AM Bible Study Group; June 1, 2011
Deuteronomy 11:2-32
Theme: In this chapter—immediately before articulating the details of the law—Moses sets before the people the blessings of obedience; and urges the people to obey and be blessed.
This eleventh chapter is very important in the structure of Deuteronomy. It’s the chapter that immediately proceeded the giving of the book of the law (chapters 12-26). The reciting of the book of the law is “bookended” with a testimony of blessing and cursing; first here in this chapter and once again in chapters 27-28. The thrust of this closing appeal, then, is the blessing of obedience and the curse of disobedience; along with a heartfelt call to obey and be blessed.
The blessings of obedience and the cursedness of disobedience is a universal principle in God’s moral universe (see Romans 2:1-16). Salvation is by God’s grace; but the stands—just as much for us as it did for the people of Israel—that obedience to God’s commandments leads to blessing. Moses calls the people to obey God’s commandments—and thus experience His blessings . . .
I. THROUGH A REMINDER OF GOD’S GREATNESS TOWARD THEM (vv. 2-7).
A. Moses stresses that the people to whom he was speaking were not ignorant of the great works of God. They saw them with their own eyes (v. 2). He was not speaking to their children who did not see these things, but to they themselves who—even though they may have been little at the time—were old enough to have been eyewitnesses to the works of God that He performed before the former generation (v. 7; see Numbers 14:28- 31).
B. God demonstrated His greatness to this second generation through:
1. His works toward Egypt (vv. 3-4). They saw how God had brought the plagues upon Pharaoh and the people of Egypt; and they saw how He destroyed the armies of Egypt in the Red Sea. What a demonstration of the greatness of God’s power toward them that was!
2. His works in the wilderness (v. 5). They were the generation that—for most of their lives—saw God’s provision for them daily through the wilderness in providing manna and in leading them by the cloudy pillar.
3. His works of discipline (v. 6). They saw that God not only punished the enemies of His people and provided for them; but they also saw how God even punished His own people when they rebel against Him (see Numbers 16).
C. The key note of these first few verses is the “chastening” or “discipline” of the Lord (see verse 2). The Lord chastens those He loves (see Hebrews 12:5-11). We need to be alert to God’s work of faithfulness in our own lives—both in terms of His gracious provision to us and of His discipline of us; so that we, ourselves, are also spurred on to faithful obedience.
II. THROUGH AN AFFIRMATION OF THEIR DEPENDENCY ON HIM (vv. 8-17).
A. Moses reminded the people that they were about to enter into the promised land that God purposed to give them. It was a place of great blessing; but it would not be by their own power that they could obtain it. They could only have it as He gave it to them; and so they needed to be obedient to Him so that they would be made strong by Him, and could thus “go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess” (vv. 8-9).
B. Moses reminded them that it was not like the land from which they came. Egypt was a flat land that was watered through trenches drawn from the Nile (v. 9). The fact that this land was worked by their foot may have been a reminder of their slavery—working the land without tools. But the land to which they were going was a land of hills and valleys that God Himself watered (vv. 11-12). This would have been a clear promise of God’s blessing But note also that it was a land that God Himself watered—reminding them of their constant need to obey. If they obeyed, God would bless the land with the early and late rains (vv. 13-15; that is, the rains in October-December that watered and softened the land for sowing; and the rains in March-April that watered the seed for growth and harvest). But if they disobeyed and turned from Him to other gods, He would withhold the rains (vv. 16-17; see also Amos 4:6-10).
C. God’s blessings are never meant to turn us away in independence from Him. Moses warned them earlier not to forget the God who gives them all these great blessings by turning away from His commandments (Deuteronomy 6:10-19).
III. THROUGH A CALL TO PASS HIS LAW ON TO THEIR CHILDREN (vv. 18-25).
A. Moses reminded them to, therefore, be careful to teach the law to their children and make the law a daily part of their lives (vv. 18-21). These words were very much like what he told them in 6:4-9. How important it is that the law of God not be put somewhere in a ‘religious’ compartment of life, but that it be made a vital part of all that we are and do!
B. Obedience to God’s law would secure to them the blessing of being able to conquer the land and remain long in the territory that God was giving them (vv. 22-25). The phrase “like the days of the heavens above the earth” in verse 21 is meant to communicate a perpetual inhabitation of the land (see also Psalm 72:5; 89:29).
IV. THROUGH A MEMORIAL OF BLESSING AND CURSING (vv. 26-32).
A. Moses said that, in teaching them all these things, he was setting before them “blessing and cursing”: blessings if they will obey, and cursing if they will not. The choice of what they would experience would be up to them (vv. 26-28).
B. When they got into the land, they were to literally set up a monument to the blessing and the cursing. This was eventually done in Joshua 8:30-35. Note that the place in which this was to occur was “beside the terebinth trees of Moreh”—which was the spot from which God promised the land to Abraham (Genesis 12:6). Thus, their enjoyment of the land of the promise He made to Abraham would always be coupled with a reminder of their need to obey (vv. 29-32).