The Logic of Covenant Consequence Text: Deuteronomy 7:12-16
Introduction: The World Is Not Neutral
We live in an age that desperately wants to have it both ways. Our culture wants to live as though there is no God, no final standard, no objective truth, and yet it is constantly surprised and outraged when the floor gives way beneath them. They demand radical autonomy, the right to define their own reality, and then they lament the chaos, the confusion, and the despair that such a project inevitably creates. They want the fruit of God's world, things like justice, peace, and prosperity, but they refuse to tend the root. This is because they believe the universe is a neutral, cosmic vending machine. If you just push the right buttons of technique or policy, you should get the blessings you want.
But the Bible teaches us that the world is not neutral. It is a covenantal world, created and sustained by a covenantal God. This means that reality is structured according to a system of promises, obligations, blessings, and curses. How we relate to the God who made the world determines how the world relates to us. This is not arbitrary; it is the very grain of the cosmos. To go with the grain is to be blessed. To go against it is to be broken. This is the logic of covenant consequence, and it is laid out for us here with stark and glorious clarity.
Moses, speaking on the plains of Moab, is preparing a new generation of Israelites to enter the Promised Land. They are on the cusp of possessing their inheritance, and he is reminding them of the terms of their lease. The land is a gift, but it is a gift with strings attached. Those strings are the terms of the covenant. Obedience is the string that pulls down a cascade of blessings. Disobedience is the string that triggers the deadfall of curses. This passage is not just for ancient Israel. It reveals the fundamental operating system of the world. For us, who live under the New Covenant, the principle remains the same, though the administration has changed. Faithfulness to Christ produces blessing, and unfaithfulness produces chastisement and decay. Let us therefore attend to this word, for it teaches us how the world actually works.
The Text
"Then it will be, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that Yahweh your God will keep with you His covenant and His lovingkindness which He swore to your fathers. And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock, in the land which He swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no male or female barren among you or among your cattle. And Yahweh will take away from you all sickness; and He will not put on you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will give them to all who hate you. And you shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God will give over to you; your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you."
(Deuteronomy 7:12-16 LSB)
The Covenant Hinge (v. 12)
The entire passage turns on the opening words of verse 12.
"Then it will be, because you listen to these judgments and keep and do them, that Yahweh your God will keep with you His covenant and His lovingkindness which He swore to your fathers." (Deuteronomy 7:12)
The structure here is simple cause and effect. "Because you listen... that Yahweh your God will keep." This is the covenantal hinge. God's faithfulness is the foundation, but Israel's obedience is the condition for experiencing the blessings of that faithfulness. This is not works-righteousness. Israel was not chosen because they were obedient, as the preceding verses make clear (Deut. 7:7-8). They were chosen out of God's free, sovereign love. But now that they are in a covenant relationship with Him, their behavior matters. A son does not earn his place in the family by obedience, but his obedience certainly affects the quality of his fellowship with his father and his enjoyment of the family's inheritance.
God promises to keep two things with an obedient Israel: His covenant and His lovingkindness. The word for "lovingkindness" is the great Hebrew term hesed. This is not a sentimental, squishy affection. Hesed is covenant loyalty. It is steadfast, rugged, committed love. It is the love that says, "I am on your side because I swore I would be." God's hesed is rooted in His own character and His oath to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is not fickle. His promises are not subject to mood swings. But our experience of that steadfast love is directly connected to our walking in His ways. When we are obedient, we are walking in the sunshine of His favor. When we are disobedient, we are stepping into the shadow of His fatherly displeasure. The sun has not moved, but we have.
The Cascade of Blessings (v. 13-14)
Verses 13 and 14 unpack the nature of these covenant blessings, and they are strikingly tangible and earthy.
"And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock, in the land which He swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples; there will be no male or female barren among you or among your cattle." (Deuteronomy 7:13-14 LSB)
Notice the progression: God's love leads to God's blessing, and God's blessing leads to multiplication. This is the creation mandate from Genesis 1:28 being reapplied to Israel in the promised land. Be fruitful and multiply. This is central to God's plan for His people. The blessings are comprehensive. They touch every area of life.
First, there is biological fruitfulness: "the fruit of your womb." Children are a blessing, a direct sign of God's favor. In a world that increasingly sees children as a burden, an economic liability, or an environmental threat, the Bible's teaching is a direct confrontation. A healthy, faithful society loves babies.
Second, there is agricultural fruitfulness: "the fruit of your ground, your grain and your new wine and your oil." This is economic prosperity. God is not a Gnostic who is disinterested in the material world. He made it, He called it good, and He delights in seeing His people enjoy its bounty. A society that honors God will see that honor reflected in its harvests.
Third, there is animal fruitfulness: "the increase of your herd and the young of your flock." Their livestock, a key measure of wealth, will flourish. The blessing is total, from the family to the farm to the field.
