And it shall come to pass, that as Jehovah rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so Jehovah will rejoice over you to cause you to perish, and to destroy you; and ye shall be plucked from off the land whereunto thou goest to possess it.
Moses closes the curses of Deuteronomy 28 with its sharpest line yet. Two questions press on any reader: how can God rejoice in ruin, and does "destroy" mean Israel is finished forever?
Commentators warn against reading this chapter as a statement about individual souls. It belongs to God's dealings with a nation on earth.
As you study this remarkable section of our book, remember not to confuse it with chapter 27... The plain fact is that the two chapters are wholly distinct in basis, scope and practical application. Chapter 27 is — to put it as pointedly and briefly as possible — moral and personal. Chapter 28 is dispensational and national. That one deals with the great root principle of man's moral condition. Man is a sinner, ruined and unable to meet God on the ground of law. This one takes up the question of Israel as a nation, under the government of God.
The land was promised to Abraham unconditionally, yet Israel entered it on other terms — the agreement made in Moab, of which this chapter is the warning clause. That is why possession could be lost.
Israel clearly could not enter the land on the ground of the Sinai or Horeb covenant. They had failed under it completely by making a golden calf. They forfeited all right and title to the land, and only sovereign mercy saved them from instant destruction... It is just as plain that they did not enter the land on the ground of the Abrahamic covenant of grace. Had they done so, they would not have been turned out of it... They entered on the limited and temporary possession of Canaan by the terms of the Moab covenant. They have failed under that covenant as clearly as under the covenant of Horeb — failed under government as fully as under law. So God has expelled them from the land and scattered them over the face of the earth, under His governmental dealings.
The blessing and the curse come from the same hand. The next verse follows the people once they are uprooted.
Just as the Lord at one time had blessed and multiplied the nation, so He would curse and diminish them (v.63). He would scatter the people among all nations, where they would serve idols (v.64). We know this has taken place. Jews have been scattered over all the world, and the recognition of their God has become vague and in many cases extinct.
The wording troubles readers, and the commentary answers it by pointing to where God's joy actually lies. Judgment is real, but it is not what delights Him.
But judgment is God's strange work. He will find no delight in it, though He does delight in mercy. We read that in heaven they say, when God judges, "True and just are His judgments" (Rev. 19:2). That is not a joyous song. There is joy in heaven, but not when judgment falls — it comes when one sinner repents. In that joy God's heart reveals itself. It is His own joy, and all heaven shares it.
One writer, Mr. Constable, claimed this word means utter extinction. The chapter itself answers him.
Yet we find it used to predict the curse on Israel. They are still under that penalty as a nation, and it is not "utter extinction," as the very passage shows... "And you shall be left few in number," etc. — that is, not utterly extinct at all (Deut. 28:61-62). In chapter 30 it is added further, "And when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind... and return to the LORD your God... then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes" (Deut. 30:1-3). Here is national repentance and restoration predicted, after what Mr. Constable calls "utter extinction."
The scattering did not end this people. Centuries later they are still here to look at.
We need not recount the terrible persecutions these people have suffered in every country of Europe, and most of all in Russia. They are like the bush that Moses saw in the desert: burned with fire again and again, but not consumed. They have been scattered for all these centuries in all countries, yet no country absorbs them. They are the miracle of the ages, one of the greatest concrete proofs of the reliability of the Word of God and of the justice of His governmental ways. "It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God."
- Government — chapter 28 is about a nation under God's rule on earth. It is not about where one person spends eternity.
- Terms — Israel held the land on the Moab agreement. Failing there, as under law, cost them the land.
- Mirror — the multiplying and the reducing come from the same hand. But heaven's joy belongs to a repenting sinner, not to judgment.
- Limit — "destroy" here stops short of wiping Israel out. The same book that curses also promises return.
- Evidence — burned but not consumed, scattered but absorbed by none. The nation still stands, proof that God's word holds.
And Jehovah will scatter thee among all peoples, from one end of the earth even unto the other end of the earth; and thou shalt there serve other gods, whom thou hast not known, neither thou nor thy fathers, wood and stone.
Two very different things can be mixed up here. One writer separates them.
In Deuteronomy 28 we have the principles of God's government among that people. We also have the immediate results of obedience or disobedience. Those results came true, with great solemnity, in the fate of that unhappy people, who are still loved for the fathers' sakes. Breaking the law, as the basis of relationship with God, has its own consequences. They concern righteousness — whether a person has an adequate ground of acceptance with God. Do not confuse those consequences with the temporary consequences of disobedience under the government of God. It is these last ones that chapter 28 is about.
The verse does not say Israel drifted away. It says the Lord scatters them. The hand that once made them many now makes them few.
