Remember What Your Eyes Have Seen
Moses reminds those who saw it what our Father did in Egypt and to Dathan and Abiram. The promised land is not irrigated by foot like Egypt; it drinks rain from heaven, so its harvests depend on him. Blessing and curse are set on two mountains facing each other.
11 1So love your Father, and keep his requirements, his statutes, his decrees, and his commandments always. 2Know today—I'm not speaking to your children, who never experienced or saw your Father's discipline, his greatness, his mighty hand, his outstretched arm, 3his signs and deeds done throughout Egypt to Pharaoh king of Egypt and all his land, 4what he did to Egypt's army, its horses and chariots, sweeping the Red Sea's waters over them as they chased you, and our Father destroyed them to this day; 5what he did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; 6and what he did to Dathan and Abiram, sons of Eliab son of Reuben—when the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them, their households, tents, and every living thing following them, amid all Israel. 7For your own eyes have seen every great work our Father has done.
8Keep the whole command I give you today, so you'll be strong, enter, and possess the land you're crossing into to possess, 9so you may live long in the land our Father swore to give your ancestors and descendants, a land flowing with milk and honey. 10The land you're entering to possess is not like the land of Egypt you left, where you planted your seed and watered it by foot, like a vegetable garden. a a v10 Egyptian farmers used foot-operated channels to direct Nile floodwater across flat fields — nothing like Canaan's rain-fed hills. 11But the land you're crossing to possess is hills and valleys, drinking water from the sky's rain. 12A land your Father cares for; your Father's eyes always on it, from year's start to year's end. 13If you truly obey the commands I give you today—loving your Father and serving him with all your heart and all your soul. 14I will give your land rain in its season, early and late, so you gather your grain, your new wine, and your oil. b b v14 The early rains fall in autumn to soften the ground for planting; the late rains come in spring just before harvest. 15I will give grass in your field for your livestock, and you will eat and be full. 16Take care that your heart is not deceived, and that you do not turn away and serve other gods and bow down to them, 17our Father's anger burns against you; he shuts the heavens—no rain, the ground yields no harvest—and you soon perish from the good land our Father gives you.
18So set these words of mine in your heart and soul; bind them as a sign on your hand, and let them be as reminders on your forehead. c c v18 "Frontlets" were small cases holding written portions of Scripture, bound to the forehead — the practice later called wearing tefillin (phylacteries). The command pictures keeping our Father's words constantly before your eyes. 19Teach them to your children—speak of them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you rise up. 20And write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21so you and your children may live long in the land our Father swore to give your ancestors, as long as the heavens are above the earth. 22If you carefully keep this whole command I give you—to love your Father, walk in all his ways, and hold fast to him, 23then our Father will drive out all these nations before you, and you'll dispossess nations greater and stronger than you. 24Every place your foot treads will be yours: your border will be from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the River, the Euphrates, to the western sea. d d v24 The "western sea" is the Mediterranean Sea, which lay on Israel's western edge. 25No one will be able to stand against you; your Father will put fear and dread of you on every land you tread, as he promised.
26See, I am setting before you today a blessing and a curse: 27the blessing, if you obey the commandments of your Father that I am commanding you today; 28and the curse, if you disobey your Father's commands, but turn from the way I command you today, to follow other gods you have not known. 29When your Father brings you to the land you enter to possess, you are to proclaim the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30Are they not beyond the Jordan, westward, in the land of Canaanites living in the Arabah, opposite Gilgal, near the oaks of Moreh? 31You are crossing the Jordan to enter and take the land your Father gives you; you will possess it and live in it. 32Carefully obey all the statutes and decrees I give you today.
