But the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possess is a land of mountains and valleys that drinks in the rain from heaven. But the land that you are crossing the Jordan to possessThis phrase refers to the Israelites' impending entry into the Promised Land, a significant moment in their history. The crossing of the Jordan River symbolizes a transition from the wilderness wanderings to the fulfillment of God's promise to Abraham ( Genesis 12:7). The land is described as a possession, indicating a divine gift and inheritance. This moment is a fulfillment of the covenant God made with the patriarchs, emphasizing God's faithfulness. The crossing itself is a type of baptism, symbolizing a new beginning and a step of faith, much like the Christian's journey into new life in Christ. is a land of mountains and valleys
The geographical description highlights the diversity and richness of the Promised Land. The mountains and valleys suggest a land of varied terrain, which would provide different resources and opportunities for agriculture and settlement. This contrasts with the flat, arid desert the Israelites had known. The mountains often symbolize places of divine encounter in Scripture, such as Mount Sinai (Exodus 19) and the Mount of Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-9). The valleys can represent places of growth and fertility, as well as challenges and battles, such as the Valley of Elah where David fought Goliath (1 Samuel 17). that drinks in the rain from heaven
This phrase emphasizes the land's dependence on divine provision rather than human effort. Unlike Egypt, where irrigation was necessary, the Promised Land relies on rain, a direct blessing from God. This dependence on heavenly rain underscores the Israelites' need for faith and obedience to God's commands to ensure His continued blessing (Deuteronomy 11:13-17). The rain from heaven can also be seen as a metaphor for spiritual nourishment and blessing, pointing to the New Testament concept of living water provided by Jesus Christ (John 4:10-14). Persons / Places / Events 1. MosesThe author of Deuteronomy, delivering God's message to the Israelites as they prepare to enter the Promised Land. 2. IsraelitesThe chosen people of God, who are about to enter the land promised to their ancestors. 3. Jordan RiverThe boundary the Israelites must cross to enter the Promised Land. 4. Promised Land (Canaan)The land God promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, described as a land of abundance. 5. Mountains and ValleysThe geographical features of the Promised Land, symbolizing its richness and diversity. Teaching Points God's ProvisionThe land "drinks rain from heaven," emphasizing God's direct provision and care. Trust in God's provision in your life, knowing He sustains and nourishes. Faith and ObedienceJust as the Israelites had to trust and obey God to enter the Promised Land, we are called to live by faith and obedience to God's Word. Spiritual InheritanceThe Promised Land is a type of our spiritual inheritance in Christ. Reflect on the spiritual blessings and promises God has given us. Dependence on GodThe land's dependence on rain from heaven is a reminder of our need to depend on God for spiritual and physical sustenance. Preparation for BlessingThe Israelites' journey to the land required preparation and readiness. Consider how you are preparing your heart and life for the blessings God has in store. Bible Study Questions 1. How does the description of the Promised Land in Deuteronomy 11:11 reflect God's character and His promises to His people? 2. In what ways can we see parallels between the Israelites' journey to the Promised Land and our spiritual journey today? 3. How does the concept of the land "drinking rain from heaven" challenge us to trust in God's provision in our daily lives? 4. What steps can we take to ensure we are living in obedience and faith, as the Israelites were called to do before entering the Promised Land? 5. How can we apply the lessons from Deuteronomy 11:11 to our understanding of spiritual inheritance and blessings in Christ? Connections to Other Scriptures Genesis 12:1-3God's promise to Abraham about the land and blessings, which is being fulfilled as the Israelites prepare to enter Canaan. Numbers 13:27The report of the spies about the land flowing with milk and honey, confirming its richness. Psalm 104:13-15Describes God's provision through rain, which sustains the earth, similar to the land that "drinks rain from heaven." Hebrews 11:8-10Abraham's faith in God's promise of a land, which is a precursor to the Israelites' journey. Matthew 6:33Encourages seeking God's kingdom first, trusting in His provision, akin to the Israelites trusting God for the land. People Abiram, Canaanites, Dathan, Eliab, Moses, Pharaoh, ReubenPlaces Arabah, Beth-baal-peor, Egypt, Euphrates River, Gilgal, Jordan River, Lebanon, Moreh, Mount Ebal, Mount Gerizim, Red SeaTopics Cross, Drinketh, Drinking, Drinks, Heaven, Heavens, Hills, Jordan, Mountains, Passing, Possess, Possession, Rain, Sky, Valleys, Whereunto, WhitherDictionary of Bible Themes Deuteronomy 11:8-12 1335 blessing Deuteronomy 11:8-17 7258 promised land, early history Deuteronomy 11:10-11 4468 horticulture Deuteronomy 11:10-12 5704 inheritance, material Deuteronomy 11:10-15 4854 weather, God's sovereignty
8472 respect, for environment Deuteronomy 11:11-15 4978 year Library Canaan on Earth
Many of you, my dear hearers, are really come out of Egypt; but you are still wandering about in the wilderness. "We that have believed do enter into rest;" but you, though you have eaten of Jesus, have not so believed on him as to have entered into the Canaan of rest. You are the Lord's people, but you have not come into the Canaan of assured faith, confidence, and hope, where we wrestle no longer with flesh and blood, but with principalities and powers in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus--when …
Charles Haddon Spurgeon—Spurgeon's Sermons Volume 2: 1856The God of the Rain
(Fifth Sunday after Easter.) DEUT. xi. 11, 12. The land, whither ye go to possess it, is a land of hills and valleys, and drinketh water of the rain of heaven. A land which the Lord thy God careth for: the eyes of the Lord thy God are always upon it, from the beginning of the year, even unto the end of the year. I told you, when I spoke of the earthquakes of the Holy Land, that it seems as if God had meant specially to train that strange people the Jews, by putting them into a country where they …
Charles Kingsley—The Gospel of the Pentateuch Gilgal, in Deuteronomy 11:30 what the Place Was.