Just as the Lord at one time had blessed and multiplied the nation, so He would curse and reduce them (v.63). He would scatter the people among all nations, where they would serve idols (v.64). We know this has taken place. Jews are scattered over all the world, and any acknowledgement of their God has grown vague, and in many cases has died out.
The scattering ends in idolatry. That is the strangest part of the verse. Israel had already wanted to be like the nations around them. God's answer is not to give in, but to say that He will still reign.
We have cause to enter into the feelings of the prophet as God's voice denounces those who chose darkness on purpose, though He had given them light. They said: "We will be as the nations, as the families of the countries, in serving wood and stone." They had plenty of evidence before their eyes. But anything that offers a hiding place from God has always found a sad welcome with hearts that wander from Him. If He reigns at all, it must be in power.
The warning came true. One writer looks at the nation's condition and says the whole world can read something in it.
Under the heavy weight of these judgments they are suffering at this very hour. Scattered and stripped, wasted and outcast, they are the monuments of Jehovah's unbending truth and justice. They read aloud, to all the nations of the earth, a most impressive lesson on the moral government of God. It would be worth those nations' while to study that lesson well, and it would do our own hearts good to weigh it too.
The lesson is not for Israel alone. The same pattern of trust given and trust lost runs through the whole Bible.
God gave the Garden of Eden, fresh from His own hand, to Adam to dress and keep. Adam failed, and God drove him out. God drove his son from His face too, to be a fugitive and a wanderer on the earth. God trusted the new world to Noah. Noah failed, and God divided and scattered his descendants "abroad upon the face of all the earth." God gave the land of Canaan to Israel. Israel failed completely, and God scattered them among the nations, just as He foretold.
The same book that predicts the scattering also promises a gathering.
Moses goes further in Deuteronomy 30. When Israel come to repentance among the nations where they are driven, and return to Jehovah their God, and obey His voice, then He will turn their captivity. In His compassion He will gather them back and bring them into the land. There He will bless and multiply them, and He will put all the curses on their enemies and persecutors.
- Scattered. The scattering is God's own act in governing Israel. It is temporary discipline for disobedience, not a verdict on whether God accepts a soul.
- Served. The punishment fits the sin. A people who wanted to be like the nations end up serving wood and stone — gods they never knew.
- Seen. Scattered Israel is a public lesson to every nation about how God governs the world.
- Shared. The same failure runs from Eden to Noah to Israel. No one trusted with responsibility has kept it.
- Sought. Moses does not stop at scattering. The same book promises that if Israel repent among the nations, God will have compassion and gather them home.
And among these nations shalt thou have no rest, neither shall the sole of thy foot have a resting-place, and Jehovah shall give thee there a trembling heart, languishing of the eyes, and pining of the soul.
Moses ends his warnings with a picture of life for a people driven from their land — exile with nowhere to settle and no hour of peace. Two questions follow: what is God doing here, and is there any way back?
This chapter's blessings and curses are not about how God accepts a sinner. They describe how He governs a people on earth, and what follows when they obey or disobey.
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, who are still beloved for the fathers' sakes. The law was a principle of relationship with God, offering a righteousness that was an adequate ground of His acceptance. The consequences of breaking it must not be confused with the temporary consequences of disobedience under God's government. It is to these latter that chapter 28 refers.
That distinction shapes how we read the verse. It is a national sentence, worked out in the world over centuries.
So in part of this chapter we see the state Israel would be in, right up to the present day. This is not God dealing according to His nature. It is a matter of the way He governs a nation in this world, and nothing more.
The verse names three losses: in the heart, in the eyes, in the soul. The verses that follow show what daily life becomes.
Yet among these nations they would find no relief, no rest, but fear and trembling, failing eyes and anguish of soul (v. 65). They would fear day and night that they might lose their lives (v. 66). In the morning they would wish it were evening; in the evening they would wish it were morning, because life was one long trauma (v. 67).
The Hebrew word behind "failing eyes" is rare.
In Isaiah 10:22 the word is "killahyohn" ("the consumption"), not "kahlah"; Deuteronomy 28:65 ("and failing of") is the only other place it is used. So the two words are not the same, though both come from the same root and are closely related.
The later history of the Jewish people shows these words at work. Two facts stand together: no settled rest, and yet no disappearance.
It is a matter of history that the Jews were driven from their own land, and scattered among the nations… We stand amazed at the sight of a people without a country. They are scattered in many lands, without cohesion, without a centre. They have survived despite cruel persecutions, and have resisted absorption into the countries where they lived. By all the laws that govern such situations, the Jew should have vanished without a trace centuries ago.
