The Law · Chapter 11 of 34

Deuteronomy 11

Moses calls Israel to love and obey the LORD, reminding the generation that saw His mighty acts in Egypt and the wilderness. The promised land depends on rain from heaven and on hearts that do not turn to other gods. He urges them to bind God's words on hand and heart, teach them to their children, and choose the blessing over the curse set before them.

What happens in Deuteronomy 11

Moses charges Israel to love the LORD and keep His commandments always. He appeals to the adults who witnessed God's miracles: the judgments on Egypt, the Red Sea overwhelming Pharaoh's army, and the earth swallowing Dathan and Abiram. Because their own eyes saw these acts, they are to obey and be strong to possess the land. Unlike Egypt, watered by human labor, this land drinks rain from heaven and is watched over by God all year.

If they love and serve Him, He sends the early and latter rains and full harvests; if they turn to other gods, He shuts the heavens. So they must lay up His words in heart and soul, bind them as signs, teach them to their children constantly, and write them on their doorposts. Moses sets before them a blessing for obedience and a curse for turning aside, to be proclaimed on Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal once they cross over.

Deuteronomy 11 in context

Concluding the opening exhortations of Moses' second address, this chapter presses the assembled generation toward decision before the covenant laws are detailed in the chapters that follow. Israel is moving from Egypt's irrigation, where humans control water, into a land wholly dependent on heaven's rain, a geography that teaches daily reliance on God.

The blessing and curse anticipate the covenant ceremony at Shechem, framing the entire land as a place of ongoing moral response.

Main themes of Deuteronomy 11

Deuteronomy 11 (KJV)

1Therefore thou shalt love the LORD thy God, and keep his charge, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments, alway. 2And know ye 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 stretched out arm, 3And his miracles, and his acts, which he did in the midst of Egypt unto Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and unto all his land; 4And 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; 5And what he did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came into this place; 6And what he did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up, and their households, and their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel: 7But your eyes have seen all the great acts of the LORD which he did. 8Therefore 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 ye go to possess it; 9And that ye may prolong your days in the land, which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey. 10For the land, whither thou goest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs: 11But the land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven: 12A land which the LORD thy God 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. 13And it shall come to pass, if ye 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, 14That I will give you the rain of your land in his due season, the first rain and the latter rain, that thou mayest gather in thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil. 15And I will send grass in thy fields for thy cattle, that thou mayest eat and be full. 16Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them; 17And then the LORD’s wrath be kindled against you, and he shut up the heaven, that there be no rain, and that the land yield not her fruit; and lest ye perish quickly from off the good land which the LORD giveth you. 18Therefore 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 frontlets between your eyes. 19And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. 20And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: 21That your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which the LORD sware unto your fathers to give them, as the days of heaven upon the earth. 22For 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; 23Then will the LORD drive out all these nations from before you, and ye shall possess greater nations and mightier than yourselves. 24Every place whereon the soles 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. 25There 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. 26Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; 27A blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day: 28And 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. 29And it shall come to pass, when the LORD thy God hath brought thee in unto the land whither thou goest to possess it, that thou shalt put the blessing upon mount Gerizim, and the curse upon mount Ebal. 30Are they not on the other side Jordan, by the way where the sun goeth down, in the land of the Canaanites, which dwell in the champaign over against Gilgal, beside the plains of Moreh? 31For ye shall pass over Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God giveth you, and ye shall possess it, and dwell therein. 32And ye shall observe to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.

Verses to carry from Deuteronomy 11

“And it shall come to pass, if ye 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,”Deuteronomy 11:13

“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 frontlets between your eyes.”Deuteronomy 11:18

“Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse;”Deuteronomy 11:26

Reflection

Consider how easily faith becomes a compartment rather than the air your household breathes. Moses wants God's words in your waking, walking, resting, and speaking. Choose one ordinary rhythm today, a meal, a commute, a bedtime, and deliberately fill it with God's words, passing the blessing forward to those near you.

A prayer from Deuteronomy 11