YHWH says - blessed shall you be or cursed shall you be! Israelites - which will it be?

The Choice Between Blessings and Curses: A Call to Obedience

Bible Passage: Deuteronomy 28:1-6, Deuteronomy 28:15-19

Summary: In Deuteronomy 28, God presents Israel with the outcomes of obedience versus disobedience, detailing the blessings that follow faithful adherence to His commands and the curses that result from turning away from Him.

1. Blessings Beyond Belief

Deuteronomy 28:1-6

Historical Context. You Israelites have crossed the Jordan and your feet are within the promised land. Remember how your parents wandered in the desert for 40 years instead of entering the promised land in 40 days. You have started taking posession of the land. Don’t mess up the way your parents did.

Covenental Context. Remember the Covenant your parents have told you about when they saw His Glory at Mt Sinai. Understand that Moses sprinkled the blood of the covenant on you, thus you know what you are bound by covenant to do.

Textual nuance - In its blessings (and indeed its curses) this passage shows that it is the Lord and not Baal and the Pagan deities who will provide. Furthermore, in matters of life and death, the Israelites did not need to be like their pagan neighbours who indulged in the desperate persuasion of magic, ritual prostitution and idolatry so as to achieve a false security, they just needed to quietly obedience to the word of the one true and just God, whose whole desire was to bless and not to torment. The blessings and curses are an important part of Deuteronomy’s teaching that God’s universe is rational and moral. Human beings are not cut loose on a sea of doubt and danger. They can have confidence about the fundamental things in life because they know what God is like; they may indeed know God himself.

He Himself says if you obey His commands the person in the city will be blessed in the city as well as the farmer and persons in the rural areas. The fruit of the wombs of your wives, animals and the produse from the all that you have planted will be blessed. Your kitchens will not lack any `provision. In every aspect of your life you will flourish when you follow YHWH’s commands. Your relationship with God will flourish and produce abundance in various aspects of life when aligned with His will.

2. Consequences of Choice

Deuteronomy 28:15-19

Historical Context and Covenantal Context. You Israelites know the plagues that fell on Pharoah and the people of Egypt. You have been told all that happened including the visitation of the Angel of Death on them. You all know when your parents rebelled how fiery serpents attacked the camp and thousands died. You also know how the entire family of Korah were swallowed up by the earth. You heard what happened to my two nephews and to Aaron & Miriam as well. Understand you have covenanted with YHWH.

Textual nuance - The first group of curses (15–19) is an echo of the blessings in vs 3–6. Here is misery in the regular routines of life, affecting basic necessities, and the well-being of families—every part and moment of life.

However if you read ahead Life is pictured (20–24) in all its uncertainty, subject to sudden ruin, disease and drought. You apostate people will be exposed to defeat (cf. v 25 with v 7; the people’s state in v 26 is probably a result of defeat). The Lord, will now be actively hostile to you, bringing upon you the ills he had once rescued your parents from (27–29). Vs 30–35 focus on a failure to enjoy those very things which the law had safeguarded. Where men had been exempted from military service in order to build a life for their families, and simply to enjoy God’s blessings, now the delights of wife, children, house, vineyard, herd and flock slip through the fingers, and are enjoyed by others. This is the reverse of the unmerited wealth in 6:10–11.

The miseries rehearsed already are so severe chiefly because there is no hope of deliverance. Much can be endured if there are grounds for hope in God. Here, however, the grim truth is that he has withdrawn his help. There is no covenantal hope for those who have forsaken the covenant.

River of Ideas. Our choices matter; faithful obedience to God leads to His blessings in our lives, while disobedience brings about consequences that distance us from Him.

Application for the Original Readers: Israelites choose wisely, between obeying God's commands, and experience His blessings, while disobedience would lead to consequences that would bring about misery, struggle, hardship, humiliation etc. You are reminded about being devoted to God vis-a-vis being impious and irreverent.