Human effort cannot undo this sentence. One writer applies it to a return to the land made in self-confidence.
There was no rest, no peace, but uncertainty and affliction. The curse said, No rest for the sole of their feet — and it has come true to the letter. Again the people seek a resting place in the land without their God and their Saviour, all in the confidence of the flesh. They will succeed in their restoration plans. But in the end they will find themselves in greater difficulties, facing worse afflictions than ever before.
These words are also a mirror for believers today. Turning away from God brings the same restlessness.
The greater our blessing, the greater our responsibility… And are there not witnesses around us who show how bitter it is to depart from the living God? Are not many of God's people captive at this very day? May it not be said of such, "you shall find no respite, and there shall be no resting place for the sole of your foot"? And in their captivity, do they not have "a trembling heart and failing eyes and a languishing soul"?
Moses does not stop at verse 65. The same speech that spells out the scattering also names the condition on which it ends.
In Deuteronomy 30 Moses declares what happens when Israel comes to repentance among the nations where they are driven. When they return to the Lord their God and obey His voice, He will turn their 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 acceptance. Chapter 28 shows how God governs a people on earth. Its curses follow disobedience under that government. They do not tell us how God accepts a sinner.
- Scattering. Driven from the land, the nation found no settled place among the nations. The sentence reaches the whole person: heart, eyes, soul.
- Restlessness. Life becomes fear by day and by night: morning longs for evening, evening for morning. Returning to the land in self-confidence cannot create rest.
- Witness. A people persecuted and scattered, yet never absorbed, shows the world that Moses spoke the truth.
- Return. The same speech that promised no rest also promises compassion and regathering. It comes when the scattered people repent and obey God's voice.
And thy life shall hang in suspense before thee; and thou shalt be in terror day and night and shalt be afraid of thy life.
Moses ends his long list of warnings with a state of mind rather than a single blow. Life itself feels uncertain, and fear does not let go by day or by night. Three questions follow. What judgment is this? Did it ever happen? And does God leave His people there?
Commentators are careful about what this warning covers. It is not about how God accepts a person. It is about how He rules a nation in this world.
In Deuteronomy 28 we have the principles of God's government among that people, and the immediate results of obedience or disobedience. Those solemn results came true in the fate of that unhappy people, who are still loved for their fathers' sakes. Breaking the law has consequences when the law is taken as the basis of relationship with God — as the righteousness that would be an adequate ground of God's acceptance. We must not confuse those with the temporary consequences of disobedience under God's government. Chapter 28 speaks of the second.
The word "assurance" here does not carry the sense it has in the New Testament.
In the Old Testament this word is used differently from the way it is used in the New. In the Old Testament it means "confidence or trust." It fits the hopes of God's earthly people, tied to the security in which Israel will dwell when God restores them to their land and puts down all their enemies by His power. Then the effect of righteousness will be "quietness and assurance for ever," Isaiah 32:17. But in their disobedience they should fear day and night and have no assurance of their life. Deuteronomy 28:66.
Isaiah 32:17 appears here in an older translation; the ESV reads "quietness and trust forever." What obedience secures, disobedience loses.
One writer counts the verses. The warnings run far longer than the blessings, and he draws a lesson for everyone, not only for Israel.
The chapter divides naturally into two parts. In the first we have a full and most blessed statement of the results of obedience (see verses 1-15). In the second we have a very solemn and moving statement of the awful consequences of disobedience (see verses 16-68). We cannot help being struck that the curses take more than three times the space of the blessings. The blessings fill fifteen verses; the curses fill fifty-three... All the nations of the earth may learn from Israel's remarkable history that God must punish disobedience. He punishes it first of all in His own people. And if He has not spared His own people, what shall be the end of those who do not know Him?
One writer tests this passage against events: the fall of Jerusalem under Titus, and the centuries after it.
Moses warned them what would follow if they disobeyed their God and ignored His covenant. They would be plucked out of their promised land and scattered among all peoples... Their lives would hang in doubt. In the morning they would long for the night, and in the night they would say, If only it were morning. These solemn words have been fulfilled to the letter. It was the thirty-sixth anniversary of that fateful Passover when they cried after their Messiah, "Away with Him, crucify Him." Almost the whole nation had gathered in Jerusalem when Titus the Roman besieged the city. The stubborn and fanatical defence enraged the invaders. They burned and destroyed the city and temple. They butchered close to a million of the people without pity, and sent the rest to the Egyptian slave markets... But they have outlived all their ancient enemies... the Jews remain. The nations they live among have never absorbed them, and they keep their identity and character despite fierce persecutions. They are an indestructible witness to the accuracy of prophecy in the God-breathed Scriptures.
