Keep then all the commandment which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and enter in and possess the land, whither ye pass over to possess it;
Moses is ending his long review of Israel's history, and this command rests on all of it. The people before him had seen God act in Egypt, at the Red Sea, in the wilderness, and at home, where the earth swallowed the rebels Dathan and Abiram.
One writer explains why Moses ends here with rebellion and its outcome:
Deuteronomy 11 sums up the whole matter. It is the practical conclusion that Moses keeps before their eyes. They were to remember what rebellion must end in. So he points to the fate of Dathan and Abiram. The earth swallowed them up because they openly turned away from God and fought against Him... The rest of the chapter is full of the most earnest warnings and bright promises. In the land, everything would turn on whether they obeyed or disobeyed.
Another writer names the one aim behind the whole review:
In a word, Moses pointed them to what God did abroad and to what He did at home. It all had one purpose: to impress on their hearts and minds how morally important obedience is... He presses the whole story on the conscience of the people, with remarkable force and clearness. It strengthens the ground of Jehovah's claim on their unqualified obedience to His holy commandments.
The verse joins two things: keeping the commandment, and being strong. One writer works out what that link rules out. (He quotes an older translation, "all the commandments"; ESV reads "the whole commandment".)
Notice the beautiful moral link between those two clauses: "Keep all the commandments" — "That you may be strong." Unreserved obedience to the word of God brings great strength. It will not do to pick and choose. We are prone to this. We take up the commands and rules that suit us; but this is really self-will... What business has a servant to decide which of his master's commands he will obey? Surely none whatever; each commandment stands clothed with the master's authority... and the more closely he obeys every command, however small, the stronger his position becomes. He also grows in his master's confidence and esteem.
The land was already promised. They still had to go in and take it, and obedience was the condition.
When Israel was about to enter the promised land, Jehovah again required obedience to the word as the condition of victory (Deut. 11:22-23). He asked for more than obedience to the commandments. They also had to take actual possession (ver. 24, 25). It is the same for believers now. Obedience to the word, and entering spiritual blessings by faith, are both needed if they are to possess them in experience. God's sovereignty in blessing His people does not clash with their responsibility to obey His word. By grace God has made every spiritual blessing secure in Christ for all His people. Even so, every man reaps what he sows.
The blessing runs on into the next verse: long life in the land. But how much of the land they enjoyed depended on where they walked.
Once more, all this presses their responsibility home to them. They are the objects of God's delight and love. They should imitate Him and love Him in the obedience of practical holiness, as they remember His judgments on His enemies. In this way they would keep all the blessings and glories of their inheritance. Their years would be long, like the days of heaven on earth. God would give them the whole land, but only what their feet walked on would really be theirs in practice.
One writer turns the same call toward the reader's own Master today.
Now, should we not seek to refresh the heart of our blessed Master by a loving obedience to all His commandments? Only think, reader, what a privilege it is to give joy to the heart of that blessed One who loved us and gave Himself for us... He delights in our keeping His commandments. That thought should stir our whole moral being. It should lead us to study His word, to find out more and more what His commandments are — so that we may do them.
- Therefore — The command rests on what they had already seen God do. Memory, not bare authority, is the ground of obedience.
- Strong — Full obedience makes a person strong. Picking and choosing among God's commands is self-will in disguise.
- Go in — God promised the land, yet they still had to enter it. His gift and our obedience do not clash.
- Possess — Only the ground their feet walked on became theirs in practice. Owning is one thing; enjoying is another.
- Prolong — Obedience was the turning point in the land. It kept the inheritance, and made their years like the days of heaven on earth.
and that ye may prolong your days in the land which Jehovah swore unto your fathers to give unto them and unto their seed, a land flowing with milk and honey.
Moses is summing up everything he has told Israel. Then comes the practical conclusion: keep the commandments, and your days in the promised land will be long. The verse holds two things together — a land God swore to give, and a life in it that depended on how the people behaved.
The chapter pulls the whole argument together and sets a choice in front of the people.
Deuteronomy 11 sums up the whole matter. It is the practical conclusion which the lawgiver keeps before their eyes. They were to remember what rebellion must end in... The rest of the chapter gives the most earnest warnings, and bright promises too. Disobedience or obedience would be the turning point in the land. The mount of blessing and the mount of curse were there on the other side of Jordan.
