In chapter 11 of Devarim, we continue with the commandments
that have to do with our relationship with God…
(Deut. 11:1) You shall
therefore love the LORD your God and keep his charge, his statutes,
his rules, and his commandments always.
Loving God requires faith, since we cannot see God eye to
eye. There is no question about how difficult it is to believe without seeing.
But although we cannot see God directly, we can see his works, which give us a
testimony about Him…
YOUR EYES HAVE SEEN
When God asks His People for absolute faith, it is because
He has shown them who He is. Maybe small children or ungodly people have not
been able to see God’s works, but if someone has been a believer for some time,
that person will begin to see God’s hand in his life. This is the message Moses
gave to the generation of Israelites that saw great miracles in the desert…
(Deut. 11:2-6) And consider
today (since I am not speaking to your children who have not known or seen it),
consider the discipline of the LORD your God, his greatness, his
mighty hand and his outstretched arm, (3) his signs and his deeds that he
did in Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt and to all his land, (4) and
what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, how he
made the water of the Red Sea flow over them as they pursued after you, and how
the LORD has destroyed them to this day, (5) and what he did to
you in the wilderness, until you came to this place, (6) and what he did to
Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, son of Reuben, how the earth opened its
mouth and swallowed them up, with their households, their tents, and every
living thing that followed them, in the midst of all Israel.
On this part of his speech, Moses reminds everyone of
several miraculous events that the Israelites witnessed: their freedom from
slavery and the exodus out of Egypt through plagues (Exodus chapters 1 to 12;
Psalms 105:27-45); the destruction of Pharaoh and his army in the Red Sea (Ex.
14-15); the miracles in the desert when God, day after day, gave them water and
food, as well as the punishments for their disobedience (Num. 16 &
26:9-10).
We are not going to read the scriptures that narrate these
events because it would be too long, but we will read a great summary written
in Psalms:
(Psalms 105:26-45) He sent Moses,
his servant, and Aaron, whom he had chosen. (27) They performed his signs among
them and miracles in the land of Ham. (28) He sent darkness, and made the land
dark; they did not rebel against his words. (29) He turned their waters into
blood and caused their fish to die. (30) Their land swarmed with frogs, even in
the chambers of their kings. (31) He spoke, and there came swarms of flies, and
gnats throughout their country. (32) He gave them hail for rain, and fiery
lightning bolts through their land. (33) He struck down their vines and fig
trees, and shattered the trees of their country. (34) He spoke, and the locusts
came, young locusts without number, (35) which devoured all the vegetation in
their land and ate up the fruit of their ground. (36) He struck down all the
firstborn in their land, the firstfruits of all their strength. (37) Then he
brought out Israel with silver and gold, and there was none among his tribes
who stumbled. (38) Egypt was glad when they departed, for dread of them had
fallen upon it. (39) He spread a cloud for a covering, and fire to give light
by night. (40) They asked, and he brought quail, and gave them bread from
heaven in abundance. (41) He opened the rock, and water gushed out; it flowed
through the desert like a river. (42) For he remembered his holy promise, and
Abraham, his servant. (43) So he brought his people out with joy, his chosen
ones with singing. (44) And he gave them the lands of the nations, and they
took possession of the fruit of the peoples’ toil, (45) that they might keep
his statutes and observe his laws. Praise the LORD!
In light of all these miracles God did (and the ones that he
continues to do in our lives today), there is no excuse for us not to believe.
And an essential part of believing
is obeying…
(Deut. 11:7-9) For your eyes
have seen all the great work of the LORD that he did. (8) “You shall
therefore keep the whole commandment that I command you today, that you may be
strong, and go in and take possession of the land that you are going over to
possess, (9) and that you may live long in the land that the
LORD swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land
flowing with milk and honey.
The idea of giving the Promised Land to Israel is not for
them to do whatever they want, but so that they would live like God commands
and therefore be an example to all the nations…
(Deut. 8:10-11) And you shall
eat and be full, and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good
land he has given you. (11) Take care lest you forget the LORD your
God by not keeping his commandments and his rules and his statutes, which I
command you today
This is the essence of Moses’ message to Joshua before they
entered the Promised Land to conquer it.
(Joshua 1:6-7) Be strong and
courageous, for you shall cause this people to inherit the land that I swore to
their fathers to give them. (7) Only be strong and very courageous, being
careful to do according to all the law that Moses my servant commanded you. Do
not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, that you may have good
success wherever you go.
God does not expect us to be “perfect”, because no one is;
but what he does expect from us is that we would make an effort and give our
best, the rest will be up to God – and to Him will be all the glory.
DESCRIBING THE
PROMISED LAND
In this chapter, Moses describes the Promised Land again,
but from a different perspective…
(Deut. 11:10-12, NKJV) For the land
which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come,
where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; (11)
but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys,
which drinks water from the rain of heaven, (12) a land for which the Lord your
God cares; the eyes of the Lord your God are always on it, from the beginning
of the year to the very end of the year.
Moses compares the Promised Land to the land of Egypt which,
besides the desert, was their only point of reference. One of the comparisons
is in relation to the way that the fields were grown. Moses points out that in
Egypt “you watered it by foot, as a
vegetable garden”. The Egyptians used the water from the Nile River and
made a channeling system to irrigate their fields. All the Egyptians had to do
to water their fields was to simply open an irrigation channel “with their
foot”, and then push some dirt back to close it.
