and he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee, and will bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy ground, thy corn and thy new wine, and thine oil, the offspring of thy kine, and the increase of thy sheep, in the land which he swore unto thy fathers to give thee.
Moses keeps pressing the same "if" on the people. If they obey, God will open the door to every good thing He swore to their fathers — children, crops and cattle. Two questions follow. How can God's love rest on a condition? And what happened to a promise Israel never saw fulfilled?
The chapter speaks of God's love twice, and not in the same way. One writer names the two kinds. He counts our verse's opening words with verse 12:
In Deuteronomy 7 we find both the love of delight and the love of communion. In verse 8 we read, "The Lord loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn to your fathers has the Lord brought you out." Then, in verse 12, "If you listen to these judgments, and keep, and do them … He will love you, bless you, and multiply you." The first is according to His oath to the fathers, and absolute. The second depends on obedience — "if you do."
The choice was never earned. The enjoyment of it was another matter.
Israel had three things to do. God pledged three things in return.
What a powerful appeal! How moving! Notice the two groups of words. Israel was to "listen," "keep" and "do." Jehovah was to "love," "bless," and "multiply." Sadly, Israel failed — shamefully failed — under law and under government. And so, instead of the love and the blessing and the multiplying, there has been judgment, curse, barrenness, dispersion, desolation.
This book names grain, wine and oil together again and again. Together they cover a farming nation's whole livelihood.
God set blessing before Israel in full measure. We see this when we consider that "the grain, the wine, and the oil," so often linked together in Deuteronomy and other scriptures, take in the produce of the field, the vineyard and the orchard. He made all of it yield its increase in blessing, and of Him it is said, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof."
These same three items carry a further meaning for Christians:
But these things wear out as they are used. For us they are only pictures of our spiritual blessing, which is eternally rich and endlessly full. The reality behind the grain is clearly the person of Christ Himself, the One who is the fine flour of the grain offering, and the bread of God. We find the reality behind the wine in His work of redemption. Only in this sense can we understand the heart of God to be cheered by wine. And the reality behind the oil is the Holy Spirit poured out.
This verse promises full barns and growing herds. So people often read it as a formula for prosperity. One writer draws a firm line:
Israel had the promise of earthly blessings if they were to keep the law faithfully (Deut. 6:3, 7:13ff). We as children of God do not have any promise of material blessing or prosperity. In fact, we do not have any promise of spiritual blessings either. Because you are no longer promised something you already have. As Christians, we are already blessed with every spiritual blessing!
Israel never lived in the conditions described here. That does not cancel the verse. Its day is the millennium, the thousand-year kingdom still to come:
God would love and bless and multiply Israel on the ground of their obedience. He would bless them with children, bless the fruit of their land, prosper their crops of grain, wine and oil, and increase their livestock. This would have been wonderful indeed, though we know it did not take place. In the millennium it will be so, however. God's covenant with the fathers cannot fail, and the grace of God will do what law never could.
The change is in the basis, not in the promise. Law could not secure it; grace will.
- Chosen first. God's love in verse 8 rests on His own oath and is absolute. The love in this verse is enjoyed in communion, and that side depends on obedience.
- Three for three. Israel was to listen, keep and do; God pledged to love, bless and multiply. The second trio waited on the first.
- Everything covered. Children, fields, vineyards, orchards, herds and flocks. Grain, wine and oil take in a whole nation's livelihood, and the God who owns the earth gives it all.
- Types, not a contract. Grain, wine and oil point to Christ Himself, to His work of redemption, and to the Holy Spirit poured out. The Christian's blessings are spiritual, and we already have them.
- Grace finishes it. Israel failed and reaped desolation instead. Yet God will make the covenant good in the coming kingdom, by grace and not by law.
Thou shalt be blessed above all the peoples; there shall not be male or female barren with thee, or with thy cattle;
Moses has just listed what obedience would bring: children, grain, wine, oil, herds and flocks. Now he sums it up in one promise — and the question is whether God ever meant to keep it after Israel failed.
The chapter speaks of God's love twice, and the two mentions do not work the same way. One rests on the oath God swore to their fathers. The other answers their obedience.
In verse 8 we read, "The Lord loved you, and because He would keep the oath which He had sworn to your fathers has the Lord brought you out." Then, in verse 12, "If you listen to these judgments, and keep, and do them … He will love you, and bless you, and multiply you." The first rests on His oath to the fathers, and is absolute. The second depends on obedience — "if you do."
That "if" hangs over the whole promise. But an older promise lies underneath it, and Israel's failure could not cancel that one.
He promised them that if they would obey, He would keep His covenant which He swore to their fathers (v.12). Whether they obeyed or not, God will one day keep that covenant made to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, for it is unconditional. Yet if Israel had obeyed God, they would have reaped the benefits of the covenant in the land, and God would never put them out as long as they obeyed.
The promise is not vague goodwill. It names the womb, the field, the crops and the flock, and it sets one nation above all the rest. Israel never saw such a thing, so the promise points to a day still ahead.
He would bless them with children, bless the fruit of their land, prosper their crops of grain, wine and oil, and increase their livestock (v.13). He would bless them above all other nations, with not one male or female barren, whether of humans or livestock (v.14). This would have been marvellous indeed, though we know it did not take place. In the millennium it will be so. God's covenant with the fathers cannot fail, and the grace of God will do what law never could.
You can count, weigh or eat every blessing named here. That matters, because Christians sometimes claim these promises as their own.
The conditional blessings are for an obedient Israel under their God, the Lord. They are earthly blessings, however rich. They are not the blessings that mark out the Christian, whatever some argue.
Some Christians read this and feel they have been given less.