The verse just before this one ends with the words "that you may be strong." Strength is tied to obedience. And the tie covers every command, not a chosen few.
There is great strength gained by unreserved obedience to the word of God. It will not do to pick and choose. We are prone to this, prone to take up certain commandments and precepts which suit ourselves; but this is really self-will. What right have we to select certain precepts from the word, and neglect others? None whatever. To do so is, in principle, simply self-will and rebellion. What business has a servant to decide which of his master's commands he will obey? Surely none. Each commandment carries the master's authority, and so it claims the servant's attention. The more fully the servant obeys... the more he strengthens himself in his position and grows in his master's confidence and esteem.
Notice what obedience secures here. Not the land itself — God had already sworn that — but the length of days spent enjoying it.
Moses sets obedience before them again. Obedience is the great end of this book: God placed Israel under the condition of obedience so that they would keep on enjoying the promises. He reminds them that by obeying they would prolong their days in the land they were going up to take.
The oath itself stands on different ground. God made it to Abraham long before the law, and its terms were wider than anything Israel has yet held.
In sovereign grace He appeared to Abraham and said, "In you all the families of the earth shall be blessed... all the land that you see I will give to you and to your offspring... To your offspring I give this land, from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates." God has never yet fulfilled these promises in full. Israel has never lived in the whole stretch of land described here... Though they have been unfaithful to God, He will not be unfaithful to them, but will make good all His word.
The two words describing the land carry plain meanings. They also set it against the country Israel had left.
The land is a good land and a large one, flowing with milk and honey. It is not a land of narrowness, as Egypt is... There is all "fatness," which is the literal meaning of the word for milk, and all sweetness, as the honey implies. Salvation for us must issue in satisfaction, or it is not salvation.
Commentators differ on how far to press these images. One reads them as pictures of what feeds God's people now.
Milk speaks of the Word of God (1 Peter 2:2). Honey symbolises the ministry of the Word of God (Song of Songs 4:11) — the sweetness believers have gathered from the Word and pass on to others.
Everything in the chapter rests on one condition. One writer weighs what that condition asked of them.
It was not a heavy yoke laid upon them, but 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 upon this. Canaan was a good, highly favoured land, flowing with milk and honey. The Lord's eyes always rested on it in loving interest and tender care. All its blessings, all its precious fruits, all its rare privileges were to be theirs for ever, on the one simple condition of loving obedience to the word of their covenant God.
- Sworn first. The land came by an oath to Abraham — grace, not reward. God has not yet made it good in full.
- Held by obedience. Obedience did not buy the land. It kept Israel enjoying what God had already promised.
- Whole, not partial. Strength comes from obeying without reserve. Picking which commands to keep is self-will dressed up as service.
- Fat and sweet. "Milk" means richness and "honey" means sweetness. The land was wide, not narrow like the Egypt they had left.
- Light yoke. The condition was not a burden but a privilege: to keep God's word in the heart and live in its atmosphere.
For the land, whither thou enterest in to possess it, is not as the land of Egypt, from whence ye came out, where thou sowedst thy seed, and wateredst it with thy foot, as a garden of herbs;
Moses names the one difference that matters between the land Israel left and the land ahead: where the water comes from. Behind the farming lies a bigger question — will life be run from below, by effort we control, or received from above?
Egypt's fertility came from the river. Where the ESV says "irrigated it," older translations read "watered it with your foot" — the daily work of moving that water onto the fields.
Egypt was watered by the foot. That is, her people did the ordinary work of drawing off the water of the Nile onto their fields and gardens. Their river was everything to them. All they needed was to be busy around its banks, and they could supply themselves out of it. But Canaan was to be tilled by the Lord. He would water it from heaven Himself. His heart would care for it, and His eyes would rest on it from one end of the year to the other.
Turpin describes the labour behind that phrase.
I believe what the Spirit of God refers to, when He speaks of their watering their land with their feet, is this: the only source of ancient Egypt's fruitfulness was the Nile. When the river overflowed its banks, they had to cut channels for it to run into and irrigate the soil. This was done with the foot. But what trouble and labour all that involved!
The difference is not only in climate but in where people look for supply.
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. "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.
Egypt did depend on God — the rain fell too far away for anyone there to notice it.
