Deuteronomy 28:12, commentary and pictures

The Lord promises His obedient people open heaven to send rain in its proper season, to bless all the work of their hands, and to give such prosperity that they lend to many nations and do not borrow. All these blessings are conditional on diligently obeying His commandments, statutes and judgments and walking in His ways, with obedience bringing life and prosperity and disobedience bringing a curse. The promise was given to Israel in the land God gave them as His holy people bearing His name, to make them healthy, strong and prosperous, set above the nations and displaying His glory. What was promised to Israel shows that obedience still brings blessing to individuals and nations in every age in both temporal and spiritual prosperity, and those promises belong to God's people today in connection with keeping His commandments. Israel's prosperity was proportionate to obedience and generosity toward God, so that honoring Him with possessions and firstfruits, gifts, offerings and tithe brings abundance, while withholding them brings loss.

Promise to Obedient Israel

The open heaven would give rain to the land in its proper season, bless all the work of the hand, and give such prosperity that the people would lend to many nations and would not borrow. The rain in its season, the blessing on labor, and the ability to lend rather than borrow were expressions of care for creatures from the abundance of created resources. These blessings were promised to Israel in the land given to them.

They belonged to them as a holy people bearing the divine name, to make them healthy, strong, and prosperous, set above and exalted among the nations and displaying divine glory. Moses read them aloud to all the people assembled before him from the book he had written, set before them together with the curses that would come for disobedience. Blessing and curse were thus placed side by side as the two possible futures.

All these blessings were conditional on diligently obeying the commandments, statutes, judgments, and ordinances, on keeping them and walking in them and in the divine ways. Obedience would bring life, blessing, and prosperity, while disobedience would bring a curse. Health itself was included among the rewards of keeping the commandments.

The promise was a covenant agreement verified only when the people fulfilled their part by obeying the divine law. The sacredness of the ark of the covenant came from the law of God within it, and its presence brought prosperity only as that law was obeyed. To expect blessing while violating the conditions on which alone it could be bestowed was presumption.

The conditions required submission to divine authority as a nation governed by judgments and as individuals walking in ordinances. They required keeping the holy requirements, being free from the sins of the Canaanite nations, and maintaining a high standard of purity and holiness in all words and acts showing love, fear, and obedience. If those conditions had been met, faithfulness would have been answered with faithfulness, and angels would have wrought with the armies to drive out the inhabitants of Canaan because of their wickedness.

The rain and fruitful labor came from the living God who created heaven and earth and gave His law upon Sinai. He sends prosperity and adversity according to obedience or transgression of His law contained in the ark. Those ignorant of this mistook the ark itself for the god of Israel.

Continued disobedience caused the prospering hand to be removed, the stated purpose to be altered, and fulfillment to be withheld, with blessing withdrawn from orchard and vineyard. Earth and its inhabitants were left suffering under the resulting curse. Thus ancient Israel failed to receive what it might have received and failed to fulfill the divine purpose. The adult men who came up out of Egypt were refused entrance into the promised land, entrance was delayed, power could not be so manifested to protect them and drive out the wicked inhabitants, and God was dishonored before the surrounding nations.

Principles for God's People

Deuteronomy 28:12 states one of the plainly declared blessings of obedience, making specific a principle of the law of God's kingdom so that minds are not left in ignorance and uncertainty about what keeping His statutes and judgments brings. The chapter sets out such blessings plainly as practical directions for present and future good, where obedience to God's commandments brings prosperity and disobedience brings a curse. What those blessings promised to Israel show is that obedience can bring blessing to individuals and nations in every age. That application covers both temporal and spiritual prosperity, with rain in its season and blessing on work conditional on obedience to God's law, while human wickedness forfeits blessing from orchard and vineyard even as mercy stays judgment for the sake of the righteous who love and fear Him.

The promises of rain in its proper season, blessed work of the hand, and lending to many nations rather than borrowing belong to those who keep God's commandments and walk in His ways as His holy people bearing His name, and they belong to God's people today in connection with that keeping, especially in Sabbath observance. The promised blessing includes health and well-being through God's care, for Deuteronomy 28:1-13 presents His blessings as the reward for keeping His commandments and applies that blessing to the care and well-being of His people. Faithfulness to God's plan of living produces corresponding results in what Israel might have received, including rain in season, blessing on work, and freedom from borrowing. That wider promise that obedient Israel would be exalted among the nations and display His glory joined material abundance in lending rather than borrowing with wisdom, vigor, and protection from disease. Read carefully with Exodus 15, Deuteronomy 7, 8, and 28 teach God's covenant of mercy that if they would diligently listen to His voice and do what is right and keep His commandments and statutes, He would put none of the Egyptian diseases upon them because He is the Lord who heals them.

Israel's prosperity was proportionate to obedience and generosity toward God. Honoring Him with possessions and the firstfruits of increase brings abundance, while withholding tithes and offerings brings loss, so that those who rob God rob themselves. This is the never-ceasing obligation of all whom God has blessed with life and health and advantages in temporal and spiritual things, including gifts and offerings and the tithe to sustain His messengers, and the message has not grown weak with age, for God's claims are just as binding now and just as fresh in importance as His gifts are fresh and continual. When God's people make Him supreme and honor the requirements of His law instead of depending on the ideas and views of men opposed to that law, He blesses them and gives success to the work of their hands. When people see that God-given blessing and success they are led to consider the truths taught and to recognize those methods as superior to those commonly employed in the schools of the world. The verse belongs to a law filled with positive promises for those who obey, and obedience to that law is necessary for membership in the royal family as children of the heavenly King.