Introduction — The logic of Deuteronomy 7 so far

Deuteronomy 7 is not a random collection of commands. There is a logical tightness in the whole chapter. I’ll just hint at some of the connections.

In verses 1–5, God commanded Israel to utterly reject the idolatrous system of the Canaanites. They were to make no covenant with them, enter no compromising marriages with them, and adopt none of their idolatrous assumptions. Why? Verse 6 gives the reason: “For you are a holy people to the LORD your God.” They were called to be separated from the world, and separated unto the God who loved the unworthy, and made them worthy in Christ; who chose Israel before they chose Him; and whose plan would turn them into a special treasure. In other words, the command to maintain antithesis in verses 1–5 flows out of the electing love of God in verses 6–11.

Now, verses 12–16 show another implication: the God who loved them freely also delights to bless them richly.

This means that the antithesis of verses 1–5 is not the harshness of an austere God. The election of verses 6–11 is not a cold doctrine. And the obedience of verses 12–16 is not the slavery of a people trying to earn God’s favor. No, the whole passage reveals the heart of a covenant-keeping God who loves His people, redeems His people, teaches His people, protects His people, and then keeps showering them with rich blessings.

Covenant blessings flow from covenant relationship (v. 12)

So let's dig into verse 12. Verse 12 says,

“Then it shall come to pass, because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them, that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers.”

The first thing to see is that covenant blessing is not detached from covenant relationship. God is not giving Israel a mechanical prosperity formula that says, “Perform these external actions, and I will pay you wages.” He is speaking to a people already redeemed, already chosen, already loved, and already separated unto Himself.

These are not instructions for how to become God’s people. These are instructions for how God’s redeemed people are to walk before Him in the land of promise.

That distinction matters enormously. If we forget verses 6–8, verse 12 will sound like legalism, as though Israel earns God’s blessings by obedience. But if we forget verse 12, verses 6–8 can be twisted into antinomianism, as though God’s free love makes obedience irrelevant. Moses will allow neither error. God’s love is free, but it never produces barren fruitlessness. Another way of saying it is that obedience is not the root of electing love. It is the fruit of electing love.

The blessings flow through covenant loyalty (“listen… keep… do”).

But notice how he describes this covenant obedience. Moses says, “because you listen to these judgments, and keep and do them.”

This is not vague spirituality. Israel is not being called to have warm religious feelings while ignoring the revealed will of God. God's revealed law gave Israel the pathway on which they could expect continued covenant blessings. Covenant loyalty meant responding to what God had actually revealed.

There is an enormous difference between sentimental religion and covenant faithfulness. Sentimental religion says, “I love God in my own way.” Covenant faithfulness says, “Speak, LORD, for Your servant hears.” Sentimental religion says, “God knows my heart,” and then uses that as an excuse to disregard His commandments. Covenant faithfulness says, “Yes, God knows my heart, and that's why I need His grace; God knows my heart, therefore I want my heart, my ears, my hands, my house, my worship, my work, and my future to be completely ordered by His Word.”

Notice the three verbs: listen, keep, and do.

“Listen” speaks about having attentive ears. It means more than sound waves entering the ear canal. In biblical language, to hear God is to receive His Word with submission. The first posture of obedience is listening. Before Israel can keep or do, Israel must hear. And this already confronts the pride of man. We like to speak. We like to invent. We like to negotiate. We like to control. We like to come up with new ideas that we think better fit our culture. But covenant faith begins with the humble posture of a servant who listens. “Whatever You want, Lord, that’s what I want.”

“Keep” speaks of guarded hearts. To keep God’s judgments is to treasure them, preserve them, and guard them from being forgotten, distorted, or compromised. It is the language of careful stewardship. It's why we memorize God's Word. God’s Word is not to be treated as disposable advice. It is a treasure. It is light. It is life. It must be guarded in the heart. But in the context of chapters 6-7, we keep it not only for ourselves, but also for our descendants.

And “do” speaks of active hands and feet. The Word must not stop in the ear or even in the memory. It must come out in action. It must shape worship, family, economics, agriculture, courts, warfare, mercy, boundaries, and all of ordinary life. Biblical faith is not inward sentiment. True faith works through love. True hearing becomes doing.

So Moses gives us a full-bodied picture of obedience: attentive ears, guarded hearts, and active hands and feet.