While the mercy of God feeds that land by the rain of a far country, no rain comes, or rarely falls, in Egypt. The rain falls far off. The people know nothing about it. It comes rolling down as a mighty river, and that unbroken stream supplies steady plenty to the land. It is, so to speak, independent of heaven. I do not mean it really is independent, but that it is watered not from the clouds but from the river. In their thoughts the people do not look up for it, but down. Canaan is a land of dependence. Egypt is a land of independence, figuratively.
The next step is to take credit for what God gives.
The river itself is their all. They can even credit to themselves what is the gift of God: "My river is my own, and I made it" (Ezek. 29:3).
The comparison Moses picks — a vegetable plot kept alive by hand — is deliberately small.
Egypt's water came only from below. The spiritual meaning is obvious. The world does not know God's blessing, only the treadmill — a poor substitute.
The rain from heaven came with a condition attached.
The distinction was therefore very marked. In the one, fruitfulness came through human means. The other depended entirely on its supply from heaven. The rain had to come from above to water the land, and the Lord made this depend on the people's obedience. They were to listen to His voice and obey His commandments — yes, they were to love and serve Him.
Commentators read the two lands as a picture of two kinds of blessing available now.
This pictures the spiritual inheritance of Christians today. They are blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ. The people of the world have earthly, material blessings instead. So we depend, not on our surrounding circumstances, but on the blessing of God from heaven.
Turpin notes that the world around us answers to both of Israel's old locations at once.
He contrasts Egypt with the land. This world is to us both Egypt and the wilderness; it is Egypt in its moral character, and the wilderness in its experience... I believe the first part of this passage points to the fact that everything you have in the wilderness has trouble attached to it. There is no such thing in this world as a day without clouds.
- Foot. Egypt's crops lived on water lifted from the Nile by hand. People managed the supply themselves.
- Down. The rain that fed that river fell far away. So Egypt looked down at the water, not up to God, and called the gift its own.
- Up. The promised land had no such river. It drank rain from heaven, so its habit was to look up.
- Obedience. The rain from above came to a people who were to listen to the Lord, love Him and serve Him. Privilege carried responsibility.
- Now. Commentators apply the same contrast to us. Our supply is not what we can manage here, but every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ.
but the land, whereunto ye are passing over to possess it, is a land of mountains and valleys, which drinketh water of the rain of heaven,
Israel is about to cross into a new country, and this verse describes it by contrast. The land ahead is nothing like Egypt: there people watered the fields by hand, here the rain comes down from heaven.
Egypt drew its water from its own river. Canaan had no such river to draw on. One writer draws out what that meant for daily life in each place.
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 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. "My river is mine 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 shape of the ground matters. A land of hills and valleys cannot be watered from a river, so its people must look up for rain. God chose such a land for a people who were to live in dependence on Him.
Egypt was the land of independence. Its river watered it, and the sources of that river were so far off that people could all but forget them. Israel's land was a land of mountains and valleys, drinking the water of the rain of heaven. It was a dependent land, and its dependence was obvious. Because it was cast on God in this way, it was the very land He chose for a people who were in the same way to depend on Himself, and so to know His gracious and continual care… Israel's mountains were like a constant prayer to God, and the dews of heaven settled on them.
The verse names valleys as well as hills. One writer sets it beside an earlier description of the same land.
When God spoke of His earthly people possessing the land to which He would bring them, He said that it was "a land of hills and valleys" (Deuteronomy 11:11); but He also spoke of "fountains and springs, flowing out in the valleys and hills" (Deuteronomy 8:7). So there is provision to refresh our souls, whatever our circumstances.
Everything hung on rain, so everything hung on the people's walk with the One who sends it. One writer traces what happened when that link broke.
Obedience was therefore the appointed means for giving the early and later rain. That rain was most needed if their blessing was to continue and be enjoyed. So came the needed warning to take care. Strange gods, and other things put in place of the Lord, His land, and His things, must have no place with them. If they did, judgment would follow. One special form of that judgment shut up the heaven and withheld the rain, so that blessing ceased.
Depending on rain was no hardship. It was the privilege, because God Himself did the watering.
How perfectly beautiful! Only think of God watering the ridges and settling the furrows! Think of His stooping down to do a farmer's work 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.
