Scripture Daily

Context No. 3370 of 4322 · Deuteronomy

Context · Reflection

Deuteronomy 11:24-32: in context

24Every place on which the sole of your foot treads shall be yours: from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the river, the river Euphrates, even to the western sea shall be your border. 25No man will be able to stand before you. The LORD your God will lay the fear of you and the dread of you on all the land that you tread on, as he has spoken to you. 26Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: 27the blessing, if you listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, which I command you today; 28and the curse, if you do not listen to the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn away out of the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. 29It shall happen, when the LORD your God brings you into the land that you go to possess, that you shall set the blessing on Mount Gerizim, and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30Aren’t they beyond the Jordan, behind the way of the going down of the sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the Arabah near Gilgal, beside the oaks of Moreh? 31For you are to pass over the Jordan to go in to possess the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you shall possess it and dwell in it. 32You shall observe to do all the statutes and the ordinances which I set before you today.

As Israel prepares to enter the land, Moses sets before them a stark choice, framed as a blessing and a curse to be proclaimed from two mountains, Gerizim and Ebal. The blessing if they obey the commandments of the LORD, the curse if they turn away to follow other gods they have not known.

Life in the promised land was not automatic; it depended on their response to God's word. God gives the land, but how they will live in it, under blessing or under curse, is placed in their own hands through obedience or disobedience. There is a dignity and a weight in this. God does not treat his people as puppets; he sets a real choice before them and calls them to choose the way of obedience and life. The gift of the land came bound together with the calling to live faithfully in it, and the two could not be separated. What God gives freely, he still calls us to receive by faithful living.

Do I take seriously that God has set before me a real choice, and do I choose the path of obedience that leads to blessing rather than drifting toward the curse?

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