In an age where we are taught to ″think positive″, people have a tendency to ignore the unpleasant and focus only on the pleasant. A friend once said, ″I do not believe in hell because that contradicts what I believe about God.″ He preferred to think only about God being loving, and wilfully dismissed other parts of Scripture about God's judgment.

But ignoring the unpleasant things does not make them less true. Deuteronomy makes it clear that as there are blessings for following all God's commands (Deuteronomy 28:1), there are also curses for disobedience (v. 15). Possibly because people naturally tend to ignore unpleasant things and focus on pleasant things, more space is given to the curses than to the blessings.

The curses cover every area of life (vv. 16-18). There will be no reprieve from them, affecting a person ″when you come in and . . . when you go out″ (v. 19). No place or time is exempted. This parallels the comprehensiveness of the blessings described in verses 3-6.

The curses culminate in the destruction of Israel's cities and the people going into exile in foreign nations (vv. 32-37, 64-68). We see these blessings and curses fall upon Israel accordingly in the books of the Bible after Deuteronomy that record their history. Unfortunately, because of centuries of blatant disobedience, the final curse falls upon them when they are exiled to Babylon (1 Chronicles 9:1).

The Bible is emphatic about God executing punishment: ″Just as it pleased the Lord to make you prosper and increase in number, so it will please him to ruin and destroy you″ (Deuteronomy 28:63). These words do not mean that God is sadistic and enjoys destroying people. The Bible teaches elsewhere that it is painful to God to punish people (Hosea 11:8; Ezekiel 18:32; 2 Peter 3:9). Rather, this verse demonstrates that God likes to do what is right and good. It is just to punish evildoers, and it pleases God to act justly, even if it hurts His heart to do so.

Many verses in this passage clearly indicate that pronouncing judgement via these curses is part of God's character. The repetition of the phrase ″The Lord will″ (vv. 20, 25, 28, 36) indicates that it is God himself who does the punishing. But since the second century, Christians have attempted to divorce the wrath of God from His nature. Marcion, who was condemned as a heretic in the second century, said the legal-minded, violent, and vindictive God of the Old Testament was the opposite of the forgiving and saving God of the New Testament. Some also say that God no longer acts in the way described in Deuteronomy 28.

Yet, the New Testament also clearly presents wrath as being part of God's nature (see Romans 1:18; 3:5-6; Hebrews 10:26-31). We fail our generation if we do not faithfully make people aware of this side of God's nature. His wrath could even be regarded as the flip side of His love. If God does not get angry at our sin, it would mean that we are so insignificant to Him that our deeds do not matter. God's wrath elevates humans to a high level of significance, for it tells us that our actions matter to God.