Deuteronomy 28:43-57 Click here for Bible Verses
Hi GAMErs!
Today’s passage is Deuteronomy 28:43-57. Let’s go!
Deuteronomy 28:43-52 (NIV)
43 The alien who lives among you will rise above you higher and higher, but you will sink lower and lower.
44 He will lend to you, but you will not lend to him. He will be the head, but you will be the tail.
45 All these curses will come upon you. They will pursue you and overtake you until you are destroyed, because you did not obey the LORD your God and observe the commands and decrees he gave you.
46 They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever.
47 Because you did not serve the LORD your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity,
48 therefore in hunger and thirst, in nakedness and dire poverty, you will serve the enemies the LORD sends against you. He will put an iron yoke on your neck until he has destroyed you.
49 The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand,
50 a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young.
51 They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed. They will leave you no grain, new wine or oil, nor any calves of your herds or lambs of your flocks until you are ruined.
52 They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land the LORD your God is giving you.
On verses 43 to 52: Here Moses describes another problem that will come on God’s people if they refuse to obey Him: the land that God had given to them as an inheritance will be taken away from them and given to other nations. Moses says that if the Israelites do not obey the Lord and observe His commands, they will be pursued by their enemies (v45). A foreign nation will lay siege to them (v47-52) all “because you did not obey the Lord your God and observe the commands and decrees that he gave you (v45)…[and] because you did not serve the Lord your God joyfully and gladly in the time of prosperity (v47)”. Because the Israelites would disobey God, they would lose the land that God had originally reserved for them.
Similarly, because all of us have disobeyed God’s commands, we also lost our land and our inheritance, that is, any access we had to heaven and to a relationship with God. But out of love for us, Jesus went to the cross and was disenfranchised in our place. Instead of taking heaven away from us, God took heaven away from His Son Jesus. That is why Jesus, while hanging from the cross, said, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mark 15:34) Jesus experienced separation from God on our behalf, exchanging His riches for our poverty. By His death on the cross, Jesus bought back for us the land that we had lost through our disobedience. As 2 Corinthians 8:9 says, “For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.”
Deuteronomy 28:53-57 (NIV)
53 Because of the suffering that your enemy will inflict on you during the siege, you will eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the LORD your God has given you.
54 Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will have no compassion on his own brother or the wife he loves or his surviving children,
55 and he will not give to one of them any of the flesh of his children that he is eating. It will be all he has left because of the suffering your enemy will inflict on you during the siege of all your cities.
56 The most gentle and sensitive woman among you–so sensitive and gentle that she would not venture to touch the ground with the sole of her foot–will begrudge the husband she loves and her own son or daughter
57 the afterbirth from her womb and the children she bears. For she intends to eat them secretly during the siege and in the distress that your enemy will inflict on you in your cities.
On verses 53 to 57: Why is Moses talking so much about cannibalism, saying that the Israelites will want to eat the flesh of their own sons and daughters? What are we to make of these strange sounding verses where Moses says that the Israelites will want to “eat the fruit of the womb, the flesh of the sons and daughters the Lord your God has given you” (v53)?
In verses 53 to 57, Moses says that if the Israelites keep on sinning, their land will be besieged by foreign nations. He says the siege will be so severe that the Israelites will want to resort to cannibalism, eating the flesh of their own children.
So what can we learn from this? Two things. First, sin has this way of warping our hearts, making us want things that we, in our right mind, wouldn’t want. I don’t know if any loving parent could ever imagine being so desperate and heartless that they would consider eating their own kids, but sin has this ability to warp a person’s mind in thinking and wanting things that they wouldn’t think or want in their right mind.
Second, these verses teach us that when we sin, we are not the only ones who suffer. We might think, “My sin is my own personal problem. It does not affect anyone except me.” But verses 53 to 57 teach us that when we persist in disobeying God, our children – the ones who depend on us for life, love and leadership – suffer even more.
We might not literally eat our children’s flesh as a cannibal would, but when we deliberately persist in sinning, we’re serving ourselves at our children’s expense. Sometimes the greatest victims of our sin are not ourselves but our children.
Finally, when you read these pictures of cannibalism in verses 53 to 57, remember that Jesus once made a graphic, controversial and often misunderstood statement: “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up at the last day.” (John 6:54) Combining the ideas of Deuteronomy 28:53-57 with John 6:54, it’s as if God is saying, “When you sin, you have a choice. You can eat the flesh of your sons and daughters by continuing to sin at your children’s expense. Or you can look to my Son Jesus, eat His flesh, drink His blood, and be forgiven.” In other words, believe in Jesus the Son of God and find hope for yourself and for your children.
God, thank You for sending Your own Son Jesus to suffer for my sin so that my children would not have to suffer so much for my sin. Today I recognize that there is a cost to my disobedience. May I always remember that cost whenever I am tempted to sin, and look to Jesus for mercy and grace to help me in my time of need. In Jesus’ name, AMEN!
