And it shall come to pass, if ye hearken diligently unto my commandments which I command you this day, to love Jehovah your God, and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul,
Moses gives this promise about a land with no great river — a land that lives on rain from heaven. The "if" at the start of the verse ties the whole harvest to one thing: whether the people will love and serve God with all their heart.
The promise only makes sense against the picture drawn a few verses earlier. Egypt fed itself; Canaan had to receive.
What a vivid contrast between Egypt and Canaan! Egypt had no rain from heaven. It was all human effort there. It was not so in the Lord's land. The human foot could do nothing there, and there was no need. The blessed rain from heaven dropped upon it. The Lord Himself cared for it and watered it with the early and latter rain. The land of Egypt depended on its own resources. The land of Canaan depended wholly on God — on what came down from heaven. "My river is my own," was the language of Egypt. "The river of God" was the hope of Canaan. The habit in Egypt was to water with the foot; the habit in Canaan was to look up to heaven.
The verse does not treat obedience as an extra. It is the arrangement God set up for getting the rain into the land at all.
Obedience, then, was the appointed means for giving the early and later rain. That rain was needed if their blessing was to continue and be enjoyed. The book of Deuteronomy sets out the mind of the Lord about how the people were to live in the land. It is rightly called the book of obedience.
The verse names commandments, but what it asks for is love. The rest of Deuteronomy makes that plain.
Deuteronomy 6:4-5 shows that the Lord our God requires the affection of the whole heart. Deuteronomy 11:13-15 shows that if they would only love the Lord with all their heart, they would have everything they could wish for. Thus the important thing is to love the Lord... If we realise this then it will be easy to serve Him.
What God asks and what God gives fit together. Each side has its own part.
Nothing could be simpler, nothing more blessed. It was Israel's high and holy privilege to love and serve the Lord; it was the Lord's prerogative to bless and prosper Israel. Obedience was sure to bring happiness and fruitfulness. All their supplies were to come down from heaven. So as long as they walked in loving obedience, plentiful showers dropped upon their fields and vineyards.
Israel's later history is the test case. The rain stopped — and the withholding itself had a purpose.
The Lord's original promise to Israel was this: if they would obey His commandments, love Him, and serve Him with all their heart and soul, He would give the rain for their land in its season. But Israel had forfeited that promise by their disobedience and their departure from their God. So God withheld both the early and the latter rain as chastisement. This is a lesson for every age. God never withholds from His people except to draw out their sense of need, and to teach them that He alone is the source of blessing.
Christians do not live under Israel's terms. Even so, the same lesson holds for them.
Now, in all this there is deep practical instruction for the church of God. Although we are not under law, God calls us to obedience. As grace enables us to give a loving, hearty obedience, we are blessed in our own spiritual state. Our souls are watered, refreshed and strengthened.
Another writer applies the picture of the land to the Christian's inheritance:
This pictures the spiritual inheritance of Christians today. We are blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. That is unlike the earthly, material blessings of the people of the world. So we depend not on our surrounding circumstances, but on the blessing of God from heaven.
- Rain, not river. Canaan had no Nile. Everything depended on what came down, so the whole nation lived with its face turned upward.
- Obedience opens heaven. It was the appointed means for the early and latter rain. That is why Deuteronomy is called the book of obedience.
- Love is the real command. Behind the statutes stands one requirement: the affection of the whole heart. Get that right, and everything they could wish for was theirs.
- Drought teaches. When Israel turned away, God withheld the rain. He never withholds except to draw out a sense of need and show that He alone is the source.
- Still watered from above. Christians are not under law. Yet loving obedience still leaves the soul watered, refreshed and strengthened — by blessing from heaven, not from circumstances.
that I will give rain to your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain; and thou shalt gather in thy corn, and thy new wine, and thine oil;
Moses is describing daily life in a land with no great river. There the harvest depends on rain, and God alone sends it. The promise of grain, wine and oil answers the words just before it: God gives this supply to a people who love and serve Him.