This also means that biblical obedience is concrete. God does not say, “Be spiritual in general.” He says, “Listen to these judgments, keep them, and do them.” Love for God is not allowed to remain a nebulous, undefined mist that we don't understand, but it somehow binds our consciences. God did not leave us in the dark. True obedience must be defined and shaped by Scripture. It must be loyal to Scripture.

As Jesus would say in the book of John, “If you love Me, keep My commandments” (John 14:15). Not, “If you keep My commandments, you will make Me love you.” But, “If you love Me, keep My commandments.” Obedience is not the root of electing love. It is the fruit of electing love.

The blessings rest on God’s prior oath and mercy (v. 12c).

But now notice the second half of the verse:

“that the LORD your God will keep with you the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers.”

This is beautiful. Israel is called to keep God’s judgments, but underneath Israel’s keeping is God’s keeping. I love that! Israel must keep God’s commandments, but God commits Himself to keeping His covenant. Israel must be loyal to His Word, but God is loyal to His oath.

And that means the deepest ground of the blessings we find in this section is not primarily Israel’s performance, but God’s promise.

The verse does not say, “The LORD your God will create a new covenant of mercy because you have obeyed so well.” It says He will keep “the covenant and the mercy which He swore to your fathers.” The foundation was laid before this generation ever stood on the plains of Moab. God had sworn to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God had bound Himself by oath. God had committed His own name to the fulfillment of His covenant purposes.

This is why Israel’s obedience could never be meritorious in the ultimate sense. Their obedience did not place God in their debt. God was not paying wages to a deserving nation. He was keeping covenant mercy.

The word translated “mercy” indicates this. The dictionary defines chesed as unfailing love, loyal love, devotion, and kindness based on a prior relationship, especially a covenant relationship. God's faithful love precedes their ability to obey. And it continues. It is love that does not evaporate when His people are weak. It is mercy that remembers the oath. It is faithfulness with tenderness in it.

Let me use an illustration that I think gets that balance across. Think of a father who has promised to provide for his household. When his children obey him, they enjoy the ordered blessings of that household. But their obedience did not create his fatherhood. Their obedience did not purchase his love. Their obedience did not force him to keep his promises. They obey within a relationship already established by love - an electing love beautifully described in verses 6-9. So Israel obeys within the context of the covenant mercy of God. Their keeping rests upon His keeping.

This once again guards us from two opposite errors.

The first error is antinomianism, which wants blessing without obedience. But there is no antinomianism in this chapter. The God who loves His people also commands His people. The God who redeems also rules. The God who blesses also sanctifies.

The second error it confronts is legalism, which imagines that obedience somehowearns God’s electing love. It turns the covenant into a wage contract. It forgets verses 7–9. It forgets that God redeemed Israel before Israel obeyed. It forgets that the covenant rests on God’s oath and mercy.

Biblical obedience rejects both errors.

I have spent more time on that verse because it is the foundation of all the blessings that follow.

Covenant blessings reveal God’s generous heart (vv. 13-15)

And now we will look at the incredible blessings that He promises. Verses 13–15 unfold the richness of God’s generosity:

“And He will love you and bless you and multiply you; He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil, the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock, in the land of which He swore to your fathers to give you. You shall be blessed above all peoples; there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock. And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.”

Here we see the generous heart of God.

Some people imagine God as reluctant to bless, as though blessing must be pried from His clenched fist. But this passage gives us the opposite picture. God delights to bless His people. And in this passage we see that He blesses children, fields, labor, and herds. He blesses health. He blesses households. His blessings are not thin or ghostly. They are very tangible. They are earthy, familial, agricultural, economic, bodily, and covenantal.

And here is the point to those who lack faith in God's generosity. God is not embarrassed by fruitfulness. He is not embarrassed by full tables, healthy children, productive work, growing households, useful tools, abundant harvests, or lawful prosperity. These are gifts from His hand. When received in faith, they become occasions for worship. This is so foreign to people who spiritualize everything.

This does not mean that every Israelite would be equally rich or that every faithful believer today is guaranteed freedom from all suffering. God is not a socialist who guarantees equality of blessings. Scripture as a whole does not allow that conclusion. Job was righteous and yet there was a period of time in which He suffered. Joseph was faithful and and yet there was a period of time in which he was imprisoned. Jeremiah was obedient and persecuted. Paul was godly and afflicted. Our Lord Jesus was perfectly righteous and yet was a Man of Sorrows. So don't take this passage as guaranteeing that there would be no pain or suffering. In fact, without the pain of childbirth, you won't have the blessings of children. Without the pain and sweat involved in ridding your field of thorns and weeds, you won't be blessed with an abundant crop. So these promises are not a guarantee that you will be free of all suffering prior to your resurrection.

