Continuing with the curses for disobedience, Moses says in Deut. 28:30, 31,

³⁰ You shall betroth a wife, but another man shall violate her; you shall build a house, but you shall not live in it; you shall plant a vineyard, but you shall not use the fruit. ³¹ Your ox shall be slaughtered before your eyes, but you shall not eat of it; your donkey shall be torn away from you, and shall not be restored to you; your sheep shall be given to your enemies, and you shall have none to save you.

This is a general picture of injustice in the land. The curse for disobedience to the law of God is that men will create their own laws (“traditions of men”) which inevitably end up as kleptocracies, or systems of theft. Men crave power in order to use it to enrich themselves by selling privileges and favors. Human governments may start out to be just and humane when they claim the right to legislate their own laws, but as time passes, governments become systems of self-interest, rather than being based on love.

This is because governments are run by people, and carnal men by definition are selfish. The key problem begins when men claim the right to determine their own laws, rather than recognizing God’s sovereign right to set man’s standard for justice and moral behavior. This is what the House of Israel did in setting up the golden calves (1 Kings 12:28-30). In time they abolished the laws of God completely and replaced them with “the statutes of Omri” (Micah 6:16).

The House of Judah also had a problem with idolatry, but as time progressed, their main problem was their hypocrisy. They retained the laws of God but re-interpreted them according to their own carnal desires in order to make it appear that their injustice was ordained by God. Jeremiah compares the two nations this way in Jer. 3:10, 11,

¹⁰ “And yet in spite of all this her treacherous sister Judah did not return to Me with all her heart, but rather in deception,” declares the Lord. ¹¹ And the Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel has proved herself more righteous than treacherous Judah.”

In other words, God preferred the outright harlotry of Israel to the pretense of righteousness practiced by Judah.

The Consequences of Greed

When men put away God’s law—or reinterpret it in their own carnal manner—they embark on a path that has natural consequences. Men have always disagreed with God’s standard of justice, and when they go their own way, injustice is inevitable.

Men build houses, but the bank takes ownership by virtue of its right to create money. When a man buys a home today, he goes to the bank or mortgage company for financing. The financial institution takes the deed for the house and monetizes it on the authority of the home owner’s signature. The financial institution does not loan its own money to the home buyer, nor does it loan money from its depositors. It literally creates new money out of nothing, empowered by the home buyer’s signature, and then loans that newly-created money to the home buyer at interest.

If the home owner is later unable to make the payments, the financial institution may foreclose on the house and end up owning the house. Even though it was the signature of the home owner that allowed the bank to create this new money, the bank assumes that the newly-created money was its own. The bank evicts the home owner, and the bank sells it to someone else.

And so the curse of the law is fulfilled, saying, “you shall build a house, but you shall not live in it.”

The same can be true with agricultural land. Farmers obtain loans to plant crops or vineyards, but if they do not continue to pay tribute to the bank, they may be evicted and never enjoy the fruit of their labor.

The same is true with ranching, for Deut. 28:31 speaks also of oxen, donkeys, and sheep. In the case of sheep, Scripture adds that “your sheep shall be given to your enemies.” In the manner that this prophecy is being fulfilled today, it is clear that the banks are “your enemies,” for they are the ones God has raised up as Mystery Babylon to bring judgment upon us for our disobedience to the law of God.

To compound matters, government imposes taxes far above the lawful standard of God. God’s basic tax system is known as the tithe. It requires only ten percent from all that is produced from nature. That cost is passed on to the consumers in society. The governments of men, however, openly require more than a double tithe, and then they impose taxes on every level of commercial activity, so that the total tax burden, including those hidden taxes, is nearly sixty percent in America.

The government steals the tithes of the people, and so many churches find themselves competing with the government for any available left-over money.

Captivity and Slavery

Moses continues in Deut. 28:32,

³² Your sons and your daughters shall be given to another people, while your eyes shall look on and yearn for them continually; but there shall be nothing you can do.

When a nation is brought into captivity, the people are at the mercy of the invaders. It was common in those days to take slaves according to the will of the invading army. They assumed the right to kill whom they wished or to enslave whom they wished. Many times they would take the girls either as slaves or as wives, and there was nothing that the parents could do about it.

A more modern version of this is the insidious human trafficking problem, which has become the most lucrative business in the underworld today. This too is the result of the curse of the law.

When God’s people cast off the divine law, God Himself brings them into captivity in order to show them the scourge of men’s laws and human governments. Those who believe that there is a God and yet do not know the Scriptures can often become bitter against God for allowing such things to occur. They ought to read Deuteronomy 28, for then they would understand that all of this has occurred because the people—even Christian people—have cast aside the law of God.

Crushing Taxation

Moses continues in Deut. 28:33, 34,

³³ A people whom you do not know shall eat up the produce of your ground and all your labors, and you shall never be anything but oppressed and crushed continually. ³⁴ And you shall be driven mad by the sight of what you see.

Today the rulers of Mystery Babylon have become so wealthy that they must hide it in offshore accounts or in the “shadow banking system,” which is a parallel banking system that only they can use. This wealth remains untaxed, for taxes are imposed upon the slaves, not upon the masters. Under their oppressive system, the poor become poorer, while the rich become richer. In the end, two classes of people emerge—the slaves and the masters.

Those who do not understand how this works chafe under the burden, while those who see the situation are “driven mad.” The solution is to understand the laws of tribulation in Deuteronomy 28. Only then can we know the cause of this slavery and its solution. Knowing the cause and the solution removes the hopelessness factor, which has caused many to go mad with despair.

God’s people have been given the Word and the Spirit to enlighten them, so that they can find the answers to all things. They can know the character of God by reading the law and by seeing the example of the life of Christ. They can read the history of Israel and Judah, seeing how they violated the law of God, which brought them into captivity.

By comparing their experience to our own today, we have opportunity to obey God where they failed.

The Inadequacy of Past Revivals

Many Holy Spirit “revivals” have taken place over the centuries, and while these have had some impact on nations, none of them have succeeded in overturning the captivity. None have resulted in righteous government, except perhaps in a temporary manner. The reason has little to do with men’s sincerity, nor was there any lack on the part of the Holy Spirit. The missing ingredient has been the full acceptance of the law of God and His right to rule. In this the church has failed, for either it has put away the law, or it has misunderstood it and misapplied it, putting in its place the “traditions of men.”

The Word prophesies of a great outpouring of the Spirit, one that will surpass all others, even what was seen at Pentecost. That move of God will succeed, because the Spirit will bring repentance, a change of heart and mind, causing the church to see its error in putting away the law.

When that time comes, many people finally will read Deuteronomy and will seek out those who understand its contents. This is where you are important, because many will put great demands upon you. They will feel a great urgency to know what you know, as they repent of their past lawless views. Now is the time to study the law and to find the answers that others will need to know in that day.