Deuteronomy 11

Moses is nearly finished speaking to the new generation of Israel on the edge of the Promised Land. He reminds them of what they themselves saw God do, then tells them to love the LORD and obey Him. He lays out the choice before them: blessing for obedience, a curse for turning to other gods. He closes by commanding a ceremony on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal.

Deuteronomy 11:1

Everything begins with love. Obedience is not a cold duty here but the way love shows itself. Moses piles up four words for God’s requirements, so that no part of His will is left out. The loved God is also the God to be kept faithfully.

BSA: charge (“His watchful care”): To keep God’s charge is to guard what He has entrusted to you, as a watchman guards his post.

Hebrew: מִשְׁמֶרֶת (mishmeret, H4931) — “a guarding, a duty watched over.” The word comes from the verb for keeping watch. Moses pictures obedience as faithful guard duty over what God has given.

See also: John 14:15.

Deuteronomy 11:2

Moses speaks to those who were children at the Exodus. Their own sons have not seen these things, but they have. God’s dealings with Egypt were also His training of Israel. What they saw shows who He is: great, strong and able to act.

BSA: discipline (“chastisement, correction”): God’s acts in Egypt and the wilderness taught and corrected, not only astonished.

Hebrew: מוּסָר (musar, H4148) — “instruction, training, correction.” This is the word for a father’s training of a child. Moses presents God’s mighty acts as part of that fatherly teaching.

See also: Hebrews 12:5-11.

Deuteronomy 11:3-4

Moses recalls the plagues and the Red Sea. The very army that chased Israel was swept away and never rose again. “Even to this day” means Egypt’s power over them was permanently broken. What God did for them in the past is a pledge for what lies ahead.

BSA: Red Sea (“sea of reeds”): The Hebrew name points to the reedy waters Israel crossed, a reminder that this was a real place and a real rescue.

See also: Exodus 14:26-28.

Deuteronomy 11:5-6

God cared for Israel through the wilderness years, and He also judged rebels among them. Dathan and Abiram challenged Moses’ leadership, and the ground opened and swallowed them with their households. God is kind to His people and serious about rebellion in their midst.

BSA: swallowed (“destroyed, consumed”): The ground itself took the rebels. God’s judgment was sudden and complete.

See also: Numbers 16:25-33.

Deuteronomy 11:7

Moses stresses that these were eyewitness events. This generation cannot say they only heard stories. Seeing God’s works carries responsibility. Those who have seen His faithfulness have every reason to trust and obey Him now.

See also: Deuteronomy 4:9.

Deuteronomy 11:8-9

Obedience and strength go together. Israel will need strength to take the land and to stay there. The land is the gift God swore to the fathers. Its richness, “flowing with milk and honey,” speaks of abundant pasture and sweetness. God gives it, and living in it depends on remaining faithful.

BSA: strength (“be strong, courageous, and empowered”): God’s commands are not a burden that wears Israel out. Walking in them is how they are made strong. flowing (“abundant, overflowing”): The land is pictured as spilling over with good things.

See also: Genesis 15:18.

Deuteronomy 11:10

Egypt’s farming depended on the Nile and on hard human labor. Israel carried water to the crops, and the phrase “on foot” probably refers to some foot-powered way of directing it. Canaan would be different. There they would depend on God to send the rain, and that dependence would teach them to look to Him.

Hebrew: בְרַגְלְךָ (beraglekha, H7272) — “with your foot.” Scholars are not sure exactly what method is meant, whether foot-turned water wheels or opening channels with the foot. The point is plain: it was toilsome watering done by human effort.

Deuteronomy 11:11-12

Canaan is hilly and relies on rain. Its water comes from heaven, so its people must look up to God. Yet the land is not left to chance. The LORD Himself watches over it all year, and His people live under that same care.

BSA: eyes (“sources of watchful care”): God’s eyes on the land mean attentive care, not suspicion.

Hebrew: דֹּרֵשׁ (doresh, H1875) — “seeks out, looks after, cares for.” The verb often means to seek or inquire. Here God actively looks into the needs of the land, the way a shepherd checks on a flock.

See also: Psalm 33:18.

Deuteronomy 11:13-15

Moses links obedience to daily bread. Serving God with the whole heart and soul, meaning all one’s inner life and energy, is promised the rains at their proper time. The early rains come in autumn and the late rains in spring. These promised grain, wine, oil and grass, so that Israel would eat and be satisfied.

BSA: serve (“worship, work for”): Serving God joins worship with daily work, since all of life belongs to Him. autumn (“first, early”): The early rains softened the ground for planting.

