Chapter Eleven
Therefore Love God
11:1 “You shall therefore love the LORD your God and keep his charge, his statutes, his rules, and his commandments always. 2 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. 7 For your eyes have seen all the great work of the LORD that he did.
The Hebrew letter ‘wāw’ is used as a conjunction[1] and is translated here as, “You shall therefore,” which joins this verse with the previous text of chapter ten where Moses describes the love of God. In response to that love Moses again tells them that they should love YHWH and keep His charge (Hebrew ‘miš·mǎrt’,[2] to make sure they follow)[3] and obey all of God’s statues, rules, and commandments.
Moses tells them that while they are thinking about obeying God or not, they should consider who God is and that He is not only capable of discipline and punishment, but He has also shown multiple times that He will. Moses acknowledges that even though that much of their past disobedience and grumbling was from their parents, most of them have seen firsthand God’s responses. Moses reminds them that he is not talking to someone who have not seen YHWH’s might and power, no imagination is needed, they saw and heard themselves.
He tells them to consider the discipline of God, first regarding to the disobedience of Pharaoh and what He did in response with the plagues. Then they are to consider what He did to the Egyptian army killing them all, as the Egyptian army was apparently still out of commission at that time, some forty years later. They were also to consider the events that occurred in the wilderness (being in the wilderness for forty years was also the direct result of disobedience), including what God did to Dathan and Abiram during Korah’s rebellion when the ground opened up and swallowed them alive (see Numbers 16:1-50).
11:8 “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. 10 For the land that you are entering to take possession of it is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and irrigated it, like a garden of vegetables. 11 But the land that you are going over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water by the rain from heaven, 12 a land that the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.
In addition to being aware of God’s potential disciplinary power, Moses encourages his audience to consider the blessings that they will receive from God for their obedience. If they keep His law, God will not only allow them to enter and take possession of the Promised Land, but they will also be able keep and live long in it. Moses notes that the land is very different than the land of Egypt, which required significant work and irrigation. This land will be maintained by God, as it will be watered through rain and a system of hills and valleys. Moses further explains that the eyes of YHWH are always watching this land, no matter what season it is.
11:13 “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. 16 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.
If they do choose to obey and love God with all their heart and soul, God will continue to bring early and late rains each year so that they will have good crops of grain, fruit, and olives, as well as grass for their livestock to eat. Moses then warns them to not to be deceived, perhaps concerned that they will become complacent with their blessings and in their relationship with God and turn away from Him and pursue false gods. Moses tells them that turning from God will indeed anger Him and the rain will stop, resulting in a wasteland.
11:18 “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.
Moses reiterates the importance of listening and knowing God’s Word using nearly identical language he used in Deuteronomy 6:6-9. The words are to be known, and significant effort taken to remember them. They are again reminded that they have the responsibility to teach them to their children morning, noon, and night.[4] In addition to knowing, they must do as they are commanded to do; in doing so they will be able to remain in the Promised Land for a long period of time.
11:22 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.
Moses comes back to the theme of obeying and loving God, reminding them that YHWH will take care of them. First by driving out all the people and nations currently inhabiting the land, even though they are greater and mightier than they are. Everywhere they walk will be theirs, from the wilderness in the south, Lebanon to the north, the Euphrates River to the east and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. No one will be able to stand against them. YHWH was going to stir the fear of the people of Israel in all of their enemies.
As previously mentioned, repetition is often used in the Bible and is a known tool to aid in learning and memory.[5] Since Moses knows that in the future the people of Israel will indeed disobey and turn away from God, it appears that he is desperately trying to instill in them the absolute need to obey God and to teach their children to do the same.[6]
11:26 “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.
To make a strong and impressionable point, Moses reduces their potential future into two choices, either follow the path that leads to a blessing or one that ends with a curse. This is the first of several “two choice” presentations Moses will make in the remainder of Deuteronomy. Here he clearly identifies the blessing as being the result of obeying YHWH. The curse comes from the disobedience of God that leads to worshiping false gods; not the lusts or gods of their own making, but those they allowed to come in from their enemies, those that they had not known.
11:29 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? 31 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.
Here, Moses is introducing how the people will hear and learn about God’s blessing for obedience, and punishment for disobedience, after they have entered the Promised Land. From the mountain known as Mount Gerizim (first reference to this location) they are to hear about their blessings and from Mount Ebal (previously used as a name of one of Shobal’s sons, see Genesis 36:23, but this is first appearance as a location name) they will hear the curses. Moses tells them that these mountains are in the Promised Land. Moses will give specific instructions and list each blessing and curse later in chapter 27. Once again Moses warns, perhaps pleading with them, to take whatever effort is required to follow God’s law.
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[1] See commentary under Exodus 24:12.
[2] Strong’s Hebrew 4931.
[3] See commentary under Genesis 26:1-5.
[4] See commentary under Deuteronomy 6:6-7.
[5] See commentary under Exodus 20:23.
[6] See Can You Hear Moses Cry? In the Introduction of Deuteronomy.