But at the same time, it is imperative that we recognize from Deuteronomy 7 that God’s covenant is not hostile to earthly tangible blessing.

The danger is not blessing. The danger is turning blessings into idols. The danger is receiving the gifts while forgetting the Giver. But when the gifts are received in covenant loyalty, they become occasions of worship. God delights to delight His people. He tests us - yes. He disciplines us - yes. He sometimes brings us through painful trials - yes. But His fatherly heart is generous.

The blessing of continued love (v. 13a)

Verse 13 begins, “And He will love you…” This is the blessing of continued love.

This reminds us again of verses 7–8. Moses has already said that God set His love upon Israel. He loved them freely, not because they were more numerous than all peoples, but because it was of His very nature to freely love the underserving and because He would keep the oath He swore to their fathers. Now Moses says, “He will love you.”

The God who loved them freely before this time will continue to love them covenantally in the future.

That is a precious promise. Many Christians believe that God loved them at conversion, but they struggle to believe that He continues to love them now. They know that He loved them when He saved them, but they imagine that now He deals with them mostly in suspicion, disappointment, irritation, or coldness. And sometimes that false view of God flows from the fact that our own love is sometimes defined by these things. But that's not the way God loves.

God’s prior love does not run out. His electing love becomes His continuing covenant love. He does not redeem His people and then grow cold toward them. He does not bring them out of Egypt and then treat them as unwanted servants. He brings them near, sets His name upon them, commands them for their good, and continues to love them.

This is a needed word for tender consciences that know their own failures, and then they see others who seem to be more blessed, more useful, more fruitful, more joyful. And they begin to wonder, “Does God still look upon me with favor?”

But the God who loved you in Christ continues to love you in Christ. The Gospel of John says of Jesus, “Having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them to the end” (John 13:1). That is the heart of our Savior. He does not merely begin in love. He continues in love. He finishes in love.

The blessing of the womb (v. 13b)

The next blessing in verse 13 is, “He will bless the fruit of your womb.” Children are treated as a covenant blessing, not an economic burden.

That statement alone confronts much of the spirit of our age. Our culture often speaks of children as interruptions to our goals, liabilities, expenses, obstacles to personal fulfillment, or threats to lifestyle freedom. But Scripture speaks differently. It says, “Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb is a reward” (Ps. 127:3). In fact, it says, "blessed is the man who has his quiver full of them."

God says that one of His covenant blessings is the fruitfulness of the womb. This does not mean that every barren couple was - or is - personally under God’s displeasure. Scripture does not allow us to make that cruel inference. Some of the godliest women in the Bible experienced barrenness for a season. You can think of Sarah, Rebekah, Rachel, Hannah, Elizabeth. For some of them it was to test their faith. But for all of them, God used that very trial to display His power, mercy, and covenant faithfulness.

But the general covenantal principle still remains: God regards children as a blessing. Fruitfulness is a blessing. Generations are a blessing. The laughter of children, the noise of households, the multiplication of covenant families, the passing of faith from parents to children — these are not inconveniences to the kingdom. They are part of the kingdom’s ordinary glory.

This would have been especially meaningful to Israel. They had begun as one man, Abraham, whose wife was barren. God had promised offspring as numerous as the stars. He had multiplied them in Egypt. Pharaoh had tried to crush that fruitfulness by killing their sons. But God preserved them. And now, on the edge of the land, He says, “I will bless the fruit of your womb.”

God was in effect saying, “Pharaoh could not stop My promise. Egypt could not stop My mercy. The wilderness could not consume My people. And if you walk with Me in covenant loyalty, I will continue to multiply you in the land.”

So we must learn to think covenantally about children. Do we receive children as a blessing? Do we speak about them as a blessing? Do we treat them as a blessing? Do we train our young people to think of marriage, fruitfulness, households, and future generations as glorious gifts from God? Or have we absorbed the assumptions of an age that values convenience more than covenant continuity?

One of the great needs of our day is for Christians to recover joy in the fruitfulness of the womb — not as a sentimental slogan, but as an act of faith in the God who blesses generations.

