Deuteronomy 11 explained: Rain, Memory and a Choice

You saw it yourselves (vv. 1-7)

Moses speaks to adults who had lived through the escape from Egypt, the drowning of Pharaoh's army and the years in the wilderness. Dathan and Abiram led a revolt against Moses, and the ground swallowed them and their households (Numbers 16), a grim memory of how seriously God treated that rebellion.

A land watered from the sky (vv. 8-12)

Egypt was flat and almost rainless, so farmers relied on the Nile's yearly flood and small channels they opened and closed with their feet. Canaan's hills and valleys depended on rain instead, so each harvest would come as a gift of God's care rather than human effort alone.

Rain as blessing, drought as warning (vv. 13-17)

The autumn rain softened the baked summer ground for planting, and the spring rain swelled the crops just before harvest. If the people turned to other gods, some of whom were worshiped as gods of storm and fertility, the warning is that the sky would close and the land would fail them.

Keep these words close (vv. 18-21)

God's words were to fill daily life: worn on the hand and forehead, written on doorframes, talked about at home and on the road. Jewish practice came to keep this with small cases of scripture worn in prayer and fixed to doorposts, and this passage is still recited daily in Jewish prayer.

The promise of the land (vv. 22-25)

God promises to drive out stronger nations and give Israel land from the southern desert to Lebanon and from the Euphrates to the Mediterranean, borders the Bible describes as reached only around Solomon's time. The text is plain that this meant other peoples losing their homes, and readers today wrestle honestly with that.

Blessing and curse on two mountains (vv. 26-32)

Gerizim and Ebal are two mountains facing each other near the town of Shechem. Once in the land, the people were to announce the blessings from one and the curses from the other, making their choice visible (chapter 27 gives further instructions, and Joshua 8 describes it being done).

Key verse: Deuteronomy 11:26

Where Christians differ

Christians differ on whether this chapter's promise of good harvests for obedience and hardship for disobedience still applies to people today, or belonged specifically to ancient Israel's agreement with God in that land.

Something to think about

Is something you lived through yourself harder to walk away from than something you only heard about from others?