A few lines earlier, Moses contrasts the country Israel left with the country they were entering.
What a vivid contrast between Egypt and Canaan! Egypt had no rain from heaven. It was all human effort there. It was not so in the Lord's land. There the human foot could do nothing, and it did not need to. The blessed rain from heaven fell on it. The Lord Himself cared for that land and watered it with the early and latter rain. Egypt depended on its own resources. Canaan depended completely on God — on what came down from heaven. "My river is my own," was the language of Egypt. "The river of God" was the hope of Canaan. The habit in Egypt was to water with the foot; the habit in Canaan was to look up to heaven.
The two rains named here are not a poetic doubling. Each does a different job in the farming year.
Moses described the land before them as a good land of plenty where they would "eat and be full." The Lord would supply in its season the rain they could not do without. The "early" rain would prepare the soil for autumn sowing. The "latter" or spring rain would swell the grain for ripening and harvest.
God promises the rain, but the promise has an "if" attached. This book presses the point.
So obedience was the appointed means for the giving of the early and later rain. They needed that rain most, so that their blessing might continue and be enjoyed. Deuteronomy sets out the mind of the Lord about the people's conduct in the land, and rightly bears the name the book of obedience. That is why they needed the word, "Take heed to yourselves." Strange gods, and other things put in the place of the Lord, His land and His things, must have no place with them. Such things bring judgment. One special form of that judgment shut up the heaven and withheld the rain, so that blessing ceased.
God does not stay at a distance from the fields.
How perfectly beautiful! Only think of God watering the ridges, and settling the furrows! Think of His stooping down to do the work of a farmer for His people! Yes, and delighting to do it!
The verse names three products. One writer shows how much they cover.
See how full the blessing was that God set before Israel. "The grain, the wine, and the oil" are joined together again and again in Deuteronomy and other scriptures. They take in the produce of the field, the vineyard and the orchard. All of it yields its increase in blessing from Him of whom it is said, "The earth is the Lord's, and the fullness thereof."
One writer observes that oil is added to grain and wine especially in this book, and connects that with what the people were about to enter.
I have noticed that while the corn and the wine are mentioned once or twice in the first four books of the Bible, in Deuteronomy "oil" is added, suggesting perhaps that these things are to be enjoyed in the power of the Spirit of God, for Deuteronomy prepares the people to go into the land.
Israel did not keep the condition, and the rain stopped. What God does next shows why He withholds.
But Israel disobeyed and turned away from their God, and so forfeited this promise. As discipline, God withheld both the early and the latter rain. Now, though, it was His thought to do good to Jerusalem and to His people. So He encourages them to seek His face for a return of their former blessing. He chose to bless them now out of His own pure grace... only He would have them learn their dependence on Him for the blessing they sought, so that He might bring them into a fit state to receive it. This is surely a lesson for all dispensations. God never withholds from His people except to draw out their sense of need.
One writer draws out what the early rain pictures.
The rain speaks of that which comes from above — all that ministry of Christ which the Spirit of God brings from above to refresh and gladden the heart. The word is really "early-rain," and refers to the soft and gentle rain that refreshes the ground in seed time (Deut. 11:14).
- Dependence. Human effort watered Egypt. Canaan had to look up to heaven, and there God's people could not live without Him.
- Condition. Obedience was the appointed means for the rain. Deuteronomy is the book of obedience, and turning to other gods brought the judgment that shut up the heaven.
- Gift. God stoops to water the ridges and settle the furrows — and He delights to do it.
- Fullness. Grain, wine and oil cover field, vineyard and orchard — the whole harvest comes from Him whose earth it is.
- Restoration. Israel forfeited the promise. But God withholds only to draw out a sense of need, and He offers the blessing again out of pure grace.
and I will give grass in thy field for thy cattle; and thou shalt eat and be full.
