“Then, because of the severity of the siege and distress that your enemies are inflicting on you, you will eat the offspring of your own body, the flesh of your own sons and daughters, whom Adonai your God has given you. Even the most gentle and sensitive man among you will be without pity for his brother, his beloved wife or his surviving children,”-Deuteronomy 28:53-54
From verse 49, as part of the continuation of the curses that will fall upon Israel for their disobedience, we’re told that an evil gentile nation like an eagle attacking its prey will swoop down upon Israel with much strength and speed and have no mercy.
We’re talking about siege warfare here folks.
The Hebrews will be shut up in their towns and face starvation and death.
If you’re wondering if this really happened in history, the answer is…
…this is exactly what Israel faced against both the Babylonians and the Romans.
Honestly, these final verses are downright disgusting and horrifying.
We’re flat out told the siege will be so bad Israel will resort to cannibalism and eat their own children!
In fact, we’re told that even the most refined and gentle man will not be able to restrain his animal hunger instincts toward even his own wife and surviving children.
He will kill his own children for food and won’t even share one bite with his starving wife.
This just goes to show how even the best of us will resort to the most horrific behavior when in a state of desperation.
As sad and tragic as all this is, annuls from the two sieges on Jerusalem (yes in the holy city of Jerusalem!) record that these gruesome things actually happened!
Onward.
“He will bring back upon you all the diseases the Egyptians had, which you were in dread of; and they will cling to you. Not only that, but Adonai will bring upon you all the sicknesses and plagues that are not written in this book of the Torah — until you are destroyed.”-Deuteronomy 28:60-61
These final verses show the result of the spread of disease and sickness from all of the thousands of corpses that will lie piled up one on top of another inside the besieged city.
Let’s take a look at verse 68.
“Finally, Adonai will bring you back in ships to Egypt, the place of which I said to you, ‘You will never ever see it again’; and there you will try to sell yourselves as slaves to your enemies, but no one will buy you.”
This verse is the final straw that breaks the camel’s back so to speak.
This is the one line that represents the complete reversal of Israel’s redemption and survival.
Israel is returned back to Egypt.
Yet irony of ironies, whereas in the past the Egyptian overlords accepted Israel as slaves and at least provided them enough to live on, this time we’re told that Egypt won’t even want to take them back as slaves.
Israel will literally have nowhere to go so despised and detested they will have become.
Finally, let’s take a look at the very last words of Chapter 28.
“These are the words of the covenant which Adonai ordered Moshe to make with the people of Isra’el in the land of Moab, in addition to the covenant which he made with them in Horeb.”
A couple of points here.
First, HOREB is just another name for SINAI.
Second, what Moses is doing here is confirming the covenant given at Sinai with the words he just spoke at Moab.
Let me say that again.
Here at Mount Moab, Moses is reconfirming the covenant he gave at Sinai.
Got it homies?
This is super important to understand because just as the terms of the Mosaic Covenant did NOT change from Sinai to Moab, neither did they change from Moab to Calvary.
Here’s something the gentile believer needs to burn into the deepest recesses of their craniums for all time and forever.
HASHEM didn’t hand down a “forever” covenant to Israel at Sinai, do away with it and then hand down another “forever” covenant at Moab.
Do you see how retarded that sounds?
Along the same lines, the New Covenant the Lord gave us does NOT cancel out all the ones that came before.
In fact the New Covenant IS the “Old” Covenant written on the hearts of true believers everywhere.
How do I know this is so?
Because our Rabbi from Nazareth tell us so.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“Don’t think that I have come to abolish
the Torah or the Prophets.
I have come not to abolish but to complete.
Yes indeed!
I tell you that until heaven and earth pass away,
not so much as a yud or a stroke will pass from the Torah
– not until everything that must happen has happened.
So whoever disobeys the least of these mitzvot
and teaches others to do so
will be called the least in the Kingdom of Heaven.
But whoever obeys them and so teaches
will be called great in the Kingdom of Heaven.”
-Matthew 5:17-19
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