Deuteronomy 11:1-9

An Inducement to Keep his Laws

v. 1. Therefore thou shalt love the Lord, thy God, and keep His charge, whatever He has ordained to be observed, and His statutes, and His judgments, and His commandments, alway. This admonition is repeated time and again, as being the basis of all the other exhortations.

v. 2. And know ye this day, think it over carefully, in order to understand it properly; for I speak not with your children which have not known, and which have not seen the chastisement of the Lord, your God, the many vicissitudes of the wilderness journey, whose purpose was to instruct, educate, the people in the duties toward God, His greatness, His mighty hand, and His stretched-out arm. Those of the people who had been less than twenty years old when the host reached Kadesh for the first time, and therefore were now between forty and sixty years old, are here addressed; for them the wilderness journey had been a school and a training.

v. 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,

v. 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, literally, "over whose faces He let flow the waters of the Red Sea," as they pursued after you, and how the Lord hath destroyed them unto this day, their redemption from the yoke of Egypt had been perfect;

v. 5. and what He did unto you in the wilderness, until ye came in to this place, all the manifestations of the divine power connected with the wilderness journey;

v. 6. and what He did unto Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, in the rebellion of Korah, Numbers 16; 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, literally, "all the possession, the property which was at their feet," that is, their slaves and attendants, in the midst of all Israel;

v. 7. but your eyes have seen all the great acts of the Lord which He did, and whose purpose was to train Israel in the fear and in the love of God.

v. 8. Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I, as the representative of God, command you this day, that ye may be strong and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it; for they had need of great spiritual strength for keeping the Lord's precepts and for remaining His people in the Land of Promise;

v. 9. and that ye may prolong your days in the land which the Lord sware unto your fathers, the patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, to give unto them and to their seed, a land that floweth with milk and honey. Cf Deuteronomy 4:26; Deuteronomy 6:3. A long and happy life as the reward of faithfulness and obedience is here again made an inducement to the children of Israel, even as temporal blessings are held out before the believers of the New Testament in order to spur them on in their efforts to please the Lord.