Deuteronomy 11, Blessing and Curse

Moses wraps up the concepts that revolve around the first great commandment, to love and obey YHWH.

Deuteronomy 11: 1, Love the Lord

Love the Lord your God and keep his requirements, his decrees, his laws and his commands always. 

This first verse summarizes the recent chapters and provides a transition into the next passage.

Deuteronomy 11: 2-7, Mighty hand and outstretched arm

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; 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; 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. 

It was not your children who saw what he did for you in the wilderness until you arrived at this place, 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. 

But it was your own eyes that saw all these great things the Lord has done.

Moses's audience did not experience Egypt but heard about it. Their children (alive now, or to come) will not have experienced Egypt either and must be told about it. As we remember Egypt, the attributes of a Pharaoh, with a "might hand and outstretched arm" are used to describe only YHWH.

The rebellion of Dathan and Abiram is told in Numbers 16.

Deuteronomy 11: 8-12, You are entering a better land!

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, and so that you may live long in the land that the LORD swore to your forefathers to give to them and their descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey.

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. But the land you are crossing the Jordan to take possession of is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks rain from heaven. 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.

This land is much better than Egypt!  It drinks rain from heaven! 

Deuteronomy 11: 13-15, Rain promised, for the grain, new wine and oil

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-- then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied.

Again, I see images of Eden. If the Israelites obey and honor God, if they worship and love Him, they will see a land much closer to Eden, a land with abundant crops and beauty. The autumn and spring rains here are literally the "early" and "late" rains, that is, the rains at the beginning and end of the harvest season. In a dry land like Canaan, rain was always a gift.

Deuteronomy 11: 16-17, But you will be enticed

 Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. 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.

There will always be inhabitants who want to entice the Israelites into idol worship.

Deuteronomy 11: 18-21, Shema reviewed

Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 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. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates, so that your days and the days of your children may be many in the land that the LORD swore to give your forefathers, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.
 

This repeats the instructions of Deuteronomy 6: 6-9, forming an inclusio (set of bookends) to this set of teaching on putting YHWH first in all things. If the Israelites will put YHWH first, they will have bounty as long as the earth lasts.

Deuteronomy 11: 22-25, "I will drive out the nations!"

If you carefully observe all these commands I am giving you to follow--to love the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways and to hold fast to him--then the LORD will drive out all these nations before you, and you will dispossess nations larger and stronger than you. Every place where you set your foot will be yours: Your territory will extend from the desert to Lebanon, and from the Euphrates River to the western sea. No man 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.

The conquest of the promised land will take time, but should be extensive.

Deuteronomy 11: 26-30, Blessing and curse

See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse--the blessing if you obey the commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today; 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.

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. As you know, these mountains are across the Jordan, west of the road, toward the setting sun, near the great trees of Moreh, in the territory of those Canaanites living in the Arabah in the vicinity of Gilgal.

Each statement of blessing includes its opposite.  With a blessing for obedience and faithfulness comes a curse for infidelity and idolatry.  These two choices are to be represented by a covenant renewal ceremony on the two mountains Gerizim and Ebal. Those two mountains are on opposite sides of the ancient city of Shechem.

The "great trees of Moreh" hark back to Abram's first steps in Canaan in Genesis 12:6. 

Deuteronomy 11: 31-32, Take possession and obey

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, be sure that you obey all the decrees and laws I am setting before you today.

The conquest of the promised land will take time, but should be extensive. The last few verses echo Deuteronomy 6: 1-2 and summarize the material in chapters 6 through 11.