Deuteronomy 28:64, commentary and pictures

Moses warned Israel that if they forsook God and would not keep all the words of the law to fear His glorious name, the Lord would scatter them among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other where they would serve gods of wood and stone unknown to them and their fathers, with blessing set before obedience and cursing before disobedience. There they would find no ease nor rest, but a trembling heart and failing eyes and sorrow of mind, with life hanging in doubt in fear day and night. This was fulfilled when Israel departed from God and went into captivity, Jerusalem ruined and burned, the temple destroyed, sacrifices and Levitical service ceasing, and the people carried as captives into strange lands. God scattered them because they built walls of division and failed to serve as His missionaries, yet their dispersion carried knowledge of the true God to the heathen as many in affliction repented and sought the Lord. If they would turn wholeheartedly to God and remain loyal, true, and submissive, He would bring them back to their own land and allow them to return to rebuild.

Warning Words and Context

Moses laid the terrible curses before Israel because he feared they would leave God, their only helper, to guard them from transgression. The scattering to all peoples from one end of the earth to the other, to serve gods of wood and stone unknown to them or their fathers, stands opposite the blessing promised for living in obedience to God. It stands opposite the call to choose life by loving the Lord, obeying His voice, and cleaving to Him who is life and length of days, so that they and their seed might live and dwell in the land sworn to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob.

The promises to Israel were conditional on obedience, with obedience bringing blessings and prosperity and disobedience bringing the curse. Forsaking God and transgressing His commandments brings the people under the threatened judgments of the chapter, including scattering among other peoples. Israel's fortunes of prosperity and adversity are determined by the living Creator, not by the ark, which held the law but was only a sacred symbol of His presence. The chapter is linked with Israel's disobedience and with the adults who were refused entry into the promised land.

If Israel would not observe to do all the words of the law written in the book so as to fear the glorious and fearful name of the Lord, the Lord would scatter them among all peoples from one end of the earth to the other. There they would serve other gods which neither they nor their fathers had known, even wood and stone. The warning exposed unfaithfulness and covenant-making with surrounding nations.

There among the nations they would find no ease and no rest for the sole of the foot. The Lord would give a trembling heart and failing of eyes and sorrow of mind. Life would hang in doubt, with fear day and night and no assurance of life, saying in the morning Would God it were evening and in the evening Would God it were morning for fear of heart and sight of eyes.

The verse belongs with Exodus 15:26, where the Lord as Healer and leader promised to put none of the diseases of Egypt upon them if they would diligently hearken to His voice and do right and keep His commandments and statutes. Disease of every kind comes because human beings transgress God's law and break down the barriers He erected to preserve them in health and holiness and teach them obedience. Christ, enshrouded in the pillar of cloud, led them and desired to keep under His sheltering preservation all who would do His will, and showed by healing Marah that His power can cure the evils of the human heart.

Judgment Fulfilled and Directed

The scattering stands fulfilled in Israel's captivity, for the recent captivity showed the fulfillment of the threatened judgments upon unfaithfulness and covenant-making with the surrounding nations, bringing dispersion among the nations and service to unfamiliar gods of wood and stone. That fulfillment came in Daniel's time, six hundred years before Christ, when the Jewish nation as God's peculiar people departed from God and did not fear and honor His holy name and did not honor and glorify Him. Then they went into captivity with the temple in which they gloried destroyed, with sacred rites and sacrifices and ceremonies ceasing, and with the sacred order of the Levitical priesthood no longer maintained. After repenting and turning wholeheartedly to God and renewing their covenant with Him, the people were allowed to return to Judea, and the warning made clear why they must not ally themselves with idolaters as they began rebuilding the temple.

Sin brought the dispersion among foreign nations, with the glory of Israel departing and Jerusalem lying in ruins and destroyed by fire. The people were overcome by enemies and carried as captives into heathen and strange lands. The same word points beyond to their later restoration to the ancestral land and afterward to their subjection to Rome. Transgression led to being scattered from the promised land, with strange gods introduced through evil spirits forming part of the people's unfaithfulness.

The vision of Israel scattered in every land follows their rejection of God as temporal retribution for sins. That scattering is the first draught of a judgment that will be completed at the final judgment. God scattered His people among other nations because they failed to serve as His missionaries and built barriers and walls of division between themselves and the surrounding people. Their scattering carried knowledge of God's truth to the world.

Unfaithfulness to the covenant brought oppression and oppressors and scattering as captives among other nations. In affliction and captivity many repented and sought the Lord. Their dispersion while scattered spread knowledge of the true God among the heathen, even as idolatrous customs opposed their faith. Daniel, Nehemiah, and Ezra faced rulers so the nations could receive the light, thus carrying out God's purpose though Israel had neglected its work at home.

Obedience Blessing and Return

Unfaithfulness and covenant-making with surrounding nations brings scattering among the nations and service to unfamiliar gods of wood and stone, and the recent captivity showed the fulfillment of those threatened judgments. After repenting, turning wholeheartedly to God, and renewing covenant with Him, the people were allowed to return to Judea. That warning made clear why they must not ally themselves with idolaters as they began rebuilding the temple. If they were loyal and true and submissive, God would bring them back again into their own land.

The covenant warnings link Israel's fortunes of prosperity and adversity to obedience or disobedience to God's law. It is the living Creator, not the ark, who determines those fortunes. The ark held the law but was only a sacred symbol of God's presence.