Deuteronomy 11

Deuteronomy 11:8-17

Notes. 1. Influence several of God’s mighty works, as arguments for their fidelity, vers. 1—7. 2. That their obedience would be attended with eminent blessings, vers. 8—15. vers. 18—25. But, 3. Their disobedience would ruin them, vers. 16, 17. 4. Orders given for the solemn publication of the blessings of obedience, and the copies of rebellion, vers. 20—32.

1. Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his flatunes, and his judgments, and his commandments always. 2. And know you this day: for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the LORD your God, his greatness, his mighty hand, and his threshed out arm; 3. And his miracles, and his acts which he did in the midst of Egypt, unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land; 4. And what he did unto the army of Egypt, unto their horses, and to their chariots, ‘how he made the water of the Red Sea to overflow them as they pursued after you, and how the LORD hath destroyed them unto this day; 5. And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came into this place; 6. And ‘what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliah, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their housheds, and their tents, and all the ‘fulfifance that I was in their possession in the midst of all Israel. 7. But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD, which he did.

2. 1—7. The obligations to keep God’s charge so solemnly committed to them is further urged from the influence God had given them of his mercy to them, in the miracles wrought in Egypt, and the destruction of the army of Pharaoh; as also his judgment on the conspirators Dathan and Abiram, saving them from domestic as well as foreign enemies. Thus, those who were the oldest of them had seen, and ought deeply to remember, and be affected by it. Note, God’s mercies to us, when we were young, ought to leave an impression on us, which time and age should never efface.

3. Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land whither you go to possess it: 9. And that ye may prolong your days in the land which the LORD fware unto your fathers to give unto them, and to their seed, a land that flows with mills and honey. 10. ¶ For the land whither thou goest in to possess it, it not as the land of Egypt from whence ye came out, where thou sowest thy seed, and watered it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs. 11. But

But the land whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: 12. A land which the LORD thy God’s careth for: ’the eyes of the LORD thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year. 13. ¶ And it shall come to pals, if you shall hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love the LORD your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul: 14. That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, ’the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayst gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. 15. And I will send grafs in thy fields, for thy cattle, that thou mayst eat and be full. 16. Take heed to yourselves, ’that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn slide, and ‘serve other gods, and worship them: 17. And then the LORD’s wrath be kindled against you, and ‘he flut up the heaven that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit, and do’ ye perth quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you.

1. The way to conquer was obedience. On this depended their strength, for then the might God would be their helper; and thus also they would secure long possessions, which site they would quickly forfeit. Note, Sin thereon the days of the wicked, and causes the lands to cost out their inhabitants. 2. On their obedience also the fertility of their land depended. Curtain was not like Egypt, which had the Nile cut into innumerable canals, from whence the ground was watered; but mould in footholdness to the descending rains, which God would cause to descend plentifully upon them, and make them over flow with corn, and wine, and oil. Note, (1.) Mercies coming from the immediate hand of God are doubly favor. (2.) Godliness hath the promise of the life that now is. (3.) The more we enjoy from God’s gift, the more bound we are to live to God’s glory. 3. The consequences of their disobedience would be the very reverie of all this. If they turned aside to idols, the wrath of God would be kindled against them, and they would be utterly consumed from the good land, and the land itself be her desolate, under the curve of God; the fulfilment of which is this day most visible, it being now a most barren spot, and almost without inhabitants. Note, They who will not be influenced by God’s mercies, will sink under his judgments.

2. ¶ Therefore ‘shall ye lay up these my words in your heart, and in your soul, and ‘bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontless between your eyes. 19. ¶ And ye shall teach them your children; speaking of them when thou fittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou lift down, and when thou ridest up. 20. And thou shalt write them upon the door-posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: 21. That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD swore unto your fathers to give them, ‘as the days of heaven upon the earth. 22. ¶ For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you to do them, to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him: 23. Then will the LORD derive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations, and mightier than yourselves. 24. ¶ Every place, whereon the foies of your feet shall tread, shall be yours: ‘from the wilderness, and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even unto the uttermost sea, shall your coast be. 25. There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the LORD your God shall lay the fear of you, and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, ‘as he hath said unto you.

Deuteronomy 11:18-25

Though these directions had been given before, they were to turn expeditions; all was little enough for their admonition. 1. They are charged to lay up these words in their memories, and to embrace them with cordial affection; to place them ever in their view, that they may not be forgotten, and to be talking of them at home and abroad, making them matter of constant infraction to their children, and of familiar converse with their friends. Note, When the heart is filled with the knowledge and love of God’s word, the lips will ever be bringing forth that good conversation which ministers grace to the hearers. 2. The blessing assured them in certain possessions of the land of Canaan, an enlargement of their borders to Euphrates, with an abiding inheritance for their

Vol. I.

children; and security from all their foes; whom an holy awe should restrain from daring to molest them. Note, (1.) Religion flamps a reverence on its possessions, which keeps their enemies in awe of them. (2.) Godliness, transmitted with our possessions, is the furett means to perpetuate them in our families.

Before Chas. 1

26. ¶ Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse: 27. A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you this day: 28. And ‘a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods which ye have not known. 29. And it shall come to pals when the LORD thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goeth to possess it, that thou shalt put ’the blessing upon mounts Gerizans, and the curse upon mount Ebal. 30. Are they not on the other side Jordan, be the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the clams, pain over-against Gilgal, ‘beside the plains of Murel? 31. For ye shall pals over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God giveth you, and ye shall possess it and dwell therein. 32. And ye shall observe ’to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.

Deuteronomy 11:26-32

Mules sums up the substance of his discourse, that being brought to a point it might be the easier remembered. 1. It contains a blessing and a curse. A blessing on obedience rich and most defensible, a curse on disobedience nations and dreadful. The matter was plain beyond mistake; and on their own choice it depended, whether to have God their friend or their enemy. The way to heaven and hell is plain and evident in God’s word; if men will not see, and will not walk aright, their blood is on their own heads. 2. On their possessing the land, there is a solemn publication of this blessing and curse appointed on mount Ebal and mount Gerizans, that no man might plead ignorance, and that their own consent to them on rehearsal, might engage their hearts more firmly to obedience, or leave them more inexcusable in their guilt.