Deuteronomy 11

Therefore you must love the LORD your God, and always keep his requirements, and his statutes, and his judgments, and his commandments. 2 And this day you know (for I am not speaking to your children who have not known and have not seen the discipline of the LORD your God), his greatness, his mighty hand and his stretched out arm, 3 and his miracles and his deeds which he did in the midst of Egypt to Pharaoh the king of Egypt, and to all his land, 4 and what he did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and to their chariots, and how he made the water of the Red Sea to flow over them as they pursued you, and how the LORD brought destruction on them lasting to this day, 5 and what he did to you in the desert until you came to this place, 6 and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben, how the earth opened her mouth and, in the middle of all Israel, swallowed them up with their households and their tents and all the substance that they had. 7 For your eyes have seen all the great deeds of the LORD which he did.

8 Therefore you must keep all the commandments which I command you this day, so that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land, where you are going to possess it; 9 and that you may live a long time in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give to them and to their offspring, a land that flows with milk and honey. 10 For the land which you go in to possess is not like the land of Egypt, which you came out from, where you sowed your seed, and watered it with your foot, like a vegetable garden. 11 But the land, where you are going to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinks water from the rain of heaven; 12 a land which the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

13 And it will come about, if you listen obediently to 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, 14 that I will give rain for your land in its due season, the early rain and the latter rain, so that you can harvest your grain, and your wine, and your oil. 15 And I will give grass in your fields for your livestock, so that you may eat and be satisfied.

11:13-15 Obedience to God brings great rewards.⚜

16 Watch yourselves, so that your heart is not deceived, and you turn away and serve other gods and worship them. 17 For if you do, the LORD’s wrath will burn against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will not yield its fruit; and you will perish quickly from the good land which the LORD gives you.

11:17 Rain is a gift of God which He may withhold in anger against idolatry and false worship. Notes on God’s anger at Num 25:3; Ps 90:7-11.⚜

18 Therefore you must store up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and tie them as a sign on your hand, that they may be as frontlets on your forehead. 19 And you must teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house and when you walk on the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 20 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house, and on your gates, 21 so that the number of your days and the days of your children may be increased in the land which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, as many as the days that the heavens are above the earth.

22 For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you, doing them, loving the LORD your God, walking in all his ways, and clinging to him, 23 then the LORD will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and stronger nations than yourselves. 24 Every place the soles of your feet tread on will be yours. Your territory will be from the desert to Lebanon, from the river, the River Euphrates, to the western sea. 25 No man will be able to stand before you; for the LORD your God will put the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you tread on, just as he has said to you.

26 See, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; 27 a blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you this day, 28 and a curse, if you 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 you have not known.

11:26-28 Deut 30:1, 19; 28:1-14; 28:15-68. No one can ever get a true blessing from any god, but only from the one true God, the Creator, the God of the Bible. Whatever might seem like blessings derived from the worship of other gods are false and deluding and will result in a curse at last, as God Himself says. Sometimes in mercy the true God gives what people need, even though they pray to false gods.⚜

29 And this is to be done when the LORD your God has brought you into the land where you are going to possess it: you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30 Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, on the way toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who live in the plain opposite Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? 31 For you will cross over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you will possess it and live in it. 32 And you must be careful to do all the statutes and judgments which I set before you this day.