Deuteronomy 28:62, commentary and pictures

Moses warned that Israel, though made as many as the stars of heaven, would be left few in number because they would not obey the voice of the Lord their God, a covenant curse for disobedience. This warning stands among the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience in Deuteronomy 26-28, which Moses read to all Israel from the book he had written. The Lord's promises rest upon condition of obedience in doing His judgments and keeping His ordinances, statutes and commandments, so that disobedience loses blessing and brings judgment. Those commands are the voice of Christ from the pillar of cloud, making the principles of God's law specific and laying a continuing obligation as binding and fresh as His gifts are continual. Breaking that law removes the barriers God set to preserve His people in health and holiness, bringing disease and suffering, scattering among the nations, and adversity even where outward privileges remain.

Context and Plain Meaning

The verse is a covenant curse for disobedience, warning that Israel would be left few in number though they had been as many as the stars of heaven for multitude, because they would not obey the voice of the Lord their God. The contrast is between former great numbers and the few who would remain, showing that refusal to obey brings loss and that the reduction itself is the curse. Obedience brings blessing, prosperity and continued growth for present and future good, while disobedience brings harm.

It belongs to the blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience set out in Deuteronomy 26-28, which also plainly state the blessings of obedience. It was read to all Israel assembled before Moses from the book he had written, set before them together with God's promises if they would be obedient and with the record of their past history. In that setting it belongs to the warnings that disobedience and breaking the covenant would bring scattering among other nations and hardship and adversity.

If Israel would not observe to do all the words of the law written in the book to fear the glorious and fearful name of the Lord their God, the Lord would make their plagues wonderful and long-continued with sore sicknesses. He would bring on them all the diseases of Egypt and every other sickness and plague until they were destroyed, and would leave them few in number though they were as the stars of heaven for multitude because they would not obey the voice of the Lord their God. They would further be plucked from the land, scattered among all peoples where they would serve wood and stone, and given a trembling heart with failing eyes and sorrow of mind with no ease or assurance of life. They would be brought into Egypt again with ships to be sold for bondmen and bondwomen with no man to buy them.

Conditional Blessing and Curse

The promises of God rest upon condition of obedience, of doing His judgments and keeping His ordinances and statutes and commandments to walk therein, and disobedience alters His expressed purpose toward His people so that blessing is lost and judgment follows, as seen when the adult army that came out of Egypt was refused entrance into the promised land. The commands in Deuteronomy 26-28 are the voice of Christ from the enfolding pillar of cloud, setting forth the principles of the law of the kingdom of God made specific so that minds are not left in ignorance and uncertainty. They lay a never-ceasing obligation upon all who are blessed with life and health and temporal and spiritual advantages, and the message has not grown weak with age but remains as binding now and as fresh in importance as His gifts are fresh and continual.

Obedience to the commandments of God is for present and future good, bringing blessing, prosperity, and continued growth, while disobedience brings a curse and harm. Israel, though once as numerous as the stars of heaven for multitude, would be left few in number because they would not obey the voice of the Lord their God, and that reduction is the curse set against disobedience in contrast to the blessings promised to obedience. The chapter plainly lays out both sides, that keeping the law secures prosperity and breaking it brings loss.

Disobedience to the law of God brings harmful consequences because of sin and transgression, including disease and suffering, and the warning that Israel would be reduced from its former multitude to few in number belongs to that lesson. In His providence God had erected His commandments and statutes as barriers to preserve His people from disease, that they might live in health and holiness and learn obedience in their journeyings under the special direction of Christ. When Israel broke down those barriers they brought disease upon themselves, as illustrated by the waters of Marah representing the diseases brought by sin and God's power to heal. So also the law given at Sinai was kept in the ark, yet possessing the ark could not secure prosperity while the people transgressed that law, showing that adversity follows the breaking of the covenant by a people once as numerous as the stars and then reduced to few.