Verse 14 summarizes this in the most emphatic terms. "You shall be blessed above all peoples." This is not a promise of egalitarian mediocrity. God intends for His faithful people to be exceptional. And the specific blessing mentioned is the removal of barrenness, both in humans and in their livestock. In the ancient world, barrenness was a profound sorrow and shame. God promises that in a faithful Israel, this sorrow will be taken away. This is a picture of a society teeming with life, vitality, and generational optimism. This is what faithfulness looks like on the ground.
Divine Health and Retributive Justice (v. 15)
The blessings extend beyond prosperity to physical well-being.
"And Yahweh will take away from you all sickness; and He will not put on you any of the harmful diseases of Egypt which you have known, but He will give them to all who hate you." (Genesis 7:15 LSB)
God asserts His absolute sovereignty over health and sickness. This is a direct callback to His promise in Exodus 15:26, "I am Yahweh who heals you." Sickness is not random. Viruses and bacteria are not autonomous agents. They are all part of God's creation and subject to His rule. For a faithful Israel, God promises a general state of public health. He will "take away" all sickness.
More specifically, He promises to protect them from the "harmful diseases of Egypt." Egypt was a place of spectacular judgment. The plagues were divine attacks on the gods of Egypt, demonstrating Yahweh's supremacy. Those diseases were instruments of God's wrath. He tells Israel that those weapons, which they saw deployed with such terrifying effect, will not be used on them. Instead, in an act of perfect retributive justice, He will turn those very diseases upon Israel's enemies, upon "all who hate you."
This is profoundly offensive to the modern therapeutic mindset, which cannot stomach the idea of a God who takes sides. But the God of the Bible is not a neutral arbiter. He loves His people, and He hates those who hate Him and His people. His justice is not some abstract principle; it is personal and active. This verse teaches us that there is such a thing as imprecatory epidemiology. God uses disease as a weapon in His cosmic war. For those in covenant with Him, this is a profound comfort. For those at war with Him, it is a terror.
The Necessity of Holy War (v. 16)
The final verse connects the enjoyment of these blessings to the harsh necessity of obedience in the conquest.
"And you shall consume all the peoples whom Yahweh your God will give over to you; your eye shall not pity them, nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you." (Deuteronomy 7:16 LSB)
This is the hard edge of the covenant. The blessings of life, fruitfulness, and health are contingent upon their willingness to be God's instrument of judgment. The word "consume" is stark. This is the language of herem, or holy war. They are to utterly destroy the cancerous pagan cultures that inhabit the land. Why? Because God is a genocidal maniac? No. He gives the reason plainly. It is to prevent spiritual contamination. "Nor shall you serve their gods, for that would be a snare to you."
The Canaanite religions were not benign spiritual alternatives. They were demonic, depraved, and corrupting to the core, characterized by ritual prostitution and child sacrifice. To leave them in place would be like leaving vials of a deadly virus in your child's nursery. It would be a "snare," a baited trap that would inevitably lead Israel into idolatry and self-destruction. God's command to "consume" them was an act of radical, spiritual surgery. It was a judgment on the Canaanites for their centuries of sin (Gen. 15:16), and it was a fierce, protective mercy for Israel.
The command "your eye shall not pity them" is a guard against sentimentalism. False compassion that spares God's enemies at the expense of God's people is not a virtue; it is disobedience. King Saul would later fail this very test with Agag, and it would cost him his kingdom (1 Samuel 15). True love for God requires a hatred of that which He hates. And in this specific, redemptive-historical moment, that meant the unflinching execution of His judgment on the Canaanites.
Conclusion: The Great Exchange
So how do we, as New Covenant believers, read a passage like this? Do we expect that if we are faithful, our bank accounts will swell and we will never get the flu? Not precisely, because the administration has changed. The blessings promised to national Israel in the land were typological. They were shadows and pointers to a greater reality.
We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ (Eph. 1:3). The "fruit of the womb" is fulfilled in the multiplication of the church as we make disciples. The "fruit of the ground" is the spiritual nourishment we receive from Christ, the bread of life. The freedom from barrenness points to the glorious fruitfulness of the gospel in all the world. The healing God promises is, ultimately, the resurrection of the body and the final removal of all sickness and death in the new heavens and new earth.
But the principle of covenant consequence remains firmly in place. Obedience brings blessing. And the "diseases of Egypt", the spiritual plagues of sin, death, and judgment, have been dealt with decisively. But how? They were not turned on our enemies. In the great exchange of the gospel, God took all the diseases of Egypt, all the curses of the law, all the sickness of our sin, and He put them on His own beloved Son. Jesus Christ, on the cross, became the one who was hated, so that we might become the ones who are loved. He was made barren on the tree, so that He might see His offspring (Is. 53:10). He was consumed by the wrath of God, so that we might not be. He entered the ultimate snare of death to disarm it forever.
Therefore, our obedience is not a grim duty to earn favor. It is the grateful response of faith to the one who took all our curses. And our holy war is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers, against the rulers of this present darkness (Eph. 6:12). We are to show no pity to our own sin. We are to consume our idols. We are to tear down the strongholds of rebellion in our hearts and in our culture, not with the sword of steel, but with the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God. For the logic of the covenant still holds. The world is not neutral. And because Christ has taken the curse, we, His people, are blessed above all peoples.