The blessing on the land (v. 13c)

Then Moses says God will bless “the fruit of your land, your grain and your new wine and your oil.”

This means that creation itself becomes servant to God’s covenant purposes.

The land is not an inert machine. It belongs to God. Rain belongs to God. Soil belongs to God. Seed belongs to God. Sunshine belongs to God. Harvest belongs to God. It is true that grain, wine, and oil come through human labor, but they do not come from human labor alone. God must give the increase for those things to not spoil.

This is why biblical economics must always begin with worship. Man plants, but God gives growth. Man plows, but God sustains the soil. Man harvests, but God filled the earth with fertility before man ever lifted a tool.

Israel was going into a land flowing with milk and honey. That land had already been prepared by God’s providence. Even the blessings enjoyed by the Canaanites would now be handed over to Israel. This reminds us that God often uses the labors, skills, wealth, and even accumulated goods of unbelievers to bless His covenant people. We should not feel guilty when God gives lawful inheritance through unbelievers. The earth is the LORD’s, and the fullness thereof.

But Moses did not allow them to think of Canaan as a self-sustaining paradise. The land would only be a blessing if God blessed it. And God would bless it as part of His covenant mercy.

But let's think a bit more about the grain, new wine, and oil. They were not luxuries detached from spiritual life. They were covenant gifts. Bread on the table mattered to God. The vineyard mattered to God. The olive press mattered to God. The field, the pantry, the harvest — all of it came from His hand.

That means ordinary gifts should become ordinary doxology. A loaf of bread should remind us of God. A family meal should remind us of God. A paycheck should remind us of God. A garden, a business, a skill, a tool, a harvest — all of it should be received before the face of our covenant Lord.

One of the marks of sanctification is learning to enjoy God’s good gifts without forgetting God. The unbeliever devours the gift and ignores the Giver. The legalist suspects the gift because he fears pleasure. But the mature believer receives the gift, gives thanks, enjoys it lawfully, and turns it into worship.

Ecclesiastes 9:7 says, “Go, eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.” That is not worldliness. That is worship. To sit at a table with gratitude, to savor God’s good gifts with thanksgiving, to receive the fruit of the earth as mercy from your Father — that is part of covenant life.

So ask yourself: do you receive ordinary blessings with gratitude, or with entitlement? Do you pause to thank God for food, work, income, home, skill, friendship, and daily provision? Or have the gifts become so familiar that you no longer see the Giver?

God’s people should be the most grateful people on earth. We should not merely consume blessings. We should consecrate them with thanksgiving.

The blessing of economic prosperity (v. 13c-d)

Moses continues: “the increase of your cattle and the offspring of your flock.”

Their ordinary work, food, herds, vineyards, fields, and households are all brought under God’s smile.

This is economic prosperity in agrarian form, but it applies to all lawful forms of economic prosperity. For them, it meant more calves, more lambs, stronger herds, and productive flocks. For you it might mean a bigger home, growing investments, and an automobile that isn't quite as old as the last one.

Again, God is not embarrassed by this. He does not say, “I will bless your souls, but I have no concern for your fields.” He does not say, “I will bless your worship, but your work is neutral to Me.” No, the same God who commands worship also blesses labor and commands us that whether we eat, or drink, or whatever we do, to do all to the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31). We need to get used to developing that constant awareness of God's presence and smile of approval in all that we do. The same God who gives statutes also gives increase. The same God who redeems from Egypt also fills barns in Canaan.

This is important because Christians can sometimes fall into a false spirituality that treats material provision as somehow beneath God’s concern. But Scripture does not. God made the world. God made bodies. God made sex. God made your tongues and the olfactory sensory neurons in your nose that can discern all of the amazingly complex flavors and smells as you raise a jigger of Bourbon to your nose. Yes, if you train yourself, you can find enormous pleasure just from smelling God's good gifts.

Now it is true that sin can corrupt the way we handle material things, but matter itself is not evil. Yes, matter itself came under the curse in Genesis 3, but that curse on matter is also gradually reversed by the cross and by our labors. Adam had to start removing thorns and thistles to get productive fields. But material things do matter to God. Christ came not to throw creation away, but to redeem it. The resurrection of Jesus is God’s declaration that bodies matter, creation matters, and the physical world will one day be liberated from the curse.

