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The Diaspora
28: 58-68

The diaspora DIG: What would be the cause of Isra’el’s divine judgment? Why is this eleventh curse the worst of all? What meaning does this chapter give to the “glorious and awesome name” of ADONAI your God? How could such a great God be so merciless? Why do the Jews suffer when the wicked Gentile nations escape suffering?

REFLECT: How many people with a trembling heart and failing eyes turn to the LORD for help? How would being “afraid night and day, and having no assurance for their lives” serve a similar purpose? How have you been disciplined in your lifetime by ADONAI, and what did you learn from it? What is the message today for the Church in these scriptures?

Moshe then elaborated on the specific conditional curses in verses 28:16-19, which were an elaboration of the specific conditional blessings of 28:3-6. In 28:20-68, Moses pronounced eleven curses that Isra’el would suffer if she did not live wholeheartedly in accordance with God’s mitzvot (to see link click Ez – Statutes, Mitzvot, and Ordinances). Each individual judgment essentially had one goal: to turn Isra’el from disobedience.620

The fundamental cause for this divine judgment does involve Isra’el’s conduct, but it also involved their attitude of heart – an adamant refusal to revere God’s lofty character.

In the eleventh curse, Moses summarizes the curse of YHVH, the terrible details of the preceding verses give way to a broader picture; the effect of this final section, however, is no less terrifying, for little by little Moshe unfolds to his audience the manner in which every blessing God’s covenant of love for His people could be reversed.

Dear kind and loving heavenly Father, I worship You! You are completely holy and totally love at the same time. The question of how a loving God could promise harsh punishments is answered when I look at the reason behind the giving of each of these judgements. Your loving desire is to turn Isra’el away from the wrong path of disobedience and onto the right path of eternal joy in loving relationship with You. You love each of Your children dearly. See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children (John 1:12) of God (First John 3:1a)! You never want anything to hurt Your children, but You use discipline as a tool to bring Your child back onto the right road. “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, and do not lose heart when He rebukes you, because the Lord disciplines the one He loves, and He chastens everyone He accepts as His son” (Hebrews 12:5b-6). How important it is to listen to Your small discipline. Then You will not have to discipline more. If the discipline is ignored, then You must make the punishment harsher. How wonderful to have learned lessons in the past and know that discipline for that error is done for the lesson is learned. No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it (Hebrews 12:11).

Praise Your patience in training Your children to be holy like you. Sometimes You use discipline when there is wrong and sometimes You use trials to purge out impurities. But You never discipline harsher than is needed, nor are You too soft. You know exactly how much pressure to use to form the character of Your child into a beautiful vessel for You.  In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials.  These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith – of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire – may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. You are a wonderful Father! I love You! In Yeshua’s holy name and power of His resurrection. Amen 

11. The diaspora (28:58-68): The two worst curses were saved until the conclusion of Moshe’s address on curses for disobedience, and then specifically illustrated: the siege (see Fj – Military Siege) and the scattering.

The action on the part of the Israelites: If . . . you do not take care to do all the words of this Torah, the things written in this scroll, to fear this glorious and awesome Name, ADONAI your God there would be consequences (28:58). Once again, this mitzvah is not threatening loss of salvation, but loss of blessings.

The action on the part of YHVH: Then . . . ADONAI will make your plagues and the plagues of your descendants extraordinary – terrible and prolonged plagues, severe and prolonged illnesses (28:59). The potential curses described in the verses below are not the fickle acts of an unknown or vindictive deity; they are the just acts of a righteous God whose covenant of love would have been rejected by His own people.

a. He will bring back on you all the diseases of Egypt that you were afraid of. Also, every illness and plague that is not written in the scroll of this Torah, ADONAI will bring on you, until you are destroyed. In the redemption from Isra’el diseases were heaped on her enemies, but because of the curse of covenantal treachery, diseases will cling to Isra’el (28:60-61). The statement until you are destroyed occurs six times in this chapter (here, verses 24, 45, 48, 51, 61) like repeated hammer blows. This experience of covenantal cursing would bring Isra’el to the brink of extinction, and provides a sad contrast to what God intended for His chosen people. The fact that YHVH did not exterminate Isra’el when he drove them out of the Promised Land (covenantal curse) later in her history (see the commentary on Jeremiah Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule) indicates that this verb is somewhat overstated. The strength of the language, however, prevents one from minimizing the full extent of this threat.621

b. You will be left few in number, now less than one percent of the world population, instead of being like the stars of the sky in number (Genesis 15:5, 22:17, 26:4; Exodus 32:13; Deuteronomy 1:10, 7:7, 10:22) – because you did not listen to the voice of ADONAI your God. Now just as ADONAI rejoiced over you to do you good and to multiply you, so ADONAI will rejoice over you to ruin and destroy you; and you will be uprooted from the land that you are going in to possess. Even though they were once enslaved in Egypt, the Hebrews greatly multiplied in numbers, now however, because of her future rebellion she will be left few in number (28:62-63).

