Deuteronomy 28:15, 45 But it shall come to pass, if thou wilt not hearken unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to observe to do all his commandments and his statutes which I command thee this day; that all these curses shall come upon thee and overtake thee….Moreover all these curses shall come upon thee, and pursue thee, till thou be destroyed; because thou hearkenest not unto the voice of the Lord thy God, to keep his commandments and his statutes which he commanded thee.
Chapter 28 is full of detailed curses that will overtake the people (and the individual) who does not hearken to the Word of God. And this turned to be a prophecy of what actually did happen to God’s people in the Bible. And it is a loving warning to us about the reality of the curse of sin on our own life. Sin brings death and all its pain. Not hearkening brings the curses to our experience.
God is describing the way it is, not the way He, or I, want it to be. The cause of sin’s effect is not listening to do. The opposite effect, blessing, comes to those who hear the Word of God and believe it. The Lord is not listing the curses in order to scare us or coerce us into obedience; instead, He wants to show us what life is like when lived outside of God, when we refuse to stay in a relationship with God, who is the source of all blessings. He is reminding us of what life apart from a loving God is like. God’s love is the source of all good; separating from it has consequences.
Therefore, believers respond by using every opportunity they can to listen to the Word of Law and Gospel, then to repent and believe the Gospel.