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.
And ye shall lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, and they shall be for frontlets between your eyes.
Moses has just warned about a heart that is deceived and turns aside to other gods. He warned too that heaven itself can be shut up over a disobedient people. The "therefore" of this verse gives his remedy. God's words go deep inside first. Then they show on the hand and before the eyes.
The verse answers the barrenness described just before it. One writer sees that shut sky as a picture of what disobedience does to a believer's fellowship with God. Moses' appeal is the cure.
The land is barren and the wilderness desolate. May we not see in that a fitting and striking picture of a soul out of communion, through disobedience to the precious commandments of Christ? Such a person has no refreshing contact with heaven. No showers come down. Nothing unfolds the preciousness of Christ to the heart. The soul misses the sweet ministry of an ungrieved Spirit. The Bible seems a sealed book, and all is dark, dreary and desolate. So let us listen to the earnest appeals Moses makes to Israel. They set before us God's own antidote against the special evils that the church of God faces at this very hour.
after
The verse names four parts of a person. The order matters: the words go in before they show. Taken together they leave nothing of a person outside the reach of God's word.
The "heart" — the "soul" — the "hand" — the "eyes" — all engaged about the precious word of God. This was real work. It was to be no empty formality, no barren routine. The whole person was to be given up, in holy devotion, to the statutes and judgments of God.
Each image carries its own force. The heart forms the motive. The hand does the work. The eyes decide where a person looks for direction.
Having the words in their hearts would mean they were the motivating power. Bound on their hand, they speak of control over their actions. Frontlets before their eyes show that they were to keep their eyes centred on the truth of God, instead of looking in other directions for help or guidance. Israel did not respond to the meaning of these things. But such things are written for us today, so that we may realize the spiritual blessing of having the truth always delighting our hearts.
after
A "frontlet" is something worn on the forehead, between the eyes. But the same verse also tells them to store the words in the heart. That inward command shows how the outward one is meant.
Israel was to keep two things always before them: their deliverance from Egypt and the law. These were to be a token on their hand and frontlets between their eyes. Ex. 13:16; Deut. 6:8; Deut. 11:18. The text also says they were to lay the words up in their hearts. So it seems clear that wearing them as frontlets was meant in a figurative sense. They were to keep it always before them that they were a redeemed people. In the New Testament we find that people took this literally, and they called the articles they wore phylacteries.
The verse does not stand alone. It opens a chain that runs from daily conversation to the doorposts. One writer traces the whole progression as a summary of everything God's truth is meant to do in His people.
The children of Israel were urged to lay up these words in their hearts, and in their souls (v. 18). So the truth given was to govern "the soul" and develop the affections. The words they received were also to control their bodies. They were to bind them as a sign on their "hands," so that they should be as frontlets on their "eyes." The truth set before them also had to form the subject of their conversation at all times, and be taught to their children (v. 19). Finally, they had to write the words on their gates and doorposts, so that a testimony to the truth went out to all (v. 20).
Israel's later history shows what happens when a nation stops laying up these words.
But in the days of Josiah, and in the days of his father, that blessed Book was so neglected that neither king nor priest even knew it existed. Little wonder the nation went astray. A nation without the Bible can do nothing else, and a family without the Bible will do the same.
- Heart — the words go inside first. Stored in heart and soul, they become the motivating power, not a formality.
- Hand — what you treasure inside then governs the work you do.
- Eyes — the same word decides where you look for help and guidance, instead of looking elsewhere.
- Home — verses 19–20 carry it into daily talk, into the children, and onto the doorposts. The testimony goes out to everyone.
- Heaven — obedience keeps the line to heaven open. Neglect leaves a soul barren, and in Josiah's day neither king nor priest knew the Book existed.
And ye shall teach them unto your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thy house, and when thou goest on the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up;
Moses speaks to a people about to enter the land. He tells them what to do with God's words once they have taken them to heart. Pass them on to the children. Talk about them all day long. Two questions follow. What makes a parent fit to teach? And why is ordinary family life the classroom?
The command does not start at verse 19. It starts one verse earlier, with the word lodged inside the parent, and then works outward in stages.
Deuteronomy 11:18-20 sums up the full effect God's truth should have on His people. The Israelites had to lay up these words in their hearts and in their souls (v. 18). So the truth given was to govern the soul and develop the affections. Their limbs were also to come under the words received. They were to bind them as a sign on their hands, so that they should be like bands before their eyes. The truth set before them also had to form the subject of their conversation at all times, and be taught to their children (v. 19). Last, they had to write the words on their gates and doorposts, so that a testimony to the truth went out to everyone (v. 20).
The verse names four moments: sitting, walking, lying down, rising up. Together they cover a whole day, not a slot in it.
Israel had to teach the laws to their children. They were not for public gatherings only. They were for daily use, to be spoken of anywhere and at all times. They were even to write them on their doorposts and on their gates (v. 20). So it was a matter of constant reminder. Today we have more vital things than these to keep in mind. There are all the wonderful truths about the Lord Jesus: His coming into the world, His life on earth, His sacrifice at Calvary, His resurrection, His ascension.
