Deuteronomy 11: 1 - 32
Let Love Be Hot
11 “Therefore you shall love the LORD your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always. 2 Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the LORD your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm— 3 His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land; 4 what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: how He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the LORD has destroyed them to this day; 5 what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; 6 and what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel— 7 but your eyes have seen every great act of the LORD which He did. 8 “Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, 9 and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’ 10 For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden; 11 but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, 12 a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year. 13 ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15 And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.’ 16 Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, 17 lest the LORD’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you. 18 “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. 19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up. 20 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth. 22 “For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him— 23 then the LORD will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves. 24 Every 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 territory. 25 No man shall be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you. 26 “Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you today; 28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known. 29 Now it shall be, when the LORD your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30 Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, beside the terebinth trees of Moreh? 31 For you will cross over the Jordan and go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you, and you will possess it and dwell in it. 32 And you shall be careful to observe all the statutes and judgments which I set before you today.
In the book of Revelation chapter 3 our Holy Lord God says this important fact about love, “‘these things says the Amen, the Faithful and True Witness, the Beginning of the creation of God: 15 “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot. I could wish you were cold or hot. 16 So then, because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will vomit you out of My mouth. 17 Because you say, ‘I am rich, have become wealthy, and have need of nothing’—and do not know that you are wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked—..”
In a relationship do you want the one person who is special in your thoughts to be hot, cold, or just lukewarm towards you? If you answered cold or lukewarm my counseling hours are daily from 9 AM to 5 PM – give me a call.
In all honesty we want that someone special to be heads over tails in love with us? We want them to only have eyes for us.
Do you think our Loving and Great Gracious God wants the same from us towards Him? If you have to think about this question then take some time and take your own inventory?
I want to go over with you about the possibility that you do not love someone as much as you thought you did
There are countless things people confuse for love. I could rattle off the full list, but you know the major offenders already: dependency, hormones, attraction, lust, expectations, an idea rather than a reality. We all know the love supplements that occasionally explain our lapses in judgment, because they happen to all of us in some sneaky way at some point in our lives. But what nobody really talks about is what happens after the fact — what happens after you realize that you're in a relationship for the wrong reasons, even though it's still going fine. When you realize that you don't really love someone as much as you initially thought you did you are now between a rock and a hard place, do you leave them? Or do you wait for love to — maybe, one day, hopefully — blossom? This indecision usually stems from not being totally clear on whether you're completely enamored with someone. And it's easy to feel overwhelmed by thoughts about whether you are over thinking or under-thinking something which, in the end, is not really as complicated as it seems. So I'm here to help you out.
Here are 10 signs that you don't love him or she as much as you once thought you did. I then will try to give you some points to check out you love for our Holy Master Jesus Christ.
1. You Feel Inconvenienced By Their Needs
When you love someone truly, their needs become your own. This isn't to say that you lose yourself in caring for them. Rather, it means that when the hour comes in which they truly need a hand or a shoulder or an ear, you're there because you want to be, and not because ‘that's what a true love has to do.’
Our Holy Lord loves us. He has given us life and provides for us all our lives. He has never failed us. So, what does He want in return? He lets us know as taught in the Gospel of Mark chapter 12 “and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength.’ This is the first commandment.”
2. You Talk About Their Life As A Commodity, Giving Updates To Other Friends As If It's Entertaining News
This is somewhat appropriate in friendships, but as soon as someone's life essentially becomes your source of entertainment (‘did you hear about that thing he or she did this weekend? insane!’), you've crossed a boundary into the ‘lack of genuine love’ abyss. (And you often don't come back from that without a little mud on your feet.)
I think this fact applies to our relationship with the Lord Jesus when we seem to talk about people in the church or what the church can or cannot do for you instead of having your thoughts and words focused on wanting more closeness with our Holy Loving king.
Our Lord’s half brother James writes this to us, in chapter 4 of his book “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded.”
3. You've Already Put A Mental Expiration Date On Your Relationship, Or Have Already Decided On A List Of "Breaking Points
You've caught yourself thinking "I'll let this go on for another year or so," or are waiting for the day they unveil some aspect of their personality that you can use as leverage for "why you don't want this anymore." Worse: you're pinning the reasons you don't feel a connection with them on things that are silly and arbitrary — they're not your "type," or things of that nature. That's you reaching for a reason when the answer is right there: You're simply not as emotionally bound to them as you first assumed.
