Deu 28:15-20 | KingComments | STEP | The verses that follow form a great contrast with the previous verses. It is a dramatic section full of warnings. These are prophecies that have literally been fulfilled. The interpretation of Scripture is threefold: literally in history, prophetically in the future and the spiritual or practical application for us. It is a serious section not only for Israel, but also for us. This section is also written that we may learn from it. In Romans 11 we hear the same warning and prophecy for Christianity ( ). Christianity has experienced the same. The question is: What do we do with the lesson that this section contains? In , everything in which the people in will be blessed by obedience is turned into a curse by disobedience. The curse runs parallel with the blessing. The curse hits them in the blessing. This is a penetrating presentation of the matter. From a spiritual point of view, we see that unfaithfulness causes the blessings to disappear – the insight in them and the enjoyment of them – and instead evil teachings come in, destroying the life of faith in every way.

‏ Deuteronomy 28:15-20

When Blessing Turns into Curse

The verses that follow form a great contrast with the previous verses. It is a dramatic section full of warnings. These are prophecies that have literally been fulfilled.

The interpretation of Scripture is threefold: literally in history, prophetically in the future and the spiritual or practical application for us. It is a serious section not only for Israel, but also for us. This section is also written that we may learn from it. In Romans 11 we hear the same warning and prophecy for Christianity (Rom 11:16-24). Christianity has experienced the same. The question is: What do we do with the lesson that this section contains?

In Deu 28:16-19, everything in which the people in Deu 28:3-6 will be blessed by obedience is turned into a curse by disobedience. The curse runs parallel with the blessing. The curse hits them in the blessing. This is a penetrating presentation of the matter. From a spiritual point of view, we see that unfaithfulness causes the blessings to disappear – the insight in them and the enjoyment of them – and instead evil teachings come in, destroying the life of faith in every way.

Curse of Disease, Drought and Flight

The plagues mentioned in this and the following verses do not all affect the people at once. Every time the people sink further into disobedience, God will send other plagues to make the people return to Himself. Forsaking the LORD causes evil deeds and forces God to bring the curse upon them, until the people will have been exterminated and ruined.

The first plague mentioned is the deadly pestilence. The result is that they are swept away from the land. Before that the LORD shall strike them with seven diseases, by which they shall be persecuted and ruined. The threat is terrible, the warning penetrating. God will not only take away from them the good, but He, the LORD, will also bring evil upon them (Deu 28:21-22).

Diseases and plagues that break out mean to us the breakout of sin, false teachings that are taught, the wrong that creeps in. There is also the loss of the good. They are deprived of the pleasure of blessing until God deprives them of the land itself. They will then be deprived of the fruits of the land; they will not know about it anymore. For us it means that we lose sight of heavenly Christendom and the place where the Lord Jesus dwells among His people and comes together with them.

Instead of a refreshing and fruit causing rain, the LORD will rain “powder and dust”. Disobedience is answered with drought in which no life is present and even the promise of life is lacking. Every hope of it is gone.

Other masters will rule over them. Those who profess to be God’s people will be ruled by the flesh and their own thinking. They will experience: “If you are living according to the flesh, you must die” (Rom 8:13a). They no longer ask for what God is interested in, but for what satisfies their own pleasures. The corpses, the dead bodies, the bodies without spirit, are prey to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts, that is to say of demonic powers.