It’s important to understand what passages like these are not saying. God is not saying that His people would be saved by their obedience – after all, He had already brought them out of slavery in Egypt and made them His own. God is also not saying that every time a natural disaster happens it’s because of some particular evil that we have done – sometimes in a fallen world, things like hurricanes and tornadoes and plagues just happen.
But God is saying that, in general, the quality of our life on this earth is connected to our obedience to God and to our willingness to follow His commands. Of course it makes sense that if we truly love one another, if we truly put the needs of others ahead of ourselves, our societies will be healthier and we’ll be able to get through whatever tough times come our way. Loving, generous people will pick up those around them who are down, mitigating the pain that inevitably comes into our lives. How many selfless Christians gave of their time, talent, and treasure to put the Mississippi Gulf Coast back together after Hurricane Katrina?
Moreover, God is making an even more direct promise – that if His people seek His face and follow His perfect law of love, He will bless us not only in spiritual but in material ways. No, we must not presume upon God’s promises to demand particular evidences of His grace – we must not “name it and claim it,” acting like so many spoiled children who insist that their parents bow to their wishes. But as we bring our wills into line with His, we can have confidence that our good Father will give us the kinds of blessings He describes in verses 1-14.
But isn’t it sad that God has to spend so many more verses, all of Deuteronomy 28:15-68, telling His people what He would do if they did not obey Him? Isn’t it sad that God has to warn His people in such detail about what would happen if they gave their hearts to other gods, what would happen if they did not love their neighbors? For that’s exactly what the Israelites did – that’s the sad story you can read over and over in the book of Judges.
But all of human history proves that, time after time, peoples and cultures that have heard and embraced the gospel have indeed fallen away, losing their devotion and shifting their focus away from the Giver and toward His good gifts. This was happening as early as the book of Revelation, when five out of the seven churches to which the last book of the Bible was addressed were falling away from the faith. Luther’s Germany, Knox’s Scotland, and Puritan New England have largely followed in their path. And whenever this happens, the sorts of things God warns us about in verses 15-68 have in fact followed.
No, we can’t be sure that any particular war, famine, plague, storm or earthquake is a particular judgment of God for any particular sins of His people. But given verses 15-68, whenever such things happen it’s not a bad idea for us to search our souls, and to examine our actions according to God’s Word. It’s not a bad idea for us to confess and repent of our sins, seeking to bring our lives more into line with His perfect will. For no matter in what situation we may find ourselves, the only way to have more of God’s blessings, either in this world or in the next, is to draw closer to God Himself.
Deuteronomy 28:1-24 (ESV)
“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. 2 And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the LORD your God. 3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. 4 Blessed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground and the fruit of your cattle, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. 7 “The LORD will cause your enemies who rise against you to be defeated before you. They shall come out against you one way and flee before you seven ways. 8 The LORD will command the blessing on you in your barns and in all that you undertake. And he will bless you in the land that the LORD your God is giving you. 9 The LORD will establish you as a people holy to himself, as he has sworn to you, if you keep the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in his ways. 10 And all the peoples of the earth shall see that you are called by the name of the LORD, and they shall be afraid of you. 11 And the LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the fruit of your womb and in the fruit of your livestock and in the fruit of your ground, within the land that the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. 12 The LORD will open to you his good treasury, the heavens, to give the rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hands. And you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. 13 And the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you shall only go up and not down, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today, being careful to do them, 14 and if you do not turn aside from any of the words that I command you today, to the right hand or to the left, to go after other gods to serve them.
15 “But if you will not obey the voice of the LORD your God or be careful to do all his commandments and his statutes that I command you today, then all these curses shall come upon you and overtake you. 16 Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the field. 17 Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. 18 Cursed shall be the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock. 19 Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.
20 “The LORD will send on you curses, confusion, and frustration in all that you undertake to do, until you are destroyed and perish quickly on account of the evil of your deeds, because you have forsaken me. 21 The LORD will make the pestilence stick to you until he has consumed you off the land that you are entering to take possession of it. 22 The LORD will strike you with wasting disease and with fever, inflammation and fiery heat, and with drought and with blight and with mildew. They shall pursue you until you perish. 23 And the heavens over your head shall be bronze, and the earth under you shall be iron. 24 The LORD will make the rain of your land powder. From heaven dust shall come down on you until you are destroyed.