In truth you must be all in with our Lord to the finish line. Your desire is to be with the Lord for eternity. You have confirmed it in your mind to be just like Paul says in his 2nd book to the Corinthians chapter 5, “For we know that if our earthly house, this tent, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens. 2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed with our habitation which is from heaven, 3 if indeed, having been clothed, we shall not be found naked. 4 For we who are in this tent groan, being burdened, not because we want to be unclothed, but further clothed, that mortality may be swallowed up by life. 5 Now He who has prepared us for this very thing Is God, who also has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. 6 So we are always confident, knowing that while we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord. 7 For we walk by faith, not by sight. 8 We are confident, yes, well pleased rather to be absent from the body and to be present with the Lord.”
4. You Are In No Rush To Bring Them Home To Your Parents — Or Haven't, At All
Days and weeks and maybe months have gone by wherein you just happen to have easily avoided ever bringing them home. You can talk yourself in circles as to why you're busy and how things have been hectic and however else you want to justify it, but when you really love someone, you make time. And finding a way to introduce them to your closest circle of friends and family you make you stop and think.
Are we as believers afraid to let other people including our families know that we have committed our lives to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ? He lets us know that He Is aware when we do this. We read in the Gospel of Matthew chapter 10, “But whoever denies Me before men, him I will also deny before My Father who is in heaven.”
5. You Find Yourself Regularly Justifying Why You're So Busy
You have a crazy project at work or a weekend that you just can't seem to let slip away for a couple's retreat. There's an art to prioritizing the important things in your life, but if your relationship is continually falling by the wayside, it means that you don't love it at least as much as you do your work.
If you love someone you want to be with that person as much as you can. I love what Ruth said to Naomi in chapter 1, “16 But Ruth said: “Entreat me not to leave you, or to turn back from following after you; For wherever you go, I will go; And wherever you lodge, I will lodge; Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. 17 Where you die, I will die, and there will I be buried. The LORD do so to me, and more also, if anything but death parts you and me.”
Is this the way you feel about the Lord Jesus?
6. There's A Period Of Time Between Receiving a Message From Them And Answering It — Most Of The Time
If you're playing a game, deflecting from a message, or simply no longer being the first to reach out, it probably means you don't really want to talk in the first place.
In the book of 2 Chronicles chapter 7 we read an important reason to constantly be in communication with our Holy Lord God, “14 if My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”
7. You Have To Make Yourself Up A Certain Way Before You See Them
You're honestly just not comfortable being the way you are. Seeing them requires an hour of prep — hair and makeup and an outfit of choice. Or maybe in a more abstract but important way, you don't let them see the sides of you that aren't carefully constructed and decided upon prior. You don't let them into who you wholly are; just the bits and pieces which you think they'll like about you. Perhaps you still are wondering if there is someone else out there for you.
Our Lord loves you just the way you are. You do not have to be anyone else as He lets us know in the book of Hebrews chapter 4, “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.”
8. You Regularly Project Your Personal Frustrations Onto Your Relationship
Are you looking for someone to hold responsible for your issues, you immediately pin it onto them? The thing is that, despite this being relatively normal, if you do it often enough, you don't really love them that much. If you did, their presence in your life would be a welcome relief, not a routine stressor that's "getting in the way," and certainly not something you could ever attribute major issues to.
How do you like someone who is unappreciated at what you do for them? Also, what do you think of someone who predominantly grumbles or complains about everything you do? In the little letter from our Lord Jesus’ half brother Jude we find out, “16 these are grumblers, complainers, walking according to their own lusts; and they mouth great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage.”
9. Their Issues Are Inexcusable, While Yours Are Justified
Your love for them is conditional, even if you think it's not. Its terms and conditions usually float on whether or not they're doing what you perceive to be "right," rather than being there for the person and whatever things they happen to be on at that time.
Love should never be conditional. Our Lord loves us and we will learn in today’s chapter as to what He wants from us, “‘And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the Lord your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul,”
10. You're Planning Your Escape Route Without Even Realizing It
You know whom you'd date if you ever break up. You know that you'd move or go back to school, or how you'd spend your Friday nights. You're already dreaming up a life without them, even if you don't realize it at the time.
