ALPHA MAAMA (A.M.)

Tusite ‘Aokosi 24, 2021 

kapau te ke mātu‘aki fakaongo ki he le‘o ‘o Sihova ko ho ‘Otua

if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God 

Teutalōnome 28 (Deuteronomy 28)

(v. 1-2) PEA ‘e hoko ‘o pehē, kapau te ke mātu‘aki fakaongo ki he le‘o ‘o Sihova ko ho ‘Otua, mo tokanga ke fai ‘ene ngaahi tu‘utu‘uni kotoa, ‘a ia ‘oku ou feia atu he ‘aho ni, pea ‘e toki ‘ai koe ‘e Sihova ko ho ‘Otua ke ke mā‘olunga taha ‘i he kakai kotoa pē ‘o māmani: pea ‘e toki toupili mai kiate koe ‘a e ngaahi monū ni ko eni, pea te nau ma‘u koe, ‘o kapau te ke fakaongo ki he le‘o ‘o Sihova ko ho ‘Otua.

(v. 1-2) “And if you faithfully obey the voice of the Lord your God, being careful to do all his commandments that I command you today, the Lord your God will set you high above all the nations of the earth. And all these blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of the Lord your God.

* G. Campbell Morgan's Exposition on the Whole Bible*

We now come to the commencement of the third discourse of Moses. It was pre-eminently the uttering of solemn warnings in which he laid before the people the results of disobedience and rebellion. He spoke first, however, of the blessings which would follow obedience. They were to have national pre-eminence. Temporal blessings of all kinds would abound. They were to have victory over their enemies in time of war. The purpose of their King, Jehovah, it was plainly declared, was to fill them with joy and make their path prosperous. They could, however, enter into His purpose only by obeying His law.

The effect of disobedience was then described as it would obtain among themselves. Adversity of every kind would overtake them. They would be smitten before their enemies, and persistent disobedience would result in their being driven out of the land into which God had brought them. The description of this expulsion proved eventually to have been a prophecy of what actually happened when they were carried away to Babylon. Continuing to speak prophetically, Moses uttered words which the centuries proved to be a detailed description of the Roman mastery of the land and the ultimate destruction of the city.

In view of so solemn a discourse as this delivered at the close of his period of leadership, it is indeed an appalling thing to think of how these people disobeyed the commandments, rebelled against God, and fulfilled to the letter all Moses had said. There can be but one explanation, and that the one to which the writer of the letter to the Hebrews referred-unbelief. The story is a warning for us, revealing as it does the capacity of man for evil, and how, in spite of the clearest warnings, he is capable of disastrous disobedience. More is needed than the law which indicates the way and more than the prophet who urges obedience.

*Commentary: David Guzik – Study Guide to Numbers*

V. 1-2

The word "if" looms large. In this chapter, Moses exhorted the nation with choice. The covenant God made with Israel contained three major features: The law, the sacrifice, and the choice.

The idea behind the choice is that God was determined to reveal Himself to the world through Israel. He would do this either by making them so blessed that the world would know only God could have blessed them so; or by making them so cursed that only God could have cursed them and cause them to still survive. The choice was up to Israel.

As a literary form, this chapter is similar to ancient treaties between a king and his people; this is God the King, making a covenant with His people, Israel.

"In the ancient Near East it was customary for legal treaties to conclude with passages containing blessings upon those who observed the enactments, and curses upon those who did not." (Harrrison)