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 continually, and there shall be none to save.
This curse falls on a people who have turned from God. It describes a strange misery: full daylight, yet no ability to see, and constant loss with nobody stepping in. Two questions press. Is this judgment eternal, or something temporary? And why would God answer disobedience by taking away sight?
This chapter deals with God's government of Israel as a nation in the land. One writer keeps that separate from the question of how a person stands accepted before God.
In Deuteronomy 28 we have the principles of God's government among that people, and the immediate consequences of obedience or disobedience. Those consequences were solemnly fulfilled in the fate of that unhappy people, still beloved for the sake of their fathers. Take the law as the principle of relationship with God, and breaking it has its own consequences: the question then is whether a person has a righteousness good enough to be the ground of God's acceptance. Do not confuse that with the temporary consequences of disobedience under God's government. Chapter 28 speaks of the second.
The verse continues the list of afflictions from the verses just before it. It adds a social collapse to the physical one.
Even in broad daylight they would grope, trying to find their way. Oppressors and robbers would take advantage of them, and no one would step in for them (v.29).
Groping at noon is a contradiction — the light is there, the eyes are not. Commentators trace a settled pattern in God's dealings that explains it.
A principle of judgment runs through God's dealings with people down the ages: when they have despised and resisted light from God, He sends blindness. So Pharaoh's heart was hardened. The Jews are another instance. Jesus warned them: "Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you… While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light" (John 12:35-36). They rejected the Saviour, and then rejected the testimony of the Holy Spirit from Pentecost onwards. So Paul writes in Romans 11 that "a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in" (Rom. 11:25).
That blindness struck hardest when Israel's own healer walked through their towns and villages.
They had now been struck with madness, blindness and confusion of mind, according to the curse on disobedience (Deut. 28:28). The LORD their healer was passing through every city and village of theirs. They saw it, and did not know it.
Moses spoke this curse as a warning. A later prophet puts almost the same words into the mouth of the people themselves, as a confession.
He was among them as the "Light of the world" (John 8:12); but this did not help their moral perception, for to them noonday was no better than night. The light shone; but they were blind. Had they confessed their true state then, as they will do in a later day, they would have said, "We grope for the wall like the blind; we grope like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight" (Isa. 59:10).
(Older translations end Isaiah 59:10 with "we stumble at noonday as in the night" — closer to the wording of this verse.)
The same book that spells out the groping and the plundering also spells out the way back, and it turns on repentance rather than on any fresh performance.
In Deuteronomy 30 Moses declares what will happen when Israel comes to repentance among the nations where they are driven, and returns to the LORD their God, and obeys His voice. Then He will restore them from captivity. In His compassion He will gather them back and bring them into the land. He will not only bless and multiply them there, but also put all the curses on their enemies and persecutors.
- Government, not damnation. Chapter 28 sets out the temporary consequences of disobedience under God's government of Israel. It is not about the righteousness that makes a person acceptable to God.
- Light refused, sight removed. When people despise and resist light from God, He sends blindness. Pharaoh is one example, Israel another.
- Noonday as night. The Light of the world walked their streets and healed their diseases. They did not recognise Him — daylight all around, and no eyes to use it.
- No one to save. Beyond the blindness comes the plundering, and the sting of the verse is the last line: nobody steps in to help.
- Repentance reopens the door. Deuteronomy 30 promises a way back. When the scattered people turn to God and obey His voice, He will gather them, bless them in the land, and turn the curses on their oppressors.
Thou shalt betroth a wife, and another man shall lie with her; thou shalt build a house, and thou shalt not dwell therein; thou shalt plant a vineyard, and shalt not eat of it.
Moses is warning a nation about to enter its land, and here the warning turns personal: a wife lost to another man, a house never lived in, a vineyard never enjoyed. Does such loss say anything about a person's standing before God?
Verse 30 sits in the second half of a chapter that opens with blessings. One writer counts the space given to each half.
In the first, we have a full and most blessed statement of the results of obedience. In the second we have a solemn and moving statement of the terrible consequences of disobedience. And it must strike us that the section holding the curses is more than three times the length of the one holding the blessings. That one has fifteen verses; this one has fifty-three. The whole chapter is a powerful commentary on the government of God.
These losses belong to God's government of a people on earth. That is a different question from how God accepts a person.
The law can be broken as a principle of relationship with God — that is the question of a righteousness good enough to be the ground of God's acceptance. Those consequences must not be confused with the temporary consequences of disobedience under the government of God. Chapter 28 has to do with these latter ones.
The blessings earlier in the chapter work the same way. Another writer says what they cannot give a guilty conscience.
It is merely national. It has nothing to do with the soul in the sight of God… This is not what a poor soul wants. It in no way meets a sense of guilt or a dread of judgment. The sinner needs something that will stand for ever. He wants what will be in heaven, and not merely in the field or in the city.
The first loss named is not a broken engagement in the modern sense.
Among the Jews this was looked on as being as binding as marriage, and could not be dissolved except by divorce. Certain laws were given about a betrothed woman. Ex. 21:8-9; Deut. 20:7; Deut. 28:30.
One writer takes the three losses in order and traces each to disobedience.
One might be engaged to marry a woman and another man commit fornication with her (v.30)… But when disobedient to God, an Israelite might build a house and never live in it, or he might plant a vineyard and never enjoy its fruits.
Earlier in the same book, those same three cases were grounds for sending a man home from the army.
A man might have built a new house and not lived in it. He might have planted a vineyard and not eaten from it. He might have betrothed a wife and not taken her. In each case nothing was to part a man from what he was pursuing. There was to be no bringing homesickness onto the battlefield.
One writer traces these words into Israel's later history.
Have not the predictions of Moses (Deut. 28:30-33) been fulfilled to the very letter? Those to whom the land of Canaan belongs are strangers in it to this day.
One writer applies the same principle to Christian service today.
Whatever planting we do, whatever energy we have in declaring the Word of God to others, it will bear little fruit if we ourselves are guilty of disobedience to God. How important that our spoken words be backed by a faithful, practical life!
A later promise to the same people reverses this verse point by point. The writer quotes Isaiah from an older translation.
"And they shall build houses and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build and another inhabit… My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. They shall not labour in vain" (Isaiah 65:21-22). Now all this is very cheering… It is not the eternal state, but a day of great glory.
- Government. This verse is about God's government of a nation on earth. It deals with the consequences of disobedience, not with how God accepts a person.
- Weight. The curses run more than three times longer than the blessings. The chapter is one long commentary on God's government of His own people.
- Aim. The losses fall on wife, house and vineyard. Those are the same three cases that once sent a man home from the battle.
- Fulfilment. These words came true to the letter. The people who own the land have lived in it as strangers.
- Reversal. A later promise undoes the exact wording. They will build and live in their houses, plant and eat the fruit, and not labour in vain.