Deuteronomy 28:40
Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit. Thou shalt have olive trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint thyself with the oil; for thine olive shall cast his fruit.
Moses read the verse to all Israel assembled before him from the book he had written, setting it opposite God's promises to them if they would be obedient. It threatens that though there will be olive trees throughout all the coasts, disobedience will bring hardship and loss of needed fruit and oil. The olives will cast their fruit so that even abundant trees yield no usable oil because the fruit falls before it can be gathered, showing the curse strikes the land and its produce.
The verse belongs to the contrast between the blessings that follow obedience and the curses that follow disobedience. Prosperity and adversity come according to obedience or transgression of God's law. Merely possessing the law, which was held in the ark, gives no power or protection and cannot secure success while the law is disobeyed.
The chapter shows the Lord's promises rest upon condition of obedience, requiring doing His judgments, keeping His ordinances, and walking in His statutes and judgments. The altering of His purpose toward Israel proves this conditional character. Read together with the first chapter of Deuteronomy, it shows why the Lord refused to bring the adults of the army that left Egypt into the promised land.
The verse belongs to the directions in Deuteronomy 26, 27 and 28 that plainly state the blessings of obedience and the curse of disobedience. Those directions express the principles of the law of God's kingdom made specific so minds are not left in ignorance and uncertainty. They show obedience is for the people's present and future good. The directions were spoken by the voice of Christ from the enfolding pillar of cloud and present the never-ceasing obligation of all whom God has blessed with life and health and temporal and spiritual advantages. 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.
The verse belongs to God's covenant of mercy that if Israel would diligently hearken to His voice and do what is right in His sight and give ear to His commandments and keep all His statutes, He would put none of the diseases brought upon the Egyptians upon them, for He is the One who heals them. Diseases of every kind come because people transgress God's law and break down the barriers He erected to preserve them from disease so they might live in health and holiness and learn obedience. Christ, though invisible and enshrouded in the pillar of cloud and giving Himself as a sacrifice, leads and preserves under His sheltering wing all who do His will and by His power cures the evils of the human heart.