See also: Matthew 6:33.

Deuteronomy 11:16-17

Moses warns about a quiet danger: the heart can be drawn away. In a land that depended on rain, the Canaanite storm god was a tempting rival. But the true source of rain is the LORD. If Israel turned from Him, He would withhold the rain and they would lose the good land.

BSA: enticed (“deceived, to open wide”): The heart is pictured as opened wide to a false attraction and easily led away.

Hebrew: פָּתָה (pathah, H6601) — “to be open, to be easily persuaded.” The root has the sense of someone simple or too open, who is talked into something. Moses warns that idolatry often wins by persuasion, not force.

See also: 1 Kings 17:1; James 5:17-18.

Deuteronomy 11:18-20

God’s words must be kept close and visible. They belong in the heart first, then on the hands and forehead as signs, then on doorposts and gates. Many Jews later took the hands and forehead literally, and others take them as a picture of thought and action. Either way, Moses wants God’s words to be everywhere.

BSA: reminders (“signs”): The commands are meant to work as signs that keep God in view. foreheads (“as frontlets, phylacteries”): Later Jewish practice bound small boxes holding these words to the forehead.

Hebrew: טוֹטָפֹת (totafot, H2903) — “frontlets, bands worn between the eyes.” The word describes something placed on the forehead. It points to God’s word being kept always in front of the eyes.

See also: Deuteronomy 6:6-9.

Deuteronomy 11:19

Faith is handed on through ordinary life. Parents are to speak of God’s words at home, on the road, at bedtime and on rising. No hour of the day is left out. Teaching children is not a single lesson but a constant conversation, just as it is today.

See also: Proverbs 22:6.

Deuteronomy 11:21

The reward reaches beyond the individual to the next generation. A faithful home brings blessing that carries through the family line. The promise is stated large, “as long as the heavens are above the earth,” showing God’s pledge to the fathers is meant to last.

BSA: multiplied (“increased, abundant, or flourishing”): The days of God’s people are meant to be full, not merely long.

Deuteronomy 11:22

Moses sums up the life God wants: love Him, walk in His ways, and cling to Him. This is closeness, not distance. To keep the commandments is to stay near the LORD, as someone stays close to a person he loves.

BSA: hold fast (“cleave, stick closely”): The picture is of sticking to God as to something glued fast.

Hebrew: דָּבְקָה (dovqah, H1692) — “to cling, to hold fast.” This is the same word used in Genesis 2:24 for a husband clinging to his wife. It speaks of faithful, personal attachment to God.

See also: Genesis 2:24.

Deuteronomy 11:23

If Israel clings to the LORD, He Himself will clear the land. The nations there were larger and stronger than Israel. The victory would not come from Israel’s strength but from God’s presence. The same God who drowned Egypt’s army would go before them.

See also: Deuteronomy 9:1-3.

Deuteronomy 11:24

The promise is wide: wherever their foot treads in faith, the land is theirs. The borders run from the southern wilderness to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean. This describes what God was ready to give, and it took Israel’s faith and obedience to receive it.

See also: Genesis 15:18; Joshua 1:3-4.

Deuteronomy 11:25

No enemy will be able to stand against them. God Himself will make the peoples of the land afraid of Israel, as He had said. Israel’s safety rests on His promise, which carried them where their own strength could not.

See also: Exodus 23:27.

Deuteronomy 11:26-28

Moses sets a clear choice before them. Blessing follows obedience to the LORD, and the curse follows turning to gods they have never known. Those gods had done nothing for them, while the LORD had done everything. The choice is theirs, and it is made fresh “today.”

BSA: setting (“putting, placing”): Moses lays both outcomes in front of them like two paths, asking for a decision.

See also: Deuteronomy 30:19; Joshua 24:15.

Deuteronomy 11:29-30

Once in the land, Israel is to hold a ceremony. Blessings are to be spoken from Mount Gerizim and curses from Mount Ebal, two mountains facing each other near Shechem. Moses reminds them of where these are. It will be a public reminder that the choice is real.

BSA: Gerizim (“the mountain of blessing”): The name came to stand for the mountain where blessing was spoken.

See also: Deuteronomy 27:11-14; Joshua 8:30-35.

Deuteronomy 11:31-32

Moses ends with the crossing about to begin. The land is a gift from the LORD, and receiving it is only the start. Living in it means keeping all His statutes and ordinances. Settling down is not the finish, and faithfulness must go on once they are comfortable.

BSA: careful (“take heed, observe diligently”): Moses asks for watchful attention, a steady eye on how they live.