The promise of Deuteronomy 11 ends with a picture of full stomachs — grass for the animals, food enough for the people. Everything in it hangs on where the water comes from, and on the heart of the people who receive it.
The nearby verses set Canaan against Egypt. One commentator draws out the contrast:
What a vivid contrast between Egypt and Canaan! Egypt had no rain from heaven. It was all human effort there. Not so in the Lord's land. The human foot could do nothing there, and there was no need. The blessed rain from heaven fell on it. The Lord Himself cared for it and watered it with the early and latter rain. The land of Egypt depended on its own resources; the land of Canaan depended wholly on God — on what came down from heaven. The habit in Egypt was to water with the foot; the habit in Canaan was to look up to heaven.
So the grass in the fields is not the reward of good farming. It comes down from God.
The One who sends the grass is not a distant supplier. He takes up the work Himself, and enjoys it:
Only think of God watering the ridges and settling the furrows! Think of His stooping down to do the work of a farmer for His people! Yes, and delighting to do it! It was the joy of His heart to pour His sunbeams and His refreshing showers on the "hills and valleys" of His beloved people. It refreshed His spirit, and brought praise to His Name, to see the vine, the fig tree and the olive flourishing. It refreshed Him to see the valleys covered with golden grain, and the rich pastures covered with flocks of sheep.
Grass for the livestock comes before food for the people, and that order says something about how God has made us. Writing on the same pattern in Psalm 104, one commentator sees deliberate design:
So the grass grows for cattle and plants for the service of man. God is intent on maintaining the creature whom He has set in dignity on the earth as His image and likeness, to know Him and to be for Him. And that is why He made him the most dependent of all — because he is master of all. Where is there a creature made for frailty and long helplessness like a human baby? Where is there one so defenceless by nature — with neither tooth nor claw nor strength nor speed, and his very skin bare to the wind — as man in his prime? It is spirit in him that is to show itself, and does, but by recognising his dependence and his careful use of all God's gifts.
The rain was not automatic. It was fastened to how the people lived, which is why the whole book keeps returning to one theme:
Obedience was the appointed means for giving the early and later rain. That rain was what they most needed if their blessing was to last and be enjoyed. The book of Deuteronomy sets out the mind of the Lord about the people's conduct in the land, and people rightly call it the book of obedience.
The promise has a shadow side, and Israel lived in it for long stretches:
But on the other hand, when Israel forgot the Lord and abandoned His precious commandments, the heaven became brass and the earth iron; barrenness, desolation, famine and misery were the sad companions of disobedience. How could it be otherwise? "If you are willing and obedient, you shall eat the good of the land; but if you refuse and rebel, you shall be eaten by the sword; for the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
Centuries later, Elijah announced a drought with startling confidence. One writer traces that boldness straight to this passage:
The Lord had said through Moses, "Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them; then the anger of the LORD will be kindled against you, and he will shut up the heavens, so that there will be no rain, and the land will yield no fruit." Now they had turned aside under Ahab. They were serving and worshipping other gods. So Elijah expected God to do what He had said He would do in that situation. He asked Him to do it; he expected Him to do it; he boldly announced that He would do it. That was faith.
This was not just farming policy for one nation:
Now in all this there is deep practical instruction for the church of God. We are not under law, yet God calls us to obedience. When grace enables us to give a loving, hearty obedience, we are blessed in our own spiritual state. Our souls are watered, refreshed and strengthened, and we bring forth the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ, to the glory and praise of God.
- Look up — Canaan had no Nile. Rain from heaven was the only water, so the habit of the land was to look up rather than to work the foot-pump.
- He stoops — the grass is God doing the farmer's work Himself, watering ridges and settling furrows, and delighting in it.
- Down to the cattle — the promise reaches the livestock before the people, because man is made master of all and therefore most dependent of all.
- Tied to the heart — obedience was the appointed means of the early and later rain; Deuteronomy is the book of obedience.
- Still true — turn aside to other gods and the heavens shut. Elijah counted on that word under Ahab. We are not under law, but obedience still waters the soul.
Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and ye turn aside and serve other gods, and bow down to them,
Moses has just described a land that lives on rain from heaven, not on human irrigation like Egypt. Then comes the sudden warning: the danger to a blessed people starts inside, in a heart that can be deceived.
The verse lists three things in order. One writer refuses to treat that order as accidental.
"Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them." Sad progress downward! The heart deceived. This is the beginning of all decline. "And you turn aside." The feet are sure to follow the heart. So there is deep need of keeping the heart with all diligence. The heart is the fortress of the whole moral being. As long as you keep it for the Lord, the enemy can gain no advantage. But once you give it up, all is really gone. Then comes the turning aside. The secret departure of the heart shows itself in practical ways: "other gods" are served and worshipped. The slide downhill is terribly fast.
The warning fits the land Israel was entering. Everything there came down from above.
The land of their inheritance was not like Egypt. Egypt depended on men's methods of irrigation, watered by "foot." Israel's land was a land of hills and valleys, and it depended on rain from heaven (vs.10-11). This pictures the spiritual inheritance of Christians today. They are blessed with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, unlike the earthly, material blessings of the people of the world. So we depend, not on our surrounding circumstances, but on the blessing of God from heaven.
What could deceive a heart in such a rich land? One writer looks at what happens when need disappears.
But, alas! then as now, and now as then, the very fullness of the blessing they enjoyed might make them forget the gracious hand that gave it... Trial and need wake a man up to his need of God. But when he lacks nothing, he can easily lose the sense that he still depends on God... In this condition the gods that man's own heart has invented look more attractive than the glorious God. He is our Creator; He is not our creature. And so Israel can go after the idols of Canaan.
"Other gods" sounds like an ancient danger, tied to carved images. The same writer answers that the outward form was never the point.
Idolatry takes various shapes. So the question is not the shape of the thing, but the thing itself. It is not the outward form, but the root or principle behind it. We read that "covetousness is idolatry," and that a covetous man is an idolater. That is, a man who wants more than God has given him is an idolater. He is guilty of the very sin of Israel when they made the golden calf and worshipped it... Our treacherous hearts can turn away from the living God and set up some other object beside Him. What is this but idolatry?
The next verse names the penalty: no rain, no fruit. One writer reads that dry ground as a picture of something else.
And may we not see a striking picture here? The barren land and the desolate wilderness show a soul out of communion, through disobedience to the precious commandments of Christ. Such a person has no refreshing communication with heaven. No showers come down. No unfolding of the preciousness of Christ to the heart. No sweet ministry of an ungrieved Spirit to the soul. The Bible seems a sealed book. All is dark, dreary and desolate.
Centuries later Elijah prayed this verse back to God. Israel under King Ahab had done exactly what Moses warned about.
The Lord had said through Moses, "Take care lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them. Then the Lord's anger will burn against you. He will shut up the heavens, so that there is no rain, and the land yields no fruit" (Deut. 11:16-17). Now they had turned aside under Ahab. They were serving and worshipping other gods. So Elijah expected God to do what He said He would do in that situation. He asked Him to do it; he expected Him to do it; he boldly announced that He would do it. That was faith.
- Heart — Deception starts inside; the heart is the citadel, and the feet always follow it.
- Heaven — Israel's land lived on rain from above, a picture of people who depend on God, not on their circumstances.
- Harvest — The very fullness of blessing can dull the sense of need that keeps a soul looking up.
- Idols — Any object we set up beside God takes His place; covetousness counts as idolatry, so the warning reaches past carved images.
- Drought — A shut heaven pictures a soul out of communion: no showers, no fresh sight of Christ, a Bible that seems sealed. Elijah proved God meant every word of it.
and Jehovah's wrath kindle against you, and he shut up the heavens, that there be no rain, and that the ground yield not its produce, and ye perish quickly from off the good land which Jehovah is giving you.