The command "You shall teach them" speaks to the parent. That settles who does the work, and what fits him for it.
First, the word taught must be in the heart of the parent. He must have it and love it. No one can teach anything whose power he has not felt himself. Second, the responsibility is personal, and the parent cannot pass it to anyone else: he himself must be the instructor. Third, he must be diligent, and seize every passing opportunity to press God's word on the hearts of his children.
The talking happens at home and on the road. So children hear the parent's ordinary speech, and the life either backs the lesson or cancels it.
It is of little use trying to teach our children the word of God if our own lives are not governed by that word. We do not believe in making the blessed word of God a mere school book for our children; to do that turns a delightful privilege into a weary chore. Our children should see that we live in the very atmosphere of Scripture. It should form the material of our conversation when we sit together as a family, in our moments of relaxation.
One writer reads the urgency out of these verses and then shows what obedience looked like in one home.
These Scriptures may well help us to see how urgent it is to teach our children the Scriptures. As they get older, school work and homework will take up their time, and year by year you will find your opportunities grow fewer. While they are little children is the time to teach them this blessed Book. When we were children, my mother used to gather us every day, especially in the holidays. She would read aloud to us and make the dear old Book live for each one of us. Our father taught us too, and so did an aunt and a grandmother. They each loved the Scriptures, and we knew it well. Perhaps that was the secret that made us love them too, without realising it.
Some see this instruction as belonging to a particular arrangement of blessing, yet carried forward.
I notice the teaching of children in it, as the order of blessing; compare Genesis 18:19; Deuteronomy 4:9-10; chapter 6:7 and chapter 11:19. It is a specific character of the dispensation, and of ordered blessing. There is great reliance on God in it, and it is not passed over in Christianity either — see Ephesians 6.
A promise follows in the next verse, and it reaches past the parents to their children.
If they go away from Him, they will learn, in a closed heaven and a barren earth, His faithfulness to the covenant they have despised. But let them only lay up His word in their hearts and confess it in their lives. Then, in multiplied days, they and their children will enjoy the fullness of a blessing. He who knows heaven can describe it as "as the days of heaven upon the earth."
- Heart first. The parent lays up the word in his own heart and soul before it reaches the child's ear. No one can pass on truth whose power he has not felt.
- Hands and eyes. From the heart it governs what the parent does and how he sees, so that the lesson and the life are saying the same thing.
- Mouth. Then it becomes talk: sitting, walking, lying down, rising up. It is daily and everywhere, not saved for public gatherings.
- Children and gates. From that ordinary talk it reaches the next generation. Written on the doorposts, it becomes a testimony to everyone outside.
- Days. The promise is multiplied days for parents and children alike, a blessing described as days of heaven on earth. Turning away brings a closed heaven and a barren land.
and write them upon the posts of thy house, and upon thy gates;
Moses has just told Israel to keep God's words in their hearts, on their hands, and in their daily talk. Now the words go outdoors, onto the doorposts and the gates — but what is that writing outside for?
The verse is the final stage of a chain that starts inside a person and ends in public view.
Moses urged the children of Israel to lay up these words in their hearts and in their souls (v. 18). So the truth given was to govern "the soul" and develop the affections. They also had to talk about the truth at all times, and teach it to their children (v. 19). Lastly, the words had to be written on their gates and doorposts so that a testimony to the truth went out to all (v. 20).
Each phrase in the passage covers a different area of life. The doorpost covers the part outsiders see.
"Bind them as a sign on your hand" — your service is to be governed by what you read in the word of God. "They shall be as frontlets between your eyes" — what you look at is to be governed by the word of God. "Talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up" — your whole day is to be governed by the word of God. "Write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates" — there is to be a testimony to those outside. The people in this home love the word of God. They live by it. They follow it.
The whole household shows the same standard, and a visitor can see it at the gate.
The word of God was hidden in the heart. It flowed out in loving instruction to the children, and in holy conversation within the family. It shone out in all the activities of daily life. So everyone who came inside the gates or entered the house could see that the word of God was the standard for each, for all, and in everything.
The same test falls on the Christian home today.
Do our children see its influence on our habits, our temper, our family life, our business dealings? This is what we understand by binding the word as a sign on the hands, having it as a frontlet between the eyes, writing it on the doorposts and on the gates.
The words outside invite inspection. The life behind the door has to match them.
The words were not only there for whoever happened to pass by to read. In the light of them, those passers-by might also see a life that agreed with them. It is what the world expects from the Christian, and rightly so. No one who claims to know Christ and to keep His word should ever truly deserve the charge, "They say, and do not."
Later practice turned the command into a ritual.
On this passage and others like it the Hebrews built their custom of the phylacteries. They use leather strips with Scripture verses inside a small box. At certain times when they pray they put these on their hand and forehead. In this way they try to fulfil these words literally. It is only an outward ceremony... They were to keep those commandments in their hearts and practise them as well.
The command assumes ordinary Israelites could read and write.
