Deuteronomy 28:6

"And if you faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God" — the grand old Deuteronomy motto, the keynote of the book — "being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth." Listening to His voice is the only safeguard, the true secret of happiness, security, victory and strength.

In Deuteronomy 28 we have law, but not law looked at in its own nature, as a question between God and man. Here law is the rule of earthly government. It has to do with the circumstances of man. So here we have the blessing on the one hand and the curse on the other.

God's blessing would be the same, whether in their coming in or their going out (v.6). We may surely apply this to the blessing of private life and of life together as God's people. Coming in means enjoying the privileges of fellowship with the saints of God. Going out means carrying the gospel of God's grace to those in the world.

"Going" and "coming" speak of the changing circumstances that mark a world of unrest. When He was here, the Lord could say to His disciples, "Come away by yourselves to a desolate place and rest a while" (Mark 6:31). In His compassionate care the Lord will give us times of rest away from the busy world. But down here it will only be "a while" — words that show we must be on the move again. For the eternal rest we must look ahead. Of the one who enters that blessed rest we read, "Never shall he go out of it" (Rev. 3:12). In the meantime, in all the busy round of a life of toil in a world of need, the one who looks to the Lord for help can count on the Lord to keep him in every circumstance.

Chapter 27 is moral and personal. Chapter 28 belongs to a whole nation and to a particular stage in God's dealings. Chapter 27 deals with the great root principle of man's moral condition, as a sinner completely ruined and unable to meet God on the ground of law. Chapter 28 takes up the question of Israel as a nation, under the government of God.

All this is true, and a blessing. But it gives no ground at all for transferring the promises made to Israel to New Testament believers. God has pledged Himself, by an oath, to bless the descendants of Abraham His friend. He will bless them with all earthly blessings, in the land of Canaan. This promise holds good and can never be taken away… We must always remember that Israel's blessings are earthly; the church's blessings are heavenly.

In Deuteronomy 28 we have the blessings promised to Israel if they obeyed. They failed completely to obey, as we know, and so they forfeited all those blessings. But, as we have seen again and again in Scripture, God will bring them back. Grace will restore them to all the blessings they lost, and the righteous rule of the Lord Jesus Christ will keep them in the enjoyment of these blessings.