In our last post, we saw the standards Allah gave so we could recognize true prophets – that they foretell the future as part of their message. The Prophet Musa (PBUH) himself applied these rulemaking predictions about the future of the Israelites – ones that had to come true if his message was from Allah. These predictions were coming Curses and Blessings on the Israelites. You can read the complete Blessings and Curses here. The main points are below.
The Blessings of Musa
The Prophet Musa (PBUH) starts out by describing the wonderful blessings that the Israelites would receive if they obeyed The Commands. These blessings would be in the sight of the other nations so that they would recognize His blessing:
Then all the peoples on earth will see that you are called by the name of the Lord, and they will fear you. (Deuteronomy 28:10)
However, if they failed to obey the Commands then they would receive Curses that were the opposite of the Blessings. The Curses would match and mirror the Blessings. The surrounding nations would see these curses:
You will become a thing of horror, a byword and an object of ridicule among all the peoples here the LORD will drive you. (Deuteronomy 28:37)
And the Curses would be for the Israelites themselves:
They will be a sign and a wonder to you and your descendants forever. (Deuteronomy 28:46)
Allah warned that the worst part of the Curses would come from others:
The LORD will bring a nation against you from far away, from the ends of the earth, like an eagle swooping down, a nation whose language you will not understand, a fierce-looking nation without respect for the old or pity for the young. They will devour the young of your livestock and the crops of your land until you are destroyed … until you are ruined. They will lay siege to all the cities throughout your land until the high fortified walls in which you trust fall down. They will besiege all the cities throughout the land. (Deuteronomy 28:49-52)
And, finally, it would go from bad to worse:
You will be uprooted from the land you are entering to possess. Then the LORD will scatter you among all nations, from one end of the earth to the other. … Among those nations you will find no repose, no resting place for the sole of your foot. There the LORD will give you an anxious mind, eyes weary with longing, and a despairing heart. (Deuteronomy 28:63-65)
These Blessings and Curses were established by a covenant (an agreement):
…to confirm you this day as his people, that he may be your God as he promised you and as he swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. I am making this covenant, with its oath … also with those who are not here today. (Deuteronomy 29:12-15)
In other words, this covenant would be binding on the children, or future generations. In fact, this covenant was directed at future generations – both Israelites and foreigners
Your children who follow you in later generations and foreigners who come from distant lands will see the calamities that have fallen on the land and the diseases with which the LORD has afflicted it. … nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. … All the nations will ask: “Why has the LORD done this to this land? Why this fierce, burning anger?”
And the answer will be: “It is because this people abandoned the covenant of the LORD, the God of their ancestors, the covenant he made with them when he brought them out of Egypt….Therefore the LORD’s anger burned against this land, so that he brought on it all the curses written in this book. … the LORD uprooted them from their land and thrust them into another land, as it is now.” (Deuteronomy 29:21-27)
Did The Blessings and Curses of Musa come to pass?
The Blessings promised were wonderful, but the Curses threatened were severe. However, the most important question we can ask is: ‘Did these things happen?’ In answering this we will see whether Musa (PBUH) was a true prophet and we will gain guidance for our lives today.
The answer is within our grasp. Much of the Old Testament of al Kitab is the record of the history of the Israelites and from that, we can see what happens. Also, we have records outside the Old Testament, from Jewish historians like Josephus, and Graeco-Roman historians like Tacitus and we have found many archaeological monuments. All of these sources agree and paint a consistent picture of the history of the Israelites. This is another Sign for us. Here is an overview of the history of the Israelites with timelines to help us see their history.
What do we see from this history? Yes indeed the Curses of Musa, terrible as they were DID come to pass – and exactly like he wrote down those thousands of years ago – before it all happened. Remember, these predictions were not written down after they happened, but before.
But the Curse of Musa did not end there. It continued. Here is how Musa (PBUH) concluded these curses.
When all these blessings and curses I have set before you come on you and you take them to heart wherever the LORD your God disperses you among the nations, and when you and your children return to the LORD your God and obey him with all your heart and with all your soul according to everything I command you today, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you and gather you again from all the nations where he scattered you. Even if you have been banished to the most distant land under the heavens, from there the LORD your God will gather you and bring you back. He will bring you to the land that belonged to your ancestors, and you will take possession of it. He will make you more prosperous and numerous than your ancestors (Deuteronomy 30:1-5)
An obvious question to ask (again) is: Did that happen? Click here to see the continuation of their history.
The Close of Taurat – The Zabur anticipated
With these Blessings and Curses, the Taurat is concluded, and The Prophet Musa (PBUH) dies shortly after it is complete. Then the Israelites, under the successor to Musa – Joshua – enter the Land. As explained in the History of the Israelites, they lived there without a King and with no capital city until the great King Dawood or Dawud (or David) rose to power. He started a new section of the Old Testament which the Qur’an affirms as the Zabur. We need to understand the Zabur because it continues the Signs started in the Taurat – that will help us understand the Injil. Next we see how the Qur’an and Isa al Masih speak of Dawood (PBUH) and the Zabur.