Blessing of Deutronomy 28.

Here is the essence of Deuteronomy 28—its profound blessings and sobering warnings—woven into a prayerful reflection.

---

The Two Paths: A Reflection on Deuteronomy 28

(The chapter presents a stark choice: the path of obedience under God's covenant leads to life and blessing; the path of disobedience leads to curse and ruin. This poem holds both in tension.)

The Blessing Pronounced

If you walk in the way,

if you listen and obey

the voice of the Lord your God,

then these blessings shall find you,

shall pursue and surround you,

a tide you cannot outrun.

In the City and in the Field, (v.3)

your labor shall yield

a harvest that bends the barn’s beam.

Blessed shall be the fruit of your body,(v.4)

the womb and the seed,

and the flock’s increase,a living stream.

Your basket and kneading bowl (v.5)

shall be full to the soul,

and you shall be set apart as His own.

Enemies rising as one(v.7)

shall scatter and run,

for the Lord shall establish His throne

in the midst of your camp,as a dread and a lamp,

and all peoples shall see you are blessed.

The Lord will command the blessing (v.8)

on your barns and your land,

and confirm you,a people possessed.

You shall belend, not borrow; (v.12)

a head,not a tail; (v.13)

an ascent,not a stumbling descent.

For you have heeded the word,

the commandments you heard,

and in the path of His fear,you have went.

This is the promise:

Life as a canopy,wide and secure.

A nation under the smile of heaven,

where faithfulness yields a harvest sure.

---

The Warning Whispered

But if you will not hear,

if you turn in fear

to serve the gods of wood and of stone,

if your heart draws away

from the path,from the day,

then mark:these blessings shall be overthrown.

In the city and field, (v.16)

a curse shall be yield.

Confusion shall haunt every hand.

Barrenness, drought,(v.18, 24)

a scorching doubt,

a sky turned to copper,a curse on the land.

The pestilence, plague, (v. 21-22)

the trembling vague,

the sword and the blight and the mildew.

Theheavens as brass, (v.23)

the green turned to grass,

till the mind turns to madness within you.

You shall be borrow, not lend; (v.44)

a tail,not a head; (v.44)

a byword, a horror, a tale.(v.37)

Pursued by a sound,

with no refuge found,

till thecords of your heart are made frail. (v.65)

For you forsook the joy,

the covenant employ,

the worship of Him who is One.

And the blessings,now reversed,

become a consuming curse,

from the sky to the womb to the son.

---

The Choice Before Us

So the word is set forth:

Life and death, blessing and curse.(v.2, 15)

Choose life,O people, today.

Not a law to enslave,

but a compass to save—

the way of walking with God in the day.

The blessing is not mere reward,

nor the curse a vengeful sword,

but the landscape that grows from the seed.

To love Him,to cleave,

is for Heaven to breathe

life into every deed.

So let us choose the blessing road,

to bear His light,to share His load,

and find that in His command alone

is the secret of a land calledHome.

Amen.