Deuteronomy Chapter 11

This chapter is about loving & obeying God. It’s another rehashing of previous chapters. It seems like the Israelites need constant reminding. However, we hope y’all enjoy!

Love God & keep His laws, decrees, requirements, & commands, like Snape from Harry Potter, ALWAYS. (Sorry, we’ll show ourselves out.)

The ancient Israelites had to remember that the children at this point hadn’t experienced what God had done to/for the previous generations. The signs & things that He performed in the heart of Egypt, to Pharaoh & his whole country. What God did to Pharaoh & his whole army at the Dead Sea (Sea of Reeds). God brought a lasting ruin to them.

The kiddos also didn’t see what God did for the previous generations of Israelites in the desert until they had arrived at that place. And what He did to Dathan & Abiram, the sons of Eliab (who was a Reubenite) when the earth swallowed them, in the middle of all of Israel. But it was the elders/adults who saw what God had done.

The Israelites were reminded to observe all the commands that Moses gave them via God. So that they could take over the Promised Land, that was given to the Israelites’ forefathers. This land was flowing with milk & honey. The Promised Land was nothing like Egypt.

The Promised Land is/was a land of mountains & valleys that “drinks rain from heaven.” It’s a land that God cares for. God’s eyes are on the land from the beginning of the year to the end.

If the Israelites faithfully obey the commands, love God, & serve Him with all their heart & soul, God would send rain in its season. So that the Israelites could gather their crops. God would also provide grass for the Israelites’ livestock.

The Israelites had to be careful. They had a tendency to stray from the path laid before them. They would be enticed to turn away from the Israelite god & start worshipping other gods, bowing down before them.

God’s anger will burn against the Israelites. God would shut the heavens so that no raindrops or the ground won’t produce food. The Israelites would soon perish from the good land God gave them.

The Israelites had to fix God’s words in their hearts & minds. They had to tie them as symbols on their hands & bind them to their foreheads. The Israelites had to teach all this to the kiddos. They had to write God’s words on the door frames of their houses & gates. So that their days may be many in the land God gave them.

If the Israelites carefully followed all the rules, then God would drive out all the nations before them. They would dispossess nations larger & stronger than them. Every place where they set their feet would be theirs. Their territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, & from the Euphrates River to the Mediterranean. No man will stand against you.

There’s a blessing & a curse: the blessing if they obey God. The curse if they disobeyed. When God brought them into the land they were entering. They proclaimed on Mount Gerizim the blessings. The curses on Mount Ebal. These mountains were across the River Jordan, in the Promised Land.