This is one of many issues that I have with Full Preterism - it of necessity removes the physical world from the impact of the cross. - which means that it has a different gospel. Why do I say that? Because they say that God discards our bodies; He does not raise them. According to them, God will not redeem the physical planet. Even Christ's body was disposed of according to them after showing it to the disciples rather than being transformed. They of necessity have to make a Gnostic separation between the spiritual and the material world. But this is one of hundreds of passages that indicate that even the physical world must be brought by God's people into the covenant, and we are dependent upon God for material blessings, and grace itself impacts the material world. That is so important to understand.

So material blessing is not inherently unspiritual. Prosperity can certainly be idolized. Wealth can be pursued without righteousness. Good gifts can be loved more than God. But prosperity itself is not sin. (Have I said that enough times?) Lawful increase under God’s blessing is something to receive with humility and gratitude.

This also means that our work matters to God. The farmer’s field mattered. The shepherd’s flocks mattered. The mother’s household management mattered. The father’s provision mattered. The craftsman’s skill mattered. God’s blessing came into the ordinary callings of His people.

For Christians, this should dignify daily labor. Jesus spent most of his life prior to His ministry engaging in the difficult (but beautiful) trade of carpentry. And by doing that, He sanctified the trades. Not everyone is called to preach. Not everyone is called to public office. Not everyone is called to write books. But every lawful calling can be done before God as a spiritual act of service.

The bottom line is that your work matters to God. Your tools matter. It's not spiritual to use ancient tools when new ones could make your work more productive. Your invoices matter. Your planning matters. Your household management matters. Your farming, teaching, building, repairing, accounting, cooking, cleaning, studying, buying, selling, and serving matter. When done in faith and obedience, ordinary work becomes a theater of God’s mercy and grace.

Blessings that exceed common blessings on all nations (v. 14a).

Verse 14 says, “You shall be blessed above all peoples.”

That phrase affirms first of all that God puts His blessings on all nations - which is kind of an amazing thought. But that's what commentators say is the implication of this phrase. If Israel is blessed more than all nations, that means that other nations are blessed to some degree. Some people speak of this as common grace, but I think it is more accurate to speak of common blessings. Grace applies technically only to the elect who are seen in Christ. But blessings are strewn by God even outside of the covenant. There are blessings that all humans have just by living on planet earth - and they are blessed in part to maintain blessings for the elect who will come after. But whatever you think of the debate about common grace, if Israel is blessed above all peoples, it implies all peoples receive some blessings that they didn’t deserve. The nations receive rain, harvests, children, skills, food, wealth, beauty, music, language, craftsmanship, and countless daily mercies. They often turn those gifts into idols, but the gifts are still gifts.

But what about Israel receiving more blessings than other nations? This is not racial superiority. It is covenant privilege flowing from grace. And for God's covenant people, it most definitely is grace that produces their blessings. Moses has already made that clear in the earlier verses.

So when He says, “You shall be blessed above all peoples,” He is not flattering their flesh. He is magnifying His grace.

This distinction is vital. Covenant privilege should never produce arrogance in us - where we look down on people who have been less blessed than we are. It should produce humility. If the blessing is earned, then man may boast. But if the blessing is grace, then boasting is excluded.

Israel could look at the nations and say, “Who are we that the LORD has brought us near? Who are we that He gave us His law? Who are we that He redeemed us from Egypt? Who are we that He has promised such blessing?”

In the same way, the church must never confuse grace with superiority. We are not God’s people because we were wiser, stronger, more righteous, or more deserving than others. We are God’s people because of God's electing mercy in Christ. Paul asked the complaining Corinthians, “What do you have that you did not receive?” (1 Cor. 4:7). That's a good question: “What do you have that you did not receive?” That question excludes all boasting and complaining.

But we must also not be embarrassed by God’s blessings. The answer to envy is not guilt over the fact that we are blessed more than others. The answer is humility, gratitude, generosity, obedience, and mission.

But even the poorest of us have enormous blessings. To have God’s Word is blessing. To have the gospel is blessing. To have covenant children is blessing. To have worship ordered by Scripture is blessing. To have the Lord’s Day is blessing. To have Christian fellowship is blessing. To have God’s promises is blessing. None of us should feel sorry for ourselves. To have Christ Himself is blessing beyond all comparison.

So the right response is not guilt. The right response is not pride. The right response is not embarrassment. The right response is gratitude, worship, obedience, and living our blessed life with a mission.

