Deuteronomy 28:15-44 - Redemption from The Curse of Sin

Deuteronomy 28:15-44

Curses on Disobedience (Leviticus 26:14–46)

15 “But it shall come to pass, if you do not obey the voice of the LORD your God, to observe carefully all His commandments and His statutes which I command you today, that all these curses will come upon you and overtake you:

16 “Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed shall you be in the country.

17 “Cursed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl.

18 “Cursed shall be the fruit of your body and the produce of your land, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flocks.

19 “Cursed shall you be when you come in, and cursed shall you be when you go out.

20 “The LORD will send on you cursing, confusion, and rebuke in all that you set your hand to do, until you are destroyed and until you perish quickly, because of the wickedness of your doings in which you have forsaken Me. 21 The LORD will make the plague cling to you until He has consumed you from the land which you are going to possess. 22 The LORD will strike you with consumption, with fever, with inflammation, with severe burning fever, with the sword, with scorching, and with mildew; they shall pursue you until you perish. 23 And your heavens which are over your head shall be bronze, and the earth which is under you shall be iron. 24 The LORD will change the rain of your land to powder and dust; from the heaven it shall come down on you until you are destroyed.

25 “The LORD will cause you to be defeated before your enemies; you shall go out one way against them and flee seven ways before them; and you shall become troublesome to all the kingdoms of the earth. 26 Your carcasses shall be food for all the birds of the air and the beasts of the earth, and no one shall frighten them away. 27 The LORD will strike you with the boils of Egypt, with tumors, with the scab, and with the itch, from which you cannot be healed. 28 The LORD will strike you with madness and blindness and confusion of heart. 29 And you shall grope at noonday, as a blind man gropes in darkness; you shall not prosper in your ways; you shall be only oppressed and plundered continually, and no one shall save you.

30 “You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall lie with her; you shall build a house, but you shall not dwell in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but shall not gather its grapes. 31 Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be violently taken away from before you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have no one to rescue them. 32 Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, and your eyes shall look and fail with longing for them all day long; and there shall be no strength in your hand. 33 A nation whom you have not known shall eat the fruit of your land and the produce of your labor, and you shall be only oppressed and crushed continually. 34 So you shall be driven mad because of the sight which your eyes see. 35 The LORD will strike you in the knees and on the legs with severe boils which cannot be healed, and from the sole of your foot to the top of your head.

36 “The LORD will bring you and the king whom you set over you to a nation which neither you nor your fathers have known, and there you shall serve other gods—wood and stone. 37 And you shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations where the LORD will drive you.

38 “You shall carry much seed out to the field but gather little in, for the locust shall consume it. 39 You shall plant vineyards and tend them, but you shall neither drink of the wine nor gather the grapes; for the worms shall eat them. 40 You shall have olive trees throughout all your territory, but you shall not anoint yourself with the oil; for your olives shall drop off. 41 You shall beget sons and daughters, but they shall not be yours; for they shall go into captivity. 42 Locusts shall consume all your trees and the produce of your land.

43 “The alien who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. 44 He shall lend to you, but you shall not lend to him; he shall be the head, and you shall be the tail.

The curses of disobedience to God’s word are really curses caused by sin, both original in the Fall of Adam and Eve which brought us all as their offspring after their own kind into our corrupted nature, as well as our ongoing disobedience of sin in our daily lives.  The curses mentioned specifically here for God’s people of the Old Testament, the children of Israel, are many consequences spelled out, some that directly or indirectly translate and apply to us, but mostly were intended just for them in their unique position as a theocratic nation called as a channel of redemption for all nations as promised to Abraham by faith and guided by the Paw given through Moses.  They were told if they did not obey the voice of the LORD their God and  carefully observed all His commandments and His statutes commanded them, this litany of consequential curses would come on them and completely overtake them as they were warned.  We who are now in Christ, Jew and Gentile, are not so devastated by harsh judgment for our sin because the grace of God has shone on us (Romans 3:24, Ephesians 2:8) and we are in Christ and His righteousness now.  This certainly gives us no excuse to continue to sin (Romans 6:1-2), and there are mortal consequences in this life (Romans 6:23, Galatians 6:7-8), yet we are assured of forgiveness in this grace that covers our sins both original and ongoing, and we have hope in our final deliverance of eternal salvation and standing before the Lord forever in spite of the loss (1 Corinthians 3:12-13, 14-15) of rewards.  The curses pronounced on the disobedience under the Law in the covenant based on works had dire consequences affecting all aspects of life wherever the disobedient lived, whatever they did, and resulted in unfruitful lives apart from godliness in their thoughts and deeds.  They would love livelihoods, loved ones, sons and daughters, and serve others as slaves of sins like immorality and idolatry that they had first run after and would then catch up to them.  Other nations would then overtake them and rule over them as they sunk lower in sin and their oppressors rose higher over them.  Such is true today in the sense that those who give themselves over to serve sin are ruled by it and forget their first love (Mark 12:30, Revelation 2:4) with blurred spiritual vision.  The only ones who are eternally cursed are those whose disobedience is against believing and receiving the (2 Thessalonians 1:8-9) gospel of God’s righteousness (John 16:8-9, 10, Romans 11:30) that blesses us by grace and forgiveness.  The curses of sin are covered by grace in the atoning redemption through repentance and faith in God’s Son.  Receive Him then (John 1:12) and obey His gospel to have peace with God (Romans 5:1) and eternal blessings (Romans 4:7-8) by the faith as of Abraham (Galatians 3:9) forevermore.  This is our redemption from the curse of sin.