In the days of Moses, at least in the wilderness, the Bible testifies that reading and writing were common among the Israelites. This was not just in a sacred or learned class, but widely among the rest (Deut. 6:9; Deut. 11:20; Deut. 24:1, 3). So from the earliest days of inspiration there was no difficulty finding writers or readers.
Grant moves from Israel's practice to what Christians hold today.
The laws given to Israel were not for public gatherings only. They were to be applied daily, and spoken of anywhere and at all times. They were even to write them on their doorposts and on their gates (v.20). So it was a matter of being constantly reminded. We today have more vital things than these to keep in remembrance, all the marvellous truths concerning the Lord Jesus.
- Heart first. The chain begins with the words laid up in the heart and soul; the doorpost is the end of that line, never the start of it.
- Then hands, eyes, day. Service, sight and the whole day come under the word before anything goes on the door.
- Then the gate. The doorpost is the outward step. It is a testimony to all, so anyone entering sees the standard of that house.
- Then the check. Whoever reads the words at the gate should find a life inside that agrees with them — otherwise it is "they say, and do not."
- Then the danger. Leather boxes keep the letter as outward ceremony. The command asked for commandments kept in the heart and practised.
that your days may be multiplied, and the days of your children, in the land which Jehovah swore unto your fathers to give them, as the days of the heavens [which are] above the earth.
This promise closes a section that tells Israel to keep God's words in the heart, on the hand, before the eyes, on the doorposts, and on their lips at home and on the road. The reward is a long life in the land, and older translations end the verse with the phrase the writers below use: "the days of heaven upon the earth."
What kind of life does the verse promise? One writer answers by pointing to the same wording throughout the book.
They were to listen and to do. The result of obedience is life and possession of the land. "That you may live" does not mean the possession of eternal life, but a long earthly life in the promised land. See chapters 5:33; 6:2; 8:1; 11:21; 16:20; 25:15; 30:6, 16; 32:47.
Everything Israel could enjoy in the land hung on one thing, and it was not a burden.
Blessed days! And how eagerly the large, loving heart of Moses longed that the people might enjoy many such days! And how simple the condition! It was not a heavy yoke laid on them. It was the sweet privilege of treasuring up the precious commandments of the Lord their God in their hearts, and breathing the very atmosphere of His holy word. All was to hinge on this.
It works the other way too.
It is also pledged — and the pledge has been redeemed — that if they go away from Him, they will learn His faithfulness to the covenant they have despised. They will learn it in a closed heaven and a barren earth. Let them only lay up His word in their hearts, and confess it in their lives. Then in multiplied days they and their children will enjoy the fullness of a blessing of which He who knows heaven can say, "As the days of heaven upon the earth."
How does the promise reach the children? Through the teaching described just before it. One writer shows how that looked in his own home, and why the time is short.
These Scriptures may well help us understand how urgent it is to teach our children the Scriptures. As they get older, school work and homework will take up their time; and year by year you will find your opportunities grow less. While they are little children is the time to teach them this blessed Book. When we were children, my mother used to gather us every day, especially in our holidays. She would read aloud to us, and make the dear old Book live to each one of us.
The same writer sets this verse beside a king who had never seen the book his fathers should have written on their doorposts.
It is a joy to the heart to see the young king, when Hilkiah the priest finds the Bible. It had been lost and forgotten for so many years. He found it while they were cleaning up the House of the Lord and repairing it. Josiah had never seen or heard of it before. Such was the condition that Judah had come to; and what a lesson to us... In the days of Josiah, and in the days of his father, that blessed Book was so neglected that neither king nor priest even knew of its existence.
Moses' phrase left its mark on Israel's hope, and it echoes in the first Gospel.
In Matthew only we have the expression "kingdom of heaven." This is what the prophets taught the Jewish people to expect. Moses especially spoke of "the days of heaven upon earth." (Deut. 11:21.) The expression "kingdom of heaven" occurs about twenty-eight times in this Gospel.
Have those days ever come? One writer says the best days for this earth are still ahead.
It is a blinding delusion to look for better days while Jesus is away. There are good days in store, even for this poor world — days of heaven upon the earth; but the Lord must come before them.
The comparison with heaven also changed how Israel saw daily life, and one writer carries that on to today.
Obedience would multiply the days of the Israelites and their children in the land, "like the days of the heavens above the earth" (v.21). So their hearts would be lifted up in calm, lovely dignity above the level of their circumstances, to realise that their blessings really came from heaven. Today our blessings not only come from heaven; they are secured for us in heaven in the person of the risen Lord of glory.
- Days, not eternity. God promises a long life on earth in the land He swore to the fathers. It is not a promise of eternal life.
- Days conditioned. Everything hung on one simple thing: God's words treasured in the heart. Obedience opened heaven over the land; turning away closed it.
- Days passed on. The children's days depend on the parents' teaching — at home, on the road, on the doorposts. Josiah's lost book shows what one careless generation costs.
- Days named. "Days of heaven upon the earth" became Israel's hope of God's rule. It stands behind Matthew's phrase "kingdom of heaven."
- Days coming. Such days are still ahead for the earth, and the Lord must come first. Meanwhile the believer's blessings are already secured in heaven in the risen Christ.