God blessed Abraham so that in his seed all the families of the earth would be blessed. Israel’s privilege was meant to become light to the nations. And now, in the New Covenant, the blessing of Abraham comes to the Gentiles who would be drawn to Jesus. The goal was never a tiny ethnic cul-de-sac of mercy. The goal was worldwide blessing through the promised Seed.

The blessing of protection from covenant curses (vv. 14b-15)

The second half of verse 14 says, “there shall not be a male or female barren among you or among your livestock.” Then verse 15 adds, “And the LORD will take away from you all sickness, and will afflict you with none of the terrible diseases of Egypt which you have known, but will lay them on all those who hate you.”

Here the blessing moves from positive things to protection from covenant curses.

Barrenness, disease, and the plagues of Egypt are often (though not always) covenant curse themes. In Egypt, Israel had seen the terror of divine judgment. They had seen water turned to blood, livestock struck, boils, hail, locusts, darkness, and death. They knew what it looked like when God’s wrath fell upon a nation.

Now God says, in effect, “Those judgments will not be your portion if you walk with Me. I will not treat My covenant people as I treated Egypt. I will take sickness away. I will guard your households. I will protect your bodies. I will preserve your fruitfulness.”

We must read this covenantally and canonically. This is not a simplistic promise that no individual believer will ever be sick. Faithful saints suffered bodily affliction even within Scripture. But under the Mosaic covenant, God really did attach national health, fertility, and protection to covenant fidelity in the land. The nation’s public obedience mattered. Their worship mattered. Their justice mattered. Their antithesis mattered. Their rejection of idols mattered. And when the nation as a nation walked with God, God’s blessing touched the entire national life.

That principle should make us think much more deeply about public righteousness. It’s important . Modern man wants to treat sickness, economics, agriculture, family life, and public order as if they are merely technical matters. But Deuteronomy says that covenant faithfulness matters for the health of a nation. National life is not religiously neutral. No society can reject God without consequences. No people can make peace with idols and expect permanent blessings. And Scripture prophesied that all nations will eventually achieve these national blessings.

We should be careful not to make simplistic one-to-one judgments about every disease or every sufferer. Scripture forbids that kind of cruelty. But we should also reject the modern myth that public health is merely technical and never moral or covenantal. Deuteronomy teaches that worship, obedience, justice, sexual morality, family order, and national faithfulness matter. A society cannot rebel against God in its laws and lifestyle without consequences. It is no surprise to me that our nation has had major health issues hugely increase in the last fifty years - huge increases in Lyme's disease, Measles, Alzheimer's, diabetes, colorectal cancer, syphillis, and other diseases. You are all familiar with the devastating effects of Covid and the Covid vaccine. The CDC reports that Autism has hit an all time high of 1-in-31 eight-year-olds having Autism. Can I prove a connection to our national sins? No. But Scripture is clear that national blessings and cursings are connected to the degree to which a nation adheres to God's laws or departs from God's law.

There are also some Christians who so overreact to abuses of healing theology within Pentecostalism that they almost speak as if healing has nothing to do with redemption. But if healing were not included in Christ’s redemptive work, there could be no resurrection. Of course there is healing in the atonment! We cannot demand healing as though grace were a debt. But we certainly may pray for healing with confidence, because the LORD is our Healer, and every healing in this age is a preview of the resurrection to come.

But we should also see God's tenderness in these verses. God is promising protection from misery. He is saying, “The diseases you saw in Egypt will not consume you. The terrors that fell on your oppressors will not define your covenant life with Me.”

This reveals His fatherly heart. He knows what they have seen. He knows the memories they carry. He knows Egypt was not an abstraction to them. Egypt was trauma. Egypt was slavery. Egypt was dead sons. Egypt was whips, mud, fear, oppression, disease, judgment, and graves.

And God says, “I redeemed you from that. I will not bring you into the land in order to make Egypt your portion again. Walk with Me, and My covenant mercy will surround you.”

This is an astonishing picture of God’s kindness. He not only saves His people from bondage; He delights to heal the wounds of bondage. He not only defeats Egypt; He promises that Egypt’s diseases will not define His people.

Of course, for Christians, every earthly healing and protection is still temporary in this age. We still get sick. We still die. But in Christ, the final curse has already been borne. Every disease, every sorrow, every tear, every grave is living on borrowed time. Hallelujah! The resurrection of Jesus is the firstfruits of a creation that will one day be completely free from the curse.