Moses explained that cropping in the Promised Land was very
different since the land was mountainous and the water source was not a river,
but Heaven (10:11). Israel has the Jordan River, but this is located in a
valley 300 meters (984 feet) below sea level, which at that time wasn’t useful
for watering beyond the eastern valley. So, the crops in the land of Canaan
depended completely on rain.
Israel gets rain six months in a year (from October to
March), and the rest of the year it has a dry season (April to September). If
it doesn’t rain much in winter, then there are droughts which can lead to
famine. What does the rain depend on? Moses explained that for there to be
rain, there has to be obedience from the People…
(Deut. 11:13-15) And if you will
indeed obey my commandments that I command you today, to love
the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all
your soul, (14) he will give the rain for your land in its season,
the early rain and the later rain, that you may gather in your grain and your
wine and your oil. (15) And he will give grass in your fields for your
livestock, and you shall eat and be full.
Leviticus also talks about the correlation between obedience
and rain…
(Leviticus 26:3-4) If you walk in
my statutes and observe my commandments and do them, (4) then I will give you
your rains in their season, and the land shall yield its increase, and the
trees of the field shall yield their fruit.
This is the same principle that applies to blessings: God
wants to give all kinds of blessings to his People, but they have to obey. This
is a message that is made very clear all throughout the book of Devarim.
(Deut. 28:1-2) And if you
faithfully obey the voice of the LORD your God, being careful to do
all his commandments that I command you today, the LORD your God will
set you high above all the nations of the earth. (2) And all these
blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, if you obey the voice of
the LORD your God.
TO KEEP THE BLESSING
After pointing out that the blessing comes through
obedience, Moses explained that to keep that blessing they have to take care
not to forget God…
(Deut. 11:16-17) Take care lest
your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship
them; (17) then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against
you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the
land will yield no fruit, and you will perish quickly off the good land that
the LORD is giving you.
Just as we saw in chapter 6, Moses repeats how they can take
care not to forget…
(Deut. 11:18-21) You shall
therefore lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and you
shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between
your eyes. (19) You shall teach them to your children, talking of them
when you are sitting in your house, and when you are walking by the way, and
when you lie down, and when you rise. (20) You shall write them on the
doorposts of your house and on your gates, (21) that your days and the
days of your children may be multiplied in the land that
the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as long as the heavens
are above the earth.
The way to avoid forgetting is by teaching the children and
having a reminder in the house in plain sight (just like a Mezuza and the tzitzit –
for more details, see the study on chapter 6).
Some people have come to believe that these “reminders” are
the source of blessing (like lucky charms), and this can be dangerous. We must
not forget that blessings come from obedience, and the reminders are simply to
help us remember that.
Obedience is central and definitive. If we obey God, He will
bless us – this includes helping us defeat our enemies and giving us everything
He has promised…
(Deut. 11:22-25) For if you will
be careful to do all this commandment that I command you to do, loving
the LORD your God, walking in all his ways, and holding fast to
him, (23) then the LORD will drive out all these nations before
you, and you will dispossess nations greater and mightier than you. (24)
Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours. Your
territory shall be from the wilderness to the Lebanon and from the River,
the river Euphrates, to the western sea. (25) No one shall be able to
stand against you. The LORD your God will lay the fear of you and the
dread of you on all the land that you shall tread, as he promised you.
YOU CHOOSE: BLESSING
OR CURSE
Without question, God wants to bless His People; this is
what is in his heart. However, not everything depends on Him, since each person
gets a chance to decide:
(Deut. 11:26-28) See, I am
setting before you today a blessing and a curse: (27) the blessing, if you
obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you
today, (28) and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of
the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way that I am commanding
you today, to go after other gods that you have not known.
God gave human beings free will; he gave us the opportunity
of choosing between obedience and disobedience. What we have to be aware of is
that our decision will have its consequences. If we obey, we will be blessed;
but if we disobey, we will be cursed. These are the rules of life.
To make it more graphical, the Lord asked Moses to place
some signs on certain mounts in Israel…
TWO MOUNTS AS A SIGN
As a reminder of the consequences of obedience and
disobedience, the Lord asked the Israelites to place some signs on two mounts:
Ebal and Gerizim.
(Deut. 11:29-30) And when
the LORD your God brings you into the land that you are entering to
take possession of it, you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the
curse on Mount Ebal. (30) Are they not beyond the Jordan, west of the
road, toward the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live
in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, beside the oak of Moreh?
The more detailed instructions were given later on chapter
27, so we will leave this subject for that time. But we will mention this: the
signs on those mounts served as a national reminder for Israel not to forget to
obey God.
(Deut. 11:31-32) For you are to
cross over the Jordan to go in to take possession of the land that
the LORD your God is giving you. And when you possess it and live in
it, (32) you shall be careful to do all the statutes and the rules that I am
setting before you today.
God gave the Promised Land to Israel, not for them to do
there as they please but for them to live as God commands and therefore be an
example to all the nations of the world. That is their calling: to be a light
onto the world (Matthew 5:14-19).
More lessons on
Deuteronomy: DEVARIM (Deut.)
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