Deuteronomy 11 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Ch.8 – 11   Maintaining a Right Perspective

Passage: Deut 11:1-9

1 Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. 2 Remember today that your children were not the ones who saw and experienced the discipline of the Lord your God: his majesty, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm; 3 the signs he performed and the things he did in the heart of Egypt, both to Pharaoh king of Egypt and to his whole country; 4 what he did to the Egyptian army, to its horses and chariots, how he overwhelmed them with the waters of the Red Sea as they were pursuing you, and how the Lord brought lasting ruin on them. 5 It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the wilderness until you arrived at this place, 6 and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab the Reubenite, when the earth opened its mouth right in the middle of all Israel and swallowed them up with their households, their tents and every living thing that belonged to them. 7 But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the Lord has done. 8 Observe therefore all the commands I am giving you today, so that you may have the strength to go in and take over the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess, 9 and so that you may live long in the land that the Lord swore to your ancestors to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

A. Find Out:

1. What is the first instruction here? v.1
2. Why are they to do that? v.8,9
3. What, in general, had their children not done? v.2
4. What were the early specifics of that? v.3,4
5. What were the later specifics of that? v.5,6
6. Who had seen it all though? v.7

B. Think:

1. Why do you think Moses is talking about their children?
2. So what point is he making specifically to them and why?
3. What is the overall point of this passage?

C. Comment:

     Again and again in these chapters, Moses is calling Israel to make sure that when they go into the Land they obey the Lord. The point is that he is not going to go in with them and so he wants to ensure, to the best of his ability, he has prepared them before he leaves them. Thus, yet again he exhorts them to both love and obey the Lord. He keeps on doing that in different ways.

     Now his exhortation is accompanied by a reminder of who it was who has seen all the amazing things the Lord has done. He does this by making the point that it was NOT their children who saw all these things. Now this probably has a twofold purpose. First, it emphasises that it is they, the older generation that he is addressing, who saw these things. Therefore they have them in their memories and they should not allow themselves to forget. Second, it may be a subtle reminder that their children will need teaching these things (remember 4:9 & 6:7,20,21) because they don’t have those memories. But they, the adults, HAD seen them and so they will have no excuses.

      The call again, therefore, is to obey the Lord, and yet again that is linked with their success. IF they obey THEN they will be able to go in and take the land AND live long in it. Obedience is specific and practical and it has specific and practical out-workings.

D. Application:

1. What we have experienced is in our memories to strengthen us.
2. Being obedient always brings blessing. Let’s make sure we are.

Passage: Deut 11:10-21

10 The land you are entering to take over is not like the land of Egypt, from which you have come, where you planted your seed and irrigated it by foot as in a vegetable garden. 11 But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. 12 It is a land the Lord your God cares for; the eyes of the Lord your God are continually on it from the beginning of the year to its end.

13 So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today – to love the Lord your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul – 14 then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your corn, new wine and olive oil. 15 I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.

16 Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. 17 Then the Lord’s anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the Lord is giving you. 18 Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 19 Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 Write them on the door-frames of your houses and on your gates, 21 so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the Lord swore to give your ancestors, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

A. Find Out:

1. How had they carried out agriculture in Egypt ? v.10
2. How was the new land going to be different? v.11,12
3. So what is he calling them yet again to do? v.13
4. What will the Lord do if they do this? v.14,15
5. What would interfere with that? v.16,17
6. So what are they to do, for what result? v.18-21

B. Think:

1. What distinction is the Lord giving between Egypt and the new land?
2. What indication is there that this is prophecy, the Lord talking?
3. How are ‘natural events’ seen to be His working?

C. Comment:

     A number of times Moses has spoken about the Land into which they will soon be going, and largely as an incentive to obey the commands of the Lord. Now he adds to that incentive by more fully describing the Land. When you were in Egypt, he says, you had to dig irrigation channels from the rivers to water your seed, or even carry it in by foot, but when you enter this new Land, you will find it is a land of both mountains and valleys that are well watered by the rain. Indeed, there are two seasons of rain that will make it especially verdant.

     At this point in the narrative, it seems to have a prophetic edge and it seems to be the Lord specifically speaking now (v.14,15). Why might this be? Possibly because He wants to emphasize that it is HE who will bring the rain and bless the Land; it will not be a mere natural thing. Moses then takes over again (v.16), warning them not to turn to idols, because if they do that, the Lord will show His anger by withholding the rain. The message is clear: once you see how good the Land is, don’t take it for granted, it still depends on your relationship with the Lord!

      Finally, Moses repeats an exhortation he has already given (6:6-9) to ensure that they really hold on to all these words and not forget them. Indeed, more than that, they are to teach them to their children so that they will always live by them as well.

D. Application:

1. The Lord rules – over nature as well as all else!
2. God’s blessing is directly linked to our relationship. Remember that!

Passage: Deut 11:22-32

22 If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow – to love the Lord your God, to walk in obedience to him and to hold fast to him – 23 then the Lord will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you. 24 Every place where you set your foot will be yours: your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the River Euphrates to the Mediterranean Sea. 25 No one will be able to stand against you. The Lord your God, as he promised you, will put the terror and fear of you on the whole land, wherever you go.

26 See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse – 27 the blessing if you obey the commands of the Lord your God that I am giving you today; 28 the curse if you disobey the commands of the Lord your God and turn from the way that I command you today by following other gods, which you have not known. 29 When the Lord your God has brought you into the land you are entering to possess, you are to proclaim on Mount Gerizim the blessings, and on Mount Ebal the curses. 30 As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, westward, towards the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh, in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal. 31 You are about to cross the Jordan to enter and take possession of the land the Lord your God is giving you. When you have taken it over and are living there, 32 be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today.

A. Find Out:

1. What again did he lay before them? v.22
2. What was the promise if they did that? v.23-25
3. What two things was he putting before them? v.26-28
4. What are they to do with them, and when? v.29
5. Where was he talking about? v.29,30
6. What was his final instruction? v.31,32

B. Think:

1. What was Israel’s prime responsibility?
2. What would be the Lord’s response?
3. What do you understand by blessings and curses?

C. Comment:

     We draw near to the end of this block where Moses exhorts faithfulness to the Lord. In winding up (before he moves on the stipulate specific laws he is leaving with them – see separate set of studies) he reiterates, first of all, his primary call to Israel: to keep all God’s laws, to love Him, to follow His ways, and stick close to Him. This he has said again and again. He links this as being the condition for the Lord to do His side of things: to enable them to drive out the present occupants and take possession of all the land. Their part will be to go to war against any who remain in the land, and the Lord’s part will be to put terror into the minds of the inhabitants so they can easily be conquered if they stay.

       In summing this up, he declares that this is all coming as a combination of blessings and curses, the detail of which you can find in chapters 27 and 28 of Deuteronomy. A blessing is simply a decree of good from heaven. A curse is simply a decree of bad from heaven. Thus, in general, if they obey the Lord He will decree good for them. If they reject the Lord and do evil, He will decree bad for them. It is as simple as that. When they get into the land they are to pronounce the blessings and curses publicly. They will be basis of the relationship between the Lord and Israel for the future. All else can be explained by them. Watch Israel ‘s future, think of these and you will understand what follows.

D. Application:

1. Obedience to God always brings His decree of good.
2. Disobedience always brings His decree of bad (discipline!).