So Deuteronomy 7 gives Israel a land-level picture of blessing, but Christ gives us the final and indestructible form of it. In the last book of the Bible He says, “There shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying. There shall be no more pain” (Rev. 21:4). Because of His redemption, we can look forward to a New Heavens and a New Earth that will be filled with blessings and completely absent of cursings.

Covenant blessings call for continued antithesis (v. 16)

But none of that is true for unbelievers. Verse 16 says, “Also you shall destroy all the peoples whom the LORD your God delivers over to you; your eye shall have no pity on them; nor shall you serve their gods, for that will be a snare to you.”

At first glance, verse 16 may seem out of place. It may seem like a sudden return to the severity of verses 1–5. We have just heard about love, blessing, children, harvest, flocks, health, and covenant mercy. Then suddenly Moses says, “You shall destroy all the peoples whom the LORD your God delivers over to you.”

But this is not a contradiction. It is the necessary antithesis that protects and preserves the blessing.

The blessings of verses 13–15 do not remove the danger of idolatry. In fact, blessing itself can become an idol when we value it more than we value God. That's why Jesus said in Mark 10, "how hard it is for those who trust in riches to enter the kingdom of God!" Such people have turned their riches into an idol. That means that the blessing of riches can become a snare if our hearts are not continually attuned to God and grateful to God. Blessings must not be allowed to make our hearts dull to God's warnings. Prosperity can dull spiritual vigilance. Full barns can make people forget God. Healthy bodies can make people proud. Growing wealth can make compromise seem less dangerous. Any blessing will become a snare and a curse if it turns our hearts away from the cross of Jesus.

So Moses returns to the central issue: do not spare the idolatrous system that God has commanded you to judge, and do not serve their gods. The last phrase explains the danger: “for that will be a snare to you.”

A snare does not usually announce itself as a snare. A snare is hidden. It looks harmless. It may even look attractive. It is designed to catch you before you realize you are caught.

That is what idolatry does.

Israel might have thought, “Surely we can leave a few altars standing. They might be useful for something. Surely we can tolerate a few Canaanite customs. Some of them seem cool. Surely intermarriage with a gorgeous Canaanite will not be that dangerous. Surely we can borrow from the nations without becoming like them.”

God says, “No. It will be a snare.”

This is why the antithesis of verse 16 belongs with the blessings of verses 13–15. God is not being harsh by warning them. He is being loving. He knows what will destroy them. He knows that idols promise fertility but actually bring barrenness. They promise prosperity but bring judgment. They promise protection but bring enslavement. They promise life but bring death.

So the God who blesses the womb commands His people to destroy the idols in the land that have had a history of destroying children. In America, that applies not only to abortion, but also to contraceptive selfishness, anti-family ideologies, and every cultural voice that treats children as burdens rather than blessings. He wants us to declare a spiritual herem warfare against those anti-children ideologies.

The God who blesses the land commands His people to reject the idolatries that corrupt our relationship to creation — whether by worshiping nature, exploiting it without gratitude, or handing it over to messianic state control. And E. Calvin Beisner's organization, the Cornwall Alliance, has great resources on opposing the Green Movement and other statist ideologies that turn the earth from a blessing into an idol.

The God who blesses labor and flocks commands His people to reject economic idolatries, such as Marxism, Socialism, and other political ideologies that flow from greed, envy, statist control, covetousness, and the fantasy that prosperity can be secured apart from obedience to God.

The God who removes diseases commands His people not to return to the sexual practices of Egypt, the gluttony of the Canaanites, or their idolatrous medical practices. You shouldn't put your trust in medicine. Every pill you take should be taken with wisdom and with a prayer that God will prosper it in healing.

So Deuteronomy 7:12–16 is not merely a prosperity text. It is a covenant text. It says that obedience matters, but obedience rests on mercy. It says that blessing is real, but blessing must not become idolatry. It says that God delights to give good gifts, but those gifts must be guarded by antithesis. It says that the God who chose Israel freely, also intended to bless Israel abundantly, and the proper response was not pride, legalism, compromise, or even guilt, but grateful, vigilant, covenant loyalty.

So brothers and sisters, rejoice in the blessings God has given you. Count them. Name them. Taste them. But do not let the gifts replace the Giver. Do not let blessing make you soft. Do not let prosperity make you careless. Do not preserve the snares Christ died to destroy. Instead, receive His gifts with grateful, vigilant, covenant joy.

Amen.