DEUTERONOMY LESSON 30
We will begin this lesson in Deuteronomy 28:1 "And it shall come
to pass, if thou shalt hearken diligently unto the voice of the LORD
thy God, to observe [and] to do all his commandments which I command
thee this day, that the LORD thy God will set thee on high above all
nations of the earth:"
In the last lesson, we got into the curses, if they did not keep
the commandments of God. Now, we see the abundant blessings spoken on
them, if they do keep the commandments. The wonderful blessings poured
out upon them are conditional. They will receive the blessings, if
they keep God's commandment, and if they earnestly listen, and heed
God's Word.
Deuteronomy 28:2 "And all these blessings shall come on thee, and
overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy
God."
"Hearken" is more than just casually listening. It means to hear
intelligently. The voice of the LORD thy God is the spoken Word.
Deuteronomy 28:3 "Blessed [shalt] thou [be] in the city, and
blessed [shalt] thou [be] in the field."
This just says, wherever you are, if you are obedient to God, God
can pour His blessing out on you in the field, or in town. He is
"omnipresent" {everywhere all the time}.
Deuteronomy 28:4 "Blessed [shall be] the fruit of thy body, and
the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of
thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep."
The Israelites thought it a great blessing to have children. The
fruit of thy body is speaking of just that. This promises their
children will come into this world with no defects. It is, also,
saying their blessings will be on their children, as well. The land
will not withhold from them. If they keep God's commandments, it will
not be cursed for them. It will produce abundantly. Their animals will
produce greatly, as well. They will be healthy animals, too.
Deuteronomy 28:5 "Blessed [shall be] thy basket and thy store."
This is just saying, they will have an abundance of food. The
basket, we remember, is what they brought the fruit in.
Deuteronomy 28:6 "Blessed [shalt] thou [be] when thou comest in,
and blessed [shalt] thou [be] when thou goest out."
Every moment of the day, going and coming, will be blessed.
Deuteronomy 28:7 "The LORD shall cause thine enemies that rise up
against thee to be smitten before thy face: they shall come out
against thee one way, and flee before thee seven ways."
God will fight for them. Though the enemy come against them, they
will turn in fear and run away, when they see that God is protecting
them.
Deuteronomy 28:8 "The LORD shall command the blessing upon thee
in thy storehouses, and in all that thou settest thine hand unto; and
he shall bless thee in the land which the LORD thy God giveth thee."
This is just saying, their storehouses will be full to
overflowing. There will be no need in the land. Everything they do,
will be blessed of God.
Deuteronomy 28:9 "The LORD shall establish thee an holy people
unto himself, as he hath sworn unto thee, if thou shalt keep the
commandments of the LORD thy God, and walk in his ways."
One of the main reasons for keeping His commandments, is to be
like Him. He tells them just what to do in the following Scripture.
Leviticus 20:26 "And ye shall be holy unto me: for I the LORD [am]
holy, and have severed you from [other] people, that ye should be
mine."
Deuteronomy 28:10 "And all people of the earth shall see that
thou art called by the name of the LORD; and they shall be afraid of
thee."
We have discussed this before. They are actually afraid of the
LORD of Israel, which in turn, makes them afraid of Israel. The people
of the earth would realize that the LORD is Israel's protection. To
come against Israel, would be very foolish.
Deuteronomy 28:11 "And the LORD shall make thee plenteous in
goods, in the fruit of thy body, and in the fruit of thy cattle, and
in the fruit of thy ground, in the land which the LORD sware unto thy
fathers to give thee."
This is saying, again, that everything will be in abundance to
them, when they occupy the land of promise. Of course, it depends on
their faithfulness to God.
Deuteronomy 28:12 "The LORD shall open unto thee his good
treasure, the heaven to give the rain unto thy land in his season, and
to bless all the work of thine hand: and thou shalt lend unto many
nations, and thou shalt not borrow."
They will have such an abundance, they will have much to sell,
and they will become rich. They will not need to borrow. They will
have extra to loan other nations. Notice, it is God who controls the
rain.
Deuteronomy 28:13 "And the LORD shall make thee the head, and not
the tail; and thou shalt be above only, and thou shalt not be beneath;
if that thou hearken unto the commandments of the LORD thy God, which
I command thee this day, to observe and to do [them]:"
This is saying, with the help of God, they will be superior to
other nations. They had known what it meant to be the tail, when they
were slaves in Egypt. Now, they will be the master {head}.
Deuteronomy 28:14 "And thou shalt not go aside from any of the
words which I command thee this day, [to] the right hand, or [to] the
left, to go after other gods to serve them."