That which is said by Moses, that "Gerizim and Ebal were over-against Gilgal," Deuteronomy 11:30, is so obscure, that it is rendered into contrary significations by interpreters. Some take it in that sense, as if it were near to Gilgal: some far off from Gilgal: the Targumists read, "before Gilgal": while, as I think, they do not touch the difficulty; which lies not so much in the signification of the word Mul, as in the ambiguity of the word Gilgal. These do all seem to understand that Gilgal which …
John Lightfoot—From the Talmud and Hebraica Josiah, a Pattern for the Ignorant.
"Because thine heart was tender, and thou hast humbled thyself before the Lord, when thou heardest what I spake against this place, and against the inhabitants thereof, that they should become a desolation and a curse, and hast rent thy clothes, and wept before Me; I also have heard thee, saith the Lord. Behold therefore, I will gather thee unto thy fathers, and thou shalt be gathered into thy grave in peace; and thine eyes shall not see all the evil which I will bring upon this place."--2 Kings …
John Henry Newman—Parochial and Plain Sermons, Vol. VIII The Blessings of Noah Upon Shem and Japheth. (Gen. Ix. 18-27. )
Ver. 20. "And Noah began and became an husbandman, and planted vineyards."--This does not imply that Noah was the first who began to till the ground, and, more especially, to cultivate the vine; for Cain, too, was a tiller of the ground, Gen. iv. 2. The sense rather is, that Noah, after the flood, again took up this calling. Moreover, the remark has not an independent import; it serves only to prepare the way for the communication of the subsequent account of Noah's drunkenness. By this remark, …
Ernst Wilhelm Hengstenberg—Christology of the Old Testament Subjects of Study. Home Education in Israel; Female Education. Elementary Schools, Schoolmasters, and School Arrangements.
If a faithful picture of society in ancient Greece or Rome were to be presented to view, it is not easy to believe that even they who now most oppose the Bible could wish their aims success. For this, at any rate, may be asserted, without fear of gainsaying, that no other religion than that of the Bible has proved competent to control an advanced, or even an advancing, state of civilisation. Every other bound has been successively passed and submerged by the rising tide; how deep only the student …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life In the Fifteenth Year of Tiberius Cæsar and under the Pontificate of Annas and Caiaphas - a Voice in the Wilderness
THERE is something grand, even awful, in the almost absolute silence which lies upon the thirty years between the Birth and the first Messianic Manifestation of Jesus. In a narrative like that of the Gospels, this must have been designed; and, if so, affords presumptive evidence of the authenticity of what follows, and is intended to teach, that what had preceded concerned only the inner History of Jesus, and the preparation of the Christ. At last that solemn silence was broken by an appearance, …
Alfred Edersheim—The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah The Worship of the Synagogue
One of the most difficult questions in Jewish history is that connected with the existence of a synagogue within the Temple. That such a "synagogue" existed, and that its meeting-place was in "the hall of hewn stones," at the south-eastern angle of the court of the priest, cannot be called in question, in face of the clear testimony of contemporary witnesses. Considering that "the hall of hew stones" was also the meeting-place for the great Sanhedrim, and that not only legal decisions, but lectures …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life Among the People, and with the Pharisees
It would have been difficult to proceed far either in Galilee or in Judaea without coming into contact with an altogether peculiar and striking individuality, differing from all around, and which would at once arrest attention. This was the Pharisee. Courted or feared, shunned or flattered, reverently looked up to or laughed at, he was equally a power everywhere, both ecclesiastically and politically, as belonging to the most influential, the most zealous, and the most closely-connected religions …
Alfred Edersheim—Sketches of Jewish Social Life Covenanting Confers Obligation.
As it has been shown that all duty, and that alone, ought to be vowed to God in covenant, it is manifest that what is lawfully engaged to in swearing by the name of God is enjoined in the moral law, and, because of the authority of that law, ought to be performed as a duty. But it is now to be proved that what is promised to God by vow or oath, ought to be performed also because of the act of Covenanting. The performance of that exercise is commanded, and the same law which enjoins that the duties …
John Cunningham—The Ordinance of Covenanting The Old Testament Canon from Its Beginning to Its Close.
The first important part of the Old Testament put together as a whole was the Pentateuch, or rather, the five books of Moses and Joshua. This was preceded by smaller documents, which one or more redactors embodied in it. The earliest things committed to writing were probably the ten words proceeding from Moses himself, afterwards enlarged into the ten commandments which exist at present in two recensions (Exod. xx., Deut. v.) It is true that we have the oldest form of the decalogue from the Jehovist …
Samuel Davidson—The Canon of the Bible Deuteronomy
Owing to the comparatively loose nature of the connection between consecutive passages in the legislative section, it is difficult to present an adequate summary of the book of Deuteronomy. In the first section, i.-iv. 40, Moses, after reviewing the recent history of the people, and showing how it reveals Jehovah's love for Israel, earnestly urges upon them the duty of keeping His laws, reminding them of His spirituality and absoluteness. Then follows the appointment, iv. 41-43--here irrelevant (cf. …
John Edgar McFadyen—Introduction to the Old Testament Links Deuteronomy 11:11 NIVDeuteronomy 11:11 NLTDeuteronomy 11:11 ESVDeuteronomy 11:11 NASBDeuteronomy 11:11 KJV
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