As Moses neared the end of his instructions to Israel in Ki Tavo (Deuteronomy 26:1-29:8), he spoke of first fruits, tithes, and the covenant responsibility that tied the people directly to God. Israel was called to “observe and obey them with all your heart and all your being” (Deuteronomy 26:16). If Israel held true to God’s ways, He promised to raise them above all nations, making them a unique treasure and a holy people. But if they broke covenant, their fate would be curses. The terms were plain. Their very survival as a nation hinged on obedience. This wasn’t a vague religious call—it was their constitution, their contract, their lifeline with the Creator.
The blessings and curses outlined here are stark. Deuteronomy 28 mirrors Leviticus 26, known as the tokhaha, or “rebuke.” God warned of famine, disease, scattering, persecution, and destruction if His people forsook Him. Sadly, the curses turned prophetic. Deuteronomy 28:46 says, “These curses will be on you and your descendants forever.” Look at Jewish history, and the pattern is undeniable. From exile to persecution to pogroms, the words of Torah have been verified in the most tragic ways. But even in judgment, God’s purpose is not annihilation. It is redemption. The curses are meant to drive His people back to Him, not prove that He has abandoned them.
Some teachings over the centuries twisted these curses as proof that God rejected Israel, or that they came for rejecting Jesus (Yeshua). Both are false. Acts 21:20 records tens of thousands of Torah-observant Jewish believers in Yeshua. Josephus and other historians also testify that Yeshua’s message sparked a Jewish sect that shook the world. The curses came, not because of their view of Messiah, but because they “did not carefully observe all the words of this law” (Deuteronomy 28:58). That’s why Yeshua preached, “Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand” (Matthew 4:17). He called His generation to turn back to Torah and to the Father. Repentance would have averted the curses. Refusal ensured them.
Today, Israel is back in the land, enjoying some blessings of the covenant. But the story isn’t finished. Paul writes in Romans 9-11 about Israel’s stumbling over the Messiah, yet he declares that Messiah is the very goal of Torah, the righteousness to all who trust in Him. Legalism doesn’t save—trust in Yeshua does. The promises to Israel stand, and God’s covenant still holds. One day, perhaps soon, Israel will fully return to the covenant in Messiah. Then “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:26), and we, as believers grafted into the olive tree, will share in that redemption. The covenant story is not just theirs, it’s ours, too. Together, Jew and Gentile, we will be God’s holy people. Romans 11:17 says, “You, being a wild olive tree, were grafted in among them, and with them became a partaker of the root and fatness of the olive tree.”