Moses has just described a land that drinks rain from heaven, and now he names the price of forgetting who sends it. This is not drought as bad weather but drought as a verdict. The chain that ends in an empty harvest and a lost land begins in the heart.
The force of this warning depends on the country Israel was entering. One writer contrasts it with a land that could count on its own river:
But this was not the case with the Lord's land — "the land of hills and valleys." If heaven yielded no supplies, everything was parched and sterile. Israel could not say, "My river is my own." No; they were always taught to look up. Their eyes were to be always on the Lord, just as the Lord's eyes were always on them. So if anything hindered the exchange between heaven and earth, the land of Canaan felt it with painful intensity.
The sentence opens with a condition, and the condition is inward before it is ever visible. Commenting on the words that lead into this verse, one writer traces the steps in order:
"Take heed to yourselves, that your heart be not deceived, and you turn aside, and serve other gods, and worship them." A sad downward progress! The heart deceived. This is the beginning of all decline. "And you turn aside." The feet are sure to follow the heart. So there is deep need to keep the heart with all diligence. It is the fortress of the whole moral being, and as long as it is kept for the Lord, the enemy can gain no advantage. But once it is surrendered, everything is really gone. Then comes the turning aside. The outward ways prove that the heart has secretly left. "Other gods" are served and worshipped. The slide down the slope is terribly rapid.
"Shut up the heavens" is a picture. The same writer shows what it would mean on the ground — hunger, and no contact between heaven and earth:
What barrenness and desolation there must be when heaven is shut up! No refreshing showers coming down, no dewdrops falling, no communication between heaven and earth. How often Israel had tasted the awful reality of this! "He turns rivers into a desert, springs of water into thirsty ground, a fruitful land into a salty waste, because of the evil of its inhabitants."
(The last lines are Psalm 107, in ESV wording.)
This drought says something about the people, not about God's generosity:
We know well that it is not God's desire that His people should suffer. He is not stingy, and if the rain is withheld, the fault lies with His people and not with Him. He had stressed this for them, so that they understood clearly that when heaven was "shut up" it was in chastening.
Centuries later this warning became a prayer. The prophet Elijah asked God for a drought and announced it would come. One writer explains where that confidence came from:
Now they had turned aside under Ahab. They were serving and worshipping other gods. So Elijah expected God to do what He said He would do in those circumstances. He asked Him to do it; he expected Him to do it; he boldly announced that He would do it. That was faith.
Some writers read the later barrenness of the land as this very sentence still standing. One traces it to this verse by name, and sees even the land's long emptiness serving a purpose:
The reason why the land "flowing with milk and honey" became barren and sterile is found in Deuteronomy 11:17. God threatened the people: if they did not keep His commandments, He would withhold the latter rain and reduce the land to sterility. The threat was carried out, and for centuries there was no latter rain in Palestine. In this way the land has been kept for the people. The Turk conquered the land and held it for centuries. He had no reason to settle a land that was practically desert and could not support its inhabitants.
The same picture reaches beyond Israel's fields. One writer turns it inward, from the land to the soul:
And may we not see a fitting and striking picture in the barren land and the desolate wilderness? It pictures a soul out of communion, through disobedience to the precious commandments of Christ. Such a person has no refreshing communications with heaven. No showers coming down. No unfolding of the preciousness of Christ to the heart. No sweet ministry of an ungrieved Spirit to the soul. The Bible seems a sealed book; everything is dark, dreary and desolate.
- Heart first. A deceived heart is where the decline begins; the feet follow, and only then does the sky change.
- Heaven next. A shut heaven means no showers and no exchange between heaven and earth — the supply line itself is cut.
- Harvest next. A land with no river of its own had to look up; when heaven gave nothing, everything was parched.
- Home last. Commentators read the land's long barrenness as this warning carried out. Even conquerors saw no reason to settle a desert.
- Chastening, never stinginess. If rain is withheld, the fault lies with the people, not with God. The same drought can settle on a soul out of communion, where the Bible itself seems sealed.