Blessings vs Obedience

 Deuteronomy 28:8-12  

God Commands a Blessing    

God commands a blessing



You Can’t “Obey” God

If God makes a “commandment”, do you obey it?    Maybe God has spoken into your life through a strong conviction, through prayer, through his Word.   Do you obey what He has said?   

Why Not?   

Why not?  First, because there’s no word for “to obey” or “obedience” in the Old Testament Hebrew.  In creating modern Hebrew, many words had to be borrowed from other languages.   Some were for modern inventions (no cars in the bible), and some were for foreign concepts.    “Obedience” was one of them   לציית OR ציות (l’tzaiyet” or “tziyut”) were words borrowed from Aramaic by Eliezer Ben Yehuda and the creators of modern Hebrew.  


What about Samuel’s famous speech to Saul:  


“Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice,

And to heed than the fat of rams. 1 Samuel 15:22


This is an adaptive translation:  Samuel actually says


 הִנֵּה שְׁמֹעַ מִזֶּבַח טוֹב לְהַקְשִׁיב מֵחֵלֶב אֵילִים׃


Behold, it is good (better) to hear (shemah) and pay attention, than the fat of rams


What you CAN do is… 

You can GUARD THEM, you can DO THEM.    


Everywhere in this passage that “the commandments” or “Torah” is mentioned the response to it is to DO it.  To GUARD it, to KEEP what God says.    It never says to OBEY a commandment as in blind allegiance or military style following of a command.   


I heard an interesting dialogue between an Orthodox Jew and a born-again Christian.   It wasn’t a debate, they were friends.   The Jewish person said “Judaism says ‘ do the thing and you will believe the thing’  and Christianity says ‘believe the thing and you will do the thing’.    He was highlighting the Jewish emphasis on OBEYING the Law leading to righteousness, and the Christian notion that FAITH leads to righteous 

9  The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep*** the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. 


כִּ֣י תִשְׁמֹ֗ר אֶת־מִצְוֺת֙ יְהֹוָ֣ה אֱלֹהֶ֔יךָ 


שומר Shomer - GUARD


God COMMANDS Blessings

Here’t the better part:    Commandments aren’t just things YOU do or keep.   Here God COMMANDS A BLESSING INTO YOUR LIFE.     


Even Yeshua / Jesus was careful to state it this way

21 He who has My commandments and keeps them is the one who loves Me, and he who loves Me will be loved by My Father, and I will love him and will disclose Myself to him.” John 14:21

He doesn’t say to OBEY Him.  

May I offer my little key to that blessing?.   

This is a wonderful promise scripture, but it is not for YOU personally, it is addressed to Israel, about to go into the land.   But God shows His character, that HE COMMANDS BLESSINGS INTO  THE LIFE OF ISRAEL.  And because it was true … historically … for Isreal, it shows who God is, it shows God’s character.  He’s a God who commands a blessing.    You don’t need to un-write scripture and pretend the YOU are actually ISRAEL.   This is the mistake of many contemporary “religious” thinkers.   God is done with Israel… the bible is all about ME, US, TODAY.    I would argue the opposite:  it is BECAUSE God loves Israel eternally and showed his character and love toward them historically AND prophetically that you can be SURE that He is a God who blesses… and blesses YOU today.   


Personal Note

This portion, Deuteronomy 28:1-15 is one I memorized and have returned to since the beginning of my walk in the Lord.    I’ve set two different sections of it to music.  It always lifts my spirit toward God who promises it.  But (may I be candid?), circumstances don’t always match it.    I once bought a property for development that had a barn on it.  This scripture jumped off the page… “commanding a blessing into your barns and all you put your hand too”.  Bingo - both!    However, if you add a worldwide real estate collapse, to make a long story short, it was decidedly not a blessing.   Not everything is a blessing, God is not a candy machine.    Looking back with perspective, I do see how God has blessed, how His presence is always near.      


God DOES command a blessing, and my “barn” has been blessed.    But let’s not isolate or limit God to our current situation.   No, I do not know if I understand the use of the word “all” in that verse.   I think I’ll concentrate on Him commanding a blessing.  



8 יְצַו יְהֹוָה אִתְּךָ אֶת־הַבְּרָכָה בַּאֲסָמֶיךָ וּבְכֹל מִשְׁלַח יָדֶךָ וּבֵרַכְךָ בָּאָרֶץ אֲשֶׁר־יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ נֹתֵן 

לָךְ׃


The LORD will command the blessing upon you in your barns and in all that you put your hand to, and He will bless you in the land which the LORD your God gives you. Deuteronomy 28:8

ליצוות  to command


9 יְקִימְךָ יְהֹוָה לוֹ לְעַם קָדוֹשׁ כַּאֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע־לָךְ כִּי תִשְׁמֹר אֶת־מִצְוֺת יְהֹוָה אֱלֹהֶיךָ וְהָלַכְתָּ בִּדְרָכָיו׃


9  The LORD will establish you as a holy people to Himself, as He swore to you, if you keep*** the commandments of the LORD your God and walk in His ways. Deuteronomy 28:9

אָסָם (n-m) heb storehouse,  barn

לציית  (to obey)   is borrowed from aramaic*** 

ציות - obedience


10וְרָאוּ כׇּל־עַמֵּי הָאָרֶץ כִּי שֵׁם יְהֹוָה נִקְרָא עָלֶיךָ וְיָרְאוּ מִמֶּךָּ׃


10 So all the peoples of the earth will see that  you are called by the name of the LORD, and they will be afraid of you. Deuteronomy 28:10

יָרֵא (v)   to fear,  revere,  be afraid (spelled the same in this verse as “to see”)



11 וְהוֹתִרְךָ֤ יְהֹוָה֙ לְטוֹבָ֔ה בִּפְרִ֧י בִטְנְךָ֛ וּבִפְרִ֥י בְהֶמְתְּךָ֖ וּבִפְרִ֣י אַדְמָתֶ֑ךָ עַ֚ל הָאֲדָמָ֔ה אֲשֶׁ֨ר נִשְׁבַּ֧ע יְהֹוָ֛ה לַאֲבֹתֶ֖יךָ לָ֥תֶת לָֽךְ׃

11  The LORD will make you abound in prosperity, in the offspring of your body and in the offspring of your beast and in the produce of your ground, in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give you. Deuteronomy 28:11

להותיר to leave (to

בְּהֵמָה beast,  cattle,  animal



12 וְהוֹתִרְךָ יְהֹוָה לְטוֹבָה בִּפְרִי בִטְנְךָ וּבִפְרִי בְהֶמְתְּךָ וּבִפְרִי אַדְמָתֶךָ עַל הָאֲדָמָה אֲשֶׁר נִשְׁבַּע יְהֹוָה לַאֲבֹתֶיךָ לָתֶת לָךְ׃


12 The LORD will open for you His good storehouse, the heavens, to give rain to your land in its season and to bless all the work of your hand; and you shall lend to many nations, but you shall not borrow. Deuteronomy 28:12     Link to text


The reading starts in the 6th line down from top




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