The Causal Matrix of the World Text: Deuteronomy 28:1-14
Introduction: The If/Then Universe
We live in a world that has declared its independence from God, and as a result, it has become utterly incoherent. Modern man wants to live in a cause and effect universe when it comes to physics, but a causeless universe when it comes to morality. He wants the trains to run on time, but he wants his personal life to be a consequence-free zone. He wants to plant thistle seeds and harvest figs, and when he gets a fistful of thorns, he shakes that fist at the sky and declares that the universe is meaningless.
But the universe is not meaningless. It is a vast, intricate, and glorious covenantal structure, and it operates according to a divine grammar. That grammar is laid out for us here in Deuteronomy 28 with breathtaking clarity. The chapter presents two paths, two possibilities, two futures. It is the great continental divide of Scripture. On one side are the towering peaks of covenantal blessing. On the other is the deep, dark ravine of covenantal curses. And the hinge, the pivot upon which all of history turns for a people, is that small but mighty word: "if."
This is not a popular message in our day. We have been catechized by a therapeutic pietism that wants to spiritualize everything into a fine mist. We are told that obedience has nothing to do with whether your business prospers or whether your children walk with God. That is all relegated to the "Old Testament." The New Testament, they say, is all about a disembodied grace that floats free of any earthly consequence. This is a Gnostic lie. It is a retreat from the world God made, loves, and intends to save. Deuteronomy 28 is not an expired contract. It reveals the permanent, causal matrix of reality. God has woven obedience into the fabric of the cosmos. When you obey, things go well. When you disobey, things fall apart. This is true for individuals, for families, for churches, and for nations.
The blessings described here are not ethereal or spooky. They are earthy. They have to do with babies, cattle, bread, bank accounts, and military victories. God is not embarrassed by matter. He made it. And He delights to bless His people in the middle of it. This chapter is a direct assault on the dualism that separates the "sacred" from the "secular." For the covenant man, all of life is sacred because all of life is lived before the face of God. Let us therefore attend to this word, for it describes the world we actually live in.
The Text
"Now it will be, if you diligently listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I am commanding you today, Yahweh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you listen to the voice of Yahweh your God: 'Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out. Yahweh shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways. Yahweh will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you send forth your hand to do, and He will bless you in the land which Yahweh your God gives you. Yahweh will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep the commandments of Yahweh your God and walk in His ways. So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of Yahweh, and they will be afraid of you. And Yahweh will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers to give you. Yahweh will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. And Yahweh will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath, if you listen to the commandments of Yahweh your God, which I am commanding you today, to keep and to do, and do not turn aside from any of the words which I am commanding you today, to the right or to the left, to walk after other gods to serve them.'"
(Deuteronomy 28:1-14 LSB)
The Covenantal Hinge (v. 1-2)
The entire chapter, and in many ways the entire covenant, pivots on these first two verses.
"Now it will be, if you diligently listen to the voice of Yahweh your God, being careful to do all His commandments which I am commanding you today, Yahweh your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings will come upon you and overtake you if you listen to the voice of Yahweh your God:" (Deuteronomy 28:1-2)
The condition is stated twice for emphasis: "if you diligently listen." The Hebrew is "shama shama," listen and listen. This is not passive hearing. It is not the kind of listening you do with the television on in the background. This is an attentive, leaning-in, responsive listening that results in doing. To hear the command of God is to obey the command of God. Anything less is just noise.
And notice the result of this kind of obedience. It is not just that you will be blessed. It is that God will "set you high above all the nations." God's intention for His people is not that they be a quaint, marginalized subculture. His plan is to make them the head and not the tail. This is the foundation of a robust postmillennialism. God blesses His people so thoroughly, so comprehensively, that the pagan nations are forced to take notice. The blessings are evangelistic. They are a signpost pointing to the goodness and power of Yahweh.
The blessings are not something you have to chase down. They "will come upon you and overtake you." This is a picture of being pursued, not by a predator, but by the overwhelming goodness of God. Imagine a farmer whose barns are so full he has to build new ones, whose crops grow so fast he can't harvest them quickly enough. This is not the language of scarcity. This is the language of glorious, overflowing, supernatural abundance. This is what happens when a people align themselves with the grain of the universe, which is the law of God.
All-Encompassing Prosperity (v. 3-6)
The blessings that follow are comprehensive. They cover every sphere of life, leaving no area untouched by the favor of God.
"Blessed shall you be in the city, and blessed shall you be in the field. Blessed shall be the offspring of your body and the produce of your ground and the offspring of your beasts, the increase of your herd and the young of your flock. Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl. Blessed shall you be when you come in, and blessed shall you be when you go out." (Deuteronomy 28:3-6)
This is a total worldview. God's blessing is not confined to the temple or the Sabbath. It follows you to the office ("in the city") and to the farm ("in the field"). It touches your family ("offspring of your body"), your business ("produce of your ground"), and your investments ("offspring of your beasts"). Your womb will be fruitful. Your land will be fruitful. Your livestock will be fruitful. This is God's creation mandate from Genesis 1 being reaffirmed and empowered. Be fruitful and multiply.
