Deuteronomy: At Journey's Endਨਮੂਨਾ

The lost inheritance

The theme of this last section of chapter 28 is invasion with suffering, defeat and loss of the land given by the Lord. Read verses 45–48 as an introduction, noting how verse 48 couples the invading enemy with personal sufferings. Verses 49–51 then take up the tale of enemy incursion. In verses 52–57 the horrible consequences of prolonged siege are spelt out, further amplified in verses 58–62. Verses 63– 68 predict the sad blow of loss of the precious land. Finally 29:1 rounds off Moses’ covenant speech. 

In this way both great truths and a dire warning are brought vividly before us. The first great truth – and how great it is! – is that the Lord is sovereign God of all the earth; all the nations are his to command. He ‘sends’ (v. 48) and brings (v. 49; literally, ‘raises up’) nations to do his bidding. The expression ‘raises up’ suggests that not only their arrival, but also their ability to act as they are doing, is under the Lord’s sway. He is not an ornamental but an executive sovereign. 

This means, secondly, that history is under moral control with moral objectives. The arrival of the enemy was what Israel deserved. To see history like this is to accept in faith what is revealed and to respond to it. The world does not look like a system of moral excellence, does it? The movement of men and nations does not seem to conform to a just system of reward and punishment, does it? But this is what the Bible teaches and faith accepts. We can look out on the chaos which the world presents to us at any given moment and shout a biblical ‘Nevertheless!’ All is in his hands! 

The warning is that though we can never lose our salvation, we can lose our inheritance – as Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 3:11–17. The loss of the God-given land is a severe illustration of this. So what was the cause of such a loss? There were three aspects to it: first, failure to listen to God’s word (‘obey’ in Deut. 28:45, 62 is, literally, ‘hear and listen to’); secondly, a lapse in personal devotion and joyful service to the Lord (v. 47); and thirdly, neglect of the book in which God’s word was recorded for their learning (v. 58). The people to whom divine revelation is granted are called to live by that revelation; the possession of ‘the book’ leaves them without excuse.

Reflection

Dwell on the beautiful wonder of God’s word (Ps. 19:7–11; 1 Cor. 2:9–13).