No Christian should envy such a prospect: how sad that one should speak of a feeling so unworthy in a believer's heart. Are we not blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ? Let us rejoice that Israel are yet to be blessed on earth, and to be a blessing to all the nations of the earth.
Moses lays out a matched pair: three things Israel must do, three things God will then do. History records the opposite of every item.
Notice the two groups of words. Israel was to "listen," "keep" and "do." The Lord was to "love," "bless," and "multiply." But Israel failed under law and under government — a sad and shameful failure. So instead of the love and the blessing and the multiplying, there has been judgment, curse, barrenness, dispersion, desolation.
Israel lost the promise by failing. God will keep it on another ground altogether.
But if Israel has failed under law and government, God has not failed in His rich and precious sovereign grace and mercy. He will keep the covenant and the mercy He swore to their fathers. Not the smallest part of His covenant promise will ever fail. He will make it all good in time. He will fulfil to the very letter all His gracious promises. He cannot do this on the ground of Israel's obedience. He can and will do it through the blood of the everlasting covenant — the precious blood of Jesus, His eternal Son.
- Condition. The love and blessing of verses 12–14 hang on an "if" — Israel was to listen, keep and do; God would then love, bless and multiply.
- Increase. Nothing barren anywhere — womb, field, grain, wine, oil, herd and flock all fruitful.
- Earthly. These blessings are earthly: land, crops, children, cattle. They set one nation above the rest. They are not the Christian's blessing in Christ.
- Reversal. Israel failed under law. They got the opposite of the promise: curse, barrenness, dispersion, desolation.
- Grace. What obedience lost, grace keeps. The covenant sworn to the fathers still stands, and the blood of Christ will make it good — Israel blessed on earth, and a blessing to every nation.
and Jehovah will take away from thee all sickness, and none of the evil infirmities of Egypt, which thou knowest, will he put upon thee; but he will lay them upon all them that hate thee.
Moses is describing life in the land if Israel keeps the covenant. Health is part of the deal, and that raises two hard questions: did Israel ever see it, and does such a promise belong to believers now?
The verse sits inside a longer appeal. One writer lines up its two sides.
What a powerful appeal! How moving! Notice the two groups of words. Israel was to "listen," "keep" and "do." The Lord was to "love," "bless," and "multiply." Sadly, Israel failed — failed shamefully — under law and under government. So instead of the love, the blessing and the multiplying, there has been judgment, curse, barrenness, dispersion, desolation.
The verse names no particular illness, only a source Israel knew from Egypt. A dictionary entry on the words for sickness explains why, and adds what came later.
There are four Hebrew words and four Greek words translated this way, but, like the English word, they do not specify the nature of the complaint. God promised Israel that if they would be obedient He would take away from them all sickness. He would put on them none of the evil diseases of Egypt which they had known (Deut. 7:15). When the Lord was on earth He healed every sickness and every disease among the people (Matt. 9:35). On the ground of obedience they failed to gain freedom from diseases, but their Messiah healed them all in grace.
Centuries later, crowds of sick people pressed around Jesus. One writer asks who had failed.
What did all kinds of disease and sickness in the land of Israel mean, as it were crowding round Him to be healed? And why did they bring from all Syria everyone who was sick — those suffering under various illnesses and torments, those possessed by demons, those out of their minds and those paralysed? It was not the Lord who heals that had failed, but man generally and Israel in particular.
When Jesus healed, He gave Israel what this verse had tied to obedience. One writer shows how the leaders answered.
He was, as it were, renewing His covenant with them — His covenant of health and salvation. He was taking away from them all sickness and giving out healing through the land (Deut. 7:15). Faith would have rejoiced and begun that song of praise prepared long ago for a repentant and believing Israel... But Israel's guides and rulers, now thinking evil in their hearts, whispered, "This man is blaspheming."
The second half of the verse is easy to skip. One writer asks whether a Christian would really want it.
Freedom from sickness as a result of obedience was woven into the first covenant. Is that what the Christian wants today — his diseases put on anyone who may hate him? Yet that is part of that covenant.
No such guarantee of bodily health stands today. One writer names what takes its place.
God's rule over His people must always be reckoned with, and especially by those He has blessed with the knowledge of redemption. Israel would have been kept from such physical diseases if they were simply obedient to the Lord, for He is the Lord who heals. In the present time of grace we are not promised freedom from physical diseases on the ground of obedience. But obedience will certainly keep us from spiritual diseases, and give us spiritual health and strength.
Illness in a believer's life may have nothing to do with disobedience.
Godly people today may suffer illness and other afflictions such as this, as Epaphroditus was "sick, near to death," not for disobedience, but for the sake of the work of Christ (Phil. 2:25-30).
Israel forfeited the promise, but God has not cancelled it. What Israel lost, He intends to give outright.
Even under the law this would have been so, had the people been obedient. They would have escaped the diseases of Egypt, and lived longer in the land, but they forfeited it all by their disobedience and sin. But in the future God will cause His people to enjoy all, and more than all, the blessings which He had promised long ago on the condition of keeping the law.
- Condition — God asked three things of Israel: listen, keep, do. He pledged three in return: love, bless, multiply. Health hung on Israel's side.
- Contrast — The diseases named are the ones Israel saw fall on Egypt. Obedience would move them off God's people and onto His enemies.
- Collapse — The Gospels show crowds of sick Israelites. The promise went unclaimed, and the failure lay with Israel, not the Healer.
- Compensation — The Messiah gave in grace what obedience never won, and healed them all.
- Continuation — Christians hold no promise of bodily health for obedience, and sickness may even serve Christ's work, as it did for Epaphroditus. What Israel forfeited, God will yet give, and more.