In the book of Hosea, we saw that God thought of them as His
wife. He does not want His wife to be unfaithful to Him. They must
stay in the path of light, that He has placed before them. They must
keep their eyes on the LORD. They must not look from side to side. To
go to other gods, is committing spiritual adultery. God will not
tolerate that. They must remain faithful to God, to be blessed.
Deuteronomy 28:15 "But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not
hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God, to observe to do all his
commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all
these curses shall come upon thee, and overtake thee:"
If they are disobedient to God, not only will they not receive
the wonderful blessings we have read about above, but they will
receive curses.
Deuteronomy 28:16 "Cursed [shalt] thou [be] in the city, and
cursed [shalt] thou [be] in the field."
It will not matter where they are, nothing will work for them.
Deuteronomy 28:17 "Cursed [shall be] thy basket and thy store."
Their basket for fruit will be empty.
Deuteronomy 28:18 "Cursed [shall be] the fruit of thy body, and
the fruit of thy land, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy
sheep."
They will not have children, that are so blessed to them. Even
their animals will not produce offspring.
Deuteronomy 28:19 "Cursed [shalt] thou [be] when thou comest in,
and cursed [shalt] thou [be] when thou goest out."
Every hour of every day will be the same. It will not matter
where they are, nothing will work out for them.
Deuteronomy 28:20 "The LORD shall send upon thee cursing,
vexation, and rebuke, in all that thou settest thine hand unto for to
do, until thou be destroyed, and until thou perish quickly; because of
the wickedness of thy doings, whereby thou hast forsaken me."
"Vexation", here, is saying, they will have confused thoughts and
nothing will work right. They will fail at everything they try to do.
They will die young in their misery.
Deuteronomy 28:21 "The LORD shall make the pestilence cleave unto
thee, until he have consumed thee from off the land, whither thou
goest to possess it."
The pestilence, here, is, probably, speaking of some disease that
is contagious and sweeps through them, killing them.
Deuteronomy 28:22 "The LORD shall smite thee 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 thee until thou perish."
"Consumption" has to do with lung disease. All of this is
speaking of terrible illness. It is just saying, they will die from
illness, or from attack from enemies {sword}, or from famine {blasting
and mildew}. They have angered God, and He intends to destroy them one
way, or another.
Deuteronomy 28:23 "And thy heaven that [is] over thy head shall
be brass, and the earth that is under thee [shall be] iron."
We know that "brass" symbolizes judgement. This means that God is
pouring out this judgement upon them. The earth seems like iron,
because they cannot get it to respond.
Deuteronomy 28:24 "The LORD shall make the rain of thy land
powder and dust: from heaven shall it come down upon thee, until thou
be destroyed."
It won't rain, and their crops will die for need of water. Most
famines start from a drougth. The entire scene is to destroy those
unfaithful to God.
Deuteronomy 28:25 "The LORD shall cause thee to be smitten before
thine enemies: thou shalt go out one way against them, and flee seven
ways before them: and shalt be removed into all the kingdoms of the
earth."
When they have angered the LORD, He will not be with them in
battle. In fact, He will help their enemies. They will be the ones
running in fear.
Deuteronomy 28:26 "And thy carcase shall be meat unto all fowls
of the air, and unto the beasts of the earth, and no man shall fray
[them] away."
This is the very thing that happens, when the Babylonians come
against them many years later. There will be so many dead, there will
be no time to bury them. The fowls {vultures} and beasts shall eat
the flesh off of the dead bodies.
Deuteronomy 28:27 "The LORD will smite thee with the botch of
Egypt, and with the emerods, and with the scab, and with the itch,
whereof thou canst not be healed."
"Botch" is a kind of leprosy common to Egypt. "Emerods" are
tumors. Notice, that the plagues God sends on the people are
incurable.
Deuteronomy 28:28 "The LORD shall smite thee with madness, and
blindness, and astonishment of heart:"
This is just saying, that God will allow them to go insane. Their
blindness will be both physical and spiritual. Their hearts will be
constantly troubled.
Deuteronomy 28:29 "And thou shalt grope at noonday, as the blind
gropeth in darkness, and thou shalt not prosper in thy ways: and thou
shalt be only oppressed and spoiled evermore, and no man shall save
[thee]."
When the LORD's judgement is upon you, no one can save you. They
will not even be able to walk upright in the daytime. Desperation has
set in.
Deuteronomy 28:30 "Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man
shall lie with her: thou shalt build an house, and thou shalt not
dwell therein: thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not gather the
grapes thereof."
The very things that mean the most to him shall be taken away.