The two countries also picture two ways of living. One writer applies the promised land to what Christians have now.
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, dependent 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. That is unlike the earthly, material blessings of the people of the world. So we are dependent, not on our surrounding circumstances, but on the blessing of God from heaven.
- Contrast. Egypt's people watered their fields by hand from their river. Canaan had no such resource and had to take its water from above.
- Design. God chose this ground on purpose: a dependent land for a people who were to live in dependence, with that dependence written into the landscape.
- Gift. No foot could work up this water. It came down as rain, with God Himself doing the farmer's work and delighting in it.
- Condition. Obedience brought the rain. Turning to other gods shut the heaven and stopped the blessing.
- Reach. Hills and valleys mean supply at every level of life. The blessing is held in heaven, not in our circumstances.
a land which Jehovah thy God careth for; the eyes of Jehovah thy God are constantly upon it, from the beginning of the year even unto the end of the year.
Moses is describing the country Israel is about to enter, and he sets it side by side with the Egypt they left behind. The difference is in who supplies the water. That difference shapes how Israel must live.
A river fed Egypt, and the people guided its water with their own feet. Canaan had no such thing, and one commentator draws out what that meant for the two nations' habits.
What a vivid contrast between Egypt and Canaan! Egypt had no rain from heaven. It was all human effort there. The Lord's land was different. 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. Egypt depended on its own resources. Canaan depended completely on God — on what came down from heaven. "My river is mine 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 dependence was not a drawback God tolerated. It was the reason He chose that land for that people.
Egypt's river came from sources so far off that the people could practically forget all about them. Israel's land was different. It was a land of mountains and valleys, drinking the water of the rain of heaven. It was dependent by its very nature, and its dependence was plain to see. Cast upon God like this, it was the land He chose for a people who were to depend on Him in the same way, and so to know His gracious and continual care. Israel's mountains were like a constant prayer to God. The dews of heaven settled on them and brought down the rain the land constantly needed.
"Cares for" does not mean distant supervision. One writer dwells on how low God stoops to give this care.
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! It was the joy of His heart to pour His sunbeams and His refreshing showers upon the "hills and valleys" of His beloved people.
The watching runs from the year's first day to its last. That is a comfort, but it cuts both ways: nothing escapes those eyes, including the need for correction.
Could those watchful eyes overlook their need? No, certainly not. But their need might be, sadly, of chastening, and He would give it. Israel's land might suffer where Egypt escaped… The presence of the Holy One with us must mean discipline. But it is a Father's discipline of the "son in whom He delights."
God promised the rain. But He tied it to how the people lived.
Obedience, then, was the appointed means for giving the early and later rain. That rain was what they most needed if their blessing was to continue and be enjoyed… So how important it was to obey in a way that matched the position and privileges God had given them. How important to remember the word of the Lord, trusting His promised care, crowned by the truth that the eyes of the Lord would always be on the land. Surely such a promise meant blessing would not fail, if the people lived up to their privileges.
Israel was later scattered and the land left desolate. Even so, one writer reads this verse as a promise that still stands over that ground.
If the everlasting love of God is still toward Israel, His eyes are still upon the Land and the Temple. The land may be desolate and trampled under foot by the Gentiles. But it is still "a land that the LORD your God cares for. The eyes of the LORD your God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year" (Deut. 11:12). Again, the word came to Solomon: "I have consecrated this house that you have built, by putting My name there forever. My eyes and My heart will be there for all time" (1 Kings 9:3).
The picture reaches past a plot of ground. One writer asks where God's eyes rest now, and answers his own question.
I ask you tonight, what is the spot where God's eyes are always held? Where is it? Is it not the one spot where Jesus is? I know no other place on which His eye rests always except that. That, then, is the place He gives you and me for our home. He gives it to us to be the home of our hearts. The land that He cares for is the spot that holds His own affections.
- Dependence. Human effort watered Egypt. Rain from heaven watered Canaan. God chose a dependent land for a dependent people.
- Care. "Cares for" means God stooping to do a farmer's work for His people, and delighting to do it.
- Eyes. Continual watching supplies every need — and notices when the need is chastening.
- Obedience. God promised the rain, but obedience was the channel He appointed for it.
- Permanence. Those eyes have not moved. They are still on the land, and always on the one spot where Christ is.
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.