Deuteronomy 28:1-14 "Blessings of Obedience"

Text Read

“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.

Text Explained

Covenant Blessings

“And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, (answers how) 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. While last week we focused on the Covenant Curses, now verse 1-2 begin the discussion on the Covenant blessings that Israel would receive if they obeyed. In fact that is what we see in verse 1 “if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all His commandments...” So verse 1 lays out the condition of the covenant blessings. Just as with the curses, there is a condition. If they do not obey, they would be subject to the punishment of God, If they do obey, then they will receive the blessings of God. In fact, as one scholar notes: “The blessings are represented as actual powers, which follow the footsteps of the nation, and overtake it.” (Craigie, P. C. (1976). The Book of Deuteronomy (p. 336). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.) So verse 2 follows up with the assurance that the people of Israel will be overtaken if they but trust God by living in obedience to Him. Now what do these blessings look like:

Domestic Blessing (Vs 3-6)

3 Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. In both urban and rural life, God’s blessings would overtake them.

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. In the abundance of the people, in the abundance of the ground, in the abundance of livestock, faithful obedience would cause the blessings of God to pursue and overtake them.

5 Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. In the provision of household necessities, the blessing of God would be even there. Not even the most mundane day to day needs of the people would escape the blessings of God if the people would trust and obey.

6 Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. Refers to day to day ordinary work. “When you come in…when you go out is an idiom “The idiom refers to a man’s daily work; the blessing indicates that a man would be blessed abundantly in the fulfilment of his responsibilities each day.(Craigie, P. C. (1976). The Book of Deuteronomy. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.) So what we are seeing in verses 3-6 is a promise of blessing upon all areas of domestic day to day life of the people of Israel. However, the blessing do not simply stop at the individual, but also would extend to the nation as a unit.

National Blessing (Vs 7-10)

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. Here we find that Israel would be victorious over their enemies. now notice this promise does not say that they would not have enemies, but that if they obeyed the Lord, they would be victorious over them. As one scholar notes “Here the security granted by God against external threats is stated to emphasize the reality of God’s blessing within the community. It was a promise in which the Israelites could trust, for already they had experienced the victory God had provided against the military might of Egypt. (Craigie, P. C. (1976). The Book of Deuteronomy (pp. 336–337). Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co.) So the Israelites were promised military success against those who would come against them.

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. Again we see a promise of blessing upon those who are obedient and that blessing is tied to the Land of Promise.

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. Here we have a second statement about the condition for receiving the blessing of the Lord. In verse 1, God promises that they would be set “high above the nations” and here God promises that they would be His Holy people. This would cause the nations to look upon Israel as God’s people. Not just in some abstract way, but they would be seen as belonging to the Most High and be called by the name of the Lord. To quote one scholar: “The reason for fear is therefore most apparent: That nation called by Almighty God to be his own son falls under his protection and can freely call upon his omnipotent resources. To mistreat God’s people is to invite divine intervention and retribution.” (Merrill, E. H. (1994). Deuteronomy (Vol. 4, p. 354). Broadman & Holman Publishers.)

Covenant Blessings Reiterated (Vs11-14)

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. Verses 11-14 reiterates the Promise of Blessings that God will cause to chase after the people of Israel if they would only obey. They would be lenders and not borrowers, they would be the head/leaders not the tail/followers, they would be chased by blessings and all they have to do is trust and obey the Law of the Lord/Commands of God that had been clearly written and preserved. “If you obey...” “being careful to do them...” “if you do not turn aside...” For the children of Israel, the curses of God and the Blessings of God were dependent upon how they lived.

Text Applied

Yet you and I are not the children of Israel. You and I are not given these same promise of blessings and curses that are tied to the Land of Promise. Even so, this text gives us truth concerning the character of God and it gives us something that we can use for our lives.

God keeps His Promises. You see, for us who are looking back, we see the history of the Israelites. We see how, when they were obedient to the Lord, the Lord kept His word to bless them and to protect them. We see from the history of Israel, how when they disobeyed, when they did what was right in their own eyes, when they went their own way and disobeyed the Law of the Lord, they were chastened by the Lord and experienced the curses He had promised them. So we find that God kept His word in both the positives and the negatives. In both the blessings and the cursings. So we see that God keeps His Promises. Dear one, God has promised to deal with sin. Romans 2:12 “For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law.” God has promised that all sin will be dealt with and All have sinned Romans 3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Sin is not what I think is wrong, it is not what you think is wrong. Sin is what God says is wrong. BTW, we all fall short of that. It is not whether I am better than someone else, but rather, do I measure up to perfection. Only perfection is allowed will not be judged and we all fall short. And God keeps His promises that sin will be punished. Yet John 3:16 ““For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” But God made a way. The Just and Perfect Messiah, Jesus, would die in the place of the guilty sinners, you and I, and He would be the propitiation, the payment for our sins. So that if we but repent, believe in the Lord Jesus we would be saved. Ephesians 2:8–9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” In this way, our debt of sin is paid and we can be declared righteous before God. Yet if one would refuse to believe, then they will pay for their own sin. This is the Promise of Justice & Salvation, and God Keeps His Promises.

The Blessing of the Lord is found in Obedience. There is blessing in obedience to the Lord. While we are not promised that our lands will prosper, our barns will be filled, or that we will have many children, we do find the truth in scripture that Obedience to God and His ways does bring blessings. Now those blessings are not always material gain, for many of those blessings are treasures laid up for us in heaven, yet we do find that those who are faithful in following God’s ways tend to do better here on earth than those who don’t. In fact we see this throughout much of the book of Proverbs where the one who fears the Lord and follows His wisdom tends to live a better, longer, and healthier life than a person who does not. Illustration: Most people who are violent criminals tend not to live as long as those who are honest and hardworking. This is the normal pattern of life. Now even as I say this, some of you are going, what about this instance when someone who was good and godly gets sick or dies. Scripture points this out in the book of Ecclesiastes. So we see that sometimes, bad things happen to good people and we don’t understand the reason why. Yet even from this standpoint, Ecclesiastes 12:13 states “The end of the matter; all has been heard. Fear God and keep His commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.” So to those who continue to obey what God through the Scriptures has commanded us, we can find peace, joy, and blessing. This does not mean there are no hard times, but the promised blessing, even through the trials of life, found in Psalm 23:4 “Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for You are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me.” So when we focus on being obedient to the Lord, we will find blessings of all variety.