The warning is not the last word. The next chapters turn from threat to promise, and the promise begins with repentance.
Further, in Deuteronomy 30 Moses declares what will happen when Israel come to repentance among the nations where they are driven, and return to the LORD their God and obey His voice. Then He will bring back their captivity. In His compassion He will gather them 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 acceptance. This chapter shows how God rules His people on earth. It does not deal with how God accepts a soul as righteous.
- Assurance defined. In the Old Testament "assurance" means confidence and trust — a people safe in their own land. Lose it, and fear fills day and night.
- Warning weighted. The curses run more than three times longer than the blessings. God did not spare His own people, so no one else can expect to escape.
- Warning verified. Commentators read the nation's later history — the fall of Jerusalem, the scattering, the persecutions — as this prophecy fulfilled to the letter. For them it is proof that Scripture is God's word.
- Assurance restored. Fear is not the last word. When Israel repents, God promises to gather them, bring them back, and bless them — the "quietness and assurance for ever" that disobedience lost.
In the morning thou shalt say, Would that it were even! and in the evening thou shalt say, Would that it were morning! through the fright of thy heart wherewith thou shalt be in terror, and through the sight of thine eyes which thou shalt see.
Moses ends his long list of curses with a picture of a haunted life. Each half of the day becomes unbearable: morning longs for evening, evening longs for morning. Two questions follow. What is God doing here, and does the terror ever end?
This is the closing stretch of a chapter built on two outcomes. One writer notes how unevenly the two halves are weighed:
The chapter divides naturally into two parts. In the first we have a full and most blessed statement of the results of obedience (verses 1–15). In the second we have a solemn and moving statement of the awful consequences of disobedience (verses 16–68). One thing strikes us. The section holding the curses is more than three times the length of the one holding the blessings. That has fifteen verses; this has fifty-three. The whole chapter gives an impressive commentary on the government of God.
The terror here belongs to God's rule over a nation on earth. That is a separate question from how a person is accepted before Him.
In Deuteronomy 28 we have the principles of God's government among that people. We also have the immediate consequences of obedience or disobedience — consequences so solemnly fulfilled in the fate of that unhappy people, still beloved for the fathers' sakes. Breaking the law, as a principle of relationship with God, had its own consequences for righteousness, the adequate ground of God's acceptance. Those must not be confused with the temporary consequences of disobedience under the government of God. Chapter 28 speaks of these temporary consequences.
The verse describes an existence with no settled moment in it, day or night.
Yet among these nations they would find no relief and no rest. Instead there was fear and trembling, failing eyes and anguish of soul (v.65), with fear day and night that they might lose their lives (v.66). In the morning they would wish it were evening. In the evening they would wish it were morning, because life was one long trauma (v.67).
The next verse takes the threat lower still: a return to the country God rescued them from.
The Lord would take them back to Egypt in ships (v.68). This may not be literal but symbolic, for Egypt is a picture of the world. Once God had rescued them from this worldly rule, but they would return to it. They would become slaves again and stand for sale. But their condition would be so unhealthy that no one would think them worth buying.
Writers point to the nation's later history as the proof that these sentences were not general religious language but accurate prediction.
The Jews are also proof of the foreknowledge of God and the truth of Scripture… Moses warned them at that time what would follow if they disobeyed the commands of their God and disregarded His covenant. They would be torn out of their promised land and scattered among all people. They would find no ease for their minds or rest for the soles of their feet. Their lives would hang in doubt. In the morning they would long for the night, and in the night they would say, "If only it were morning!" They would become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations (Deut. 28).
Because the whole chapter deals with life in a land, its blessings and its horrors alike stop short of what a guilty person most needs.
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. He wants acceptance for himself with God.
The chapter is not Moses' last word. Two chapters later he names the way out of the very condition verse 67 describes.
Further, in Deuteronomy 30 Moses declares what will happen when Israel come to repentance among the nations where they are driven, and return to the Lord their God and obey His voice. Then He will return their 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 will put all the curses on their enemies and persecutors.
- Government — the verse belongs to God's rule over a nation in its land. Commentators keep that apart from the question of a person's acceptance with Him.
- Weight — the curses run more than three times longer than the blessings. God takes disobedience in His own people that seriously.
- Restlessness — the curse is not one disaster but a life with no settled hour: dread by day, dread by night, and at last a return to the slavery God rescued them from.
- Witness — the later scattering of the nation turned Moses' words into history. Writers treat this as evidence that Scripture speaks with God's foreknowledge.
- Return — the same Moses who described this sleepless fear also promised that repentance among the nations brings compassion, gathering and return to the land.