Their enemies shall take from him the things that mean the most. His
wife to be, will become someone else's wife. All of his work in his
vineyard and in his fields, someone else will gather. He will build a
house, and someone will take it away from him.
Deuteronomy 28:31 "Thine ox [shall be] slain before thine eyes,
and thou shalt not eat thereof: thine ass [shall be] violently taken
away from before thy face, and shall not be restored to thee: thy
sheep [shall be] given unto thine enemies, and thou shalt have none to
rescue [them]."
He will be helpless to retain even the animals the LORD entrusted
to him. The reason is, God's protection will be removed, and he is
prey for his enemies.
Deuteronomy 28:32 "Thy sons and thy daughters [shall be] given
unto another people, and thine eyes shall look, and fail [with
longing] for them all the day long: and [there shall be] no might in
thine hand."
When his enemies come against him and take his children, he will
be helpless to stop them. It will break his heart, longing to see his
children.
Deuteronomy 28:33 "The fruit of thy land, and all thy labours,
shall a nation which thou knowest not eat up; and thou shalt be only
oppressed and crushed alway:"
He will labor without getting any benefit from it. The enemies
that come against him shall spoil him, and take all he has.
Deuteronomy 28:34 "So that thou shalt be mad for the sight of
thine eyes which thou shalt see."
His anger will rise, but will not help him.
Deuteronomy 28:35 "The LORD shall smite thee in the knees, and in
the legs, with a sore botch that cannot be healed, from the sole of
thy foot unto the top of thy head."
We must remember, that the botch is Egyptian leprosy. Egypt is a
type of the world, and leprosy symbolizes sin. The sins of the world
have covered him from the souls of his feet to the top of his head.
Leprosy of different parts of the body symbolize different types of
sin. Leprosy on the head symbolizes a perverted mind. This leprosy is,
probably, speaking of a literal leprosy brought on by sin.
Deuteronomy 28:36 "The LORD shall bring thee, and thy king which
thou shalt set over thee, unto a nation which neither thou nor thy
fathers have known; and there shalt thou serve other gods, wood and
stone."
This is speaking of a captivity brought on by their sins, such as
their Babylonian captivity. All of the things above mentioned,
happened in that siege and captivity.
Deuteronomy 28:37 "And thou shalt become an astonishment, a
proverb, and a byword, among all nations whither the LORD shall lead
thee."
They will be no longer feared and greatly admired, because of
their relationship with God. The whole world will know God has turned
His back on them. We will continue with these curses in the next
lesson.
Deuteronomy 30 Questions
1. What does verse 1 say the LORD will do for them, if they hearken
unto the Word of the LORD, and obey His commands?
2. What does "hearken" mean?
3. The voice of the Lord thy God is the _________ ______.
4. Blessed shalt thou be in the _______, and blessed shalt thou be in
the ________.
5. What does "omnipresent" mean?
6. What did the promise to bless the fruit of thy body include?
7. What is the basket, in verse 5, speaking of?
8. What will happen to their enemies, if they obey God?
9. What is meant by their storehouses being blessed?
10. Quote Leviticus chapter 20 verse 26.
11. Who are their enemies actually afraid of?
12. What do all of these blessings depend upon?
13. Who controls the rain?
14. They will have so much, they will ________ to other nations.
15. The LORD shall make them the __________, and not the ________.
16. When had they known what it was to be the tail?
17. In the book of Hosea, God thought of Israel as His ________.
18. To go after other gods, is committing __________ _________.
19. If they do not obey God and keep His commandments, what will
happen to them?
20. Where will they be cursed?
21. What will happen to their basket?
22. What will happen to their children and their animals?
23. What is "vexation" in verse 20?
24. What is the pestilence in verse 21?
25. What is "consumption"?
26. What will they die from besides illness, if they are unfaithful to
the LORD?
27. What does "brass" symbolize?
28. What does verse 23 mean?
29. Famines usually start with a _________.
30. Who will be running in fear, if they do not follow God?
31. Verse 26 speaks of so many of them being killed, they will not be
able to _________ their bodies.
32. What happens to their flesh?
33. What is "botch"?
34. What is "Emerods"
35. The plagues God sends on the people are __________.
36. Verse 28 says, the LORD shall smite them with what?
37. Their blindness will be both __________ and _________.
38. What will happen to his betrothed wife?
39. The person, who turns from God, will even have his sons and
daughters given to another ________.
40. What happens to the few crops he does produce?
41. This leprosy on his entire body indicates he is full of
__________.
42. Why had they been feared and greatly admired, before they turned
to sin?
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