c. ADONAI will scatter you among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other. Through the patriarchs the Jews anticipated living in the Land of Promise, yet now, because of her mutiny against her Creator, she would be evicted from the Land (28:64a).

d. And there you will serve other gods – wood and stone – that you and your fathers have not known. While living in Egypt, the Israelites found fulness of life in serving YHVH, but because of her spiritual adultery she would live the empty life of worshipping false gods (28:64b);

e. Among these nations you will find no rest, and there will be no rest for the sole of your foot. But there ADONAI will give you a trembling heart and failing eyes, and a despairing spirit. The rest from enemies that came with possession of the Land would then become restlessness in a foreign land. The reference to three anatomical and psychological terms – mind, eyes and heart – emphasizes the internal and far-reaching nature of this distress. Their lives will be so consumed by instability that they will have absolutely no confidence in the future.622 In the morning you will say, “If only it were evening!” and at evening you will say, “If only it were morning!” – from the fear of your heart that you will fear and the sight of your eyes that you will see. During the conquest of the Transjordan the Gentile nations feared Isra’el, but after her revolt against her Protector, she will be overwhelmed by fear (28:65 and 67).

f. Your life will hang in the balance before you; you will be afraid night and day, and you will have no assurance of your life. The dread and fear that the goyim would feel at the approach of Isra’el (2:25 and 11:25), would then be on her. Isra’el had been promised long life in the Promised Land, but because of their rebellious heart, they would have no assurance of life (28:66). Their lives would be as if hanging from a thread, which threatens every moment to break.623

g. As a final step of covenantal reversal, the Israelites will come full circle. YHVH will send His chosen people back to Egypt, where they came into existence as a nation. ADONAI will bring you back to Egypt in ships, by the way that I said to you, “You will not see it again.” There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves and maids, but there will be no buyer (28:68). The ships may have been Phoenician, engaged in slave traffic (Ezeki’el 27:13; Joel 3:6; Amos 1:9). Forty years ago, Isra’el had been freed from slavery in Egypt, but refusal to be loyal to the covenant would mean that she would return to a state of bondage. But even in Egypt no one would buy such slaves. It is a vivid climax to a continuous picture of unspeakable suffering. Thus, her history will be annulled. Such will be the end of Isra’el if she failed to observe all the words of this Torah, the things written in this scroll, and to fear this glorious and awesome Name, ADONAI your God (28:58).

The Jews were not only a disciplined people, they were also a dispersed people (Second Kings 17:6 and 25:21). After the Babylonian captivity (see the commentary on Jeremiah Gu – Seventy Years of Imperial Babylonian Rule), they were permitted to return to their Land, rebuild Jerusalem and restore the Temple (see the commentary on Ezra-Nehemiah Ag – The First Return). Isra’el had their Temple, their priesthood, and a nation, until the Roman invasion in 70 AD. After that, they were, once again, a scattered people, found in almost every nation on the earth. They had no homeland, no Temple, and no priesthood. Yet, not matter in what nations they settled, then never lost their national identity. It would not be until May 14, 1948, that Isra’el would once again become a nation in the Land.

During those times of severe suffering, more than one Jew asked ADONAI, “Why do Your people suffer when the wicked Gentile nations escape suffering? How can a holy God use godless goyim to discipline His people?” This is one of the themes of the book of Habakkuk, and it is discussed in several psalms (Psalm 37, 73-74, 77, 79-80). But the fact that Isra’el is God’s chosen people and the apple of His eye (32:10) explains why He disciplines her, for the greater the privilege, the greater the responsibility. Only you have I known from among all the families of the earth. Therefore, I will punish you for all your iniquities (Amos 3:2). Divine election isn’t an excuse for human rebellion. From everyone given much, much will be required (Luke 12:48b).

There is a sobering message here for the Church (made up of Jews and Gentiles as in Ephesians 2:14) in today’s world. Like Isra’el of old, we are God’s chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and a people for God’s own possession (First Peter 2:9-10). We are here to declare the virtues of the Lord and declare the Good News of the gospel. If we fail to glorify God and obey His Word, He will discipline us just as He disciplined Isra’el (see the commentary on Hebrews Cz – God Disciplines His Children). For the time has come for judgment to begin with the house of God. If judgment begins with us first, what will be the end for those who disobey the Good News of God (First Peter 4:17)? If God disciplines His own people for their sins, what will He do to those who don’t belong to the family and have resisted His will? But judgment will begin in God’s family, and the only way we can avoid it is to turn from our sins and obey His will.

The church that thought it was rich, Yeshua said was poor (see the commentary on Revelation Bf – The Church at Laodicea), and the church that thought it was poor, Messiah said was rich (see the commentary on Revelation Ba – The Church at Smyrna). What will our Lord reveal about our churches when the fire of discipline falls?