The blessing extends to the most basic elements of daily life. "Blessed shall be your basket and your kneading bowl." This means your grocery shopping and your food preparation. It means there will be food to gather and dough to knead. This is not a promise of disembodied spiritual bliss; it is a promise of full bellies and stocked pantries. God cares about your daily bread.
And the blessing covers all your comings and goings. This is a Hebrew idiom for the whole of life. From the moment you get up and leave your house to the moment you return, you are under the canopy of God's favor. Your projects, your travels, your relationships, your daily routine, all of it is consecrated and made to prosper. There is no corner of your life that is outside the scope of His blessing.
National Security and Economic Dominance (v. 7-14)
The blessings then expand from the personal and familial to the national and geopolitical. Obedience to God results in a flourishing and secure civilization.
"Yahweh shall cause your enemies who rise up against you to be defeated before you; they will come out against you one way and will flee before you seven ways." (Deuteronomy 28:7)
A nation that honors God will have a foreign policy blessed by God. When your enemies attack, God Himself will engineer their defeat. They will come at you with a coordinated, unified strategy ("one way"), but they will be thrown into such confusion and panic that they will scatter in every direction ("seven ways"). A godly nation is a supernaturally protected nation.
"Yahweh will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you send forth your hand to do... Yahweh will make you abound in prosperity... Yahweh will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow." (Deuteronomy 28:8, 11-12)
Here we see the principles of biblical economics. God commands the blessing on your assets ("barns") and your labor ("all that you send forth your hand to do"). This results in overflowing prosperity. God controls the weather, the ultimate variable in any agrarian economy. He opens the heavens to give rain in its proper season. The result is a nation so productive and wealthy that it becomes the world's creditor. "You shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow." A nation drowning in debt is a nation under a curse. A nation that is a net lender is a nation enjoying the blessing of God.
"And Yahweh will make you the head and not the tail, and you only will be above, and you will not be underneath... So all the peoples of the earth will see that you are called by the name of Yahweh, and they will be afraid of you." (Deuteronomy 28:13, 10)
This is the capstone of the promise. Obedience leads to cultural and political ascendancy. God's people are to be the leaders, the trend-setters, the headwaters of culture. They are to be "above, and not underneath." When a people walks in faithfulness, their success is so undeniable that other nations are forced to acknowledge its source. They will see that this nation is "called by the name of Yahweh," and they will be afraid. This is not a cowering fear, but a profound awe and respect. They will know that the God of this people is the true and living God.
And the final verse is a warning that bookends the introduction. The condition for all of this is steadfast, unwavering loyalty. Do not "turn aside... to the right or to the left, to walk after other gods." The moment a people begins to hedge their bets, to syncretize, to imagine that they can serve both God and mammon, is the moment they step off the path of blessing and onto the path of the curse.
The Gospel According to Deuteronomy
Now, the natural man reads this and says, "This is impossible. No one can obey God's law perfectly." And he is exactly right. Israel failed. They turned aside after other gods, and the long, terrible list of curses in the second half of this chapter fell on them with precision. They became the tail. They borrowed and did not lend. Their enemies defeated them. They were scattered among the nations.
Does this mean the promises are null and void? Not at all. It means we needed a better representative. We needed a true Israelite who could listen and listen, and do all the commandments of God. We needed one who could fulfill the "if" so that we could inherit the "then." And His name is Jesus Christ.
Jesus is the one who was blessed in the city and in the field. He is the blessed offspring of the body of Mary. He is the one who came in and went out in perfect obedience. He met the enemy head-on and defeated him decisively. He has been set high above all nations, and given the name that is above every name (Philippians 2:9-11).
And here is the glorious exchange of the gospel. Christ took upon Himself the curses we deserved so that we might receive the blessings He earned. "Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us" (Galatians 3:13). He was cast out of the city. His body was broken. He was defeated by His enemies and forsaken by His God. He went under the full weight of Deuteronomy 28 so that we, united to Him by faith, could be raised up to sit with Him in the heavenly places.
But this does not mean these earthly blessings are now irrelevant. Not in the slightest. Because we are now "in Christ," we are empowered by His Spirit to walk in a new obedience. And that obedience, though imperfect, is still the path of blessing. The cause-and-effect structure of the world has not been repealed. Grace does not abolish the law; it establishes it. The gospel saves us from the curse, and then it frees us and empowers us to walk in the path of blessing. As the church, the new Israel of God, grows in faithfulness, we should expect to see these very blessings manifest themselves again, not just in our individual lives, but in our families, our communities, and our nations. Christ has made us the head and not the tail. He is making His blessings flow far as the curse is found. Our task is to believe it, and to walk in it.