In the military we have a saying when you are away regarding a Dear John letter. This is a letter from your love telling you that your relationship is over. Sometimes, the one who sent you the letter after calling it quits realizes what she has lost the best person available and somehow tries to re-enter your life. This action will never work out. For one thing the person never loved you or second of all lied that she loved you in the past. Both of these attitudes should serve as a warning. Either way you take her back in your life you will ultimately pay again in the future with betrayal.’
In the book of 1 Kings chapter 8 we hear the prayer of humans, “May the Lord our God be with us, as He was with our fathers. May He not leave us nor forsake us. “
One of the scariest verses that many people call the church in regards to comes from the book of Hebrews chapter 3, “Be Faithful 7 Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you will hear His voice, 8 Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness, 9 Where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. 10 Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’ 11 So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’ ” 12 Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; 13 but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end, 15 while it is said: “Today, if you will hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.”
This chapter continues the themes of the previous chapters and brings this section to a close. In it Moses summarizes what has gone before and lays emphasis on the past history which they have experienced, both of deliverance and judgment. On the basis of this he is concerned that they respond fully to the covenant, for if they do they will know the full blessing of the land and God’s fullness of provision for it, and will be able to drive out its inhabitants. This is then expounded in vivid pictures of the abundance of that provision. Thus if they would enjoy His blessing they must take His words to their hearts and apply them in every part of their lives. For if they keep His covenant then they will be blessed and will be victorious in what lies ahead, while if they turn to idolatry then only judgment will await them.
Moses reminds them of different ways in which they have seen Yahweh at work, against Egypt, against rebels, and even against themselves, in all cases because of sin. But now that is behind them and they must therefore love Him and go forward in obedience to His commands and covenant stipulations.
11 “Therefore you shall love the LORD your God, and keep His charge, His statutes, His judgments, and His commandments always.
Therefore, because of what he has been saying in the previous chapters, and especially what He has declared about Yahweh’s superlative greatness in chapter 10, and because He has demonstrated His love by multiplying them like the stars of heaven, they, as a nation and as responsible individuals, are to recognize His great sovereignty and graciousness and love Him, and keep His charge, and His statutes, and His ordinances, and His commandments always.
Once again we see that loving response and appreciation comes first, to be followed by obedience. Unless there is that personal relationship with our Holy God Yahweh the remainder will not happen. Love must come first. But then it must be followed by responsive action and that responsive action is to be revealed by keeping His charge in this case to possess the land, to destroy its inhabitants and to keep His commandments.
2 Know today that I do not speak with your children, who have not known and who have not seen the chastening of the LORD your God, His greatness and His mighty hand and His outstretched arm— 3 His signs and His acts which He did in the midst of Egypt, to Pharaoh king of Egypt, and to all his land;
Moses calls on the mature among them to recall on this day what wondrous things Yahweh has done for them in the past. For they are not like their children who have not seen His ‘chastening’ (chastening is suffering which was intended to bring about a change of heart by a combination of love and punishment), or known in experience His greatness, His mighty hand and His outstretched arm (a sign of His personal involvement), and His signs and His works which He did in the midst of Egypt to the mighty Pharaoh, king of Egypt, and to the whole of Egypt. No, they have seen it for themselves, as young men in their teens and as children.
4 what He did to the army of Egypt, to their horses and their chariots: how He made the waters of the Red Sea overflow them as they pursued you, and how the LORD has destroyed them to this day;
They know too how He humiliated and destroyed the army of Egypt, their horses and their chariots. How He had made the Red Sea overflow them when they were in pursuit of Israel, and how He had totally destroyed them. Thus can they be confident that He can deal so with all their enemies.
5 what He did for you in the wilderness until you came to this place; 6 and what He did to Dathan and Abiram the sons of Eliab, the son of Reuben: how the earth opened its mouth and swallowed them up, their households, their tents, and all the substance that was in their possession, in the midst of all Israel—
They know also all that happened in general in the wilderness up to this time, both good and bad, and especially what happened in particular to Dathan and Abiram when the earth opened up its mouth and swallowed them up, together with their households and all their possessions (Numbers 16.30-32), and that it was done in the midst of all Israel. And they would remember that this had happened because they had challenged Yahweh’s ordinances. The result had been immediate and catastrophic death. So they have seen both the positive and the negative. They have seen what happens when they obey Him, and they have seen what happens when men disobey Him.
