from God would be.
The section describing the curses is several times longer than the section describing the blessings, and the language is also extremely severe. God even shows how far the suffering could go: they would wish in the morning that it were evening, and in the evening that it were morning, because life itself would become so unbearable.
→ Therefore, this chapter is not simply a list of blessings and punishments. It is a warning of the covenant, calling Israel to choose to remain faithful to the covenant established with God.
In other words, the Lord God shows them in advance how far the consequences of apostasy could reach—even to the deepest misery—so that they would not choose that path.
๐ A Painful Conclusion
Parents do not simply tell their children, “Don't do that.”
At first, they may say, “You'll get hurt.”
If the child does not listen, they may say, “You could break a bone.”
And if the child still does not listen, they may say, “You could live with a permanent disability for the rest of your life.”
They do not say these things simply to frighten their children. They say them because they want to keep their children from going down a path that will bring suffering.
Deuteronomy 28 is similar.
God shows, one by one, the consequences that could ultimately reach the extreme of the curse, warning:
“Do not go down this path.”
But sadly, even after receiving these warnings, Israel continued to choose that path. Later, throughout its history, Israel experienced many of the curses that God had warned about beforehand.
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