Deuteronomy 28:33, commentary and pictures

An unknown foreign nation would eat up all the crops of the land and all the produce of labor, leaving the people only oppressed and crushed continually. It was one of the curses Moses read to Israel as warning of what disobedience would bring, set in contrast to the blessings promised for obedience. It was fulfilled in Israel's final overthrow in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, and will be seen again when violent strangers seize the stored food and the food growing in the fields of the saints in the time of trouble. Then the saints must trust wholly in God, who will sustain them so that their bread and water will be sure and they will not lack or go hungry, as He provided for Elijah and for the Israelites.

Curse for Disobedience

The verse means that for disobedience an unknown foreign nation will eat up the fruit of the land and all the produce of labor, leaving the people only oppressed and crushed continually. It belongs to the curses Moses read to Israel as a warning of what would come for disobedience, set in contrast to the blessings promised for obedience. It stands in Deuteronomy 26 through 28, which state plainly the blessings of obedience.

The promises to Israel were conditional on obedience — doing His judgments and keeping His ordinances and statutes and walking in them, in which doing them one shall live — and disobedience brought the threatened consequences, which explains why the adult army that left Egypt was refused entry into the promised land. The oppression and crushing by another nation is adversity sent by the living God who created heaven and earth and gave His law at Sinai and in the ark, who gives prosperity for obedience and adversity for transgression. The Philistines did not understand this and thought the ark itself was the Israelites' god.

The directions in this setting express the principles of the law of the kingdom of God, made specific so that minds are not left in ignorance and uncertainty. They set forth a never-ceasing obligation on all blessed with life, health, and temporal and spiritual advantages, including gifts, offerings, and the tithe for sustaining faithful messengers. Those claims are as binding and fresh now as His gifts are fresh and continual, the message not grown weak because of age, calling for consecration, self-denial, and self-sacrifice. The chapter is to be read carefully with Exodus 15 to teach the first principles of the way of the Lord. Diligent hearkening to God's voice and doing right and keeping His commandments and statutes keeps away the diseases brought on the Egyptians, and disease and suffering of every kind come because people transgress God's law and break down the barriers He erected to preserve them in health and holiness.

Fulfillment and Final Application

Disobedience would bring foreign oppression, with a nation unknown to Israel consuming its crops and the gains of its labor and leaving the people continually oppressed and crushed, and this was fulfilled in Israel's final overthrow in the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. The warning belongs to the promised curses for forsaking the commandments, set in contrast with the blessings promised for obedience, showing that disobedience brings a curse on the land and its produce through a foreign nation consuming the fruit of labor while the people suffer continual oppression. That curse resting on people, animals, trees, and vegetation grows heavier as humanity continues in disobedience.

In the time of trouble the same experience will come upon the saints, when food they have stored or that is growing in their fields will be seized by violent hands and strangers will reap their fields by force. In that time stored food may also spoil and become unusable. They must then trust wholly in God, who will sustain them so that their bread and water will be sure and they will not lack or go hungry. He can provide for them as He provided for Elijah and for the Israelites.