7 but your eyes have seen every great act of the LORD which He did.
For their eyes have seen all the great work of Yahweh which He had done in defense of His covenant, destroying those in the wrong, whether outside oppressors or internal troublemakers, and in supporting His people. They are eyewitnesses! And the point he is making is that Yahweh does not change. He can and will do it again.
8 “Therefore you shall keep every commandment which I command you today, that you may be strong, and go in and possess the land which you cross over to possess, 9 and that you may prolong your days in the land which the LORD swore to give your fathers, to them and their descendants, ‘a land flowing with milk and honey.’
Now knowing that His hand is so with them they must observe all that He commands so that they may be strong and go in and possess the land and that they may prolong their days in the land. Both their victory and their continual presence in the land will be dependent on willingness to be obedient to His requirements. They cannot remain in His land and under His rule, if they are disobedient.
They may be assured that if they do respond Yahweh will fulfill His promises and give them the land, a land which is a good land, a land flowing with milk and honey which is God’s adequate provision for man’s need. Milk was man’s staple requirement, honey pleasant to man’s taste. Such a land promised all that was good.
The lesson for us is that we too should look back on all that God has done, the death of His Son and His glorious resurrection and work amongst men, and should rejoice in it, and as a result of it commits ourselves fully to him revealing our confidence in Him (Romans 12.1-2).
10 For the land which you go to possess is not like the land of Egypt from which you have come, where you sowed your seed and watered it by foot, as a vegetable garden;
For they were going to a far, far better land than the one from which they had come out. The land to which they are going is not like Egypt, the land which they had left. That was a flat land, and there they sowed their seed, and then had to keep it watered by building irrigation channels, and laboriously working equipment with their feet to bring the water to the land, as they would water a garden of herbs. They would then use their feet again to open and block small channels around their land. It all required constant effort. ‘A garden of herbs’ stressed the effort that had to be put in, and the fruitful result that followed, for the maintenance of such gardens required great effort.
11 but the land which you cross over to possess is a land of hills and valleys, which drinks water from the rain of heaven, 12 a land for which the LORD your God cares; the eyes of the LORD your God are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.
The land to which they were now going, where water would be provided by God, was to be a land of hills and valleys, a land that drank water that came from above. And it was a land which Yahweh their God cared for continually, for His eyes were always on it, from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. So those who lived in it depended on His goodness for the provision of water, and when they were right with Him could be sure of that provision (except for occasional times of testing). 13 ‘And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, 14 then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil. 15 And I will send grass in your fields for your livestock, that you may eat and be filled.’
If they diligently obey God’s command which He Is giving through Moses this day, the command to love Him and serve Him with all their heart and soul, He will give the rain for the land, as it is required, in its season, both the early, pre-ploughing and pre-sowing rain, coming in October and the late rain in around April which consisted of the final showers of the rainy season, all of which watered the land and made it productive.
The result will be that they will be able to gather in their grain, and their new wine, and their olive oil, and their fields will be full of grass for the cattle, and they will themselves eat and be full.
The lesson is clear. To live in that land, which was God’s land, was to be dependent on God, and the provision of all they needed would depend on His supply. But they need not fear, for it was His land for which He cared. And if they loved and feared Him, and lived rightly before Him, they could then be sure of His full provision.
16 Take heed to yourselves, lest your heart be deceived, and you turn aside and serve other gods and worship them, 17 lest the LORD’s anger be aroused against you, and He shut up the heavens so that there be no rain, and the land yield no produce, and you perish quickly from the good land which the LORD is giving you.
Thus when they entered the land they must not allow themselves to be deceived. Let them not turn aside to worshipping and serving the gods of the land, thinking that such gods could help them. For if they did God’s anger would be ‘set alight’ against them, and He would shut up the heavens so that there was no rain, and so that the land would not yield its fruit. And they would soon perish from the land which He had given them. Trusting Canaan’s rain gods might seem attractive for a while, but they could be sure that it would end disastrously.
18 “Therefore you shall lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul, and bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes.
So with these promises and warnings in mind they must lay His words up in their hearts. Thus will they take heed to them and respond to them, being faithful to the covenant with Yahweh.
What follows brings out the care that they must take to constantly remind themselves of these facts. For if they were to prosper in the land they and their children must be fully aware of His commandments.
They must lay up His words deep within them, in their hearts and souls. They must bind them on their hands and between their eyes. That is, they must ensure that His word sinks into their hearts and allow His word to determine what they do and what they look at. They were to be a people active in knowing and understanding and responding to God’s word.
19 You shall teach them to your children, speaking of them when you sit in your house, when you walk by the way, when you lie down, and when you rise up.
They must also teach them to their children by day and by night. They must talk of such things under all circumstances, whether in the house, on their excursions, at breakfast time and at bed time, and in bed, so that all may know, and continually be reminded of, God’s covenant. The atmosphere was to be one where God’s covenant was ever seen as important
20 And you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates, 21 that your days and the days of your children may be multiplied in the land of which the LORD swore to your fathers to give them, like the days of the heavens above the earth.
This may be intended both outwardly, as a testimony that the inhabitants were people of the covenant, and as a witness to all who visited them that they were so.
All these things remind us that we too must make an effort to ensure by the reading of His word that we too ever keep before our thoughts what the Lord requires of us and offers us. If we disobediently neglect such matters we should not be surprised to find our spiritual lives waning.
22 “For if you carefully keep all these commandments which I command you to do—to love the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways, and to hold fast to Him— 23 then the LORD will drive out all these nations from before you, and you will dispossess greater and mightier nations than yourselves.
The dispossessing of the nations and Israel’s love for Yahweh, their walking in His ways, and their cleaving to Him had to go hand in hand. If they looked to Yahweh for their victory, it must be because they loved Him and were genuinely in covenant with Him, and sought diligently to keep the totality of what He has commanded because of that love. Then would they drive out the nations mightier than themselves. The opposite is that if they did not have this covenant response then the covenant would not be valid, and they would not receive Yahweh’s assistance, in the same way that their fathers had not received His assistance. Then He would have to wait for another generation and begin again.
24 Every 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 territory. 25 No man shall be able to stand against you; the LORD your God will put the dread of you and the fear of you upon all the land where you tread, just as He has said to you.
If they do love Him and walk in His ways, cleaving to Him, and keeping all He has commanded, then every place on which the sole of their foot treads within the land promised to them will be theirs. They will take it and possess it. They will possess ‘from the wilderness and Lebanon, from the Euphrates to the western sea’ (the Mediterranean). The wilderness lay to the south, the western sea lay to the west, the Euphrates lay to the ‘north’.
Indeed none would be able to stand against them for Yahweh would fill their enemies with fear at the very thought of them. Wherever they trod, those who were there would be terrified, just as he had always promised.
26 “Behold, I set before you today a blessing and a curse: 27 the blessing, if you obey the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you today;
The key for the Israelites and us is to do two things – listen and obey.To listen to the commandments of Yahweh their God and to obey will bring abundance of blessing.
28 and the curse, if you do not obey the commandments of the LORD your God, but turn aside from the way which I command you today, to go after other gods which you have not known.
If they refuse to obey they will receive only cursing. For if they will not listen to the commandments of Yahweh their God, but turn aside from the way that Moses commands them that day, to go after other gods which they have not known, then they will surely be cursed.
29 Now it shall be, when the LORD your God has brought you into the land which you go to possess, that you shall put the blessing on Mount Gerizim and the curse on Mount Ebal. 30 Are they not on the other side of the Jordan, toward the setting sun, in the land of the Canaanites who dwell in the plain opposite Gilgal, beside the terebinth trees of Moreh?
Confirmation is now given of the certainty of success in the invasion by announcing that once they are established in the land they are to perform a covenant ceremony in the very land in a place connected with the two large mountains between which lies the valley in which is Shechem, the mountains of Gerizim and Ebal. Some will stand on one mountain, and some on the other. This is the place that Yahweh their God has chosen for such a ceremony. The blessing will be declared from Mount Gerizim, and the cursing from Mount Ebal.
31 For you will cross over the Jordan and go in to possess the land which the LORD your God is giving you, and you will possess it and dwell in it.
For the truth is that they are to pass over Jordan in order to go in and possess the land which Yahweh their God is giving them. And they can be sure that they will possess it, and dwell in it. They have Yahweh’s assurance of that.
32 And you shall be careful to observe all the statutes and judgments which I set before you today.
They must fully obey Yahweh’s commands for that is what is required if they would possess this land which belongs to Yahweh.
